Ice Diving on the Wreck of U.S. La Vallee (Lake Champlain, VT)

[macado]

Yesterday we decided to do something a little different than your typical ice dive. We wanted to up the stakes a bit and do something interesting so we dove the wreck of the US La Vallee in Shelburne Bay, Lake Champlain.

The La Vallee was 56ft tugboat that was scuttled in 1931. Today she sits upright and mostly intact in approximately 105ft (32m) of water. "U.S. La Vallee is one of very few steamboat wrecks in Lake Champlain that still have an engine and other machinery on board." (Tugboat U.S. La Vallee - Lake Champlain Maritime Museum)

We had approximately 25-30ft (9m) of visibility and water temperatures of 31-33f (-0.5c). Most of the ice in the bay is about 18" (45cm) thick and about 10-12" (28cm) of ice at the dive site.

 

[Scuba-74]

Nice video! Do you need a permit to drive on the ice and cut a hole?

 

[macado]

No permit is required but divers technically need to register with the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum as the dive site sits in an underwater historical preserve.

Vermont Underwater Historic Preserves - Lake Champlain Maritime Museum

 

[shoredivr]

That’s an interesting ladder set up you have there!

 

[macado]

I prefer to belly flop my way up which, as you can see, is very graceful Like a seal out of the water.

 

[CT-Rich]

Really nice video, thanks for sharing

 

[Protondecay123]

Yesterday we decided to do something a little different than your typical ice dive. We wanted to up the stakes a bit and do something interesting so we dove the wreck of the US La Vallee in Shelburne Bay, Lake Champlain.

The La Vallee was 56ft tugboat that was scuttled in 1931. Today she sits upright and mostly intact in approximately 105ft (32m) of water. "U.S. La Vallee is one of very few steamboat wrecks in Lake Champlain that still have an engine and other machinery on board." (Tugboat U.S. La Vallee - Lake Champlain Maritime Museum)

We had approximately 25-30ft (9m) of visibility and water temperatures of 31-33f (-0.5c). Most of the ice in the bay is about 18" (45cm) thick and about 10-12" (28cm) of ice at the dive site.

Very well preserved! And thanks for providing some dive stats at the end. Very nice dive and even better exit belly flop! JK!

 

[ajtoady]

Thanks for sharing! Was that a little bit of free flow at the end? Saw the bubble rush just before surfacing.

 

[johndiver999]

Enjoyed the video, that would be exciting to see. Thanks

 

[macado]

Thanks for sharing! Was that a little bit of free flow at the end? Saw the bubble rush just before surfacing.

Yes my buddy @ScubaGypsy (the one in doubles and pink drysuit) had a freeflow at about the ~28 minute mark. He shut off his primary post, switched to his secondary and ascended. At one point he turned his primary post back on and they both started free-flowing. I wasn't on the surface but it looked like jacuzzi coming out of the hole. He was fine and basically had no deco. Bummer for him as he wanted to do a longer dive but you can really only swim around 56ft boat so many times before you get bored.

Myself and my other buddy on rebreathers did not have any free flow issues.

The video also doesn't show it but we also had a secondary drop line next to the primary line tied into the wreck with extra bailout (36%) and deco gases (O2) in addition to what we were carrying.