The Sea to Sky Corridor lived up to its name last week as the Highway 99 closure made air and water the only direct routes between Vancouver and Squamish. While a massive rockslide made it impossible for vehicles to pass through Porteau Cove, planes, helicopters and boats breezed past the disaster in what would prove to be an exhausting, though profitable, four days from July 30 to Aug. 2.Squamish Tug was just one of the local companies that offered alternative transportation. The company responded to the rockslide by adding a route between Squamish to Horseshoe Bay on both its 12-person water taxis."We did an awful lot of trips," said administrator Art McGillivray. "Nobody was left behind." After word got out about the service, a line up for the taxi service formed at the government docks, which had to be managed by members of the Squamish Emergency Program. The company ran about 30 trips in four days. While a busy day normally entails ten hours of taxi service, McGillivray said that number rocketed to 24 hours during the road closure. People taking the taxi had a number of reasons for making the special trip. Some had weddings to attend, while others were stranded tourists. Some had flights to catch and others from Vancouver were competitors in Loggers Sports, he recalled. Passengers were charged $60 each for the trip."It was very good for business but your costs are going up for those four days too," McGillivray said.Many people also chose to travel by air. Glacier Air owner Colette Morin said the marathon started at 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday (July 30) when a phone called let her know a number of people needed a way of catching flights in Vancouver. Her company flew over 240 people to the airport during the four-day stretch with up to five planes in use at a time. Three to four people were able to travel on each plane at a cost of $125 each.She had one unique trip. "Somebody had a baby; they had to get the umbilical cord to Vancouver hospital," she said. Morin said the closed highway brought more exposure to the Squamish airport and also opened her eyes to the extent people depend on the highway."You don't really realize how much stuff is going back and forth up the highway until something like this happens." Several other companies also took to the sky to get people moving. Sea to Sky Air made trips from Squamish to Nanaimo, Powell River and Vancouver during the road closure. Company owner Jim McRae said "fantastic" staff helped the operation run smoothly with a similar charge of $125 per person.When poor weather moved in on Friday morning (Aug. 1), his company began offering floatplane service out of the Squamish harbour. Besides transporting people, Sea to Sky Air also moved rock drills for Kiewit and hospital supplies to General Hospital, McRae said.One company based out of Vancouver chopped its way up the Howe Sound. Helijet moved about 500 people through the corridor during the road closure, said marketing director Jay Minter. Using the Sikorsky S76 helicopter, the company was able to transport 12 people at a time between Vancouver and Squamish airport.While Helijet no longer offers regular service up the corridor, Minter said staff worked overtime to help people carry through with their travel plans. They charged $80 per person, which Minter said merely covered the costs of running the aircraft. "We were just doing it mostly as giving back to the community."When Monday (Aug. 4) rolled around, the highway was open but some people opted to stick with their helicopter reservations."Because we had passengers committed to it, we were still committed to fly," he saidA few enterprising locals also offered treacherous forms of transportation, McGillivray said, noting that he saw powerboats giving rides up the Howe Sound. "They don't have insurance for carrying passengers, so we were a little bit annoyed with that."Luckily, low winds made these trips safe, McGillivray said, adding road closure acted as an important exercise in crisis management. "I always figured it would happen. I just didn't realize it would happen so soon."
