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newyorker: The Civilian Saviors of Iceland Iceland’s volunteer...
Reportage by Getty Images TumblrA volunteer from the Hella rescue team during a drill.
Elvar, a banker, swims through snowmelt in the mountains of Landmannalaugar to rescue a family of tourists.
On patrol in Landmannalaugar.
The Civilian Saviors of Iceland
Iceland’s volunteer rescue squad saves missing hikers, stranded sheep, and helpless tourists. The group’s members are well equipped, self-funded, and enjoy a near-mythical reputation among their countrymen. Nick Paumgarten joins the search, in this week’s issue.
Photograph by Benjamin Lowy / Getty Images Reportage for The New Yorker
Wayward travelers are again in the news in Iceland, after an American tourist, fresh off a plane and driving to Reykjavik, mistyped the address of his hotel in his GPS. He realized his error six hours later, when he arrived in a remote fishing village 270 miles from the capital.
This mishap reminded us of Benjamin Lowy’s photos on Iceland’s volunteer rescue squads, ICE-SAR, for the New Yorker last year. While some visitors to Iceland take a wrong turn into Internet fame, others are less lucky, becoming stranded in remote, frigid landscapes. That’s when ICE-SAR teams jump into action.
