Gunnar Júlíusson and his big 6x6 Dodge Ram know the Icelandic highlands and winter trips more than many. At around 10pm on a Saturday night 5th February he got a help request from a group travelling over Kjölur, a highland crossing road usually not passable at this time of the year. One of the SUVs in a travelling group had gone down through the ice and submerged in water, right up to the middle of the windows.
Two were in the car but they escape out the side window and landed on the ice.
Several cars were together in the group and therefore no risk for people.
Gunnar wearing his pajamas threw on an overall, filled the tanks of his truck and attached the car trailer behind his six-wheel truck to begin the rescue expedition.
Óskar Ólafsson, a young farmer who also has traveled with these guys, also decided to add his helping hand for the rescue and took some vital accessories along for the journey like a chainsaw a plank and more.
The route runs up and passed Blöndudalur along the river Blanda and to Kjölur. The trip went smoothly because there was no snow on the road.
A few kilometers south of the river Seyðisá there is some snow and the trailer left there at 01:30 in the night they reach the destination which is just north of the where the legendary brothers of Reynisstaður lost their lives a long time ago.
Approach was rather chilling with a freezing -8°C temperature, cold westerly wind and the car almost submerged in water about 100 meters from shore. First trying a variety of special effects and tricks to get the SUV up on the ice that did not work. Finally it was decided that to saw a canal in the ice and get the SUV up.
After two hours of rest in the cars they began to saw. The ice was sawn into plates and the plates then either pushed under the ice or dragged in front of the SUV while it was pulled closer to land.
It took about 6 hours of hard work to bring the SUV to dry land and then they could begin to tap water from the engine and drive train.
The The SUV was then pulled north to the river Seyðisá where it was placed on the car trailer and transported to Blönduós where it got a nice heated rest. Gunnar finally came back home after 23 hours of wet and cold in his beloved pajamas.
The original story with more photos (in icelandic)> from SKSiglo.is
Photos by J.V.G.
Translated by:
