Kategorie: News
"Rapture of the deep" at Attersee
The Salzkammergut, a resort area located in Upper Austria, is one of the most important tourist areas in Austria and is located on the northern edge of the Alps. Characterized by the mountains of the northern Alps, it is a worthwhile destination for climbers and hikers in summer, and in winter the hotspot for many skiing enthusiasts.
Traversed by the river system of the Traun with more than 76 lakes, the Salzkammergut is also a centre of water sports. Many mountain lakes, uniquely and scenically located, invite you to go sailing, surfing, water skiing or simply swimming or diving. The latter sport has gained in popularity especially in this region, because the lakes of the Salzkammergut have a very good water quality and sometimes come with above-average visibility of more than 20 meters.
Diving in these waters has become a year-round sport. You will find a lot of scuba divers in the summer and early autumn, who enjoy the warmed-up surface water with bathing temperatures of up to 20 degrees, the technical divers prefer the colder seasons because of the better visibility. However, mountain lakes have the property to become very cold with increasing depth even in summer. And the lakes in the Salzkammergut are always deep: the Traunsee ranges top with 191 meters, followed by the Attersee with 169 meters. This depth is also a major reason why so many supposedly technical divers visit these lakes and test their limits and, unfortunately, cross them unchecked. So we see - as in other sports, again and again, accidents. Many of them luckily without serious problems. But as soon as you move far beyond the 40 meter mark, it often ends fatally.
These diving accidents also happen on Lake Attersee and especially at a dive-spot called the "Schwarze Brücke” (Black Bridge). This dive site is characterized by a steeply sloping which merges after about 55 meters of water depth into a scree which runs flat towards the middle of the sea at about 100 meters depth.
Although there are other slopes - wall dive sites - that place much higher demands on the divers and some of them even fall well over 100 meters, it is always the Black Bridge that comes up with negative headlines and is hotly debated in the diving scene. If a diving accident with a fatal outcome always entails the closure of the dive site and an extensive investigation, locating and recovering the casualties with regard to forces and material are also associated with great expense and generate not inconsiderable costs.
All dive schools based at the Attersee are increasingly trying to make diving very safe. In a specially created diving competence center Attersee, they bundle activities, reduce the danger of diving accidents to a minimum through education and training especially in cold water and, through a well-conceived financing concept, provide means to expand the entrances around the lake and make them safer. Why do fatal accidents still happen - especially on the Black Bridge - and what are the real causes for it?
Underwater filmmaker Jens-Uwe Lamm and his small team are tackling this question and many others in a new video documentary about the Black Bridge. Jens has already produced many videos around the Kreideesee Hemmoor and has been devoting himself to underwater videography for a couple of years. In May of this year, the first days of shooting took place on Lake Attersee. Focus of the recordings were e.g. to document the area of the dive site up to approx. 65m water depth as well as to interview competent dive experts from the Attersee region about the conditions.
Besides Andreas Pacher (chairman of the ARGE diving Austria), Günter Oberschmid (chairman of the diving competence center Attersee), the dive centers Underpressure and Atlantis Attersee as well as the water rescue team Nußdorf also the Austrian dive pioneer Gerhard Zauner has its appearance in the video. Gerhard Kaiser from the neighboring Tauchclub Dachstein / Salzkammergut will also provide valuable information about the Attersee.
On the first day of shooting, a check dive up to a depth of 35m was conducted to check the equipment and take first pictures of the depth. In particular, the pictures should show the profile and condition of the wall down to this depth.
On the second dive, scooters were carried along to investigate in particular the north-south extent of the wall and to record the further depth profile up to a depth of approx. 50 meters.
In a third and final dive during this rotation section the condition of the cliff up to 65 meters was examined. Without betraying too much, but the rock formation, which can be described as a steep wall, ends at about 55 meters depth, depending on the north-south position of the diver.
This is followed by a scree slope with a lot of waste products of civilisation. Thus, the film team can quite quickly deny the myth of over 100 meters deep "black wall" insofar as that this is a very "normal" dive site. Jens' new film documentary does not only deal with the myth of “wet death” on the Attersee, but will also convey to the viewer the scenic appeal of the mountain lake in the Salzkammergut. The diversity of the dive sites coupled with a unique backdrop attracts thousands of divers every year to this region.
In autumn we can meet "underwater videographer" Jens-Uwe Lamm and his team there again. Then Jens will continue the visual documentation of the dive site beyond the 65 meters to capture every detail of interest and to accompany divers on a dive at the notorious dive site "Black Bridge".
Completion of the documentation is scheduled for late 2019 / early 2020.
Contact:
unterwasserFilm Jens-Uwe Lamm
post@uw-film.de
www.uw-film.de