A Granduc Story

Photo - Granduc Bunk Houses

Submitted by Art Vibert -
A personal travel diary to Granduc Mines

Wednesday, February 17, 1965 (still snowing)

Spent the day at the powerhouse checking a portable compressor and found it could not be repaired at the site. We watched as a bulldozer clearing snow away from in front of the powerhouse kept turning up things like ladders, a bottle of oxygen, etc., that had been buried in the snow. At 4:30 p.m. we rode up the hill in a snow cat, a machine much like a snowmobile that holds six men and a driver.

Raoul spent the evening playing cards with his room partner, while I read in my room with my roommate writing letters.

Thursday, February 18, 1965

It was snowing when we arose at 6:30 a.m. for breakfast. We both had a good breakfast - our last meal for the next 14 hours. Raoul outdid himself by having two fried eggs, three flapjacks and two slices of toast. As we ate our hearty meal, little did we know that time was running out.

Went down the hill to the powerhouse in the snowcat and had a talk with the shift operator who was just going off shift. He asked me to get after the pipefitter to repair a water leak in the piping to the aftercooler. I was standing looking at this leak and wondering how it could be repaired with the compressor running, when Raoul came over to me and said, "What are we doing down here with no compressor to assemble? Let's go back up to the camp." Time was about 8:10 a.m., but had a difficult time getting around the last corner as the left brake wasn't working on the snowmobile. The driver had to take several runs at it to get around the corner.

Went to the radio shack where Kelly, the radio operator, radioed Stewart to inquire as to the whereabouts of our compressor. Stewart said the tractor trains were having whiteouts during the day so had to travel at night so their headlights could pick out the 18 foot guide posts along the trail. (A whiteout is when, due to snow falling and snow on the ground, you cannot see the horizon.) The operator at Stewart said the compressor had got as far as the Ice Camp which meant it was still 12 miles from Portal Camp.

Raoul and I went back to the bunkhouse where I wrote out a telegram to our office in Vancouver. I returned to the radio shack and waited for Kelly to radio my message out.

Back at the bunkhouse, Raoul and I were busy playing cards when "SWISH, BANG!!" --- the lights went out and cards flew in the air. My first words were, "Let's get out of here." We went to the door and discovered snow blocking the doorway. Cy McLennan, the superintendent, who was in the same bunkhouse, rushed up and was the first to get out of the hole that had been dug away by hand. The chap ahead of me started out and stopped, frozen with fear at the sight of devastation. We talked him into moving out and then I scrambled out with Raoul right behind.

Diary - Continued