The Red Bulletin August 2020 (US)

We are lost in a whiteout on
the side of the most famous
volcano of the 21st century,
Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull. A
blinding snowstorm rushed
over us in a matter of minutes
and we had to turn around to
avoid driving right off into
the crater. Now we are
heading steeply downhill
into a white void.
Suddenly our superjeep
—a jacked-up 4-wheel-drive
with big balloon tires—has
lost traction and we’re sliding
sideways down the glacier.
The windshield and side
windows are a smear of
disorienting snow and fog,
and I feel certain we are
about to plunge into the
maw of a crevasse.
“Do you know where
the crevasses are?” I ask my
Icelandic guide, Karl
Ingolfsson.
Ingolfsson, sanguine as
the Viking he is, grins. “Most
of them.” As a naturalist,
historian, raconteur and
professional glacier driver,
Ingolfsson has spent more
time on glaciers and in
blizzards than anyone I know.
“Glaciers thrive on
whiteouts and bad weather,”
he says. “They wouldn’t exist
without them.”
Perhaps Ingolfsson
wouldn’t exist without them
either. As an accomplished
skier, ice climber and
mountain guide, glaciers are
his natural habitat. Built like
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