The Gondola Project

22
Sep

2023

Weekly Roundup: Exciting Improvements to Eaglecrest Ski Area, AK

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The new gondola, part of Eaglecrest’s attempts to improve upon one of the most interesting, yet underrated ski areas in the United States, is expected to open in the Fall of 2025, if all goes according to plan. Image credits to Skeaglecrest, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Eaglecrest Ski Area in Alaska is adding a gondola and other resort updates. The gondola will run from near the bottom of the Hooter Lift up to the summit of Stairway to Heavenly on Pittman’s Ridge, with a mid-station below Avalanche Beacon Park. The gondola will be a pulsed gondola with 12 cabins grouped in four pods of three. The station will be large enough to house the cabins at night to protect them from the elements. Eaglecrest has been working on other maintenance while also increasing its snowmaking capacity. SCJ Alliance, the parent company of the Gondola Project, has been retained to provide gondola expertise for this project. See a related Weekly Roundup here.
Cause of collision at Tremblant Resort in Canada revealed to be incomplete protocols. In July, a piece of construction equipment ran into a gondola cabin, causing the death of one person and another being seriously injured. The Toronto Star revealed that the collision occurred due to incomplete written procedures for moving heavy machinery around the resort. The procedures that were in-place were not known by everyone on site. Furthermore, the resort has been ordered that no construction equipment can be used until the protocols are improved.

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15
Sep

2023

Weekly Roundup: Cable Car Coming to Grecian Castle Town

Post by Gondola Project

The addition of a cable car hopes to make the Grecian castle town of Monemvasia more accessible to visitors and locals alike. The gondola will allow the elderly and those with disabilities to access the upper town when they could not, or may have had greatly difficulty doing so, before, as it could previously only be reached by a set of steep and narrow stairs. Image credit to Rita Willaert, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, via Flickr.

Monemvasia, a castle town in Greece, is adding a cable car that aims to open by 2024. The new cable car was originally proposed in 2021, and the 6.8 million euros will be funded through Recovery and Resilience (RRF) funds. The goal is to make the town, which stands as Europe’s oldest inhabited castle town, completely accessible to all visitors, and the town is working through many different upgrades and projects to make this happen. The cable car will specifically aim to make the upper town accessible, which is currently only accessible by narrow stairs.
Winter Park Resort in Colorado is adding a new lift and other investments. Winter Park has invested $100 million in improvements for this upcoming season, including $30 million on mountain and base experiences. Some of those projects include adding a high-speed six-person chairlift, called the Wild Spur Express, to the Vasquez Ridge area. The lift will include a mid-point loading zone and is scheduled to open in late November or early December.
Red Pine Gondola in Utah replaces half the cabins for next winter season. The 55 new cabins are slightly heavier than the 60 old cabins and will require some adjustments to the towers and terminals to accommodate the added weight. The additional weight causes the cabins to hang at a 2 degree angle, which may create a slightly bumpy ride coming into the terminal. The lift has added water jugs under the cabin seats, which meet safety standards, to counterbalance the weight difference for half of the new cabins that were installed for the upcoming winter season. The addition of the counterbalance is simply for rider comfort and is not required for the safety of the lift operation.

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08
Sep

2023

Weekly Roundup: Glacier Views and Gondola Cabins in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, France

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Guests will soon be able to view the famous glacier found at Vallée Blanche ski run in France without having to walk up and down the infamous, ever-expanding flights of steps. Image credit to Guilhem Vellut, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.

Taos Ski Valley in New Mexico finishes Pioneer Lift replacement with other upgrades are underway. The lift was upgraded to a new fixed grip triple lift. At this point in time, the chairs are spinning and just waiting to undergo load testing before opening to the public. The lift is hoping to be open for the 2023-2024 winter season. Taos Ski Valley is also replacing Chair 4 with a new Leitner-Poma high-speed detachable quad that is planned to be open for the upcoming winter season. Both upgrades are a part of Taos’s Master Development Plan (MDP).
Mt. Hood Express is being retired and replaced with new lift at Mt. Hood Meadows in Oregon. Mt. Hood Express was in service for almost 30 years. The new lift will be a Leitner-Poma six passenger high-speed detachable lift. The new lift will have a capacity of 1200 passengers per hour and will provide access to more terrain. It is also anticipated to decrease wait times and improve skiers’ overall experience.
La Mer de Glace Gondola will open in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, France, for the nest ski season. The new gondola will run from the upper station at the train station down 600 meters to the glacier below. Before the gondola addition, guests did not need to walk down very far to the glacier; however, due to climate change, the glacier has slowly moved and more and more steps have been necessary to access the phenomenon. The gondola is part of a €53m project provided by the Compagnie Du Mont-Blanc lift company with the aim to increase accessibility to the glacier and increase skier access to the top terminal from the end of the Vallée Blanche ski run.

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01
Sep

2023

Weekly Roundup: Expanded Excellence?

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Deer Valley Ski Resort in Utah. Photo by D Ramey Logan CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Deer Valley Ski Resort plans to upgrade its terrain and cable car transportation in Utah. The resort is working on multiple projects including adding 3,700 skiable acres which will be accessible by 16 new chairlifts and a gondola. The project goes by the name of “Expanded Excellence” and could be accessible as early as the 2025-2026 ski season. Other projects underway include a new base area.

Brundage Mountain Resort constructs high speed quad. The new Doppelmayr high speed detachable quad is replacing Centennial Triple at the Brundage Mountain Resort in Idaho and should be up and running by the next ski season. Blackhawk helicopters brought tower pieces for the 16 towers up the mountain where crews then secured the pieces. The new lift will have 92 chairs with a capacity of 1,800 passengers per hour.

Wanglongmen Cable Car, China’s first passenger cable car, is making a comeback. The original system was built in 1945 and was operational until 1993. The site was designated as a municipal heritage site in 2009. Recently, the restoration of the system was approved. The aim is to preserve the original architecture while still integrating modern, contemporary elements. The original system had two 50 passenger cabins and ferried close to 90,000 passengers in 8 months after its original opening date.

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25
Aug

2023

Weekly Roundup: The New Pioneer Express Embarks in Taos Ski Valley

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Following the replacement of the Pioneer Express chairlift, Taos Ski Valley has auctioned off the old lift chairs, as many resorts often do following significant updates or upgrades. Proceeds have gone to the Taos Regional Ski School Program and will continue to help the organization offer free and low-cost outdoor recreation for local children. Image credit to Paul Sableman, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Steamboat Resort is constructing a second stage of Wild Blue Gondola that will run from the mid-station to the summit of Sunshine Peak, amongst other improvements. The new gondola route will be the second stage of the Wild Blue Gondola which currently runs from Steamboat Square up to the mid-station. Alterra Mountain Company, which owns Steamboat, and the Steamboat Springs City Council have also been discussing adding another gondola to reduce congestion and how that system could be financed. If the project can secure funds and finalize the plan, construction could begin in May 2024.
Dursey Cable Car has been closed multiple times despite €1.6 million investment. The Dursey Cable Car runs to and from Dursey Island and provides transportation for locals and tourists. The cable car has been closed for multiple reasons including technical issues, maintenance, and ESB outage. The most recent closure was due to unexpected wear and tear on the haul rope, which had recently been replaced.
Pioneer Express was replaced in Taos Ski Valley and raised $9,200. The new Pioneer Express is a fixed-grip triple chair by Lietner-Poma of America (L-POA). With the lift replacement, the old chairs have been sold, and the money is going towards ski school. Each of the 42 chairs sold for $200 which summed up to $9,200. The money will go to the Taos Regional Ski School Program, which focuses on helping kids get on the slopes.
Safety inspections on cable cars were ordered after 8 people were left stranded on a cable car in Pakistan. Makeshift cable car systems are common in Pakistan due to the low cost and construction by locals. Often, systems are made illegally using scrap metal ropes and an old truck cabin. On Tuesday, one of these cable car ropes broke and suspended 8 people 274 meters over the ground. The individuals were rescued by helicopter and brought down to safety.

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18
Aug

2023

Weekly Roundup: Gondola to Ferry Pilgrims and Tourists Alike in Assam, India

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Coming soon to Assam, India: an exciting new gondola! Aiming to ease congestion and reduce travel times to and from the famous Maa Kamakhya Temple, this line would strive to move tourists, locals, and pilgrims alike twice as quickly as the traditionally used railway. Image credits to SurajJC, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Assam Government plans to build a gondola to help transport pilgrims and tourists up to the Maa Kamakhya Temple in Assam, India. The proposed monocable detachable gondola (MDG) system would take 7 minutes to travel 1.8 kilometers from the Kamakyha Corridor to Kamakyha Railway Station. The system would carry 1000 passengers per hour per direction (pphpd) and is anticipated to reduce travel time by 55 to 60 percent for passengers arriving via railway.
Argentière Cable Car’s iconic tower crumples to make way for new gondola in Chamonix, France. The original system was built in 1963 and went up over 6000 vertical feet to the top of the Grand Montets. In 2018, the historical system’s mid-station was closed due to a fire and has remained closed ever since. Plans were then made to replace the system with a tricable detachable system (3S) by Doppelmayr. With construction underway, a video of the iconic tower, P4, being taken down was released, to which skiers responded with comments paying tribute to the system.
Power outage strands hundreds of people at the top terminal of Banff Gondola. A lightning storm caused a power outage throughout Banff and Canmore which caused hundreds of people to remain stuck at the top terminal. Passengers were also marooned in gondolas on their journey back down the mountain until being safely off-loaded with back-up power. While some people hiked the 5.5-kilometer trail back down to the parking lot, others chose to remain at the top terminal until they were able to be transported down by Alpine helicopters.

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11
Aug

2023

Weekly Roundup: Montenegrin Tourism to Spike as Kotor-Lovcen Gondola Nears Launch Day

Post by Gondola Project

After a month’s delay, the opening of the Kotor-Lovcen Gondola is only days away. The line, which connects the coastal town of Kotor to the Lovcen National Park (pictured above), is widely regarded as one of the most important Montenegrin tourism infrastructure projects. Image credits to Michal Klajban, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Montenegro is preparing to launch the Kotor-Lovcen Gondola next week, on August 14^th. The gondola will connect Kotor to the Lovcen National Park after thirteen months of construction. While originally it was meant to be launched on July 13^th, about a month earlier, it was delayed for unknown reasons. The project’s contract was signed for 20 million euro ($21.9 million USD) to be constructed by Novi Volvox and Leitner. See a related Weekly Roundup here.
The Swiss Ski resort of Flims Laax Falera is constructing an unconventional new gondola. The new FlemXpress will be equipped with 120 cabins, each of which will be capable of transporting 10 passengers and have a total capacity of 1000 skiers per hour. All 120 cabins will be equipped with a pair of phone charging stations and a ventilation system. However, what sets it apart from other gondola systems is that unloaded cabins will not travel the line; instead they will wait at the bottom station until needed. This new design also allows passengers to load into non-moving cabins and will enable wheelchair-bound passengers to ride. According to the manufacturer, this means that the FlemXpress will use 50% less energy over the course of the year compared to conventional lifts. The first stage of the project, the Flims-Foppa and Foppa-Startgels connections, is expected to be completed by the end of 2023.
Hungary is making plans for the construction of a new cable car in the region of Northern Hungary. It is planned to be 2300m (1.4 miles) long, and run from the Tokaji Fesztiválkatlan, an open-air concert venue and theater, to the Kopasz Hill TV Tower. The cable car was estimated to cost between 6.4 to 7.7 million euros (7.05 to 8.48 million USD) to build last spring, but may cost more now due to increasing prices in labor and material.

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