This is a great video by Vermont DOT that describes how scaling is used as part of their mitigation efforts for rockfall. If you have never seen how high scaling works, this gives you a good perspective. Scalers use ropes to access the slope and work from the top down to test rocks with prybars and other tools to see if they are loose, bringing them down if they are. They also use airbags, pneumatic “pillows” that start flat and can slide into cracks and joints and be inflated using compressed air to push rocks off the slope.
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Provo Utah Rock Fall Event
The rock at left travelled nearly a mile down the slope and picked up some significant velocity before impacting a house, hitting the back wall and damaging the ceiling before dropping through the floor into the garage and damaging the garage door. In an often-overlook advantage of the current financial crisis, the house was currently in foreclosure and therefore not occupied at the time of the damage. Read on for links, more info and a map of the location so you can view the terrain. (Photo by Provo Fire Department by way of Utah Geologic Survey)