Mining

"Mining is complicated.  First you drill, then you blast, then you muck.  Drill, blast, muck; drill, blast, muck; that's it."  (The muck is the rubble left over from the blast.)  "It's called muck when it's in the shaft, and when you take it out of the shaft it's called ore."

Cafeteria

The view from the camp cafeteria, if only it had windows.

Helicopter

This project site, high in the mountains of North Western British Columbia, is remote; helicopter remote. So I had my first ride in a helicopter, crammed in with 3 other guys and a bunch of gear. The pilot, a surfer type, gave us a quick orientation on helicopter safety, which mostly informed us how to avoid damaging the helicopter doors, and then we were off.

The 20 minute flight took us over massive glacier fields, between mountain peaks, and even included a quick circle of a bulldozer stuck in a crevasse on the ice road. When we landed in camp we unpacked and hunkered down until the helicopter flew away again, and like that it was over.

That was yesterday and I’m already eagerly anticipating my flight out.