The “Wild Ice Skater” Mesmerizing TikTok

It’s scary-easy to scroll for hours on TikTok, and if you’ve stumbled upon Laura Kottlowski’s page, you could get sucked in even further. On her TikTok page, the 36-year-old professional skating instructor uploads videos of herself carving some ice all over Colorado and beyond—and her impressive skills and picturesque settings are mesmerizing to watch. “I’ve been hiking with my ice skates for the past 14 winters: I skate on lakes, rivers, glaciers, and unique frozen water all over the world,” Kottlowski tells Vogue.

For Kottlowski—who is also a photographer-filmmaker, graphic designer, and illustrator—teaching and practicing skating is her full-time job and passion. What she does isn’t figure skating, rather “wild ice skating,” where she’ll bring her 542,000 followers to various natural settings and then skate on them. “In 2017, I was the first-known person to skate the highest lake in the U.S. Pacific Tarn (13,420 ft),” she says. “In 2019, I was also the first person to skate on Gokyo Lake, 15,480 ft in the Khumbu (Everest region of Nepal).”

Whatever the destination, Kottlowski impressively always seems to know when the ice is safe to skate on—even when it appears to be super thin. “I’ve been skating for over 30 years, teaching skating for 20 years, and skating wild ice for over 14 years, so I have a lot of experience with ‘skateable ice,’” says Kottlowski. She adds that she skates almost every single day, and that this year has already been off to a strong, skating-filled start. “The ’21-22 wild ice season so far has been record-breaking for me,” she says.

Below, Kottlowski discusses how she first started skating, how she honed her skills, and what she wears to brave the cold.

How did you first start skating?

I started skating at age six as an after school activity, and fell in love with the sport. I started competing within the next year and competed all the way through Junior freestyle in college for Penn State. In 2010, I fell in love with skating ‘special figures’ (learning to skate designs and patterns on outdoor wild ice from the 1700s & 1800s), and I now compete annually in the World Figure and Fancy Skating Championships. I am a U.S. Figure Skating Gold Medalist and have been teaching skating for the past 20 years with U.S. Figure Skating, Learn To Skate U.S.A., and the Professional Skaters Association. In 2007, I moved to Colorado and began hiking the 14ers (mountain peaks above 14,000 ft). That following winter, I started snowshoeing and found pristine mountain ice for the very first time and wondered why I didn’t have my skates with me! I’ve been hiking with my skates up to high alpines lakes annually ever since.