Taken from Flickr by Joi Under Creative Common License

When most of us picture the perfect dive destination there is a tropical reef involved. There will be diverse marine life and lots of it, and maybe an interesting wreck or a two. The water will be warm and it won’t be far from a sunny beach where the drinks are cheap and the sand is just perfect for relaxing between sessions. However, there are some people with very different ideas about what makes up a great dive.
Ice diving is growing in popularity, slowly but surely. The attraction is rarely animal life, although very lucky individuals sometimes encounter seals and whales under and around ice. It’s more about the beauty of the ice itself or sometimes about the challenge. Pretty much anyone who can swim can do a basic Open Water course and learn to dive, but when there are icebergs floating around there’s an element of risk that can never be fully removed. In the event of an emergency, you can’t just surface anywhere.
PADI now certifies divers for icy water. The course covers things normal divers never have to consider- hole cutting, safety line placement, and, of course, how to deal with extreme cold. Full dry suits are the order of the day.
There is no shortage of places to try it. The waters off Ontario, Canada, are never all that warm, but in winter they’re becoming a favourite destination with ice divers. Russia’s Lake Baikal is the deepest lake in the world and an intriguing dive destination in summer, but the divers don’t go home when the ice comes. The chilly diving around Iceland can include underwater geothermal vents and other rarities, but the ultimate extreme cold diving experience has to be the North Pole.

Of course, diving under drift ice near the North Pole is not for everyone. For a start, most organizations require serious certification and a great deal of experience. It takes months of training and it’s not cheap either, but plenty of divers still feel the call and end up diving in some of the coldest, strangest waters on Earth.