Bottom terminal and lift line at Creekside base.Poma Omega gondola terminal.View up the line during Olympics construction.The top drive station with cabin maintenance facility.Lower part of the lift line.Side view of the bottom station.View riding out of Creekside.Middle lift line.Tower 16.View down at T16.Steep upper part of the line.A Yan tower tube with Poma head.Poma breakover towers.Cabins in the turnaround up top.Lift overview.Upper station overview.Side view of the top station.Tower 19.Lower lift line.Tower 14.As of this lift’s last season of operation, there are many cabins with advertising wraps.Cabin 52.Tower 7.Lower terminal near the Kadenwood Gondola station.Lower station with portal integrated sheave assemblies.
After doing some digging I found that these are Sigma “Space 6” cabins. By searching “Cabine Espace 6” you can get quite a few results for gondolas that used these. Here’s a few that I’ve found so far:
I’ve never seen a Doppelmayr/CWA gondola with pins. The two in North America with Gangloff cabins (Whiteface and Tremblant) have them however.
The CWA cabins tend to have a guide rail on the inside like Loon has. Gore has a Poma gondola with CWA cabins and it has the Doppelmayr style rail system while Killington (also Poma) has the pins on the bottom.
There are numerous Doppelmayr gondolas with omega cabins and pins. Outpost at Keystone and the gondola at Mont Sainte anne and excalibur at W-b are examples. Whistler village and stratton are both lwi gondolas built by poma with pins.
No. There were other factors in play, and the grip was probably poorly designed, but but spring pressure was in line with any other type of detachable grip. It would have to be. Unfortunately our Yan big book of knowledge doesn’t have detaches in them (since we never had any) or I could tell you numbers.
I am always surprised they still have zero redundancy for this lift. It is 25 years old and cannot handle the Creekside traffic alone. It is also not an issue of throwing too many bodies on the trails, as the entire western part of the mountain is underdeveloped with zero lifts in the Peak to Creek area.
100% agree that they should replace this lift ASAP. I would suggest a 10 Pax Gondola (like the Blackcomb Gondola) with a mid station at Ravens Nest and extend it to Roundhouse.
I wonder if they could repurpose the Creekside gondola as a HSQ to install the Franz HSQ? I mean it was installed after Harmony HSQ. AussieRob do you know if that would be possible?
As someone who stays at the Creekside area at whistler, I would definitely love something like this instead of the Orange gondola they currently have on their master plan. Having access to the roundhouse would mean easier summer sightseeing trips if they decided to run it in the summer. I kind of doubt they’d do something like that though.
This lift really needs to go. Not only is the capacity not enough, but it’s extremely uncomfortable and the cabins aren’t in very good condition. One of the worst major lifts at WB in my opinion.
The whole right side of Whistler is also in need of capacity upgrades, I liked what they did on Blackcomb by repurposing an older HSQ further up the mountain and punching up a new Gondola. Perhaps a Gondola 8 up to Raven’s Nest to replace Creekside, a new HS6 to Roundhouse where Big Red currently is, and repurposing Big Red as Franz’s Express since it isn’t too old.
I would love to see that as I know that’s something they have in their master plan. Gotta get some more pictures of the current gondola before it gets ripped out though :(
There is nothing left of the old Yan in the Creekside Gondola, and it has no height adjustment. It is a chair lift terminal with Gondola cabins on it. Spacing has never been good on that lift.
People are talking about capacity and the lift upgrade. One thing to keep in mind is that when this was built the plan was also to run lifts from creekside up the right side to Bagel Bowl and then back down to Funtion Junction area. The idea was Vancouver day trippers would park there.
Just curious I was looking at Google Maps the street view a HSQ uphill from the Creekside Gondola. It definitely new the terminal design look like Doppelmayr set up.
I tried to attach a screen shot but having problems with it attaching.
This was a really neat lift, but it was a pain in the ass to use. I’m in North Van and we used to drive up on weekends in the morning. There was always a line. There’s a pedestrian bridge that goes overtop London Lane, and sometimes the line would go past it. You’d be waiting for well over an hour. Now we have a chalet in Creekside area and so it’s easy to wait for when the line is shorter, but I remember being so upset that I had to wait that long to get up.
It was often annoying, but it was a good lift and I have a lot of memories of it. I’ll miss it a lot but I’m excited to see what the new gondola will be like – I’m assuming it’ll be really similar to the new Blackcomb Gondola.
Right now they have tower components and sheaves laid out for the new lift near where the old Timing Flats lift ended. I took a bunch of pictures, I’ll send it to Peter.
Lift Blog 
Were any other Poma gondolas built with this model of gondola cabin?
LikeLike
Zephyr Express at Winter Park had this model of cabins for taking people up to Sunspot at night.
LikeLike
Zephyr express is no more sadly
LikeLike
After doing some digging I found that these are Sigma “Space 6” cabins. By searching “Cabine Espace 6” you can get quite a few results for gondolas that used these. Here’s a few that I’ve found so far:
https://www.remontees-mecaniques.net/bdd/reportage-tcd6-de-la-cote-2000-poma-1913.html
Even one used as a bus stop!
http://web.archive.org/web/20210520213006/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EiCHNGeX0AAbdQL?format=jpg
LikeLike
I’m pretty sure Kanin in Slovenia has the exact same model of cabin also used as a bus stop. It is in downtown Bovec.
LikeLike
What is the black spike on the bottom of each cabin for?
LikeLike
Pin for the ground level rails in the terminals. Now with level walk in boarding, the entire cabin is the pin.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Interesting. None of snowbasin’s doppelmayr gondolas aren’t level and have no guide rails or pins. Did only POMA use pins?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve never seen a Doppelmayr/CWA gondola with pins. The two in North America with Gangloff cabins (Whiteface and Tremblant) have them however.
The CWA cabins tend to have a guide rail on the inside like Loon has. Gore has a Poma gondola with CWA cabins and it has the Doppelmayr style rail system while Killington (also Poma) has the pins on the bottom.
LikeLiked by 2 people
There are numerous Doppelmayr gondolas with omega cabins and pins. Outpost at Keystone and the gondola at Mont Sainte anne and excalibur at W-b are examples. Whistler village and stratton are both lwi gondolas built by poma with pins.
LikeLike
An interesting one to note is Gondola 19 at Vail, a 1996 Garaventa CTEC with CWA X12 cabins. They have level walk-in loading and pins on the bottom.
LikeLike
Original Quicksilver express:
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yan’s detachable terminals were very minimalistic compared to the closest equivalents Doppelmayr and Poma made to them.
LikeLike
So were the spring pressures on their grips too. ;)
LikeLike
No. There were other factors in play, and the grip was probably poorly designed, but but spring pressure was in line with any other type of detachable grip. It would have to be. Unfortunately our Yan big book of knowledge doesn’t have detaches in them (since we never had any) or I could tell you numbers.
LikeLike
Holy crap, these pictures are awesome!
I can only assume the last photo shows the beginning of the original Redline lift as well.
Cheers!
LikeLike
I am always surprised they still have zero redundancy for this lift. It is 25 years old and cannot handle the Creekside traffic alone. It is also not an issue of throwing too many bodies on the trails, as the entire western part of the mountain is underdeveloped with zero lifts in the Peak to Creek area.
LikeLike
100% agree that they should replace this lift ASAP. I would suggest a 10 Pax Gondola (like the Blackcomb Gondola) with a mid station at Ravens Nest and extend it to Roundhouse.
I wonder if they could repurpose the Creekside gondola as a HSQ to install the Franz HSQ? I mean it was installed after Harmony HSQ. AussieRob do you know if that would be possible?
LikeLike
As someone who stays at the Creekside area at whistler, I would definitely love something like this instead of the Orange gondola they currently have on their master plan. Having access to the roundhouse would mean easier summer sightseeing trips if they decided to run it in the summer. I kind of doubt they’d do something like that though.
LikeLike
My understanding is that the lift is getting replaced next summer with an 8 person gondy.
LikeLike
This lift really needs to go. Not only is the capacity not enough, but it’s extremely uncomfortable and the cabins aren’t in very good condition. One of the worst major lifts at WB in my opinion.
The whole right side of Whistler is also in need of capacity upgrades, I liked what they did on Blackcomb by repurposing an older HSQ further up the mountain and punching up a new Gondola. Perhaps a Gondola 8 up to Raven’s Nest to replace Creekside, a new HS6 to Roundhouse where Big Red currently is, and repurposing Big Red as Franz’s Express since it isn’t too old.
LikeLike
With Big Red becoming a six pack, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the existing quad being repurposed for replacing Franz’s and the Whistler T-Bar.
LikeLike
I would love to see that as I know that’s something they have in their master plan. Gotta get some more pictures of the current gondola before it gets ripped out though :(
LikeLike
Looks like Vail is doing exactly this! No word on where the existing Big Red will be relocated (if at all). Definitely overdue, very exciting.
LikeLike
if you look closely at the top terminal of this lift you can see the Yan height adjustments
LikeLike
The top terminal is all Poma. What are you seeing that makes you think that?
LikeLiked by 1 person
look at the height adjustments one of the two look like Yan
LikeLike
Looks no different than any other Poma Challenger gondola terminal.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There is nothing left of the old Yan in the Creekside Gondola, and it has no height adjustment. It is a chair lift terminal with Gondola cabins on it. Spacing has never been good on that lift.
LikeLike
Correct those are not Yan Height Adjustments.
LikeLike
People are talking about capacity and the lift upgrade. One thing to keep in mind is that when this was built the plan was also to run lifts from creekside up the right side to Bagel Bowl and then back down to Funtion Junction area. The idea was Vancouver day trippers would park there.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I hope they eventually do that buildout. It would be really cool!
LikeLike
Why do some people consider these to be the worst gondola cabins ever?
LikeLike
Goodbye old friend :(. I hope I can manage to buy one of the cabins.
LikeLike
9am on Friday May 6th!
https://whistlerblackcombfoundation.com/pages/red-chair-and-creekside-gondola-sales
LikeLike
Managed to snag one today :D
LikeLike
Just curious I was looking at Google Maps the street view a HSQ uphill from the Creekside Gondola. It definitely new the terminal design look like Doppelmayr set up.
I tried to attach a screen shot but having problems with it attaching.
LikeLike
That was the old Timing Flats lift used for the Olympics. It was relocated to Sunshine Village after the Olympics.
LikeLike
This was a really neat lift, but it was a pain in the ass to use. I’m in North Van and we used to drive up on weekends in the morning. There was always a line. There’s a pedestrian bridge that goes overtop London Lane, and sometimes the line would go past it. You’d be waiting for well over an hour. Now we have a chalet in Creekside area and so it’s easy to wait for when the line is shorter, but I remember being so upset that I had to wait that long to get up.
It was often annoying, but it was a good lift and I have a lot of memories of it. I’ll miss it a lot but I’m excited to see what the new gondola will be like – I’m assuming it’ll be really similar to the new Blackcomb Gondola.
Right now they have tower components and sheaves laid out for the new lift near where the old Timing Flats lift ended. I took a bunch of pictures, I’ll send it to Peter.
LikeLike