Cold water diving @ Austrian mountain lake (13 pics!)

[MarkHerm]

I just returned from a three day trip to Austria on which we did some very awesome dives! We dived at lake "Samaranger See" (1000m / 3300ft altitude) which is famous for its great viz but also for its low temperatures (8C / 46F). I never did any mountain lake diving before and I was seriously impressed about it.

The scenery is extremely idyllic with mountains surrounding the lake and cows right next to the divers

Below the surface, the visability was stunning for lake diving. The operator doesn't allow for more than 4 divers to be in the lake at the same time as well as requires at least 100 logged dives for a permit. I really like this approach as it helps to prevent crowding deep down and preserves the beauty of the lake. Anyways, the water is so clear that you can see the above surface area from below. Sometimes the surface mirrors parts of the bottoms (pic 02, for example) which gives surreal looking pictures IMO.

In all great fun! I used a Panasonic Lumix LX3 in a 10bar housing (no strobes, no ports, no wet lenses) for all u/w pictures.

Hope you enjoyed this little report

 

[scuba=dude]

Cool thanks for the pic's I just love lake and river diving

 

[victor]

I returned to diving in the early 90's in these lakes. I was based near Munich.
Great memories.
Beautiful sunshine and warm on land, but oh was that water cold, the top 2 meters would lull you into a false sense of security then you would hit the thermocline.
Was this the lake with the tall metal grating (15 meters) for the outflow set at about 10 meters below the surface.

Ah yes my first dry suit dives I think it was at that wreck reached down to grab a stansion and up went my feet full of all that air. I was stuck and had to be turned the right way up.

 

[scuba e]

Stunning. Is there any fish life?

 

[MarkHerm]

Thanks guys!

@victor: Good to hear that my report brought back some memories. The lake really is located near munich - approx. less than 1.5 hours drive.

@scuba e: Yes there is fish life but not a tremendous amount. Mostly trouts and chars. I attached four more pics with (more or less) fish life (Edit: wow, the board software really diminishes image quality a lot)