Two intentional haul rope cuts and a global pandemic aren’t keeping British Columbia’s Sea to Sky Gondola from its mission of carrying guests high above Howe Sound. The lift will once again open to passengers a week from Friday with enhanced health and security measures in place.
The gondola was forced to close September 14th, 2020 when its haul rope was intentionally cut. Shockingly, this was the second such crime mirroring a similar incident in August 2019. The gondola first reopened Valentine’s Day 2020 only to be shuttered again by the pandemic the very next month. It reopened for a second time amid Covid last May, catering to locals and passholders. After the cable was cut a second time, Fatzer again worked to provide a new haul rope while CWA manufactured 25 new cabins. “Needless to say, the past eight months have been extremely challenging for everyone,” read a reopening announcement on the Sea to Sky website. “We would like to thank our fantastic Sea to Sky community and industry partners who, despite their own challenges, have supported us every step of the way.”
“We have implemented extensive updates to our security system, including a professional in-house security team; 24-hour surveillance of all infrastructure and refined our detection and response capabilities in partnership with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police,” said the gondola. “Our security architecture is extraordinary in the lift industry and has evolved after extensive consultation with security experts. We will not be disclosing all of the details of our security system; however, by design, we will provide a safe experience for everyone.”
The gondola will continue to adhere to all Covid public health orders and travel advisories as it reopens, hopefully for good. A $250,000 reward remains in place for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone responsible for the 2019 and 2020 downings.
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I have a bad feeling that we could very well see a repeat yet again, if they don’t catch the idiot(s) behind this :( I wish I could be there for the re-opening. This thing looks spectacular.
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This is still so crazy to me.. why would someone do such thing?
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Environmental extremism.
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Creating hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages, not the best way to get your message across.
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Try $10 million.
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64 cabins written off isn’t cheap.
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10 million??!?!? That’s absurd. Those people *need* to get arrested.
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There’s a reason they’re offering $250,000 for information on the incident.
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It’s +/- $5 million per incident times two incidents
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A moving câble can not be cut!
A park rail at the summit so that you really have to go far to damage the Gondolas?
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They have build cabin parking in the bottom station so good to get the expensive cabins off the line.
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Then why have they not kept the rope turning which is the standard opening procedure when potential bad icing weather is in the forecast??
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Probably didn’t know they needed to. I wonder if they will now. Wonder how much $$$ it will cost to do so. Yes, cheaper in the long run to run vs having the cable cut but have to take into account higher maintenance costs since the machine is running more.
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Some years ago we built bottom station parking for the Peak Chair on Whistler Mountain so we could run the cable overnight during high wind and rhyme icing conditions. Has worked very well. I think you might see this protocol implemented at S2S so standby.
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