Global warming’s warm embrace


Global warming’s warm embrace has overlooked this corner of the world this week. You should look out my office window right now.

The city is pretty well caked in white after a week of on-and-off snowstorms. The sun, bless it, is starting to come up a little earlier each morning, so by this part of the day – early afternoon – pink shadows are cast on the mountains on the other side of the bay, and the blue sky is coming through the clouds.

This is the upside of winter.

The downside is driving over mountain passes in a total white-out with passing trucks sending sheets of loose snow onto your windshield. Everyone is trying to put a positive spin (www.economist.com) on global warming these days. I thought I’d do my own selfish part here.

I don’t mind scraping blankets of snow of my car every morning before work: it’s invigorating. I don’t mind staying in every night because a beer is not worth the frostbite: I get more reading done.

What I do mind is risking life and limb for an out-of-town weekend. (Mom, this is where you should stop reading.) On Friday, I decided to take a visiting friend to Akureyri to see a slice of the Iceland you can’t get in Reykjavík. And to do some snowboarding. As our hour of departure approached on Friday afternoon, snowclouds would decend on the city, and float away. Descend, and float away. I got spotty advice from the locals – go, it will be fine. Don’t go – you will slide right off the road.

We decided to go. It was a journey of firsts. It was the first time I used a very toxic substance to clean my tires to improve grip on the ice. It was the first time I have realized I was a little out of my league in driving conditions as we started up the first pass and I realized the snow wasn’t going to stop. It was the first time I really, truly appreciated guardrails, and I think they are highly underrated here in Iceland.

That said, we made it up to Akureyri, where there was not enough snow for snowboarding but there was good coffee and a wonderful swimming pool. And we relived the same experience driving back, but worse. My visiting friend, also from California and also unexperienced driving with 3 feet of visibility and the Stars Wars-light speed effect of oncoming snow, drove the whole six hours back, gripping the wheel.

In retrospect, it wasn’t the smartest choice. While I would always recommend getting out Reykjavík at the first possible moment to any visitor, I would also recommend waiting for the right weather to do so. As I was writing this, I just found out that the chairman of Iceland’s Left Green party was seriously injured last night driving in north Iceland in bad conditions. So it isn’t only tourists and Californians that are challenged by the elements here. I hope he’s okay, and everyone be careful out there.

KLM


Back Email this article
January 13 | Transparency
January 11 | Getting Back to Winter
January 03 | Sounds like Baghdad, feels like Iceland
December 27 | A magic number