Ice Ring Isle

The Ice Ring Isle is an island in The Wind Waker where the Iron Boots are located, and is explored in a similar way the Fire Mountain is. The cold island is one square west of Forest Haven.

Features
The island is, at first, so cold that no one can enter without freezing. The Fire Arrows are needed to unfreeze the Freezard-looking facade upon the island in order to set foot on its cold surfaces without freezing. After warming the ice upon the facade, Link will have five minutes to complete the island's challenge before it freezes itself again. After jumping from ice floe to ice floe, and skittering across a narrow strip of ice, Link will drop into a cave within the rocky facade of the isle. Link must then transverse two slippery slides while avoiding (or beating) Keese before achieving the isle's prize, the Iron Boots.

Upon receiving the Iron Boots, the 5-minute timer will stop, and Link can forever traverse the Ice Ring Isle at his leisure.

Within the main cavern and after getting the Iron Boots, a small cavern located behind a strong gust of wind can be accessed and Link, upon dropping in, will find a cryogenic cavern filled with enemies and Rupees. Interestingly, when Link exits, he's brought back to the isle's entrance, not the cavern's entrance (this is to avoid being blown away by the strong wind gust).

Link can also obtain a Treasure Chart by shooting the treasure chest outside covered in ice with a Fire Arrow. This will allow him to retrieve Treasure Chart #36.

Scrapped Dungeon Theory
It is believed by many fans that Ice Ring Isle was originally going to be a main dungeon rather than a one-room mini-dungeon, but the idea was scrapped due to time restraints. This is supported by the following:
 * There are interviews where the creators say that some dungeons were left out of the final game.
 * Ice Ring Isle, Greatfish Isle, and Fire Mountain are marked on the full map of the Great Sea, where the only other islands that are marked are the most plot-important ones: islands with towns (Outset Island and Windfall Island) and islands with dungeons (Dragon Roost Island, Forest Haven, Tower of the Gods, Forsaken Fortress, Headstone Island, and Gale Isle). The implication is that at the time the map was made, Fire Mountain, Ice Ring Isle, and Greatfish Isle were considered equally important.
 * Fire Mountain and Ice Ring Isle both guard pieces of equipment, of the kind often found in dungeons. There is also a beta item in the game's code called the "water boots" that is invisible and has no effect when used beyond making Link act as if he is putting on boots; this may have been associated with Greatfish Isle's dungeon.
 * Ice Ring Isle, Headstone Island, Gale Isle, and Fire Mountain are each directly in a different compass direction from a "Town" island. Headstone Island is east of Outset Island, Gale Isle is north of Windfall Island, Ice Ring Isle is west of Forest Haven, and Fire Mountain is south of Dragon Roost Island.

Trivia

 * This Mini-Dungeon is similar to and may have been inspired by the Ice Cavern from as both are accessed by jumping across Ice floes, both center around ice, and both hold the Iron Boots. They both also have an easier way to get back to the entrance with the Iron Boots.