Summit Lake

This was not today; this is a flashback to exactly one year ago when I set an “unofficial world record”. That was before I was posting here, so since this is the one-year anniversary I figured it would be a good time to share the story… I ice fished (actually “skicefished” but that’s another story) 30 high alpine lakes for the 2022-2023 winter season. This culminated with me making several attempts in the spring of 2023 to do the highest altitude ice fishing ever recorded. On April 11th I ice fished Pacific Tarn (13420 ft elevation), the highest lake in North America, likely becoming the first person to do that… but I didn’t catch any fish there. I made a video of the crazy adventure which you can see on YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=S0xGOfdtBJs On April 18th I ice fished Summit Lake (12900 ft), one of the next highest lakes I could identify with fish in it, but again didn’t catch any. Another very tough adventure. On May 1st, I ice fished Frozen Lake (12957 ft; probably the next highest viable lake after Pacific Tarn), but again got skunked during yet another very tough day in the backcountry. Finally on June 21st, I was able to drive up to Summit Lake; a huge difference from the backcountry skiing and trekking expeditions. Ice fishing it was still quite a challenge. I had to put on waders and wade through icy water to get onto solid ice, made my way across some sketchy ice to get to a decent spot, and then found ice that was still 40 inches thick. This time around there were no 60-mile-an-hour winds, and this time I caught and released 4 cutthroat trout. The third fish was a spectacular male in the 16-inch range with a fire-orange belly. SO… I doubt that I’m the first one to ice fish Summit Lake. The road has been there for decades, although it’s closed during most of the potential ice season. However, I’ve found zero recorded evidence of anyone doing it and succeeding. Therefore I’m saying this is the unofficial world record for highest altitude fish caught by ice fishing (as of June 21, 2023). After those catches, I hiked down to Chicago lakes to fish open water in the same session at a mere 11425 ft of elevation. Caught some cutthroats down there too. Then got caught in weather that turned the next several hours into one of the scariest experiences of my entire life. But that’s another story for another day.

Ignore the face, it was in the process of slipping away and I was excited 😂