Well, any of you that have been coming to this site for very long probably could have guessed that this was coming! Brent shoots ice!!! Who'd have thunk it!!
After seeing Erik's post last week of the ice up on Dream Lake, I knew the conditions were just right for the stuff I was looking for. Thanks for the recon Erik!!! So I headed up early Saturday evening, and enjoyed the wonderful hospitality of Erik and his wife, and slept on their floor!
Up the next AM at 5, out the door at about 5:30, and got to the Bear Lake parking lot at about 6. I was the second car there, the first being Derek Regensberger, who I had e-mailed with a few days prior. We set off about 6:15, up the well packed trail. From past experience, I left the snowshoes behind, and instead wore my YakTrax for traction. They worked great. I was moving at my usual sluggish pace, and told Derek he had better go ahead if he wanted to catch any of the sunrise. Boy can that boy move!! I was at Nymph Lake at sunrise, but didn't stop except to take a couple point and shoot snaps of Hallett Peak in the alpenglow. Sadly, no colorful clouds at all, clear as a bell! Oh well, I came for the ice, so headed on up the trail.
I got into view of Dream Lake right at 7AM, and Derek was already setting up a killer shot of the cool wind blown snow. In hindsight, I wish I would have stopped and shot some of it also, but the ice was calling my name! I couldn't have asked for a better morning up there. Calm as can be! If any of you have been up to Dream Lake in the winter, you know how brutally windy it can be (here’s a video from two years ago: Dream Lake wind ) . Bright blue skies, and calm. Perfect for the shots I was looking for! I had been a little worried that the best ice would be covered by the snow they had the day or so before, but luckily most of it was already blown off.
I quickly set up and started looking for the cool ice fractures I so love to shoot! They were confined to one smaller area this year, and the ice is also a lot more wavy than I’d seen in a long time ( see Erik’s awesome wavy shots from last week). However, I was able to find some fun ones!!
At about 8AM, we saw two people come out of the trees, and head our direction. Lo and behold, it was fellow NPN’er Tony Litschewski and his fiancé Colleen! We chatted for a bit and Tony shot a couple images with his “small” camera (his 4x5)! I swear, I really think he was tempted to make the trek back down to get his 8x10!!!
At about 9am, Tony, Colleen and Derek took off for home, and I just putzed around for little longer. However, at that point, the famous winds finally showed up. I had one shot set up that took me about 10 minutes to complete, just waiting for a lull. After that, I took a leisurely hike back to the incredibly packed parking lot! All in all, a great day in the park!!
They're all really neat. I like the light blue one a lot, but the deep blue series is classic BD.
Something I've been meaning to ask for a long time. Thanks to you, whenever anyone thinks about taking ice shots, they always head to Dream Lake. Why Dream Lake? This phenomenon can't be unique to this one lake, can it? Would you find scenes like this at Bear or Sprague lakes?
Dream Lake is the only one I've ever seen with the rippled pattern in the ice across the entire lake. I'm sure there's others, but it doesn't do this at bear lake or nymph. Both of those lakes stay covered in snow. Maybe Brent could brush off both lakes with his windshield scraper so we would know for sure. I don't know if it contributes to the fine bubbles in the ice or not.
Boy, very good question! I wish I had a great answer for you. I first came across this kind of stuff on Dream about seven years ago, and since Dream is relatively easy to get to for the early morning light that the blue stuff requires, I keep going back. The only other time I've seen this is up at the Loch about three years ago. That was a fluke, and the only reason I found out about it was an acquaintance from over at 14erworld.com. He had seen my previous ice images and saw it on the Loch one day while out on a climb, and he told me the next day. I was up ther the next Saturday! Thats the one you saw that I made into a 40"x50"! I also heard from buddy who saw the same type of stuff at the lake just below St. Mary's glacier a couple years ago, but sadly I never got up to check it out.
Oddly, these types of conditions don't seem to start happening until about late January to mid February every year. I know Erik was up there early on this year, and reported that there weren't any patterns like this to be found.
Dream Lake will always be my favorite though, as it seems to have the right combo of conditions I need for these shots: open, wind blown ice, cool patterns, and nice open shade until about 9am for the overall blue cast.
I hope Erik can chime in as to if he's seen it happen anywhere else up there. Every time I look at Bear Lake, it's covered with snow, so have never seen any.
Great images, Brent! They make for a killer series of prints. Pretty soon you'll have enough of these shots to line your entire basement floor with - your own man-made Dream Lake!
Boy you can come up with some stories, Dude these suck, when you going to take some real pictures. Everybody if you really want to know the truth these are shot of large ice trays from his freezer!!!!
Great shots Brent! I have seen this phenomena only in a couple of places in RMNP. Usually Dream Lake is the best place to go. This year there is also some cool ice up on Emerald Lake. The Loch usually is limited and I've not seen it on other lakes, though I imagine that it must happen on some other windswept alpine lakes. What I really don't understand is why this ice doesn't do this earlier in the winter or what causes these bubbles to form deep in the ice in mid-winter.
Posted by Kalin Wilson on March 8, 2007 at 12:18 AM
Sweet shots Brent! Derek Sedillo and I followed you up there a couple days later on Tuesday and the ice was captivating to say the least! I posted links to ones I got in my earlier post!
Nice work Iceman! I was wondering when you would reappear.
I bet this would make for a great social conversation, something like: "Yes, I like to get up at 3 am and carry 60 lbs. on my back in sub-zero temps, hike to a frozen lake in RMNP and shoot straight down".
Sweet shots, Brent! Your ice shots have always intrigued me!
I have found similar conditions on a lake on the way up to Guanella Pass a number of years ago. I think it's above the small reservoir if I remember correctly. It's kind of narrow and small and there's a picnic area with a couple of outhouses by it. In the winter you have to park on the GP road and hike about 100 yards down to it.
Discussion
16 repliesAfter seeing Erik's post last week of the ice up on Dream Lake, I knew the conditions were just right for the stuff I was looking for. Thanks for the recon Erik!!! So I headed up early Saturday evening, and enjoyed the wonderful hospitality of Erik and his wife, and slept on their floor!
Up the next AM at 5, out the door at about 5:30, and got to the Bear Lake parking lot at about 6. I was the second car there, the first being Derek Regensberger, who I had e-mailed with a few days prior. We set off about 6:15, up the well packed trail. From past experience, I left the snowshoes behind, and instead wore my YakTrax for traction. They worked great. I was moving at my usual sluggish pace, and told Derek he had better go ahead if he wanted to catch any of the sunrise. Boy can that boy move!!
I got into view of Dream Lake right at 7AM, and Derek was already setting up a killer shot of the cool wind blown snow. In hindsight, I wish I would have stopped and shot some of it also, but the ice was calling my name! I couldn't have asked for a better morning up there. Calm as can be! If any of you have been up to Dream Lake in the winter, you know how brutally windy it can be (here’s a video from two years ago: Dream Lake wind ) . Bright blue skies, and calm. Perfect for the shots I was looking for! I had been a little worried that the best ice would be covered by the snow they had the day or so before, but luckily most of it was already blown off.
I quickly set up and started looking for the cool ice fractures I so love to shoot! They were confined to one smaller area this year, and the ice is also a lot more wavy than I’d seen in a long time ( see Erik’s awesome wavy shots from last week). However, I was able to find some fun ones!!
At about 8AM, we saw two people come out of the trees, and head our direction. Lo and behold, it was fellow NPN’er Tony Litschewski and his fiancé Colleen! We chatted for a bit and Tony shot a couple images with his “small” camera (his 4x5)! I swear, I really think he was tempted to make the trek back down to get his 8x10!!!
At about 9am, Tony, Colleen and Derek took off for home, and I just putzed around for little longer. However, at that point, the famous winds finally showed up. I had one shot set up that took me about 10 minutes to complete, just waiting for a lull. After that, I took a leisurely hike back to the incredibly packed parking lot! All in all, a great day in the park!!
I'll post a couple images in this thread, but here are all of them together
Enjoy!!!
ps: here are a bunch of digital snap shots from this trip.
Something I've been meaning to ask for a long time. Thanks to you, whenever anyone thinks about taking ice shots, they always head to Dream Lake. Why Dream Lake? This phenomenon can't be unique to this one lake, can it? Would you find scenes like this at Bear or Sprague lakes?
Nice shots
Todd,
Dream Lake is the only one I've ever seen with the rippled pattern in the ice across the entire lake. I'm sure there's others, but it doesn't do this at bear lake or nymph. Both of those lakes stay covered in snow. Maybe Brent could brush off both lakes with his windshield scraper so we would know for sure.
Boy, very good question! I wish I had a great answer for you. I first came across this kind of stuff on Dream about seven years ago, and since Dream is relatively easy to get to for the early morning light that the blue stuff requires, I keep going back. The only other time I've seen this is up at the Loch about three years ago. That was a fluke, and the only reason I found out about it was an acquaintance from over at 14erworld.com. He had seen my previous ice images and saw it on the Loch one day while out on a climb, and he told me the next day. I was up ther the next Saturday!
Oddly, these types of conditions don't seem to start happening until about late January to mid February every year. I know Erik was up there early on this year, and reported that there weren't any patterns like this to be found.
Dream Lake will always be my favorite though, as it seems to have the right combo of conditions I need for these shots: open, wind blown ice, cool patterns, and nice open shade until about 9am for the overall blue cast.
I hope Erik can chime in as to if he's seen it happen anywhere else up there. Every time I look at Bear Lake, it's covered with snow, so have never seen any.
Beautiful stuff, as always. Well done.
I bet this would make for a great social conversation, something like: "Yes, I like to get up at 3 am and carry 60 lbs. on my back in sub-zero temps, hike to a frozen lake in RMNP and shoot straight down".
Great stuff!
I have found similar conditions on a lake on the way up to Guanella Pass a number of years ago. I think it's above the small reservoir if I remember correctly. It's kind of narrow and small and there's a picnic area with a couple of outhouses by it. In the winter you have to park on the GP road and hike about 100 yards down to it.
Don