Cliff Diver Attempts a Backflip From a Giant Iceberg in Freezing Arctic Waters

Cliff Diver Attempts a Backflip From a Giant Iceberg in Freezing Arctic Waters

A professional cliff diver travels to the coast of Canada to find an iceberg and attempt a backflip dive into freezing water. Icebergs can split, collapse, or roll without warning, making the stunt extremely dangerous. The diver describes it as the scariest thing they have ever done and reflects on how bravery means facing fear rather than eliminating it.

Backflip Off A Giant Iceberg (arctic cliff dive). | Transcript:

I'm searching off the coast of Canada to find an iceberg to attempt something almost impossible. When I find the right one, I'm going to climb to the top of it and dive off into the freezing cold water. Icebergs are incredibly dangerous. They constantly split, collapse, or roll without warning. And if that happens while I'm on one, it could be fatal. This is definitely the scariest thing I've ever done. I'm a professional cliff diver, so I'm used to diving from high places. Fear has been with me my entire career. I've learned that bravery isn't about getting rid of it. It's about not letting it decide what you're capable

of. This iceberg is a chance to find out just how far I can push myself. But before I can even think about diving off an iceberg, I first need to learn how to ice climb. Will, what's up? Hello. I'm fangirling so hard. This is so exciting. Oh, very nice. Will Gad is one of the best ice climbers in the world. I've climbed icebergs. I've climbed radical spray ice in huge caves, climbed ice down in mines, climbed ice on top of Africa and Niagara Falls.

He's a veteran of the sport and he'll be guiding and training me to climb the iceberg. I spend all my time trying very hard not to fall off of high places and that's what you do. My only thing. So, let's not do that. I'm like, wait, what do you mean? Before I can climb an iceberg, I need to learn the basics. Will is going to teach me how to walk on ice and crampons, use my ice tools, and climb an ice wall without falling off. You have to have the skills to do what we're going to do. Exactly. Or you're a menace to me. This is what I do. I'm used to working with people who are trying to kill me, but I want to have like kill you.

No, not intentionally, but like it matters. This stuff's important. Not just that, but so that we can work together. Never felt so safe in my life. Yeah. This is about as safe as right now. In the industrial world, they have an acronym. It's called sticky, and it's that can kill you. Oh. And so, we're going to have like a few sticky things we got to worry about. The big main hazard that I'm worried about is the iceberg rolling.

Yeah. Slippery there. Stay off of that stuff. I didn't even realize the icebergs roll over. Like I'm so dumb. you're not dumb at all. They are going to roll over. It's not like if it's when. Okay. And when they roll over, it's super violent. If you're on it and then and it rolls. Yeah. It's huge forces really bluntly off the cameras and everything. Yeah. This may not be a good idea. If it gets to that point out there and you're like, just call it, you know, but maybe it's like diving off a 20 m thing. You can't make that 100% safe.

Yeah. And maybe you can. I don't know. Absolutely not. Before I can move to training in far more serious terrain, I need to prove to Will that I can climb to the top of this 10 m training wall. But first, I need to learn the basics. Okay? And remember, slap your feet, right? So, what you just have, if you start skittering, the solution is to slap your foot down. The whole day is structured on giving you the skills. Yeah. To get on the bur and feel like you know you have an idea of what you're doing. But if you fall down, remember that this can impale you and try to get it to the side. And just little steps work better.

This is what you're going to be doing on icebergs. And give it a bit of a swing. Let's see how your swing is. Generally, you want to swing high cuz the idea is to go places. And if you swing in front of you, you don't really get much distance out of it. Yeah. That's a placement. Look at your feet. When you're kicking, it really matters where you kick. We've officially done the training bit. My footwork looks good. Now it's time to go on the crazy vertical ice wall. See, your left foot's really junky. Do try to get good feet cuz I mean that's the basis of security, you know. Now stand up. Drive your hips in.

Yes. Nice. Maybe I'll go. You're okay. All right. This is gnarly. Like looking down. We're so vertical right now. Oh my feet together. Stand up. Wicked. I'm like figuring out the rhythm. That was a good Oh my god. See, I'm getting excited that I'm at the top and I'm like, I got to focus. That is good. You just crushed it. We just did it, dude. Really good. Coming here today and starting to put the pieces together. I think we both just felt that confidence in each other. Tomorrow we're gonna tackle part two and see how it goes. For us to progress to the iceberg, I now need to test these skills in far more

serious conditions. This is a pretty radical environment and what we have to use like what you learned yesterday and then the skills I have as a guy to get you to move through it. It's all pointed at icebergs. We are out here in the ghost. Literally feels like the middle of nowhere to me. Will took me in a truck for 2 hours through the chaos. Oh my god. By the end of today, I need to prove to Will that I can climb to the top of this 20 m ice wall. In a way, this is a test. It's like it's one thing to have the skills in a very controlled environment. It's another to do them for real out here in the Ghost.

Gonna vomit. I don't like this test. We'll go this way, Molly. But before we climb the 20 m wall, we have to make our way up to it. In the eye. Look at that. That was a good swing. You don't have to rush cuz rushing actually makes you slower. Use that hyperfocus. What's my next thing? Swing. Nice. When you're ice climbing, you can just be in the moment for so much longer. In cliff diving, I only get 3 seconds, but in ice climbing, I get this whole 5 to 10 minute climb of just pure focus. And my anxious brain has

been craving that my whole life. That's a workout, man. Yeah, you're doing great. No wonder you're so fit at 59. Jeez. You've got to be able to do this well enough so that you can focus on your dive. Yeah, you might not be able to get that one out. I'm so happy with how you're doing. Not having to think of every single step and like them just happening the right way is pretty cool. So I can enjoy it more. This will be our final pitch. Oh, it's way bigger when you're under it. We are at the final level. Honestly, looking at this one, I feel the nerves going a bit more. It looks like it's 20 m high. Like this is what I compete off.

I just looked down. I'm like, it's pretty high. I think this is about a 20 m pitch. Yeah. Good. And if you can just step through and kind of around the ropes. Right on. Good job. That is a big one. I passed the test. You stand up here, you get to the top, you jump in. One of the things that's odd about you is you don't have any fear of the edge. Molly has some really good skills now. But this is a static environment and the ocean is super dynamic. When you get on an iceberg in the middle of the ocean, that's that is a very wild place to be.

This is just phase one. Now, I need to prepare for the dive itself. Okay, pop quiz. Do you know how cold the water is going to be in New Finland for me? Uh, well, Ireland was nine. Yeah. And they cancelled the event. I'm going to guess five. One. One° C. Dude, I've never dove in a wet suit. I've always just dove in my little Look at this. This is full on. Are they different thicknesses? Just Yeah. So, that's like why I want to try them out. This bad boy has a full-on hood. The fact I don't even know how to open this is very concerning. Is this an arm?

No, no, no. That's not the arm. That's Ready. Oh my god. I think like appearance-wise I can't let myself do this. I just think it's a bit too much. This one is much easier to put on. As soon as I hit like it could start moving. So I got to be able to the ice road. Yes. They're massive. It's not going to move. Dude, the whole safety protocol is these things rolling. Oh. Oh, really? Yes. Oh, okay. It's so much more dangerous than we thought. Like I know you can do the dive. It's 15 m, which you're kind of used to a bit lower than your competition height. So, I'm not concerned about that. But this is something completely different.

Yeah. where having to wear a wet suit ice climbing up. It's like it's nuts. Before even getting there, it's so important to have a wet suit going into this iceberg project. I need to test the mobility. I need to test the warmth. I need to test everything going on with the wets suit so that when I get out to Newf Finland, I'm not freaking out. Up first, we going to do the 3 m springboard. It just felt super awkward. A bit too tight. Yeah, it looked awkward. Welcome to the 10 m platform. Feet are still just coming down a bit fast and see how you're landing like there.

Yeah. In project dives, you're not going for a perfect score out of 10. You're going for that perfect feeling. We are strapping in and heading towards the 15 m indoor platform. Sure. Don't Don't let your feet come too high. I over rotated it a little bit, but overall I felt really beautiful in the air. And now it's iceberg time. Woo! New Finland, dude. Yeah. Welcome to New Finland. I cannot wait to see them up close today. What do you think? Your first iceberg.

Oh my god. Bergie bit dead ahead. You see that one? So, these bergie bits are probably coming up from the bottom and they can develop a lot of speed and actually like hit the boat hard enough to do damage. This is crazy. And to think these are 10,000 years old. Yeah. Likely came from Greenland. You have to remember how dangerous these things are. They split and roll and explode. And if that happened, it would be deserty. Abort. Aboard. report. Okay, we're heading out.

Hang on tight. We're going to move. Get a hold of something. Hold on. You got something? Yeah, that big piece just fell off over there. No way. Okay, great job. Before we step onto an iceberg, we have to test the team's response and rescue systems. This is not safe. This is just We're just doing our best to make something high hazard reasonable. Okay, all stations eyes on. I'm on. We're going to simulate a emergency scenario. Okay, man in the water. Scary to see a fellow athlete in that position, but we have to test for everything.

We're transferring to the response boat. It's a lot. I don't like watching this far. And I'll probably stay looking this way. It was really nice of him to take one for the team here and do this cuz I think he knew that would get in my head. This is really critical to figure these things out. We're here cuz we want to do this and that's really important to me. But this is in no way safe. This is when I need to jump in the cold water. Just a wet suit, bare hands, bare feet, full face in the water. And this water is cold. 3 2 1 Oh yeah, that's cold.

Oh, that makes me nervous. colder water, you get a gasping reflex where you aspirate water, get water into your lungs. And yeah, this is like as benign as it's ever going to get. And it's still worries me. Like, imagine doing that off an iceberg. I am freaking out. Tomorrow could very well be the day. I am scared of letting people down. So many people are here for this project and like I'm super grateful if I get up there and I'm like, "Hell no." know like I know Will have my back. I know everyone in this group will have my back. I just like have this fear of failure. We have to scout dozens of icebergs to find the right one for my dive.

Maybe we can go out and scout that one over there. It needs to have good bow access, a sheer edge to dive from with a clear landing zone, and a climb that's actually doable for me without putting Will at risk. If we don't tick these boxes, the dive isn't possible. This looks like some rugged diving there. Yeah, lots of shelves. Not easy. Okay, I think we're good on this one. This one's huge. Yeah, that's like 100 ft tall. Yeah, that's big. It's just those bergie bits in there. Yeah, we've spotted the iceberg from yesterday.

Is this the one you wanted to look at or Yeah, this one we're calling uh no name. Just make sure it hasn't changed in any material way. I still like that right side. Yeah, that's nice. It's an exciting one. Wow, this one's gorgeous. Following the one in front of us, Castle. The castle's got a lot of potential. Holy Wow. Where would you climb up it? Well, that's one of the issues. Okay, there's an option. A scary option. I kind of feel like they're all scary. From the air, I think Castle could be the one, but we won't know until we

check it out by boat. If it looks good, we're getting on. Every one of these birds has challenges. This one's kind of a horseshoe shape, which isn't ideal from stability. If starts to happen and you see a clear space in the water, your best is to jump. Don't go down with the bird. Sometimes you got butterflies in your stomach and sometimes you have bats. Today is a bats day. Wow. Man, that is an insane piece of ice there. I would say there's a very high probability of sports action there.

Boy, it gets bigger when you put a person right beside it. Holy Yeah, that's going to be an adventure. If we can get on here, I'll traverse over to the blue spot and then go up the groove and out. You're going to have to do some real ice climbing here. Like, this is why we did Camaro. Yeah, man. This shit's legit. Yeah. Although we're all looking at the same iceberg. We're assessing different things. Rick is finding a clear access point. Will is mapping the ice climb, and I'm spotting a safe takeoff with enough depth for entry. I'm going to get my krampons on, and if everybody's good for it, I will move toward uh getting on.

I think we're going to have to go look at another iceberg. Yeah. You're not feeling this one? I failed this one though. I think what's hard now is I'm like so in the diving mindset and then I just heard the skipper say, "We're going to have to go look at another iceberg." If one person in this group thinks it's too dangerous, it's a board. The problem is this was the safest one in my head. So like if this one doesn't pass the safety test, then I don't know if we're jumping today. I don't like it cuz if this comes off there, it's going right down in your area. We don't like the same things. Rick, I'm with you.

What are you thinking there? Well, uh Rick has concerns that there's way too much surge to get me on there successfully. Right now, I can get on there. Like, that would boom, I'm on. Um I think it's doable. I mean, it might be a moot question if Rick's comfort succeeded here. Okay, copy. And it looks like you might be cabing a little bit somewhere. Hey, all these burgy bits, guys. I'm not feeling comfortable with this. It's uh it's very unstable. You see all the burgy bits here that came off that wall. And that's the wall where

Molly is going to be jumping off as well. You know, I think we should abort. Wow. The backside just completely fell in the water and broke off. So now there's these huge chunks of ice just drifting. Yeah, it could have been a dangerous uh situation if we were on that iceberg for sure. All right, let's start heading our back. Being in the boat and hearing so many negative things about the thing you want to jump off of is really exhausting. No part of you is hearing positives. The only positive is the one thing in your brain like, okay, you might be

jumping. This could be possible. It's just a lot of negative out there. This is not a cliff diving event. This is trying to dive off an iceberg. Today was disappointing. There's some signs of instability. I'm not sure where we go from here. There's so many unknowns in this project and like I really don't love that. It's truly up to me to like know my talents and like I'm freaking out that I don't know my strengths and my talents. I just want to know if I even want to do this. This is a lot. This kind of feature. It's thick enough. If it were like 2 ft thinner, I'd kind of be like, eh. But it's thick enough that it's probably okay.

Since we scouted the icebergs from the helicopter, No Name rolled over, revealing a new face. So, we're going to take a closer look. It was the first iceberg I saw up close. It looked completely different. We were up super early today to come together because I think as a team yesterday, we all found that we were so focused on our individual roles. And so we actually had a chat at dinner last night like if we can all use our expertise to come together and talk about it in a room before even stepping foot on a boat, I think we're all going to go out and be on the same page. And like you could feel the magic today in this room. I don't want to do anything else right now than jump off this iceberg.

I'm taking a not insubstantial risk to do this. The risk is worth it. When there's something that beautiful that could happen, then it's worth it. I've done a lot of stuff in my life as an athlete, but this is definitely the most intense high consequence environment I've ever operated in. That's a hell of a block right there. Yeah. Where do you think we're getting on, Rick? Uh, I was looking at that there. It's a bit swelly. I don't want the nose of the boat to go underneath the Berg. So, I'm going to set a hand line for you all the way up the whole dang Berg.

And how do you climb with a hand like forward? So you clip your you just grab the rope and traverse across sideways. I like sideways. Yeah, we have to use a hand line because if we're rope to the berg and it rolls, we could end up five times deeper underwater. So easily 50 75 m But what we're going to do, we have a good berg. I'm going to try and rig it even though it's raining pretty hard right now. Yeah. I'm very curious to see the next steps. I'm just trying to chill out though. It's moving. So, the bird was definitely moving there.

Rick, does this seem like abnormal amounts of movement to you, or is this pretty standard iceberg? He's uh definitely not grounded anymore. She might be up against a ledge, right? Hey guys, if we're going to get on this bird, let's do it like pretty soon. It will roll. And I don't want to sit here for another hour and watch it. I want to go. We're going into urgent mode, everyone. Eyes on. All right. Nice. Nicely done. Good job. Well, you too. Thank you. That was so high pressure. That got my heart going seeing him smack into there. I was like, "Wow, it's happening.

Come on, buddy. And guys, just a little pay attention. This burger is doing some bobbing and some turning. So, we got to keep our eyes on that. The iceberg's moving a bit as he's on there. I will never as long as I live get used to that noise. So the dive area is right in front of me. Molly, you're you're happy with this location for the dive? Yeah. Straight from where you firewheel is perfect. Copy that. I'm going to screw Molly's platform right here. Unless somebody has a better idea. Let's get Molly on here and do this thing.

I agree. She's putting on her krampon stair now. Go ahead. When Molly's about halfway up, if we do another, just let the boat hit the bird, then jump and jump. Perfect. If you have me Oh L. Nice job. You're the coolest person I know. You are rocking this. Well done. You are on an iceberg. So you just hold the rope and Yeah. and traverse across. And the big thing is to stand on your feet just like we did in Canmore. You're going to go first and I'll follow. Yeah. You're going to you're I'm going to go first. Just focus. And we're going to move slowly and I'm going to help you do that. So, you can come on around here and we'll grab on right here.

And you can kick one foot in toe first if you want. We're going to keep a little tension on here as we come up. And our action plan, if this goes if this starts to roll, we're going to slide that way. Yeah. And keep your feet up or you may break your ankle. That sound is horrifying, right? But you're good. Just nice and steady. You're looking awesome. Then when we get up to here, just keep coming my way. Really standing on it. Not so much pulling on the rope. Just being solid. And then grab this side of it here. Nice. And then we're going to kind of stay low across here together. Super solid. You're doing great.

You too. Yeah. And if you come down just a bit rather than being above the rope, that way. That way if you fall down, you don't shock load your arms. Yeah. Really good. I'm Oh, yeah. Sports action. Really good. It's nice little tiny step sideways. Good. That's okay. That is some thick ice. Oh yeah, that's that big blue vein. Wow. It's a little steeper here. Just looking at your feet as you come across. Yep. Really kicking them in. Trying to use my footsteps if you can.

Yeah. Nice. Okay. Then we're going to surf across here. You're doing great. I knew you would. Woo. Craziest I've ever done. Oh yeah, for sure. Oh yeah. Wait till you see this dive. It is sick. But focus here now. Yeah. We're focused. Yeah. All right. Super solid. You're looking great. So come down toward this spot. Yeah. Great. Just coming across here. Good. And then put one flat, one foot flat like we did in Camour. Yeah. Get real stable on it. Let's come sideways here. Just staying low. And then again, if things get western, we're going to there. But just hold your

feet up and there's a surge and we'll have to get away. Perfect. Okay. Oh, that sound. Yeah, that sound shakes you up. Holy It really feels like the whole Berg is just cracking. E. Holy. Okay, you're doing great. And again. Yeah. This is not mandatory. Like I can We can come back down this really easily. Yeah. Getting a bit steeper here. Just keep this one up high in front of you. Nice. And just little motions with your hands.

Yeah. I know. Eh, you feel that, too, huh? Yeah. Really good. So beautiful. You're doing great. Oh my gosh. Okay, we're going to start getting you ready here. Okay, you're going to take your harness off very last. Yes. I'm going to give you a little bit of an assist up there. Let's take my boots off on an iceberg. Can I help you? Here's my sockies. Okay, let's chuck them in. Okay, Jason, you're confirming the area is clear to dive. How's that feel?

Yeah. Okay. Do you feel stable and solid? So, you can pop your buckles now. Have a good clean dive. This is something fierce. Ready? All right. She is good to go. Slow back flip. Nice and clean. Yeah. Bit windy. All right, girl. You got it. I can't believe I just did that. Come on, Willie. Get your ass in gear. All right, here he comes. You got it, buddy. I think knowing how much like Will did for me on this trip is so special. I can't wait to celebrate with him.

This is the coolest day of my life for sure. I love him so much. See, Rick, uh, you get to go in here when he gets down and he calls in. Anxiously waiting. Oh, he's coming. Let's go. We got to go. Time to go. Hurry. Come on, Will. Just dude. That was insane. That's one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Oh my god. Like, this is the beauty of what humans could do. There's a lot of messed up stuff in the world, and that's just something beautiful. We did that.

Yeah. So good. My best. You rock. Thank you for getting me into the madness. You have hard days. You might be anxious. You might be scared. You might have so much fear, but at the end of the day, like to show yourself that you can do really cool things is really special. So, I'm really proud and I know baby Maul is like screaming right now.

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