This gondola is the primary access to Sunshine Village for skiers, workers and equipment.Loading area and parking rail.Cabin parking rail.Angle station with no loading or unloading.Another view of the angle station.The second mid-station has loading in both directions at Goat’s Eye Mountain.The top drive terminal in Sunshine Village.Village station with vault drive below.Another view of the drive terminal.Goat’s Eye Station. The terminal was built inside the terminal building from Sunshine’s original gondola.Tower 25 and CWA Omega IV cabins.Lattice towers were also re-used from the former VonRoll gondola.Inside Goat’s Eye with more cabin parking.View down stage II.View up the line.Top view of the bottom station.Vail drive gearbox.One of two diesel auxiliary engines, either of which can run the lift at partial speed.Breakover towers below the first angle station.Lower angle station.Departure side of the downhill line at angle station one.Top station with various maintenance rails.Departing the village station.Lattice tower reused from the previous lift.One of mainy parking rails around the lift.Goat’s Eye Station.Stage two.Riding down from Goat’s Eye.Base station overview.Loading area at the parking lot.Inside Goat’s Eye station.View down the line.Another reused tower.Some of the towers are extremely tall.Side view of the base terminal.
Very good maintence and lots of spare parts to prevent breakdowns or fix them quick! On very cold days they run it 24 hours so no start up problems in morning. No way up without Gondi except 2 SUVs with tracks – not practical in any real way. There is a plan to add a parallel HSQ from base to Goat’s eye for this reason.
In 2012, some of the gondola cabins were damaged in a flood while sitting in the parking lot. The damaged gondola cabins got new ski carriers that allowed for fat skis. So it was mix 20 percent fat ski carriers and 80 percent skinny ski carriers. This season all the gondolas have fat ski carriers.
There are now 2 gondolas: the lower one is detachable (and utilizes original VonRoll equipment from Sunshine), while the upper one is a pulse gondola with many Doppelmayr components.
When you’re writing a comment there should be a black plus sight to the right, and you can paste images from there. Or you could copy the link to the photo and just put it into a comment. Unfortunately my comments sometimes disappear when i try to do this, i think they’re getting caught in the spam filter.
There’s 3 restaurants in the Village after lifts close, but they do run the gondola until 9pm on Fridays so you could go into Banff and come back. Otherwise it runs until 6pm.
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I wonder how people get up when the Gondola breaks down.
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Very good maintence and lots of spare parts to prevent breakdowns or fix them quick! On very cold days they run it 24 hours so no start up problems in morning. No way up without Gondi except 2 SUVs with tracks – not practical in any real way. There is a plan to add a parallel HSQ from base to Goat’s eye for this reason.
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Thanks I was really curious!
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They don’t
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In the last photo, you can see the blue carts used to haul guest suitcases up the Gondola to the hotel at the Sunshine Mountain Lodge.
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A better view of the carts in pic #3.
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Omega Cabins look really good with lattice towers! : )
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Are there any photos of the original Gondola out there?
A 1979 Gondola with an hourly capacity of 1,600 and a speed of 1,000fpm seems a bit ahead of its time! But then again, so was Von Roll.
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Here you go:
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Whoops, meant to give this photo of the top terminal:
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If you look closely in the back, beneath the tower, you can make out the former Wheeler double that was sold to Castle in 2004.
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Here you go:
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In 2012, some of the gondola cabins were damaged in a flood while sitting in the parking lot. The damaged gondola cabins got new ski carriers that allowed for fat skis. So it was mix 20 percent fat ski carriers and 80 percent skinny ski carriers. This season all the gondolas have fat ski carriers.
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More photos of the original Gondola (using a VR 104 clamp):
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In the first picture, you can see Goat’s Eye Mountain before they put the lift there.
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Here’s another picture showing Goat’s Eye before the expansion was realized.
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Interesting that all the lifts in the picture have been replaced one by one. It shows just how far SSV has gone in lift modernization.
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More photos of the original gondola (now operating in Iran)
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Where in Iran is it?
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https://www.remontees-mecaniques.net/bdd/reportage-tcv3x6-sofeh-von-roll-5908.html
There are now 2 gondolas: the lower one is detachable (and utilizes original VonRoll equipment from Sunshine), while the upper one is a pulse gondola with many Doppelmayr components.
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Phenomenal photos, Anybody knows how to put a picture in the comments, I don’t know how?
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When you’re writing a comment there should be a black plus sight to the right, and you can paste images from there. Or you could copy the link to the photo and just put it into a comment. Unfortunately my comments sometimes disappear when i try to do this, i think they’re getting caught in the spam filter.
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Yeah I guesse you are right. Thanks!
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How does getting to the village hotel work? What if you want to go out to dinner or something? Is the gondola closed?
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You can’t, the hotel has dining, but when the gondi is closed, it’s very isolated.
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There’s 3 restaurants in the Village after lifts close, but they do run the gondola until 9pm on Fridays so you could go into Banff and come back. Otherwise it runs until 6pm.
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Why did they repaint the terminals.
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To be honest, the old paint scheme was pretty bad, the black is so much nicer.
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What do you mean by “Vail gearbox”?
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