Location: Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

Growing up in the middle of the country, I can remember watching holiday movies with people ice skating ron frozen lakes and thinking “they are crazy, that ice could break at any moment!”. Now, venturing into high elevation I don’t give a second though to trudging across a frozen alpine lake with full confidence that its icy blocks will support multiples of my weight. In addition, some of the higher and more exposed alpine lakes and ponds are so wind scoured that snow is regularly blown away, with intricate patterns of bubbles and cracks are visible in the impossibly blue ice.