Once Broken, Now Strong
Thin ice sheets, formed and fractured in earlier onsets of cold, are now but a windswept surface artifact on thick ice forged strong in the deep winter chill at Abraham Lake, near Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada.
Among the endless frozen wonders at Abraham Lake were these large areas where the embedded remnants of old shattered ice patterned the surface in discordant but interesting ways. Less celebrated than the methane bubbles (some of which can be seen here in the spaces between) for which Abraham Lake is most well known among photographers, I thought these haphazard fractured icescapes merited a little attention nevertheless, especially with a bit of sunrise orange light on the scene.
With or without a camera, time wandering far out on these vast frozen lakes is a wondrous sensory adventure. The ice itself is an endless web of cracks of varying forms and beneath the ice appears an obsidian abyss. But the experience is much more than visual. I've discussed the wind's vigor in prior posts, but when the wind lulls for a bit, you cannot help but hear (and almost feel) the ice sheet groaning and cracking in sharp reports, low bass rumbles, and then higher pitched "bolts" of sounds that would seem to originate off to one side and then shoot right by me before fading into the distance opposite from whence it came. This particular sound reminded me of the tones some old science fiction movies once used to accompany laser blasts. Hard to describe, but an amazing and sometimes unnerving encounter, especially after sunset, when the ice seemed to creak even more vigorously as the temperature plummeted with the darkening night.
When I approached areas of ice like this, I always found myself treading more carefully despite the many other visual confirmations that the ice was very deep and solid beneath the superficial broken pieces. Not unreasonable, I figured, since the cost of a mistake in this winter wonderland likely could be dire.
Thanks for viewing!
Once Broken, Now Strong
Thin ice sheets, formed and fractured in earlier onsets of cold, are now but a windswept surface artifact on thick ice forged strong in the deep winter chill at Abraham Lake, near Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada.
Among the endless frozen wonders at Abraham Lake were these large areas where the embedded remnants of old shattered ice patterned the surface in discordant but interesting ways. Less celebrated than the methane bubbles (some of which can be seen here in the spaces between) for which Abraham Lake is most well known among photographers, I thought these haphazard fractured icescapes merited a little attention nevertheless, especially with a bit of sunrise orange light on the scene.
With or without a camera, time wandering far out on these vast frozen lakes is a wondrous sensory adventure. The ice itself is an endless web of cracks of varying forms and beneath the ice appears an obsidian abyss. But the experience is much more than visual. I've discussed the wind's vigor in prior posts, but when the wind lulls for a bit, you cannot help but hear (and almost feel) the ice sheet groaning and cracking in sharp reports, low bass rumbles, and then higher pitched "bolts" of sounds that would seem to originate off to one side and then shoot right by me before fading into the distance opposite from whence it came. This particular sound reminded me of the tones some old science fiction movies once used to accompany laser blasts. Hard to describe, but an amazing and sometimes unnerving encounter, especially after sunset, when the ice seemed to creak even more vigorously as the temperature plummeted with the darkening night.
When I approached areas of ice like this, I always found myself treading more carefully despite the many other visual confirmations that the ice was very deep and solid beneath the superficial broken pieces. Not unreasonable, I figured, since the cost of a mistake in this winter wonderland likely could be dire.
Thanks for viewing!