It is possible to dive on Lake Baikal all year round: in the summer from boats, in winter from ice, through specially cleared lanes in the ice. Winter dives on Lake Baikal are made as soon as the ice gets stronger, and it will be possible to move around by car. In terms of freezing of Lake Baikal, there are large fluctuations in years. The best time for diving is the beginning of summer, when the transparency of the water is greatest and the greatest amount of light penetrates to the depth. At the end of July, Baikal starts flowering and light penetrates to a depth of less than ±. $

Winter dive

Particularly impressive winter dives near the hummocks. Between the ice floes under the water are formed galleries and areas of double ice, among which you can swim. Separate underwater galleries among the ice reach a length of up to 30-40 m. The feature of swimming under the ice is the possibility of loss of orientation, so that to not get lost under the ice and return to the hole in the ice, dives are carried out only with an insurance cord.

Dive sites

Favorite places for scuba diving on Lake Baikal are steep underwater walls along the western shore. The most beautiful places are located along the coast of the Circum-Baikal railway and along the eastern shore of the island of Olkhon. There are deep, as a rule, absolutely straight canyons up to 60-70 m deep and wide from 2 to 15-20 m.

The most spectacular and narrow canyon with a depth of 90-100 m and a width of 2 m is located on the east side of Olkhon Island, to the south of Cape Izhmey. Another impressive canyon is located opposite the river Ledianoy, between the capes Severny Kedrovy and Elokhin on the coast of the Baikal-Lensky reserve. This river got its name because of the ice and snow that occur in its valley and on the banks even in the summer.

Highlights the beauty of the underwater terrain of the bay of Aya and the lip of Frolikha on the northern Baikal. On the banks and the bottom of the lip are many large pitfalls, dangerous for swimming vessels.

Unique bottom beauty is marked by submariners in the shallow waters near Ushkany Islands .They are located in the middle part of Lake Baikal, 7 km to the west of the peninsula of St. Nose (the eastern shore of Lake Baikal, the territory of the Transbaikalian National Park) and represent the peaks of the Academic Range rising above the water surface .The archipelago consists of 4 islands: Big, Thin, Round and Long..To the south of the Great Ushkaniy Island there is a continuous cover at the bottom of the bubbly basalt rock, poured out of the volcanoes in the past .This is the only place on Lake Baikal, where underwater lava fields are found .

Between the village. Listvyanka and Bolshie Koty located the largest in the Baikal submarine cave with a length of more than 25-30 m. The entrance to it is located at a depth of 36 m. On the coast of the Small Sea, as on the rocky capes of the mainland - the Aral, Kurminsk, and on the island of Olkhon - the capes of Sagan-Zaba, the Khoboy set of wave-surfacing grottoes, but their length usually does not exceed 10-20 meters.