I love how the boulders turn the normally solid looking metal fencing into a fabric hammock

Upvote for the description alone. Very nice indeed.

I thought the fact that the fence stopped the boulder was really impressive!
..that and the beautiful valley.

Forgive my ignorance for I come from the flatlands, but how did they know that way up there, that one particular chunk out of the whole vast cliff face was the one they should remove?

Wrecking ball? That's a nudging ball.

Ditto Samealsmith's question.
Also, what were they trying to do with the water? Wash away smaller pieces?

it was just an elaborate stunt to fake a waterfall picture.

That should settle the discussion on the size of the Norwegians balls.

If you look at the cliff side before the helicopter starts going to work on it, you can see some lighter patches of rock. My guess is that there had already been a rockfall there, and that they therefore surveyed the rest of the cliff. Due to Norway's mountainous nature, the road administration employs a lot of geologists, whose main job is to travel around and inspect areas like this.

The water is used to wash away smaller pieces. When the wrecking ball loosens the large pieces, a lot of small but nonetheless dangerous pieces are left. These are unpractical to remove with the ball, so they use water instead.

>> ^Samaelsmith:
Forgive my ignorance for I come from the flatlands, but how did they know that way up there, that one particular chunk out of the whole vast cliff face was the one they should remove?

Stunning.

Love the way they rinse it off to finish the job.

I won an award for designing Norway, you know. Especially for creating the crinkly edges and the fiddly bits around the fjords.

I'm betting that's a lot harder than it looks for the pilot.

i'm amazed at the control of the pilot. giant, heavy swinging thing below you can't be easy to control.

And this is why no one has ever been able to invade Norway.

^ No, it isn't. It's like it has a mind of its own.

>> ^daxgaz:
giant, heavy swinging thing below you can't be easy to control.
It's not, believe me. I usually have to strap it down.

R. Kelly in copter-form.

It takes balls to do that job.

I'm surprised this isn't done with dynamite or howitzers; a helicopter swinging a big heavy blunt-force instrument seems like it would be difficult to control.

^ Artillery shells work for avalanche control, but are difficult to aim for something this small. Plus, they may not have had a good area to set one up. Dynamite could work, but then they'd have to airlift people in, set up climbing harnesses, plant the charges, etc.

With the ball they just fly up, smack it a few times, and fly back. I'm sure it takes skill, but it's probably the safest and cheapest method of the three.

That has got to be the coolest job in the world!...

"What do you do for a living?"

"I perform mountain nose jobs using a helicopter and a wrecking ball."

Sweet.

2 more comments have been lost in the ether at this killed duplicate.