4x4 SUV Underwater Rescue
Icelanic Highlands - February 2011
Gunnar Júlíusson and his big 6x6 Dodge Ram know the Icelandic highlands and wintertrips 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 bajamas 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 as th At. 01:30 in the night they reach the destination which is just north of the where the legendary brothers of Reynistaðu 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. /p>
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.
|
Share your 4x4! |
|
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:
Thrandur
4x4OffRoads.com
|
Share your 4x4! |
|
I really enjoy seeing real 4WD
vehicles in real situations where they are needed. There
are so many highway bound posers that never go off the
pavement here that seeing life or death 4 wheeling in
Iceland is really refreshing.
-Craig
It is fun to read about other people's
Offroading adventures and also learning from the up and downs of
their adventure!
-Nathan
The whole 4x4 thing is new to me so i have a lot
to catch up on, i am going to get involved in a 4x4 club here in
Varna as there are vast amounts of tracks and mountains to explore
the news letter is boss:) and i especially like to look at readers
rigs
-Mike
Not all people know how to go offroad,prepare
vehicles to go offroad, or know how to get themselfs prepared to go
offroad. this website is a wonderful way for people to learn how.I
even learn some new tricks.thanks
-Matthew
Facebook
Google+
YouTube
Twitter
RSS
New! Comments
Have your say about what you just read! Leave me a comment in the box below.