A Granduc Story

Photo - Grumman Goose

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

TEN FEET AND TEN MINUTES FROM A KILLER AVALANCHE

Vancouver Airport
Monday, February 15, 1965, 6:30 a.m.

Raoul Philibert and myself (Art Vibert, from Burnaby) boarded CPA Flight 5 for Prince Rupert. In Prince Rupert, we boarded Pacific Western Airway's Grumman Goose, an amphibious craft with room for nine passengers and baggage. We took off into overcast skies for Stewart, an hour's flight away. Stewart, B.C. is Canada's most northern year-round seaport.

We checked with Mine Officials as to the whereabouts of the eight-ton compressor that had been shipped by barge from Vancouver a week previously. They informed us that the compressor was still at the dock and would have to be taken by tractor train, or by a machine called a Nodwell (a huge snowmobile capable of carrying 20 tons), to the Portal Camp thirty miles away over glaciers, etc.

Diary - Continued