Lake Baikal Ice Diving — Russia
Lake Baikal ice diving in February and March — the world's oldest (25 million years) and deepest (1,642 metres) lake, frozen to 1 metre of ice from January through April, the ice's extraordinary transparency (crystal-clear blue ice with no snow cover on exposed sections) providing a unique diving experience where sunlight penetrates the ice to illuminate the endemic Baikal fauna below. The Baikal seal (Pusa sibirica — the world's only entirely freshwater seal species, found nowhere else on Earth), the golomyanka fish (a transparent, oil-rich fish that gives birth to live young and dissolves in sunlight), and the endemic amphipods (which form a biomass comparable to the marine krill that supports Antarctic food chains) create a biological diversity of extraordinary endemism visible in the ice-cold clear water. The dive's entry through an ice hole, the disc of blue ice above, and the endemic species' complete visibility in the crystal water create the world's finest freshwater endemic species diving experience.
About this spectacle
Dropping through an ice hole into Lake Baikal in February or March is unlike any other dive on Earth. Above you, a disc of crystalline blue ice — up to a metre thick but extraordinarily transparent — filters winter sunlight into an ethereal blue cathedral. The visibility in the near-freezing freshwater is exceptional, revealing the lake floor and its extraordinary endemic inhabitants in sharp detail. Baikal seals (nerpa) may cruise past with improbable curiosity, their large dark eyes adapted to depth and low light. The translucent golomyanka fish drift through the column, barely visible until they catch the light. Dense clouds of endemic amphipods swarm across the substrate. The silence is profound, broken only by the creak of ice and the pulse of your regulator. Surface temperatures in February hover well below freezing; the water itself sits just above zero. Ascent through the ice hole returns you to a stark frozen lakescape, white in every direction, the dive flag the only colour on the horizon.
When to go
Jan — Apr, peak Feb — Mar
Getting there
Nearest airport: IKT. Nearest city: Irkutsk.
Booking options
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