Have you ever climbed the ladder to hang Christmas lights on your house?
Were there some shaky moments? Any frozen fingers? Any muttered curses about those darned blinkers that just wouldn鈥檛 blink?
Well, take those tricky tangles on your rooftop and add another 30 storeys of height straight up into the sky, and now you have a little feel for the job Marc-Luc Lalumiere does every year to get the lights shining at North Vancouver鈥檚 Capilano Suspension Bridge Park.
Every autumn for the past six years Lalumiere has led a team in charge of covering eight massive Douglas firs with Christmas lights 鈥� billed as the largest grove of living Christmas trees in the world 鈥� for the park鈥檚 annual Canyon Lights display. And yes, his name in French does mean 鈥渢he lights.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 kind of ironic,鈥� he says with a laugh.
So how do you cover rainforest giants 鈥� Lalumiere says the average height of the trees is somewhere between 260 and 300 feet, and the tallest checks in at around 330 feet 鈥� with strings of Christmas lights? It actually might be harder than you think.
The west side of the park is inaccessible to heavy equipment 鈥� you can鈥檛 drive a crane across the suspension bridge 鈥� and so all the work in the treetops is done with ropes and climbing. That, however, is just how Lalumiere likes it.聽
鈥淚 love my job,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he part I love the most is climbing the trees. 鈥� In the trees, it鈥檚 impressive to be there, but what鈥檚 going through my mind sometimes is that OK, this tree is 800 years old.鈥�
Lalumiere lives in the Kootenays but he鈥檚 been called upon often to lead projects in the park, an opportunity he always jumps at because it gets him back up in those beautiful trees. He was heavily involved in the design and installation of other park staples such as the Treetops Adventure and the Cliffwalk.
鈥淎nything that needs a harness and a rope, I do that,鈥� he says. There are, of course, challenges that come with stringing Christmas lights on a tree 300 feet in the air. First of all, it鈥檚 a lot of climbing.
鈥淚鈥檓 going straight up. 鈥� It is definitely physically very demanding,鈥� says Lalumiere. 鈥淚f I calculate the average vertical I climb in a day and multiply it by the number of days I work, it鈥檇 be like going up Everest and back, twice. I 铿乬ure I climb close to 30,000 vertical feet.鈥�
It鈥檚 not a pleasure climb either 鈥� this is business. All the supplies needed up in the tree get carried up on the backs of the workers.聽
鈥淚t鈥檚 not just string lights, some of them are 铿俹od lights and they are 15 pounds,鈥� says Lalumiere. 鈥淵ou鈥檝e got to be able to work with tools. 鈥� You鈥檝e got guys working under you so you can鈥檛 drop anything. You鈥檝e got to be aware of that all the time, so you tie all your tools to yourself.鈥�
The team is not just roping up, either. Sometimes they go down. Part of the annual decorating process is lighting up parts of the canyon below the bridge, including a 175-foot waterfall that cascades from the height of the bridge all the way down to the river below.
鈥淭hat was probably the most challenging of all,鈥� says Lalumiere.
And once the season is over, they take almost all of the lights down 鈥� there are more than a million of them spread throughout the park every Christmas 鈥� to be stored away for next fall.
It may be challenging, but there is massive job satisfaction as well, says Lalumiere. That鈥檚 what keeps him coming back here every year.聽
鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 be here to work normal construction 鈥� the reason I鈥檓 here is because I鈥檓 working in the park and in the trees,鈥� he says. 鈥淵ou go up, you decorate. 鈥� Then you go back and at the end of every day you see what you鈥檝e done. It鈥檚 a very gratifying job when you see the 铿乶al product and go at night. It鈥檚 exciting.鈥�
The Canyon Lights festival runs Nov. 22, 2019 to Jan. 26, 2020.
