“Darkness rises from the grave, seeming as limitless as the sky above us,” wrote Peter Hoeg of Greenland in ‘Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow’. Here too the dark sky sits very low. Sharing the same latitude as the novel’s setting, the Kiruna region is known as the last untouched wildness in Europe. I’m above the Arctic Circle in Swedish Lapland. The landscape is kilometer after kilometer after kilometer of fresh, unblemished snow, interrupted on occasion by charcoal-colored wiry tree branches. I’m here to test Volvo cars on ice. The Swedish firm takes pride in its cars’ ability to function under extreme weather conditions. So much so that it started testing its cars in Swedish Lapland as far back as the 1960s >>>FULL TEXT
12 next › last »
12 next › last »
