Today at work the new guy starting recording a bit of the drive in to the work site. He wanted to show some of his friends what things are like up here.

To save time, I sped up the video to play 4 times as fast.
And its not really as rough out there as it looks.

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that must get tough to drive through after a heavy snow fall!

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THANKS STALE & OWNAGE <3<3<3

It would be pretty bad to break down while driving through there. Also I like how the road looks like it cuts right through the trees. looks kinda cool.

That's what I was thinking too. We get that much snow on occasion, but there are people available to plow it. If I worked there I would count my blessings that there's not a ditch on both sides of the road like there often is here, haha.

...Unless there IS a ditch and it was just filled with snow.

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.Legendary themed months are back! Maybe.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

kainth- the advantage I have in a heavy snowfall is that my truck weighs around 11,000lbs. So I rarely float on the snow. I typically have good contact with the ground, and can stop when required.
....on the note of stopping, many of the roads have such high volumes of heavy, heavy traffic that the roads cant take the weight. so to support the road, they spray water on top and as the water freezes, it effectively resurfaces the roads in minutes. downfall is that its a bitch to stop on

thr - yeah breakdowns suck. if you end up needed vehicle assistance you either A) have to call a mechanic that is already in the area(within 10km) and have him come look at it. and with that, you are taking him away from his job(repairing bulldozers or track hoes etc) so you will be charged those heavy duty field mechanic rates.
or option B) is to call a tow truck from lac la bische(140km away) or fort Mcmurray(~180km away). but that is just to get the truck fixed. its easy to get yourself looked after. people dive by all the time and will give you a lift back to the hotel.
as for the treelines, yeah, you are 100% correct. they cut a straight swath through and put a road there. a large part of my job is creating those straight lines(or not so straight, if that's what the plan calls for ) we run through the forest and hang streamers on the boundaries to show the extent of where they can clear the trees.

jaron - there are many people here devoted to snow clearing/road maintenance. snowcats, tractors, graders, bulldozers, and water trucks are used to remove snow and strengthen roads.
as for ditches. the main road where the video begins has ditches, since that is a built up main road. those ditches are about 3-4 feet deep. ....after a grader passes and pushes snow into the ditch, the snow closest to the road becomes quite hard as it gets packed. you will be walking on top of it and then take 1 more step into the soft stuff then woosh. up to your belly

the smaller roads don't have ditches because those roads branch out over top of muskeg. and that is way worse to hit. over the course of winter, the top several inches of muskeg will freeze, but that isn't always enough to hold the weight of your truck. so if you find yourself off of the road, you will be stuck

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Cool video. It looked very rocky in the end, but the camera is probably making it look worse there too. What do you do for work there?

Surveying. Telling people about locations. Where they are, where they need to be, where things are

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