Technical Tours
Day Trip: “Sea-to-Sky” Highway and Whistler - Thursday, September 22, 8:00 am – 6:00 pm
This full-day technical tour will explore engineering works along the Sea-to-Sky highway, which underwent over $600 million in improvements in preparation for the 2010 Vancouver/Whistler Winter Olympics. Participants will depart from the symposium venue (Sheraton Wall Centre) and travel by bus north along the scenic Sea-to-Sky Highway along Howe Sound and on to Whistler before returning to Vancouver.
The tour will include several stops along the way including: the Britannia Beach Mine; Porteau Cove – the site of a large rockslide in 2008 (near the location of a similar rockslide that appears on the cover of Hoek & Bray’s Rock Slope Engineering); the 2010 Winter Olympics ski jump venue (where the ski jump was carved into a rock slope); the “Barrier”, a spectacular lava flow dam over 100 m thick and 300 m wide retaining the Garibaldi Lake system; and Whistler, considered one of the premier ski destinations in the world and site of the 2010 Winter Olympics downhill events. Lunch will be provided in Whistler.
2-Day Trip: Whistler & Highland Valley Copper - Thursday, September 22, 8:00 am – Friday, September 23, 6:00 pm
This two-day technical tour will travel to interior British Columbia and Teck’s Highland Valley Copper mine. Participants will depart from the symposium venue (Sheraton Wall Centre) and travel by bus along the scenic Sea-to-Sky Highway (in conjunction with the 1 Day Tour) with several short stops before having lunch in Whistler, site of the 2010 Winter Olympics. The tour will continue north along Highway 99 through some of southwestern BC’s most remote highways before arriving in Kamloops for an overnight stay. The tour continues on the second day with a tour of Canada’s largest open pit operation, Teck’s Highland Valley Copper. The tour finishes with a drive along the picturesque Coquihalla Highway to the Hope Slide, followed by the scenic Fraser Valley back to Vancouver.
The tour will include several stops along the way including: the Britannia Beach Mine, the “Barrier” a spectacular lava flow dam retaining the Garibaldi Lake system, the 1965 47 million cubic meter Hope rockslide, one of the largest recorded in Canada; and a technical tour of Highland Valley Copper. Note that this is a two-day trip. Accommodations and some meals will be included.
