Built for the backcountry: Life on our travelling crews
Mar 25, 2026, 19:35 PMFortisAlberta’s travelling crews spend their careers in motion, following projects across the province. With every move comes a new set of challenges and a new chance to build something that lasts.
For Dave Sorestad, that’s exactly the appeal.
“It’s easy to remember the high-profile work we do in places like Lake Louise, but the ones that really stick to you are the gruelers, the grinders. There’s nothing better than standing back at the end of the day and seeing what you’ve built.”
An 11-year Power Line Technician, Dave is on our North travelling crew based out of Spruce Grove. Together with their South counterparts, they handle many of FortisAlberta’s most demanding builds.
“One week it’s a river crossing; the next, a new line up a mountain face after a wildfire,” he says. “I’ve been here for a decade and I’m still learning new things. We have so many avenues for growth.”
The work often takes crews far from paved roads and into terrain that rarely cooperates. Specialized machines make it possible: tracked all-terrain diggers power through deep muskeg and snow, spider hoes navigate steep, uneven ground and helicopters ferry poles, wire and materials into areas otherwise unreachable.
Working eight days on and six days off, crews generally split into smaller teams before regrouping when projects call for it (and to catch the hockey game at night). The model is demanding by nature, but also has a way of pulling the right people in.
Following the lines
A self-described ‘finance nerd,’ Dave thought that was his calling.
An influence closer to home was shaping a different future: Scott, Dave’s father and a 30-year member of the FortisAlberta team.
“I watched my dad do it for years. I remember being sixteen or seventeen, heading out to the farm and running up and down the poles,” Dave recalls. “And then he’d get ‘trouble calls’ to respond to an outage. When mom was busy doing other stuff, I’d be in the FortisAlberta truck hanging out with him while he did his work. Well, I guess it kind of set in!”
Watching Dave make the trade his own has been a full-circle experience for his father.
“After thirty-six years with FortisAlberta I’ve always believed this is more than just a job, it’s a profession you take pride in,” says Scott, now a Manager overseeing how other companies connect to and use FortisAlberta’s power system safely.
“Watching Dave choose the same path and build his own career in the trade makes me incredibly proud.”
A Career on the Road
The quiet pull turned into firm commitment, and Dave has been with the North crew ever since: working around 140 nights each year. Over that time, he’s seen safety practices sharpen and projects become more streamlined and efficient.
“I know I’m a little biased, but FortisAlberta’s standard of both safety and construction is truly top-tier,” he says. “It feels good to be part of a team that’s raising the bar for how utility work is done in Alberta.”
It’s not a schedule that works for everyone, but it does for Dave. When the job is done, he’s able to be fully present with his family in Olds. Lately, that means swapping steel toes for skates to coach his son’s hockey team.
“I like when he comes home from work so we can play mini-sticks,” says seven-year-old Slade. “Power line is dangerous and cool, I like the pictures he sends me of his job while he’s away.”
When the North crew hits the road again, they’re heading to Whitecourt. This next project sees them carefully guide four miles of high-capacity line into position in a process called ‘tension stringing.’ It will mean long days and technical work, but there’s a pretty good trade off: fresh air, open country and a front-row view of Alberta’s unmatched landscape.
“I get to see pretty much every part of the province mile by mile,” Dave says. “I’m a pretty lucky guy.”
Want to see how the North travelling crew operates? Check out our video where Dave’s colleague Matt walks viewers through a large project completed near Fox Creek.
