The White Falcon - 28.03.1997, Side 6

Local climber exploits flood remnants
By Jon Kaldal
When the Grimsvotn sub-glacial lake flooded late last year,
the torrent ripped away immense chunks of ancient ice. The
waters have since subsided, but left behind is a bizarre, ice-
strewn landscape on the sandy plains of Skeidararsandur.
It was certainly a strange feeling to approach the devastation
on the plains and see what extraordinary power had been at
work. The road came to an abrupt end, as if snipped by a giant
pair of scissors, to be replaced by a five-meter deep riverbed
which snaked away as far as the eye could see. But the riverbed,
once the scene of raging floodwater, was now home to nothing
more threatening than streams or brooks. The plain ahead was
littered with hundreds of huge ice formations rising from the
level sand, massive, cold chunks carried kilometers away from
their glacial home by the sheer force of the flood.
We were on our way to the middle of the channel of
Gfgjukvfsl river, the site where flooding had been the fiercest.
Our plan was to examine the legacy of this mighty inundation in
the company of local ice-climber Einar Runar SigurSsson and
his assistant Gunnar Karl SigurQsson.
Nowhere does man release his essential puniness more than
when confronted with the awesome power of nature. We were
surrounded by towering boulders of ice the size of two-story
houses, some as high as 49 feet. It w^s like being in a village
designed by a demented architect. The variety of form and color
was bewildering. There were triangular, quadrangular and cir-
cular shapes. Some were sapphire blue, others were white or
black. Others resembled mounds of gravel, packed with sand
and stones from their tumultuous journey in the flood.
Recognition boosts morale
By J02 Rob M. Wise
The Fleet Home Town
News Center in Norfolk, Va.,
recognizes Sailors and Ma-
rines by sending stories about
them to the newspapers and
radio and television stations in
their hometowns.
Soldiers and Airmen are
recognized through a similar
program with the Army/Air
Force Hometown News
Service based at Kelly AFB,
San Antonio, Texas.
Both programs combined
see about three million news
releases distributed each year.
The hometown news pro-
grams not only improve mo-
rale and retention, but also
heighten public awareness of
military operations - which
can favorably impact congres-
sional funding for the services.
Stories accepted for the
programs fall under three
main categories: military
achievements, personal
achievements and participa-
tion.
Military achievements
include promotions, awards,
special qualifications, reenlist-
ments, retirements and com-
pletion of military schools.
Personal achievements are
events such as receiving col-
lege degrees, making lifesav-
ing rescues or efforts and
receiving awards from civic
organizations.
Participation stories include
reporting aboard a command,
participating in an exercise or
operation and being a mem-
ber of a unit that receives for-
mal recognition.
To obtain release forms or
more information on the pro-
gram, contact your collateral
duty public affairs officer, or
call me at ext. 4612.
Upon completing our tour in this unique village, we turned
our attention to the second reason for the journey - to see Einar
scale some of the ice chunks.
Einar is a true local lad. He was raised in the shadow of
Vatnajokull glacier - the largest in Europe - and his main oc-
cupation in recent years has been accompanying visitors up its
slippery slopes. Mountains and heights dominate Einar’s life,
and he is equally at home hiking, skiing and ice-climbing. But
this was the first time he came to Skeidararsandur to scale the
ice formations.
“This is bound to be very similar to climbing a glacier,” Einar
said as he attached metal ice-grips to his ice boots.
“These ice chunks have been here for a few weeks now, and
I’d expect them to be about as hard and tough as they were
before the flood tore them away from the glacier.”
The equipment used for climbing ice is surprisingly basic: the
aforementioned ice-grips and two ice picks - one with a hammer
for driving metal line fasteners into the ice, and the other with
an axe surface for preparing rough ice for the fasteners.
Einar made climbing an approximately 40-foot-high ice floe
appear deceptively easy. But this is a demanding sport. The
entire weight of the body is supported by the narrow ice grips
and ice picks. The climber must know how to use these essen-
tial, basic tools.
But, mishaps seldom occur for experienced climbers such as
Einar; indeed, he appeared at home spread-eagle on the ice as
Spiderman does on a Manhattan skyscraper.
Einar easily conquered the first floe, but once back on the
ground, said the ice was more brittle than the ice he was accus-
tomed to on Vatnajokull.
Einar said it would likely be impossible to scale the floes in
the summer because, in warmer weather, the ice will become
even more brittle, making it difficult to secure a hold on its sur
face. However, the size of these formations is so large that it
will take a long time for them to completely melt, meaning visi-
tors will be able to view them well past the summer.
As these immense glacial blocks of ice slowly melt, they will
release huge volumes of liquid into the ground, creating hidden
pits of quicksand. Nineteenth-century sources tell of men on
horseback who wandered into areas riddled by such pools of
quicksand - humans and beasts suddenly disappeared from sight
never to be seen again.
Courtesy of Iceland Review
Weapons registration begins
All weapons privately ow
ned by NATO
Base resi
dents must be registered. From Tuesday through April
15, all people who have weapons are required to re-
register them with NAS Security.
Owners will fill out the mandatory '
tion card, IDF Form 4050/1,
Failure to do so will result in j
privileges.
For further information, contact YNC(AW) Thomas
Foote at ext. 6410.
weapons registra-
for each weapon owned,
the suspension of firearms
Courtesy of NAS Security
The White Falcon
6