Mike Pearson's Adventures on a Pale Blue Dot

The  Sea to Sky project required that workers on the rock crews ( scalers and blasters ) had to work from ropes... and rappel into work positions from time to time. Sometimes the height wasn't all that much....other  times it was a very long ways off the ground. Here is a video of how it works ( not Sea to Sky ) This is a photo essay with descriptions of the action Rock scalers Arlen and Tim helping to load blast holes on Cut10 Scalers working on cleaning up a safety trim shot to remove dangerous loose rocks  loading a shot...hanging from a rope....below the Upper Levels Highway and above West Vancouver houses Blaster Paul Cooper loading a shot at Cut 10 with help from Arlen and Tim Arlen hanging out and loading explosives into blast holes Tim's happy to be there Great view from Cut 10 bench...Mike T at the bottom helping  out A cluster of scalers on Cut 4...a cold and crappy day Scaling crew hand drilling a blast round on...

Blasting on the Sea to Sky Highway project, Segment one in West Vancouver. Deyna Gillis used his computer tech skills to help me recover videos from old mini-discs. This little clip features blasts from Cut 4, Cut 5, 10 and 14. The blast with the 769 haul truck so close...was because the truck had a major drive-line breakdown and was going to be in the way for a while. The blasts in Cut 4 didn't really toss big rocks too badly...so we had the mechanics raise the steel dump box to protect the cab. No damage done. The blast with the excavator holding the mats down...is a technique used when the conditions are right to keep the blast mats from sliding away....sometimes far far away. Like I said...when the conditions are right. This is above Cut 10...right beside the old Squamish highway....60 meters down to the railroad tracks on the bottom side. Fiber-optic lines right above ( expensive to tear up ) The fairly large shot that is flinging blast mats around is at Cut 4...fairly c...

This is during the Sea to Sky project. Several power poles in between Cut 4 and 5 needed to be replaced with taller poles. The new overland section of the highway in this area was getting built up by about 40 feet. The old poles would not have given enough clearance. This video and others has been hidden away on old mini-discs for all the years since this job. My writer/photographer/videographer friend managed to recover the files. There will be some new blasting videos coming shortly. Hydro truck setting up  on the lower side of the job. These are the poles that are right above the ferry terminal parking lot. The guys on this power-pole job were fantastic to work with. Friendly, outgoing and totally professional without the posturing that sometimes goes with big boy macho work. It's important to keep in mind the extreme danger involved in this type of work. A mechanical failure in the helicopter at the wrong time...is going to ruin the day for a lot of people. A broken lift...

A new photo disc unearthed...more images to post. The Sea to Sky Highway project, Segment One in West Vancouver. The stories and pics from the very beginning of these job-sites are posted in earlier entries. Standing in the middle of Cut 4...looking to the Northwest towards Cut 5 Portable crusher set-up at Cut 4 Loading blast rock from Cut 4....the material is getting trucked to a fill site on the job The machine in behind the loading hoe, has a hydraulic rock  breaking attachment for reducing the over-size rocks down to a usable diameter 6x6 rock truck leaving the Cut4 loading area Tamrock Ranger 800 rock drill on top of Cut 5 Aerial view of a tire changing operation in Cut 4 Looking Southeast towards Cut 4 Ranger 800 rock drills on top of Cut 5, in the early part of that job Ranger drills on top of Cut 5