12
Dec

2011

Urban Skiing

Post by Gondola Project

Hitting the slopes in style. Image by Flickr User felixrioux

Winter is almost upon us and here at Gondola Project, we love skiing but we also love the vivacity and vibrancy of urban living.

The problem is, alpine facilities are located, most times, hours away from the city centre and driving your car there is such a pain in the butt (not to mention, highly unsustainable).

So the question is, is there a way to merge the best of both worlds into one fun activity? Well, we can officially confirm that it is indeed possible. Check it out!
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And did we forget to mention: Gondolas not required. 😉

Note 1: For the transit nerds, the best part is, if you watch the entire video, he actually uses a bus to get back up top. 

Note 2: The clip is from the movie All.I.Can. 




Want more? Purchase Cable Car Confidential: The Essential Guide to Cable Cars, Urban Gondolas & Cable Propelled Transit and start learning about the world's fastest growing transportation technologies.

Want more? Purchase Cable Car Confidential: The Essential Guide to Cable Cars, Urban Gondolas & Cable Propelled Transit and start learning about the world's fastest growing transportation technologies.

Gondola Project Forum / Just For Fun
6
Comments

Comments

  1. Erik
    December 12, 2011 – 1:37 pm
    Skateboarders think they're hardcore, but they've got nothing on this dude, wow! This is also a reason why this blog is so great. A lot of people would just think "This is a blog about CPT and this video isn't CPT. ", but you keep bringing us this great stuff, like the "Ho Chi Minh" post that are just fascinating and cool even if only peripheraly related.
  2. Nick Chu
    December 12, 2011 – 4:23 pm
    Glad you enjoyed it! I know what I wana watch during the xmas holidays now. =)
  3. Matt the Engineer
    December 13, 2011 – 1:46 pm
    Awesome. At first I thought you were going to point to novel ways of getting to the slopes. 70 years ago you could take a train from downtown Seattle up to our nearest ski slope. It had a dancing car.
  4. Nick Chu
    December 14, 2011 – 8:03 pm
    A smooth stress-free train ride to a ski resort sounds like a damn good idea to me. Any idea if it's still running? My guess would be no, but they could always re-implement it!
  5. Matt the Engineer
    December 15, 2011 – 1:56 pm
    Not only is it not running, but the track was ripped out years ago. It's now a bike trail (and I hear it's an awesome one at that - including a long tunnel). We ripped out all kinds of awesome transit systems around here when cars became popular - we had an electric "Interurban" - effectively a light rail train from Seattle to Tacoma, and another from Seattle to Everett. Both of these are bike routes now as well. We also had a full network of streetcars, which are now electric buses. You're right that the right-of-ways still exist, nicely graded and ready for the future. Of course now we'll have to convince the biking communtiy...
  6. Matt the Engineer
    December 15, 2011 – 7:32 pm
    It turns out we do have another ski lift that's almost right on train tracks. Steven's Pass is a mile from Scenic, WA - a suitable place for a small train station. Add a gondola to the top of the slopes and a twice-daily train service from Seattle (complete with dancing car), and you'd have yourself and easy and fun way from Seattle to the slopes. Imagine instead of sitting in a car for an hour, or dealing with tire chains, sitting in the lounge car with a cup of hot cocoa and watching the snow-topped trees go by...

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