And now for something completely different... an 8 wheeled vehicle that runs on a two
(cable) rail system. I present to you the engineering marvel that is the Peak 2 Peak gondola between Whistler and Blackcomb mountains.
After spending another week in Vancouver for work, and a great visit with
@Angus Shops, my better half came out west to meet me and we were able to spend some time in Whistler. We managed to do all sorts of fun sightseeing activities, but kept the big one for the last day. The Peak 2 Peak gondola holds 3 world records: Longest unsupported span for a lift of this kind (over 3 km), highest lift of this kind (at the lowest point of the span we were approx 450 m over the valley floor), and longest continuous lift system (approx 4.5 km station to station, with a 9 km long haul cable!) on the Whistler side you can get up on the catwalks and see the drive machinery up close, which was very interesting to see. The gondolas travel at almost 30 km/h and it takes about 11 minutes to get across the gap.
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View from the catwalk on the Whistler side with a car that just left the station.
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It is very difficult to describe in words how large the span really is, but it is huge! way off in the distance is the Blackcomb station.
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We did the crossing 3 times in total, and everywhere you look there are incredible views.
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2 of the 28 gondolas have glass bottoms to view the valley floor, here is one of them. We took it on one of the traverses, but rode the regular red cars for the other trips across.
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A view back at Whistler Village, surrounded by mountains. You can see the articulated trucks supporting the gondola on the rail cables, with the haul cable in between. Each cabin can carry 28 people, and one leaves every 49 seconds. Lots of capacity!
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Of course seeing the machinery up close was pretty cool too! Took lots of videos of the cabins accelerating and latching on to the haul rope, but it doesn't really come out well in pictures.
