Webmaster
04-18-2007, 09:56 PM
By Kristin Jackson
Seattle Times travel staff
As it gears up for the 2010 Winter Olympics, Whistler ski resort is building a new gondola that will take skiers (and summer sightseers) swooping between its two adjacent mountains.
Called the Peak to Peak Gondola, it will have 28 cabins (each holding 28 people) and will connect the adjacent Whistler and Blackcomb mountains, taking about 11 minutes to travel the 2.7-mile route. It will let skiers and boarders easily enjoy both mountains, without having to descend to the valley floor and take lifts back up.
Despite its name, the new gondola won't really be peak to peak; it's more mid-mountain to upper mountain, going from Whistler's Roundhouse Lodge to Blackcomb's Rendezvous Lodge. Construction will begin next month and the gondola will open in December 2008 at the Canadian ski resort, about a two-hour drive north of Vancouver, B.C.
The gondola will give sweeping views and cross Fitzsimmons Creek, in the narrow valley that divides the two mountains, at a height of 1,361 feet — not for those nervous about heights. That's the world's greatest distance of a ski lift above a valley floor, according to Whistler spokeswoman Tabetha Booth. The gondola will have a free span — an unsupported stretch between towers on each side of the valley — of about 1.8 miles.
Earlier this season, the resort opened a new high-speed quad chairlift, Symphony Express, which gives access to high-alpine terrain on Whistler.
Get information on the new gondola at www.whistlerblackcomb.com/peaktopeak
source: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/travel/2003672011_webwhistler18.html
Seattle Times travel staff
As it gears up for the 2010 Winter Olympics, Whistler ski resort is building a new gondola that will take skiers (and summer sightseers) swooping between its two adjacent mountains.
Called the Peak to Peak Gondola, it will have 28 cabins (each holding 28 people) and will connect the adjacent Whistler and Blackcomb mountains, taking about 11 minutes to travel the 2.7-mile route. It will let skiers and boarders easily enjoy both mountains, without having to descend to the valley floor and take lifts back up.
Despite its name, the new gondola won't really be peak to peak; it's more mid-mountain to upper mountain, going from Whistler's Roundhouse Lodge to Blackcomb's Rendezvous Lodge. Construction will begin next month and the gondola will open in December 2008 at the Canadian ski resort, about a two-hour drive north of Vancouver, B.C.
The gondola will give sweeping views and cross Fitzsimmons Creek, in the narrow valley that divides the two mountains, at a height of 1,361 feet — not for those nervous about heights. That's the world's greatest distance of a ski lift above a valley floor, according to Whistler spokeswoman Tabetha Booth. The gondola will have a free span — an unsupported stretch between towers on each side of the valley — of about 1.8 miles.
Earlier this season, the resort opened a new high-speed quad chairlift, Symphony Express, which gives access to high-alpine terrain on Whistler.
Get information on the new gondola at www.whistlerblackcomb.com/peaktopeak
source: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/travel/2003672011_webwhistler18.html