The Ice Diving Experience

February 25th, 2011 | By Tristan Crane | Filed in ACTIVITIES, AK PRODUCTS & SERVICES, Diving

The teche blog has a nice roundup of some ice diving pics, and of course we have a huge collection of our own photos online at our flickr page and in our inspiration gallery.

Interested in trying it out for yourself? Contact us. We’re experts in cold water diving and safety. Travel with us and enjoy some of the most incredible dives of your life. Arctic Kingdom offers both regularly scheduled trips as well as private excursions -  we’re happy to work with you to determine the most appropriate adventure for your scheduling needs.

Canadian High Arctic, Lancaster Sound, Nunavut Canada May 2004 Graham Dickson, Arctic Kingdom ice diving under crack in sea ice. Divers are tethered with rope so that they can find their way back to the entry point.

Webinar – Introduction to Diving in the Arctic

December 2nd, 2010 | By Thomas Lennartz | Filed in Diving, Webinar

Join Arctic Kingdom expedition leader Thomas Lennartz for a virtual Arctic Diving expedition to Baffin Island.

Pulling from his experience on Baffin Islands numerous dive trips, Tom will share his insights on traveling in this remarkable trip and what you could expect to see by joining our upcoming floe edge expeditions

- Narwhal and Polar Bear Floe Edge Adventure Dive trip (May/June) and/or the Bowhead, Walrus and Polar Bears of Foxe Basin Dive trip (July).

On this webinar:

• Discover floe edges and the value of high-end expedition travel in extremely small group, land-based trips with an expert team of AK expedition divers in close partnership with Inuit guides
• See expedition highlights— diving in pack ice, along icebergs, at the floe edge, watch narwhals feeding, polar bears, soaring glaciers and stunning iceberg, and our safari-style eco-camps.
• Get a sense of daily activities – from floe edge activities such as types of dives, kayaking, traveling by snowmobile and qamutiks, hiking and more..

For related trip details visit:
Narwhal and Polar Bear Floe Edge DIVE Adventure
Ultimate Floe Edge Experience – Beluga, Narwhal and Polar Bears
Bowhead Whales, Walrus and Polar Bears of the Foxe Basin

Interested in Ice Diving? You’re Not Alone.

November 23rd, 2010 | By Tristan Crane | Filed in ACTIVITIES, AK PRODUCTS & SERVICES, Dive Training, Diving

In the last few days, a number of articles online have mentioned that actor Jake Gyllenhaal, star of films such as Donnie Darko and Brokeback Mountain has decided to embark on an arctic ice diving trip for his 30th birthday.

According to the New York Daily News, Gyllenhall explains -

“The only reason I’m doing it is I wanted to do something that absolutely terrified me — killer whales and walruses and freezing cold water? That seems absolutely terrifying.”

Terrifying? Not if you take part in ice dive training, and travel with an experienced company well prepared for any contingency.

AK expedition member Ice Diving in Arctic Bay. Photo by Louise Murray

Ice diving is thrilling, beautiful, and a deeply memorable experience.  If you have experience diving elsewhere and are advanced certified, you might consider taking our four day ice diving training. Taught as a mini-expedition, and with group numbers limited to 8 people, you’ll travel by airboat to a range of sites for as many dives as can be safely completed.

As we’ve mentioned before, the airboat is a simply amazing piece of equipment. We’re able to travel across all sorts of ice conditions, including areas off limits to snowmobiles and boats. This makes both our training dives and ice diving expeditions even more exciting, providing greater access to terrific locations.

A team prepares to dive.

Mr. Gyllenhaal will no doubt return from the arctic with not only memories, but a little less nervous about this unique activity. If you are considering a dive yourself, contact us with any questions, but also sign up for the upcoming webinar on the topic of Arctic Diving,  December 2nd, 1-2pm EST. Thomas will be answering questions live and explaining what you can expect to experience while diving with Arctic Kingdom.

Want to see more?

Photos from an AK driving trip by Joe Canepari

Thomas Lennartz’s account of ‘dancing’ with Belugas while on a dive.

Trip Report – Narwhal and Polar Bear Floe Edge Scuba Dive Adventure

September 28th, 2010 | By Tristan Crane | Filed in ACTIVITIES, Client Reports, Diving, TRIPS

Joe Canepari posted some astounding photos from his recent trip with Arctic Kingdom and was kind enough to share them with us.

Getting geared up for the first dive

For a bit of perspective of the scale out there...

With so much in the news about the seasonal ice melt and the reality of climate change, I feel it’s important to remember that the Arctic is still the Arctic. Plenty of cold weather, and plenty of ice to explore!

Arctic Dive, photograph by Todd Mintz

Check out the whole page for more shots, including of Joe climbing an iceberg, some terrific jellyfish, more diving, and of the camp. Of this last shot, Joe says :

The final pic of me taken on my last dive and its probably my favorite one of the trip. The photo captures the enormity of the iceberg, especially when you keep in mind how much of the iceberg was out of frame. This dive was one of the great experiences in my life and it fulfilled my quest to dive below the sea ice near one of the planet’s poles.

Men’s Journal: Canada for Adrenaline Junkies

June 24th, 2010 | By Nora Sawyer | Filed in Diving, IN THE NEWS, Sports

The June/July issue of Men’s Journal is out, with their special spread on Canada for Adrenaline Junkies. Arctic Kingdom is listed for the #1 activity, Dive With Whales. The article states,

In summer, the Arctic sea is dotted with sun-sculpted icebergs and populated with monsters: beluga whales and narwhals, walrus, seals, Greenland sharks and polar bears. The best way to see the beasts is to don a wetsuit and dive right in: Whales, congregating along the floe edge, will swim beside you, eye to gigantic eye.

As the article goes on to note, the wildlife isn’t the only attraction. There’s the shocking blue of the ice, the water alive with microscopic creatures, and kayaking in sunlight at two AM, when “the sun casts long shadows and the glowing ice makes for a surreal experience.”

New on Facebook: Diving Against an Iceberg

June 8th, 2010 | By Nora Sawyer | Filed in ACTIVITIES, Current Trips, Diving

Thomas uploaded some great photos to our Facebook page today, with a narrative describing a single dive along a crack in the sea ice near Pond Inlet. Facebook is perfect for this sort of small update, providing a real-time glimpse into one of our expeditions in progress.

If you’re not a fan of Facebook, you can get a peek at the latest posts without ever leaving our site by clicking on the Facebook link on the toolbar at the bottom of this page. It’s a great way to keep track of our latest updates to Twitter and YouTube as well!

Facebook | Arctic Kingdom’s Photos – Diving against an iceberg.

Ice Diving Pond Inlet

May 31st, 2010 | By Nora Sawyer | Filed in ACTIVITIES, Diving

Over on the AK Expeditions Twitter Feed, Thomas reports that the expedition has just done their first dive at the Pond Inlet Floe Edge, and is enjoying amazing visibility. I hope some photos will be forthcoming soon, but til then, here are some from years past:

Diverse marine life makes the waters surrounding pond inlet ideal for diving.

The scenery's pretty spectacular, too.

For the latest expedition updates, follow Arctic Kingdom Field akexpeditions on Twitter.

Desafio Extremo: Buceo Artico

March 4th, 2010 | By Nora Sawyer | Filed in ACTIVITIES, Client Reports, Diving, Filmmakers, Films, TRIPS

Long-time readers of this blog might remember this post, where I mentioned that expedition Expedition Manager Tom Lennartz was up on the ice near Baffin Island with a then-unnamed Spanish film crew.

Well, the footage from that expedition — part of the series Desafio Extremo, or Extreme Challenge — is now online. And it’s pretty spectacular, capturing both the beauty and danger of diving beneath the Arctic ice.

Check out the videos online here, and if you read Spanish (or feel like cheating, as I did, with a free online translator) you can read Jesús Calleja’s account of the adventure on his blog, which really captures the adrenaline of piloting a snowmobile across the sea ice, as well as the combination of on-the-ice flexibility and strong infrastructure needed to pull off a filming expedition to the Arctic!

Here’s a teaser for the show. Visit the Desafino Extremo site for more photos and footage of the adventure!

This Week on Flickr: Ice Diving

March 2nd, 2010 | By Nora Sawyer | Filed in Diving

Inspired by yesterday’s post, this week’s new content on Flickr features some of our Ice Diving photos from the last few years.

Tom with the harpoon he found on a dive last year.

Divers beneath the ice.

A team prepares to dive.

Visit our Flickr page for photos of ice diving, dog sledding, ballooning and more. And if you’d like to read about how Tom found the harpoon in the top photo, that’s #8 on his Top Ten Floe Edge Moments from 2009!

Deep Below the Ice: The Thrills and Chills of Ice Diving

March 1st, 2010 | By Brian Andrews | Filed in ACTIVITIES, Current Events, Diving

To those accustomed to life below the Arctic Circle, life above the treeline can seem like a whole other world. No where is this more true than below the ice, where the sun filters through the ice into a dark world of creatures few ever see in the wild.

I was reminded of this today when I read about  a recent record-breaking dive beneath a frozen lake in Slovakia. While the dive — a continuous 2120 meter dive utilizing rebreather units — is indisputably impressive, no lake dive can compare to diving beneath the Arctic ice. As evidenced by the footage below, taken on Arctic Kingdom dives:

Video by Louise Murray

Want to experience the world below the ice first hand? Start your adventure today on our Dive Adventures page, or visit our Adventure Travel page for news on the variety of expeditions we have coming up!