Got very high yesterday...

[Dottore]

So the world's most incredible gondola opened a couple of days ago at Whistler, just up the hill from our chalet, and we decided to check it out yesterday.

Nothing I had read about prepared me for the experience of riding this thing across the valley. It was extraordinary, and I have say it scared the bejeezus out of me—largely because of some very gusty winds that kept catching the thing broadside and pummeling it mercilessly.

The Popular Mechanics article below sets out the technical and engineering highlights.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/transportation/4289647.html

Then I went out this morning and tried to take a photo of thing. If you look very closely at the photo below you will just see the gondolas on the cable spanning the valley.




If you're up for some freakishly good skiing, and the most amazing ski lift experience available, come check this out. The winter Olympics will be here in 2010.

[mike55]

I've seen it but haven't been on it yet. How's the snow today? We have a few inches in Van this morning.

[targa911S]

So did I. Might do it again today.

[Dottore]

Originally Posted by mike55

How's the snow today?

White.

Only a 60cm base—which is fine for the boarders, but a little light on the ground for the skiers. Big dump predicted for this coming week, which should really kick off the season.

But it's too friggin cold to go up the mountain today, unless you're a tourist and only have a week or so up here.

[SLO-BOB]

Holy**** that is ****ing high!

Rented a bike and rode up there from Vancouver - nice area, if not a lot like a lot of other ski towns. Had some incredible Lime Calamari and a good micro brew at some place in the village, nice staff, great weather, that was a good day...

from the deck of whatever it was-

[Dottore]

Just came across this schematic. Unfortunately it doesn't give you a real sense for the height of this thing.

[slakjaw]

all I see are 2 giant boobs

[911Rob]

Hey Councilor,
That's awesome, Whistler is such a great place, but friggin expensive. Everything is about double/triple the cost there, ha.

I worked on the Whistler 4Seasons Hotel there one winter..... I had 10 homes leased for one year whilst we finished the interiors of the project; was cheaper to lease for a year than any other term. Exciting times, but I've retired my Whistler desires from that experience. I'm far too spoiled as I like a chalet that offers ski in/out right from your door. Places like Panorama, Sun Peaks, Silver Star or Big White. It used to drive me crazy driving to the ski hill at Whistler and I lived right there; would take me about 20 minutes.

My uncle still has a beautiful log cabin there; Ted Stewart and his kids were all ski patrols there. So where do you practise? And btw, that 4Seasons Intrawest project was NOT sold out in one day; many of those people had been on a list to purchase for years and years.

Cheers,

[Dottore]

Originally Posted by 911Rob

I'm far too spoiled as I like a chalet that offers ski in/out right from your door. Places like Panorama, Sun Peaks, Silver Star or Big White. It used to drive me crazy driving to the ski hill at Whistler and I lived right there; would take me about 20 minutes.

Well you can ski in/out in Whistler very nicely.

All the resorts you mention are very nice, no question. But Whistler is all about size: terrain and vertical drop. Nothing else like it in North America.

In fact the advertsing slogan here for a while was "Size Matters".

[HardDrive]

Amazing gondola ride that takes you up to a Budhist monestary outside Hong Kong.

[911Rob]

Hey Dott,
Get us a picture from the gondola like the one above ^^^^^ I'd love to see that.

I agree with you, size does matter. Ha.

[juanbenae]

Originally Posted by targa911S

So did I. Might do it again today.

you talked me into it.

t

[Schrup]

Hope you weren't up there today.
http://www.king5.com/topstories/stories/NW_121608WAB_whistler_gondola_KS.6ce867f8.html

[911Rob]

Wholly Crap! ^^^

Gondola tower collapses at Whistler

04:41 PM PST on Tuesday, December 16, 2008

By Associated Press

Police say there were no serious injuries when a gondola tower collapsed at Whistler ski resort Tuesday.

WHISTLER, British Columbia - At least a dozen passengers were trapped inside two gondolas after a tower partially collapsed today at the Whistler ski resort in British Columbia.

Police say there were no serious injuries, but the passengers were stranded on the gondolas as emergency officials worked out a plan to evacuate them from the Excalibur lift.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Steve Wright says the fire department was trying to reach the skiers and snowboarders on the dangling gondolas, which are attached to a long wire cable.

Wright said a third gondola was left resting on top of a bus shelter at the base of the mountain.

Wright said there doesn't appear to be any danger of the gondola support falling farther.

[Dottore]

Yup.

Talk about bad luck. The world's highest, biggest, baddest gondola opens here just four days ago, and today a tower from another gondola, on the same mountain, built by the same manufacturer (Doppelmeyer, from Austria) collapses.

The break in the tower today was totally clean, which is fueling speculation that it was bad weld.

I know nothing about these things, but we have had seriously cold weather here for the last four days. Could that affect the integrity of the metal and the welding? The tower that collapsed was 14 years old.

Whatever, it's certainly bad news for the tourism biz—which is what keeps this little town alive—and which has already been going seriously south with the global economic crisis.

We're thankfully immune from the fluctuations in the tourist trade, since we just hang out here in the winter, but this is going to be a serious kick in the nuts for a lot of our friends up here.

[Brian 162]

I just saw the news. It looks like the tower snapped at the top just below the pulleys for the cable.

[Won]

I went to Whistler today. Rode in Blackcomb in the morning, Whistler in the afternoon. There was not enough snow below mid-level so everybody had to download in the 2 main gondolas from the mountains. I waited in line at the Whistler gondola for about 1.5 hours. On the way down saw a bunch of emergency vehicles at the bus loop and a gondola hanging very close to the ground. Didn't see the snapped tower and didn't know about it until I came home just now... One of my friends took the P2P over to Blackcomb for our last run, just missed the falling gondolas, and had to come back to Whistler to catch the only working line to ferry people down the mountain. They were packing 10 people per basket (max. spec.) and the things were already hanging too low for comfort.

It's funny because just this morning, during our drive up to Whistler, my friend and I agreed that from engineering (students') point of view, the P2P looked just too sketchy and we wouldn't go on it today.

One thing that caught my eye for both gondolas was the sign that said "100% download capacity". News reports say the gondolas weren't full but they must have been, the Whistler gondolas were being sent down fully packed well before 4PM because, again, that was the only way to get off the mountain. Lower temperature decreases the energy required to fracture the material but it's typically well below minus teens Celsius that was the ambient temperature, or at least it should be for any modern structural steel.

PS fatigue was likely at play here too. You would think something like a a gondola cable tower would be designed with "safe life" in mind. I never paid attention to it before but are 2 gondolas going the opposite way timed so that they go over the tower at the same time to reduce side-to-side cyclic loading?