Art:
I will not be building scaffolds again, but you certainly nailed it for what I used to do a lot of. (bad accident, automotive)
I found the flat soled rigger's boots pretty good.
Not as good as heeled boots on the ground but great for walking iron.
I would like to see a set of boots tried with deck soles, but I am not sure how those razor cut treads would stand up to the normal abuse.

Yelp:
Wow. You and Art. I spent three years in narrow vein gold mining when I was younger. The boots were almost all tribar rubber miner's boots.
Heavy clunky things, but you really did not have much choice.
Unlike most peoples idea of a mine most mines are very wet places.
Once you go underground you start running into water.
Think of a well.
Then think of a really big and deep well.

But powder really is the ultimate power tool!
I loved playing with it.
We used mostly ANFO with nonel caps linked to a detcord loop with an single electric.
We had stick powder too but it was really only for wet holes.
I still remember the day I drilled into a water vein. LOL!!
It pushed the jackleg and drillsteel out like somebody spitting out a watermelon seed.
An inch and an eighth hole with about 400 feet of head behind it.
It took three days of grouting with oatmeal and cement before we could take our round.