Snowboarding
Post 301: Whistler Plans Peak to Peak Gondola
Well, this post marks #301! Woohoo! Thanks for following along on my adventures and news so far. 
So here’s the deal: Whistler has formally announced their peak-to-peak gondola, a 4.4 kilometre ride, connecting the top of Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains.
That is insane!
A few details about the ride: it will only be 11 minutes (it takes much longer to get to the top of Whistler or Blackcomb from the base today), it will use 28 tram-style ‘cabins’, and at one point it will hover almost half a kilometre above the ground. For tourists, it will be one hell of a ride. For skiers and snowboarders, this really opens both mountains for use in a single day. Currently, you need to ride to the bottom of one and travel up the other if you want to do both in one day, and this is time-consuming. This new ride will eliminate that issue.
This being an expensive venture, I have to wonder if the ride will be included in a regular lift pass. Somehow I doubt it. So doing both mountains in one day will probably be more expensive, but imagine the flexibility in deciding to move to the other mountain because one is more crowded than the other. I would pay for that. The most popular question among riders in Whistler is, “Which one did you do today [Whistler or Blackcomb?].” Doing both is going to become much easier.
Oh, and it’s going to get built quickly, too — way before the Olympics. Construction will start next month, and the new ride is expected to open in December 2008.
The red line denotes the proposed path trail.
Discussion
2 comments for “Post 301: Whistler Plans Peak to Peak Gondola”
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I hope you’re right that they’ll charge extra for access to that gondola, rather than hiking lift prices across the board …
JB
[...] has been made about the new Peak-to-Peak gondola currently under construction in Whistler. The gondola, which is scheduled to be completed later [...]