Forum Index > Trail Talk > Gondola cable cut, 30+ cars destroyed. Again.
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Malachai Constant
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PostFri Sep 18, 2020 12:35 pm 
The original proposal for NCNP included a tramway up Ruby Mountain, it was never built.

"You do not laugh when you look at the mountains, or when you look at the sea." Lafcadio Hearn
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altasnob
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PostFri Sep 18, 2020 12:45 pm 
Ya, Ruby is not seeing a tram anytime soon. But at least that summit is outside of the National Park and outside of the wilderness area. There is some kind of monitoring/radio station on the summit. I believe the summit is in the Ross Lake National Recreation area. If they allow a dam inside the national recreation area, they would allow a tram (if there was money to support it, which there is not).

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jinx'sboy
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PostFri Sep 18, 2020 1:02 pm 
Yes, now that you mention - I do recall Ruby. But, I thought there was another - further east and outside the NC Nat Park boundaries.

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slabbyd
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PostFri Sep 18, 2020 1:07 pm 
It also proposed a paved road up the north fork of the Nooksack and a tram to the ridgeline above Price Lake. That would have been different.

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ArcDome
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PostFri Sep 18, 2020 1:18 pm 
You are probably referring to the Mazama ski resort. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-03-08-me-5982-story.html

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jinx'sboy
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PostFri Sep 18, 2020 3:07 pm 
No, it was not Early Winters resort.

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Malachai Constant
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PostFri Sep 18, 2020 6:57 pm 
There were also proposed helicopter landing pads proposed for excursions, last time I was there one was constructed near Lousy Lake at the end of Luna Creek.

"You do not laugh when you look at the mountains, or when you look at the sea." Lafcadio Hearn
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Seattle_Wayne
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PostMon Sep 21, 2020 6:23 am 
Schenk wrote:
Love it, or hate it, vandalism won't make it go away and serves to only make them use more resources to replace the cable.
Maybe, maybe not. At $5-10 million a shot every time this happens, and added expense for security systems, etc eventually it'll be more trouble then it's worth. They can keep increasing the ticket prices to help pay for this but...eventually they'll price people out.

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Gil
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PostMon Sep 21, 2020 7:27 am 
This gondola was opened 12 years ago. Why destroy it now? The danger to people and the damage involved in removing the wreckage from the valley below argues against this. Neither of those ski areas is going away. That gondola has arguably the smallest footprint of any of the lifts.

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InFlight
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PostMon Sep 21, 2020 7:41 am 
Malachai Constant wrote:
Those cables are not easy to cut.
There are battery powered angle grinders that would make quick work out of cutting a one inch stranded steel cable. Complete stupidity, this is a heavily used ski and summer recreation area. Yes, Ski areas are largely cleared of timber, but it's a balance of wilderness usage. There are lots of remote wilderness areas in BC.

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately...” ― Henry David Thoreau
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altasnob
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PostMon Sep 21, 2020 8:26 am 
Gil wrote:
This gondola was opened 12 years ago. Why destroy it now?
My research shows it opened in 2014. First cut in 2019. Cut again in 2020. Also, this gondola is not for a ski area and does not provide any easily accessible ski terrain. At the peak of winter one can find a bit of snow at the top and hike into more snowy alpine zones from the top. And there are some hiking trails that start at the top in the summer. But as I understand, the gondola was built primarily for site seeing, not recreation.

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Gil
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PostTue Sep 22, 2020 8:38 am 
Thanks for the correction -- I was thinking of gondola between Whistler-Blackcomb. Still, why now, years later? Covid-lockdown boredom?

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RumiDude
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PostTue Sep 22, 2020 10:44 pm 
altasnob wrote:
But as I understand, the gondola was built primarily for site seeing, not recreation.
My pedantic personality wishes to quibble a bit. Sightseeing is a type of recreation. Rumi

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treeswarper
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PostWed Sep 23, 2020 12:50 pm 
InFlight wrote:
Malachai Constant wrote:
Those cables are not easy to cut.
There are battery powered angle grinders that would make quick work out of cutting a one inch stranded steel cable. Complete stupidity, this is a heavily used ski and summer recreation area. Yes, Ski areas are largely cleared of timber, but it's a balance of wilderness usage. There are lots of remote wilderness areas in BC.
I would assume there would be a bit of spronging and whipping of the cable if there was any tension on it, and the cars would provide that. Maybe not. I've seen skyline cables break. It gets pretty exciting and one dives to the ground, preferable behind a big stump. The person doing the cutting has to know where to cut, or will be found dead or injured if they keep it up. I also expect they would cut it at a tower, where the spronging might be less and their access would be easier.

What's especially fun about sock puppets is that you can make each one unique and individual, so that they each have special characters. And they don't have to be human––animals and aliens are great possibilities
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jinx'sboy
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PostWed Sep 23, 2020 1:14 pm 
treeswarper wrote:
I would assume there would be a bit of spronging and whipping of the cable if there was any tension on it
I was thinking the same thing. There are many thousands of pounds of tension on such a wire rope system. Anyone casually taking an angle grinder to that type of rope would probably be decapitated. I saw a small surface ski lift, without much tension on it, come apart during a deropement. It was maybe just 7/16” wire rope, and it was violent enough. I don't know how easy they are to get ahold of, but there are explosive cable cutters, used in marine, aircraft and space situations. Like these: https://psemc.com/products/pyrotechnic-cutter/

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