Blade Mastery Skating – is an educational entity centered around the the quest for blade mastery on ice, the history of ice skating, and is a lover of all skating disciplines! We currently teach: figure, hockey, and nordic skaters from beginner-to-elite.

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Laura Kottlowski, the founder of Blade Mastery Skating is a Colorado-based professional skating instructor, wild ice explorer, skating historian, and multidisciplinary creative with more than 34 years of skating experience and over 25 years of teaching experience across multiple skating disciplines. She teaches skaters of all ages and levels—from first-time skaters to elite figure skaters, AAA hockey players, Nordic skaters—specializing in technical blade mastery, and outdoor skating education.

As the founder of Learn To Skate Outside and Blade Mastery Skating, Laura combines professional skating instruction, wild ice safety education, and wild ice exploration. A certified Wilderness First Responder and seasoned mountaineer, she has spent more than 18 years exploring and skating natural ice internationally, often in remote and high-altitude environments. She spends 150-200 hours annually skating on outdoor ice of varying strength, texture, altitude, and geographic conditions around the world.

Laura is recognized as a pioneer in high-altitude wild ice skating. She is the first known person to skate on the highest lake in the United States, Pacific Tarn (13,420’), and first person to skate two of Nepal’s Gokyo Lakes in the Everest region at elevations exceeding 15,000 feet. In collaboration with Sherpa communities and Nepal Tourism, she helped co-organize the world’s highest figure skating show and ice hockey game in February of 2020.

A U.S. Figure Skating Gold Medalist and World Figure Championships competitor, Laura is also one of few modern ‘special figure’ skaters actively preserving the historic origins and artistry of figure-skating on natural ice. Alongside her skating career, she works in graphic design, photography, and visual storytelling for outdoor, environmental, and action sport clients.