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Article: Warning: moose ahead; Northern Sweden offers the pleasures of snow and ice without the mountains and melted cheese.
- Article from:
- The Evening Standard (London, England)
- Article date:
- November 5, 2004
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Solo Syndication Limited. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: ANDREW EAMES
THEY have a brutal method of gauging the thickness of the ice in northern Sweden. "You stick a chainsaw in it until water comes out," says Marco Odestrand, who runs a winter ice-driving school out on the Baltic Sea by the summer resort of Pite....
According to Marco, 10cm is enough to drive on - although you have to be careful not to go too fast because that might create a bow wave of water underneath the ice and cause it to fracture up ahead. I am happy to report that on the day I chose, with temperatures -20C, the ice was 40-50cm thick and so strong that 30-ton timber lorries were driving backwards and forwards to the archipelago ...