Bottom terminal in Big Sky Mountain Village.Top terminal building.Looking down the line.Who needs a tension terminal when you can have a tension tower?Lattice tower.Upper lift line.The new bottom station (originally was in the mountain mall behind.)A catastrophic de-ropement in February 2008 was the end for Gondola One.Looking down the line.Looking up the line with Lone Peak in the background.Drive terminal controls.Top terminal unload.
The counterweight for the top station bullwheel was routed back downhill and into to the last tower rather than going behind or under the terminal building. Yan also experimented with putting counterweights in non-traditional locations especially in locations with limited space.
On old Chairlift.org photos of the gondola, I noticed something unusual. One of the photos has two tower tubes (that are not the depression towers) on the gondola. Did this gondola ever have tube towers, because I thought it had lattice towers?
I think this is a picture of Gondola 2. The 10th photo shows Gondola 1 and also looking straight up at Lone Peak. Notice in the picture above that the gondola is on an alignment more to the left of Lone Peak, on the exact alignment of Gondola 2. This lift having tube towers, instead of the lattice towers on Gondola 1 also makes me think that this is a picture of Gondola 2.
No, the first couple towers on Gondola one were replaced with tube towers when the bottom terminal moved out of the mountain mall. This photo is of that lower part of the line just above mr Ed. Gondola 2 also never had clamshells but grey cabins with doors.
how does the tension tower work???
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The counterweight for the top station bullwheel was routed back downhill and into to the last tower rather than going behind or under the terminal building. Yan also experimented with putting counterweights in non-traditional locations especially in locations with limited space.
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Will there ever be another gondola again?
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Yep! They are planning on replacing the Explorer double with a 2-stage base-to-bowl gondola around 2020-ish
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Does anyone know if there are any pictures of Gondola two before it was replaced by Swiftcurrent?
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What lift did they replace the gondola with?
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None. yet…
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Oh. It ran next to swift current.
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On old Chairlift.org photos of the gondola, I noticed something unusual. One of the photos has two tower tubes (that are not the depression towers) on the gondola. Did this gondola ever have tube towers, because I thought it had lattice towers?

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I think this is a picture of Gondola 2. The 10th photo shows Gondola 1 and also looking straight up at Lone Peak. Notice in the picture above that the gondola is on an alignment more to the left of Lone Peak, on the exact alignment of Gondola 2. This lift having tube towers, instead of the lattice towers on Gondola 1 also makes me think that this is a picture of Gondola 2.
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No, the first couple towers on Gondola one were replaced with tube towers when the bottom terminal moved out of the mountain mall. This photo is of that lower part of the line just above mr Ed. Gondola 2 also never had clamshells but grey cabins with doors.
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