Two Hummers ready to roar on Iqaluit’s roads

Gasoline prices have never been higher and the prospects for off-road travel are limited and dangerous, but that hasn’t deterred two Iqaluit residents from buying Hummers, the humongous, fuel-guzzling SUVs which roared to prominence during the first Gulf War.

The latest sealift from Montreal, which left Iqaluit on Wednesday, dropped off a Hummer H2, which retails for about $70,000, and its more modest offspring, the H3, which sells for about $40,000 and more closely resembles a conventional SUV.

It’s somehow fitting that the outsized vehicles came in on this particular sealift, because Waguih Rayes, general manager of Desgagnés Transarctik Inc., the sealift partner which operates several ships, said the first load of the season was unusually hefty.

“The cargo was very close to 12,000 cubic metres,” he said, “Usually the load for the first debarkation is somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000 cubic metres.”

Much of the cargo was vehicles, and most were bound for Iqaluit, he said, which won’t please city officials, who were already concerned about the number of cars and trucks on Iqaluit streets.

The Hummer was developed as a rugged military vehicle and dubbed the High Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicle, or HMMWV. That quickly became the Humvee, and later, when General Motors brought out a civilian version in 1999, the Hummer.

It’s built on a Chevrolet Suburban platform, but the real appeal of the Hummer is its rugged, military origins.

Still, the rocky terrain surrounding Iqaluit would quickly destroy the undercarriage of even a Hummer. And if that doesn’t discourage the new owners from going off-road, the prospect of permanently damaging the fragile tundra and becoming environmental pariahs might serve to keep them from straying.

Besides, with not much effort at all, the proud Hummer owners should be able to find roads that are at least as challenging as much of the off-road terrain in the South.