Tobias Friedrich braves the cold and dives under the pack ice of Greenland to experience some otherworldly beauty
Photographs by Tobias Friedrich
The small hole in the ice was a portal to another world. When German freediver Anna von Boetticher slid into the water under the pack ice of Greenland, the topside temperature was minus 27 degrees Celsius. The water was a bracing minus two degrees Celsius.
This was a challenging dive. Wearing just a 6mm-neoprene suit Anna, who has, to date, set 33 German national freediving records and a world record, could last perhaps five minutes underwater in such conditions.
However, there were no safety ropes, as the number of jagged shards of ice made the risk of entanglement too high. There were only a few exit points, all cut in a distinctive triangular shape – the straight, neat edges are easy to spot in the jumble of ragged ice at the surface.
As Anna descended into the gloom, her heart rate dropped to 29 beats per minute. Later she said: ‘It was the most silent you can be. The first time I dived through the small hole and saw the landscape under the ice, I felt like I had gone through a door into another universe.
‘It was a bizarre world of black and white, light and shadows, it simply blew me away. I felt exposed and tiny.
‘To dive under the ice is challenging and not without risk, because the only way to the surface is through the holes we had cut. Normally, we always dive with a rope to make sure to be able to find the exit again at all times. However, I couldn’t swim around the icebergs with a rope, I might have got caught, a risk in itself.’
With photographer Tobias Friedrich, she spent two weeks out on the ice in March, near Tasiilaq on the east coast of Greenland, posing for a remarkable set of images for the watch company Oris. Tobias said the hardest thing was dealing with extreme cold topside during the shoot. ‘It was a real struggle to stay warm between dives,’ he said.
Anna, 49, is always looking for challenge. She started her diving career as a scuba instructor, quickly moved to trimix and technical diving before she had a go at freediving and discovered her passion.
In 2011 she set a world record in ‘tandem-no-limits’ with Andrea Zuccari, and has a string of German national records to her name. What makes her achievements even more remarkable is that curvature of her spine compresses her rib cage means she can only utilise 70 per cent of her lung capacity.
Having experienced the otherworldly beauty of the ocean under the ice she can’t wait to get back to Greenland. ‘It is like being on another planet – particularly under the water.’
