Can You Dive Year-Round in Colorado?
Carolyn Bryan Aug 14, 2026
Short answer: yes. Longer answer: it depends how much cold you're willing to deal with, and whether you're willing to add a specialty certification to your card. Most Denver-area divers wind down their local diving by October and pick it back up in the spring. That's a choice, not a requirement.
Why the Season Usually Ends in Fall
Local reservoirs like Aurora and Chatfield get cold fast once the weather turns, and by winter, many local sites ice over completely. Diving under a frozen surface isn't something you can do with standard Open Water training. It requires a different set of skills, a different setup, and different gear, which is exactly why most divers just wait for spring instead.
What It Takes to Dive Through Winter: Ice Diving
If you want to keep diving once the reservoirs freeze over, that means ice diving, which is its own PADI specialty. It requires an Advanced Open Water certification and a minimum age of 18 to enroll. The course covers the specific skills ice diving demands: safety lines, harnesses, tender procedures on the surface, and how to navigate and communicate with a solid ceiling of ice over your head instead of open water.
A drysuit is strongly recommended for ice diving, not just for warmth but because a wetsuit alone isn't going to hold up well against water that's sitting right at freezing. If you've already got your Dry Suit Diver specialty, or you're thinking about winter diving down the road, that's a good one to knock out first.
Where People Actually Ice Dive in Colorado
Blue Mesa Reservoir, out near Gunnison, is one of the better-known ice diving destinations in the state. Divers head out there in January and February, at an elevation around 7,000 feet, and visibility can run 10 to 25 feet, which is often clearer than a typical day at Aurora. There are also remnants of old roads and bridges visible underwater from before the reservoir was built, which makes for a memorable dive if you're properly trained and equipped for it.
Is Winter Diving Worth It?
It's not for everyone, and it's not something to jump into as a brand-new diver. But if you're already comfortable in cold water and you like the idea of diving somewhere most people never will, ice diving is a legitimate way to keep your log book growing through the winter instead of letting it sit until May.
For most divers, the more practical answer to "year-round diving" isn't ice diving, it's staying dive-ready. Keep your skills sharp, keep your gear serviced over the winter, and you'll be back in the water the moment things thaw, instead of scrambling to remember what you forgot.
If you're curious whether ice diving is a good fit for you, or you just want to talk through what it takes to prep for it, stop by the shop. We can also help you figure out what gear from your current kit will carry over and what you'd need to add.
