page_title: Peak 2 Peak Gondola
section_title: Construction
hierarchical_section_title: Peak 2 Peak Gondola / Construction
caption_attribution_description: English: PEAK 2 PEAK Construction Whistler Terminal 2008
context_page_description: The Peak 2 Peak Gondola is a tricable gondola lift at Whistler Blackcomb Resort in Whistler, British Columbia, linking Whistler Mountain's Roundhouse Lodge with Blackcomb Mountain's Rendezvous Lodge. It is the first lift to join the two side-by-side mountains. It held the world record for the longest free span between ropeway towers—3.03 kilometres until 2017 when the Eibsee Cable Car exceeded it by 189m. It is still the highest point above the ground—436 metres The Peak 2 Peak Gondola was built by the Doppelmayr Garaventa Group in 2007 and 2008 at a cost of CDN$51 million. The Peak 2 Peak Gondola is the first Doppelmayr "3S" tri-cable lift in North America; there are four similar but smaller lifts in Europe which were built in 1991, 1994, 2002, 2004 and 2010 in Switzerland, Austria, France and Germany. Whistler-Blackcomb has touted the gondola as an iconic attraction and uses it to transport skiers in the winter months as well as sightseers year round.
context_section_description: Whistler-Blackcomb broke ground for the Peak 2 Peak Gondola in a ceremony on May 21, 2007. The Doppelmayr Garaventa Group would supply the gondola itself and Timberline Construction was the general contractor and Glotman Simpson were the Consulting Engineers. Fatzer AG of Switzerland would make the four track cables and one haul rope that would carry the gondolas across the valley while CWA, also of Switzerland, would build the 28 gondola cabins.
  80 workers from Whistler Blackcomb, Doppelmayr Garaventa, Timberline Construction and North Construction worked throughout the summer of 2007. Work completed on the Blackcomb side by that summer included the relocation of the top terminals of the Solar Coaster Express and Catskinner chairlifts on Blackcomb, excavation of both terminal locations, foundations for both terminals, foundations for all four intermediate towers, and steel erection of towers 2 and 3.  Construction stopped for the winter in November 2007.
  During the winter, the remaining two gondola towers and each terminal’s machinery were built at the Garaventa factory in Goldau, Switzerland and the Doppelmayr factories in Wolfurt, Austria and St. Jerome, Quebec. Fatzer AG manufactured the four track cables and haul rope that would suspend the gondola cabins. The five spools of cable left Europe by ship on April 10, 2008. By the time construction started again in the spring of 2008, ten feet of snow still covered the mountains and concrete had to be transported up the mountain by helicopter. Towers 4 and 1 were completed in early spring using mobile cranes.
  The five cables arrived in the Port of Vancouver, Washington, USA on June 9 and were shipped to Whistler via train, arriving on June 16. Vancouver, Washington was used because it owns the largest mobile harbour crane on the West Coast of North America.  To handle the 90-tonne reels, a German-made Goldhofer heavy-haulage trailer and tractor made its way from Montreal, QC to Whistler to take care of the transport from the train yard up the mountain.  The Goldhofer trailer has four sections with six axles, each. Each axle has eight wheels. The trailer also features a hydraulic sliding system, which enabled the reels to be unloaded from the railcars in Whistler without a crane. Since there is no crane to lift each reel onto the truck, this trailer features sliding steel plates that essentially scoop the load from the train and set it onto the trailer deck.  The five cables were trucked up Blackcomb Mountain for pulling across the valley starting June 19.  Their entire 18,000-mile (29,000 km) journey from Switzerland to the top of Blackcomb Mountain was coordinated by OmniTrans Corporation.
  Each track cable was winched down Blackcomb Mountain to the valley floor, then up Whistler Mountain. While the cables were pulled for twelve straight weeks, terminal construction continued with the gondola machinery being mounted on concrete foundations. The drive terminal on Whistler Mountain had the gondola’s motors installed in an underground vault.  After the gondola machinery was installed, steel enclosures were constructed and covered with a blue, translucent material.
  On August 29 and 30, the two ends of the haul rope were spliced together in a 220-foot (67 m) braid to form a continuous loop that could pull the cabins.  The splice was performed by Norm Duke of Wyoming, who is one of only a few splicers in North America.  The splicing process took 14 workers from Whistler-Blackcomb and Doppelmayr Garaventa over 15 hours to complete.  The 28 sky cabins arrived in Whistler starting on August 26.  The first twelve cabins crossed the span on September 19, 2008 with a single Doppelmayr engineer, Mathias Zudrell, aboard. The remaining cabins were put on line and the system underwent extensive testing until its Grand Opening on December 12, 2008.
caption: The Peak 2 Peak Gondola's Whistler Terminal under construction in July 2008.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot SD500", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "1980:01:01 00:01:18", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "196", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "5108", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4745", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/160", "EXIF FNumber": "8", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "1980:01:01 00:01:18", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "1980:01:01 00:01:18", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "5", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "117/16", "EXIF ApertureValue": "6", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "29/8", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "10487/1000", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3072", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2304", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "3072", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "2304", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "2214", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "768000/71", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "768000/71", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}