From 36,000 feet

Flying to Canada in July I had a window seat and it was early afternoon the whole way over - and cloudless most of the way. Here's the east coast of Greenland -

And the never(?)-melting snow of the interior --

Minutes later, these amazing patches of blue appeared -

Are these "lakes" compressed glacial ice?

After Greenland, there was sea ice -

And as we flew for what seemed like hours over the Canadian north, there was ice on the lakes - or between islands -

As we got to the Rockies the clouds appeared, but this river showed clearly -

Looking on a map doesn't help in identifying it - it could be the Fraser, Canoe, or Columbia.