Before leaving at the beginning of March for an underwater expedition to discover the icebergs of Antarctica, the polar guide and ice diver Alban Michon will be the sponsor of the International Scuba Diving Show, which takes place from January 8 to 11, 2015 in Paris. He will be signing his new illustrated book “Glaceo, the other side of a crystal world”, prefaced by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. From the Arctic sea ice to Greenland via Lake Baikal in Siberia, the adventurer bears witness to the majesty of this frozen universe threatened by global warming, discusses the difficulty of diving when the surface temperature reaches -52°C and recounts his mind-blowing encounter in the open sea with a polar bear.
What is the most striking image that you retain of your dives under the polar ice?
ALBAN MICHON. Undoubtedly my encounter in the open sea with a polar bear. It happened in 2012 during the expedition I did in a sea kayak with my teammate Vincent Berthet. I was coming up from a shallow dive when I saw a white mass swimming on the surface. It was a bear of about 400 kg and I started by watching it carefully underwater. He took two apneas two or three meters deep and then I lost sight of him. I ended up going up. He then approached quickly about three meters from me. I was hypnotized and ready to go back underwater immediately to escape him. But in fact, he was not aggressive. He seemed rather curious to know what I was because it was perhaps the first time he had met a man. He looked me straight in the eye, straightened up, then turned around.
Have you experienced any other strong moments under the Arctic ice?
During a night dive, not far from an Inuit village, I encountered the only shark that lives in polar waters. It is an animal four meters long which has been observed very little. Legend has it that a Greenland shark devoured a hunter in the 1970s. But it’s a scavenger that only eats prey that’s already dead and has few teeth. He has a chilling gaze and swims very slowly, advancing at barely 30 cm per second.
What is the main difficulty when diving under the ice?
When it is – 52°C on the surface, it puts a strain on the equipment and the men. Even if we dive equipped with sweaters, socks, pants under our waterproof suit, after an hour, you come out cold. Once on the surface, we turned on a heat gun 20 cm from our faces to warm up! There are two other dangers: first, that of the iceberg crashing down on you. The other danger is to only dig a hole in the pack ice to slip into the water. If this single hole closes, you find yourself trapped under the pack ice.
