Wednesday, February 14, 2007

walking on water

it's been cold enough to freeze lake superior so people can hike across the water to the ice caves. the pictures were taken by my daughter. i web optimized them so they've lost quite a bit of their impact, but still... wow. i think i might be willing to freeze my bum to see this. i didn't post pictures of the actual caves -- i was more taken with frozen lake superior and the spectacular giant ice shards.

ice caves







22 comments:

Kelly (Lynn) Parra said...

Wow, those pics are amazing! And the ice shards floating in the ocean are really cool!

Jaye Wells said...

Wow. See there's benefits to freezing your arse off up there.

anne frasier said...

kelly, after just returning from florida,i'm really struck by the extremes of weather we have in this country. pretty amazing.

jaye, you are so right! i'm thinking i need to go to the north shore before thaw.

Heather Harper said...

Holy crap. :o

angie said...

Gorgeous and surreal. I think that might actually be worth a trip to see!

Bill Cameron said...

Those really are amazing. Out here we have. Um. It's kinda rainy. And a bit chilly. I may have to get Chinese take-out for dinner.

Daniel Hatadi said...

Ice shards! I SO want about three of them, surrounding my cubicle RIGHT NOW.

Guess I'll just have to settle for imagination or the fridge.

Sandra Ruttan said...

Wow. Beautiful. I'd freeze for that too.

anne frasier said...

heather, i like your reaction. :D

angie, surreal. exactly.

bill, haha! sometimes i think that kind of weather is worse that the really cold stuff.

daniel, i just put a shard in the mail for you.

sandra, i'm thinking about it....

Hulles said...

Great pics. I keep thinking of REALLY BIG glasses of scotch for some reason, though.

anne frasier said...

hulles:

:D

i keep thinking of 2001: a space odyssey

Stephen Blackmoore said...

Fantastic photos.

The thing that amazes me the most about the photos isn't the ice shards or the caves, or the waves caught suspended as though time simply stopped.

It's that your daughter went out there to take the photos in the first place. A photographer after my own heart.

Reminds me of all those surreal photos of rock climbers taken from impossible angles. The rock climbers, meh, but the guy taking the picture? Now that's impressive.

anne frasier said...

stephen, what a sweet, observant thing to say. by the time she was 5 martha had more guts than i'll ever have in my lifetime. but she was also like one of those cartoon characters who would duck to tie a shoe just as the metal beam swooshed overhead.

cindy said...

brrr! we went last year to chicago, the first time for me. so i was totally in awe of those giant lakes! and that it gets so cold there that it freezes all that water, this is incomprehensible to this former california girl! but it is very beautiful!

Helen Brenna said...

Wow, Anne. I've been skiing in the winter up on the north shore, at Lutsen, but I've never seen Lake Superior do that ice shard thing. They don't even look real.

Anonymous said...

Incredible the colors in winter. Great pics Anne. Just popped by to say hello!

anne frasier said...

hi cinderelly!

so nice to see you here! a frozen expanse that size has to be amazing to behold. when i lived in iowa, i would get excited when the river froze. :D which didn't happen very often.

helen, i wondered if they had this kind of thing around lutsen. i haven't been up there in the winter. i wonder if the giant shards have something to do with the islands? this is apostle islands. maybe they create a barrier/dam that breaks the surface ice. i'm always surprised by the power of lake superior. it's like an ocean.

anne frasier said...

hi nienke! nice to see you!!

Bernita said...

They look like the sails for the ice queen's boats.
Magical.
I'm more use to floes and cakes about 4 feet thick.

Hulles said...

Ditto on the frozen river in Iowa. Sometimes when the snow would blow off we could skate for twenty or thirty miles. Cross country ice skating! Nice memory.

Jeff said...

Beautiful pictures, Anne.

anne frasier said...

ooh, bernita. i love that description!
thank you.

hulles, i can remember skating on the road a few times too. that was pretty cool! put your skates on in the house and step out the door. kind of like a weird dream.


jeff, thanks! glad you enjoyed them. :)