Colorado Frozen lakes & Glaciers

We hiked in the snow a lot in Colorado. We were very glad we flew our crampons/spikes with us. Lots of people were slipping and sliding up the icy hills and we were just chatting and passing them with awesome traction. They grimaced at us a bit.

After Thanksgiving we hike to a frozen lake, Loch Lake, it was at about 10,200 ft. One of the fourteener mountains was right next to it. The day was sunny and kind of warm so it was a really pleasant hike. The lake was stunning, frozen enough you could walk on it but not so frozen it was also covered in snow. We ate snacks on a rock in the middle of the lake and I couldn't resist stripping off my spikes to skate around a bit. That night back at our cabin we had leftover stuffing, played games and read our books. It was slow and cozy. We aren't the best at slow but we really embraced it this trip.

Then on our last day at the cabin we went to St. Mary's Glacier, again very very glad to have the spikes. It was a short hike to the lake, pleasant, sunny again. The lake wasn't quite frozen so there were icebergs floating in it. I looked up and saw the glacier, there were a few people walking up a tidbit on on and a few others skiing down some of it. Then a huge gust of wind picked up the loose powder and blew it all over them. I said I'm not going on that thing, I'm happy to look at it.

Next thing you know we walked up to just go to the base of it. Then we just wanted to go to where everyone else was standing. Then we were full on trudging our way to the top of the darn thing. When the wind would blow the loose snow I'd turn around, shiver a bit, and keep going. I don't know why I went except that once I started I felt committed, and curious. We'd never hiked on a glacier, just near them. The textures the wind created in the snow were stunning. Once we were out of view of the base of it you felt you were on another planet a bit. It was cold but the sun kept it bearable. We made it pretty far, about 12,000 ft. The wind was pretty persistent at that point and I was worried about it making it hard to breath so we turned around. In the end I'm glad we hiked on the frigid glacier, and once we were off the sun warmed us right back up.

After that we headed into the city to our cute little airbnb.