MAMMOET WORLD Issue 13 | 201476

A WALK ON THE HIGH SIDE

Glacier Skywalk.

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Imagine yourself seemingly suspended 280 metersin mid-air. The bracing wind stirs your hair as youlook down at the deep valley far below. Yourcheeks are flushed with excitement and yourstomach lunges. The blood thumps in your ears,keeping pace with your racing heart as yourheightened senses take in the dizzying view. The

magnificence of the surrounding mountains fillsyou with awe.

That’s what it’s like on the Discovery Vista’s glass-floored observation deck that offers a spectacular180° unobstructed view of Sunwapta Canyon. Theplatform allows visitors to walk out into space andlook down into the deep valley. You need nerves ofsteel to venture out, but it’s worth it because thepanorama that unfolds under your feet is sensa-tional.

The walkway was commissioned by BrewsterTravel, one of Canada’s leading tourist organiza-tions. The company has been organizing tours formore than 120 years. Back then, the Brewster

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The Canadian Rockies are home to many wonders.However, Alberta’s Jasper National Park has a newsight, which will make you do a double take. High upon Tangle Ridge, it juts out over the valley as if analien spacecraft has crashed into the mountainside

with its observation deck dangling over the precipice. It’s not ahoax. It’s a heart-stopping reality called the Glacier Skywalk.

Alberta’s Jasper

National Park.

brothers only had horse drawn carts, but now thecompany has a vast organization catering tomillions of tourists.

We talked to Interim President David McKenna aboutBrewster Travel Canada and the Glacier Skywalk.Can you tell us about Brewster Travel Canada?“Brewster is a tour and travel company thatprovides a wide variety of services such as;packaged tours, sightseeing trips, hotels and majorattractions in and around Jasper National Parks.We are a seasonal business so the number ofemployees fluctuates between about 500 people inwinter and 900 during our summer peak. One ofthe things that really distinguishes us is that mostof our people live and operate in the region. Weare truly the local experts and real ambassadors ofthe Canadian Rockies. Some of our guides havebeen doing this for 20–25 years and they havefantastic stories to tell about the old days.”

Talking of the old days, how did Brewster start out?“We have a long and colorful history in the region.Our founders, Jimmy and Bill Brewster, were justtwo local kids back in the 1890s who used todeliver dairy to the Banff Springs Hotel. A hotelguest wanted to go fishing, but he didn’t haveanyone to take him. The boys volunteered and thatset them on their path to becoming tour operators.They trained with local First Nations guides andhelped chart some of the first routes through theJasper region, along with other colorful characters

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The steel superstructure of the GlacierSkywalk, which is fully integrated withthe natural environment, is 30 meterslong and weighs 22.6 metric tons. Lift-ing the walkway was a crowningachievement and maneuvering it intoplace was no easy task because itrequired a long reach (43m), but theMammoet team pulled it off, using acrawler crane.

WildlifeRon Woud (50) was the crane supervi-sor on the project, responsible for over-seeing the work, consulting with theengineers, inspecting the work site,deciding on the best method and mak-ing sure the crew had the necessaryequipment. The crane was transportedfrom Alberta in 20 truckloads anderected in two days. Ron’s Canadian/Dutch crew consisted of five people;himself, a crane operator, a supportcrane operator and two riggers.

Ron talks about the operation: “Theweather conditions and local wildlifecomplicated things. The project wasoriginally planned for late 2012, but itwas postponed until July 2013 becauseof wintery conditions and the mountaingoats’ breeding season. During theoperation, we had to be extra carefulwith the local wildlife. This slowed usdown a bit because the transportationhad to be carefully coordinated with thepark warden. The trucks were notallowed to drive through the area before9 am because of the wildlife and every-thing had to be cleared away by 6 pm.”

A tight squeezeThere were also other challenges:“Mammoet was the only one with acrane that had the right size and capac-ity to do this job. The crane was poisedabout one meter from the mountainedge on a two-lane road on a narrowrocky ledge. There wasn’t much roomto maneuver because the crane had tofit into the designated area and stillleave the north bound traffic open. Itwas a tight squeeze, but we managed.Our engineer, Raeleen Lischynski, hadmade all the necessary drawings andcalculations to make sure the cranewould fit.

Keeping the road open was tough: “It’sa popular tourist attraction and therewas quite a bit of traffic. Only one lanewas open so we had to direct traffic,ensuring the safety of the motorists andtrying to avoid delays. There were oneor two times we had to stop traffic forabout half an hour, but that was all. Wekept disruptions for the wildlife andtourists to a minimum.”

Driving instead of crawling“Once the glass bottom for the skywalkwas ready, we needed to move it fromits manufacturing area to the skywalkconstruction area. Our client suggested

moving it there with the crawler crane,however I had grave concerns about theroad being uneven and about the unpre-dictable winds. Therefore, to ensure thesafety of the structure, we transported iton a trailer. It was a narrow road, but asafer alternative to lifting and we got thestructure there unscathed.

Leaving a markDespite the challenges involved, it wasall in a day’s work for Ron, a seasonedprofessional with years of experience.He doesn’t faze easily, but there weresome surprises even for him: “The parkis swarming with mountain goats, butthey didn’t seem bothered by us. Theystood perched on the mountainside,looking at us inquisitively and chewingaway. And there was even a black bearor two to greet us in the mornings as weheaded to the site. I took my mountainbike with me and rode around a bit. InJasper there are 300 elks, which wasbreathtaking.”

The burly crane supervisor is a no-non-sense man of few words, but it wasmore than just a routine job for him: “Weusually work at refineries and oil plat-forms, and it was nice to work on some-thing that is beautiful and fits in with thescenery. I can imagine that the glassskywalk is pretty thrilling for visitors.”

Ron looks back with a sense of content-ment on the project: “It’s quite unique.I’m proud of the job and so is everyoneelse involved. It’s a permanent fixturethat a lot of people are going to visit andenjoy. I’ve got two grown-up sons andthey think what the old man did is prettycool. I like the idea of them visiting itand even later with their own kids. I feellike I’ve left my mark.”

High Expectations

The powerful LR 1350–1 crawler crane.

The blood thumps in your ears,

keeping pace with your racing

heart as your heightened senses

take in the dizzying view.

like ‘Wild’ Bill Peyto and Jimmy Simpson. It’sexciting to know that’s part of our history.”

How did the Glacier Skywalk come about?“A few years back, the national park put together aworking group to look at the overall guest experience. One of the things they identified wasthe growing need for a more high-quality interpretative experience. From that we workedclosely with Parks Canada to develop the vision ofproviding visitors a way to experience the canyonfrom on high. First we thought of a suspensionbridge, but that eventually evolved into theGlacier Skywalk. The overall guest experiencehas to be balanced between a sense of adventure,education and maintaining ecological integrityand we feel this is what we achieved with theGlacier Skywalk. When we unveiled the design in2011, it won an award at the World ArchitectureFestival. The judges described it as “a simple,elegant yet highly emotional project.”

How did Mammoet get involved?“First we enlisted the help of Sturgess Architec-ture and Read Jones Christofferson Engineering(RJC) and they proposed Mammoet. Once welooked into the company and saw their area ofexpertise, the sophistication of their equipmentand their ability to perform in tough environ-ments, there were really no other candidates inour mind. It was crucial to us that they had theproper equipment to be able to get to the remotesite quickly and also capable of lifting the heavytonnage involved.”

What were the main challenges for you?“We started this project wanting to provide aunique opportunity for visitors to experience the

Columbia Icefield. The region is famous all overthe world and we didn’t take the responsibilitylightly. Developing a structure that would allowvisitors to completely immerse themselves in thesurrounding environment without endangeringthe local wildlife was an absolute priority. Wechallenged ourselves to do this properly, or not doit at all. The design and engineering of the projectwere key to this commitment. Mammoet fullyunderstood our drive and dedication and signedon completely.”

How important was safety?“Safety was paramount because the operation tookplace on a narrow road at extreme heights withtraffic going by. Everything had to go absolutelyperfect because there was no recovering from anaccident. The engineering supervisors told methat they were very comfortable with not onlyMammoet’s equipment, but also with theoperators and the way they dealt with the toughsituation. There is no doubt in my mind we couldnot have done it as quickly and safely with anyother company. Everything went off almostexactly as planned.”

How do you look back on the whole operation?“I am incredibly proud of the teams that pulledtogether to make this project a success. Devel-oping such a unique experience in a remote areawas no small feat. What seemed a nearly impos-sible idea became a vision, and then a plan, andnow a new way to connect visitors from all overthe world with the immense powers of glaciology.We have high expectations about the number ofvisitors in the first year. We’re hoping to welcomesome 250-thousand people and we can’t wait toopen our doors!” n

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“The region

is famous all

over the

world and

we didn’t

take the

responsibility

lightly.”

Skywalk module

lifted into place.