With mentorship from world-renowned ice climber Will Gadd, Molly becomes the first female to dive off an iceberg
Canadian cliff diver Molly Carlson made history off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada becoming the first woman to dive off an iceberg.
Debuting exclusively on YouTube, Red Bull Iceberg Dive chronicles Molly’s journey through months of training to prepare for and ultimately complete this incredible athletic achievement.
Alongside legendary ice climber Will Gadd, Molly learned multiple new skills to take on this challenge including ice climbing, and cold-water training.
Against the unique backdrop of the Canadian coastline, Molly and Will expertly navigated through a number of unpredictable environmental challenges including dynamic ocean swells, iceberg movements and weather conditions.
With help from a temporary rigging system put in place by Will, the duo climbed to the top of a gnarly free floating iceberg, for Molly to achieve a remarkable world’s-first dive and her highest backwards dive to date.
Amongst a year of incredible accomplishments including diving into shark infested waters, completing a 27-metre dive and returning to competition circuit in Red Bull Cliff Diving, Molly continues to challenge herself, push what’s possible and conquer her fears.
Red Bull Iceberg Dive started as a dream, and became history-making reality with extensive planning, athletic excellence, technical expertise, and collaboration with world-class team of specialists.
Key Facts
Project: Red Bull Iceberg Dive
Athletes: Molly Carlson, Will Gadd
Locations: Twillingate, Newfoundland; Canmore, Alberta; Montréal, Quebec
Support Team: Ocean Quest, Rick Stanley, Crosby Marine, Jason Crosby
World First: Molly Carlson is the first female athlete to dive off of a free-standing iceberg, completing a near 15 metre backwards dive off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
Red Bull Iceberg Dive
Red Bull Iceberg Dive is a short documentary film, making its debut exclusively on YouTube.
The piece chronicles Molly Carlson’s technical training and fears to face to achieve a life-long dream of diving off an iceberg.
Starting in Canmore, Alberta Molly linked up with fellow Red Bull athlete and ice climbing legend Will Gadd who ultimately would be her guide and confidante through the process.
With a solid foundation on how to ice climb, Molly’s training in her homebase of Montreal advanced to wetsuit tests and cold-water training – two factors that differ greatly from her traditional dive environments.
Ultimately, Molly and Will’s journey brought them to Newfoundland, Canada, an area uniquely qualified for this experience due to the annual influx of thousands of icebergs along the coast as the ice drifts from the North.
The added challenges that put both Molly and Will’s athletic and technical skills to the test is the many unpredictable risk factors at play from weather to iceberg movements and the dynamics of the ocean, to Molly’s own fears and anxieties.
Together, the unlikely duo tackled an impressive climb to the peak of the berg, to set Molly up to successfully execute her highest ever backwards dive into the icy cold waters.
Athlete Quotes
Molly Carlson: “The Red Bull Iceberg Dive has been a dream for a long time, and it is by far the craziest and one of the scariest things I have ever done.
Bravery though is not about getting rid of fear but about not letting it decide what you’re capable of. This iceberg challenge was about seeing how far I can push myself.”
Molly Carlson: “There’s something really powerful about an iceberg, you only see the small part above the surface while so much is hidden underneath. I think in many ways the same is true for our anxieties and our fears, they can often be hidden beneath the surface but still are very present and very real.”
Will Gadd: “I wouldn’t have done it if it was just about climbing an iceberg. The opportunity to help Molly do something beautiful and meaningful was what drew me to this project,” said Gadd.
“I first climbed an iceberg 25 years ago, to be back at it again was an adventure!”
Will Gadd: “This incredible feat of the Red Bull Iceberg Dive was only possible due to the team of experts we assembled, with decades of experience across ice climbing, marine safety, and cliff diving. It’s our collective expertise and willingness to take a not insubstantial risk, that saw this through.”
Support Team Quotes
Rick Stanley: “For more than 30 years I have worked around icebergs, and the only thing you can count on is their unpredictability. To the average person touring our coastline, we would never encourage breaking the safe line of distance as these magnificent forces of nature may roll, calve or move at any moment. It is only because these are Red Bull athletes, who are incredibly skilled in what they do, and the full team assembled that this project was able to proceed in as safe a way as we could. It was an honour to welcome Molly and Will to Newfoundland and be a part of this exciting adventure.”
Jason Crosby: “Over the last few decades our work has taken us to pretty unique waters, this was an incredible collective effort with different minds monitoring the ocean swells and berg movements to ensure Molly and Will could achieve this safely. We’re stoked to have been a part of this team and seeing all that Molly and Will accomplished.”
Iceberg Dive
