A million lights twinkle at Capilano Suspension Bridge park
When your middle and surname both translate as “light,” you were pretty much born to do what Marc Luc Lalumiere does.
Lalumiere is one of two tree climbers who put those million or so twinkling lights 65 metres up in Douglas firs for the Capilano Suspension Bridge’s seasonal Canyon Lights spectacle.
He’s part of a 12- person team that gets the park ready for Christmas, starting around Labour Day.
“It’s a lot of fun, that’s why I do it,” Lalumiere said.
This year’s Canyon Lights opens on Nov. 28 and will end on Jan. 28.
Every year the lights and attractions take over a bit more of the 27- acre ( 11- hectare) park, said Carson Nunn, the Canyon Lights supervisor. “And we need to order the lights by February,” he added.
All the electrical and computer cables run under the suspension bridge to power and choreograph the light show. Each tree alone has more than 8,000 lights on it.
“We haven’t exactly counted how many lights we have, but there are definitely well over a million,” said Stacy Chala, the communications manager. “And then they all have to be taken down again. And organized and stored properly, that’s important. It takes two months.”
The park’s name has “bridge” in the singular, but there are in fact nine suspension bridges: The famous big one spanning the Capilano ( the Squamish word Kia’palano means beautiful river), a U- shaped bridge hugging the rock face on the cliffwalk and seven swinging bridges connecting eight Douglas firs, all hundreds of years old, on the Treetop Adventure.
Last December, the light show drew its largest one- night crowd ever, more than 9,000 people.
The only year since its inception in 2005 that there was no light show was in 2006, when a 42- tonne Douglas fir fell on the bridge.
“Stanley Park had 10,000 trees fall during the wind storm,” Chala said.
“We had one and it fell on the bridge.”
As for the tree climber and jack of all trades Lalumiere: La lumiere is French for “the light,” while Luc is derived from the Latin lux, which also means “light.”
“It’s just a coincidence,” he said. “I studied biology at school. Isn’t that how it works, you go to school for something and you wind up doing something else.”
In Lalumiere’s case, that something else was construction. It’s how he met Nancy Stibbard, owner and CEO of the Capilano Group, and her son John, vice- president of operations.
Nancy’s father bought the park, built in 1889, in 1953. By 1983, he WATCH A RELATED VIDEO AT VANCOUVERSUN. COM
wanted out. Nancy couldn’t bear the thought of it leaving the family, though it needed considerable upgrading.
A psychologist by training, she raised the capital needed and began expanding the park with the Story Centre, Living Forest, Cliffwalk and Treetops Adventure.
Lalumiere, who began working at the North Vancouver park 15 years ago, built many of the structures for the attractions.
“I’m so lucky,” the 62- year- old said. “John ( Stibbard) says, ‘ Do something here,’ then walks away and leaves it to me.
“If you told me years ago this is what I would be doing for a living, I would never have believed you.
“I really love my job. They let me design and build, it’s challenging and physical, I get to use my brain and I’m working outside.
“It’s a great office.”