Peak 2 Peak Gondola
Interesting facts
- The idea came from a 1997 trip to Zermatt, where the resort's managers saw lifts linking ski areas around the Matterhorn.
- Its four track cables weigh about 90 tonnes each, and the system carries some 26.5 kilometres of steel rope in total.
- The cables were made in Switzerland and shipped in 90-tonne reels that travelled about 18,000 miles to the top of Blackcomb Mountain.
- The ends of the haul rope were braided into a continuous loop with a 67-metre splice, a job that took 14 workers over 15 hours.
- Its two terminals are said to be the largest lift terminals in the world; the Blackcomb one alone contains 279 tonnes of steel.
- When construction resumed in spring 2008, three metres of snow still covered the mountains and concrete had to be flown up by helicopter.
- The gondola is built to run in winds of up to 80 km/h, and radar warns aircraft that stray too close to the cables.
- Each of the 28 cabins holds 28 people; 26 are painted red and white, while the two glass-floored cabins are blue.
- At the opening ceremony on 12 December 2008, members of the Red Bull Air Force BASE-jumped from the middle of the span.
- The line moves at 7.5 metres per second and can carry about 4,100 people per hour between the two mountains.
Why it is worth it
Between Whistler and Blackcomb mountains the ground falls away into the valley of Fitzsimmons Creek, and for most of the history of the two ski areas that gap meant a long descent and a long climb to get from one summit zone to the other. Since December 2008 the Peak 2 Peak Gondola has simply stepped across it. Its cabins leave Whistler's Roundhouse Lodge, swing out over the treetops and, after a few towers, launch into an unsupported stretch of cable more than three kilometres long before arriving at Blackcomb's Rendezvous Lodge eleven minutes later. At the deepest point of the crossing the cabin hangs about 436 metres above the valley floor.
It is a feat of engineering first. Built by the Doppelmayr Garaventa Group, the line is a tricable (3S) system — two fixed track ropes carry each cabin while a third rope hauls it — the first of its kind in North America. That design is what allows the enormous free span of about 3.03 km between the second and third towers, which stood as the longest in the world for a lift until the Eibsee cable car on the Zugspitze overtook it in 2017. The full line runs 4.4 km, on four towers, and the tallest of them are shaped so that skiers can pass beneath and through their legs on the runs below.
But the reason to ride it is the view. Out over the middle of the span the cabin is so high and so far from anything solid that the valley looks like a relief map: forest, creek and ski runs below, and the peaks of the Coast Mountains stretching away on every side. Two of the cabins have glass panels set into the floor, and many riders happily let a cabin or two go by to step into one of them. The gondola runs in winter for skiers and in summer for sightseers and hikers heading into the alpine on both mountains.
Getting there
The gondola links the upper stations of Whistler and Blackcomb mountains above Whistler Village in British Columbia. The nearest larger town is Squamish, about 44 km to the south along Highway 99, the Sea-to-Sky route. The nearest international airport is Vancouver International (YVR), about 99 km away in a straight line. The Roundhouse and Rendezvous lodges are reached by the gondolas that climb from the village.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
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 at 3.03 kilometres (1.88 mi) until 2017 when the Eibsee Cable Car exceeded it by 189 metres (620 ft). It is still the highest point above the ground in a gondola at 436 metres, although a temporary aerial tramway in Switzerland used between 1979 and 1986 had larger span. The gondola was built by the Doppelmayr Garaventa Group in 2007 and 2008 at a cost of CDN$51 million. The Gondola is the first Doppelmayr "3S" tri-cable lift in North America; there are six similar but smaller lifts in Europe which were built in 1991, 1994, 2002, 2004, 2010, and 2024 in Switzerland, Austria, France and Germany. Whistler Blackcomb promotes the gondola as an attraction and uses it to transport skiers in the winter months, as well as sightseers year-round.
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