A Geologist went on the Railway

Copper from the Salvador smelter heading to port Exploration drilling at Cerro Casale in Chile.  You can just make out the camp in the background which was at around 3800m (12,467 feet) elevation.  I am standing near the top of Cerro Casale which was around 4600m (15,091 feet) elevation.  Definitely nosebleed country.  It is stark country but beautiful in its own way. I worked at several mining and exploration sites in the Copiapo region in the mid to late 1990's.  These were high altitude operations with the high point at around 5100 meters (16,732 feet) at one site.   You learn to pace yourself very quickly at altitude or you pay for it.  On one occasion I was spotting drill sites on a steep slope at around 4500m (14,760 feet) elevation.  The sites were being prepared by a bulldozer and some of the pickets marking the site downslope were getting knocked down by debris rolling down the slope.   I shuffled down to the pickets and pu...