Big Sky opened a new tram to Lone Peak on December 19, 2023.Tower 1 near the summit terminal.
Motor room with two motors, two diesel backups and braking systems.Diesel engine powering a hydrostatic drive.Backup drive system.Direct controls.Tram monitoring screen from Frey AG Stans.Cabin 2 in black.Bottom tram dock.View up the lift line with only one tower.Blue cabin 1 arriving at the bottom station.View leaving the drive terminal.Cabin 1 at the half way point.CWA cabin for 75 passengers.One of four bullwheels in the bottom station.Lower station overview.Cabin 2 with the old tram station in the background.Drive station in the first season before being enclosed.The lone tower on Lone Peak.Both cabins passing.Lower part of the lift line.Front side of a cabin.Parallelogram-shaped cabin.View riding up the line.Passing tower 1.Arriving at the top station.Cabin with removeable seating and panoramic windows.Cabin 1 in the top station.Upper dock with center-only loading.Big Sky branded bollard covers.Cabin 2 leaving the upper station at 11,144 feet.View down from the summit.Tram cabin arriving at the summit.Unloading area at the top station.This lift has no active tensioning but can be manually adjusted at the top station.New tram cabin in front of the old Lone Peak Tram top station.Top view of a cabin.Carriage with charging rails.During the summer of 2024, the bottom terminal was enclosed with glass.Updated bottom station.Striking glass enclosure.Another view of the roof structure.For the 2025-26 season, the top dock was enclosed in glass with the Kircliff observation deck opening on the second floor.The blue tram with Kircliff.Glass-enclosed top station.Upper station with automatic platform doors installed.Completed top station.
Based on that image, it looks like the two structures would ultimately connect via the bottom floor of the restaurant/lodge that’s between the gondola and tram?
To someone who is used to a venerable old Agudio tram built in 1979 with a couple of parts missing (a seat pad, for example) and most of the cabin lights burned out, not to mention the fact that the wind speed and rope speed displays are never calibrated, this shiny new Doppelmayr tram looks like it soared out of a dream. Or Europe (which it did).
A gondola has many cabins that detach from the cable within the terminal and turn around to return the opposite direction, leading to a circular cabin circulation. A tram has 2 cabins, one on each cable. When one cabin goes up, the other comes down. This creates a back and forth movement, where the cabins stop and start reversing at the terminals.
Additionally, there are other types of gondolas that look like combinations of the two, most prominently:
3S gondolas are huge installations that operate like a gondola but have similar cabins to a tram.
liftblog.com/peak-2-peak-gondola-whistler-blackcomb-bc/
Funitels are large cabins that hang in between two moving cables. These circulate like a Gondola.
liftblog.com/gold-coast-funitel-squaw-valley-ca/
Small correction, not all pulse gondolas run back and forth like a tram. Some are set up similar to a fixed grip chairlift lift and slow down to a crawl to load and unload passengers at each terminal/station.
Plan is for that work to be done summer 2025 to open alongside the gondola. The enclosure for the bottom station will be completed this summer. Scope increases as well as the insane amount of on mountain construction this summer made it infeasible to do it all at once.
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I believe the tram’s bottom terminal is designed so that the Challenger Gondola’s terminal can be integrated into it. Or have those plans changed?
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For starters, Explorer is the lift that Big Sky is replacing with the gondola, not Challenger.
As for integrating it into the terminal, the top of the gondola is going to be on the other side of a lodge/restaurant that is planned for this area so the trams bottom terminal isn’t really affected by the gondola. Here is a link to an image with the gondola off to the left, and the tram on the right: https://bigskyresortimageresizer.azureedge.net/Images/Big%20Sky/Big%20Sky%202025/Projects/Future/Cirque-8.jpg
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Based on that image, it looks like the two structures would ultimately connect via the bottom floor of the restaurant/lodge that’s between the gondola and tram?
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I think that’s what’s gonna happen.
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What are the charging rails for?
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They charge batteries that power the low voltage control system, touch screen, speakers, lights and communications.
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Oh yeah, I completely forgot about all of that.
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This new tram alignment is a little less scary than the old tram.
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Very good looking piece of equipment!
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To someone who is used to a venerable old Agudio tram built in 1979 with a couple of parts missing (a seat pad, for example) and most of the cabin lights burned out, not to mention the fact that the wind speed and rope speed displays are never calibrated, this shiny new Doppelmayr tram looks like it soared out of a dream. Or Europe (which it did).
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Three out of the four of those wind and rope speed displays are now calibrated, it’s bound to happen sometimes….
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No active tension on either track or haul ropes? Never seen that anywhere. Definitely not the old style Jigback trams
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Was so happy to ride the old beer cans before they were retired. Excited for the new days to come
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Does anyone know how high the tram is off the ground at the highest point? Has Big Sky provided any statistics?
Seems like it must be quite a bit more than the old tram from the photos, but kind of hard to tell.
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It varies depending on load and temperature, but for a good chunk of the span over the bowl is 350 feet off the ground.
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What’s the difference between a gondola and a tram?
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A gondola has many cabins that detach from the cable within the terminal and turn around to return the opposite direction, leading to a circular cabin circulation. A tram has 2 cabins, one on each cable. When one cabin goes up, the other comes down. This creates a back and forth movement, where the cabins stop and start reversing at the terminals.
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Note that on a tram, only one of the 3 cables move, while the others stay put.
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Additionally, there are other types of gondolas that look like combinations of the two, most prominently:
3S gondolas are huge installations that operate like a gondola but have similar cabins to a tram.
liftblog.com/peak-2-peak-gondola-whistler-blackcomb-bc/
Funitels are large cabins that hang in between two moving cables. These circulate like a Gondola.
liftblog.com/gold-coast-funitel-squaw-valley-ca/
Funifors are like funitels, but go back and forth, like a tram.
https://www.remontees-mecaniques.net/bdd/reportage-fun-v-de-thorens-bartholet-4705.html
Pulse gondolas are like a Gondola, but goes back and forth.
liftblog.com/gondalita-taos-nm/
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I realize my mistake now, a Funifor is not what I said it was, it is actually more like a dual haul trams.
https://www.remontees-mecaniques.net/bdd/reportage-fuf-100-falginjoch-doppelmayr-7958.html
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Small correction, not all pulse gondolas run back and forth like a tram. Some are set up similar to a fixed grip chairlift lift and slow down to a crawl to load and unload passengers at each terminal/station.
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a jig-back gondola would refer to your previous description, pulses go around the bullwheel.
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Thank you both!
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Will the glass viewing platform at the top be completed this summer?
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Plan is for that work to be done summer 2025 to open alongside the gondola. The enclosure for the bottom station will be completed this summer. Scope increases as well as the insane amount of on mountain construction this summer made it infeasible to do it all at once.
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