Monday, May 05, 2008
HITTING COLDENING WHERE IT LIVES
Gentle snow-beasts are advised to run for their lives:
What Icelanders call “jeeps” are actually massive, tricked-out pickups, armed with 4-foot-high wheels studded with steel cleats that allow them to climb mountains of snow and volcanic rock with earsplitting power.
Every weekend, normally placid Icelanders go wild in the volcanic highlands. Their heavily modified trucks sometimes fall into crevasses or break through ice and need winching out ...
These guys are serious:
Sveinbjörn Halldórsson, a 44-year-old real-estate agent from Reykjavík, drives a Chevy S10 pickup with a souped-up engine, 44-inch tires with spikes, and four kinds of radios and phones on the dashboard. Filling up the truck’s 240-liter tank (about 63 gallons) for the weekend costs him nearly $500, with gas costing $7.84 a gallon. He rolls with one of many so-called gangs on Iceland’s highly competitive 4x4 off-road vehicle scene.
Respect to the Icelanders. Long may they roll.