ecosign

www.isr.at 

DECEMBER 2008 

INTERNATIONAL ROPEWAY REVIEW 

Special

PEAK 2 PEAK GONDOLA 

The Peak 2 Peak Gondola is a record-setting 3S (3 ropes) aerial tramway that was constructed 

by Doppelmayr during the summers of 2007 and 2008.This ropeway connects the Rendezvous 

Restaurant on Blackcomb Mountain with the Roundhouse Restaurant on Whistler Mountain in 

Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. 

The total length of this new ropeway is 

4.4 kilometers and the 28-passenger 

gondola cabins traverse the Fitzsimmons 

Valley in approximately eleven minutes. 

The highest point off the ground, in the 

center of the span, is 436 meters above Fitzsimmons 

Creek. The Peak 2 Peak Gondola 

will hold four new world records: 

● 4.4 km – longest lift of its type 

● 3024 kilometers – longest length of unsupported 

span 

● 436 meters – highest point above the 

ground for a cable system 

● 13.56 km – longest connected tourist 

ropeway system 

History – the big idea 

The genesis of the Peak 2 Peak Gondola 

occurred on February 17, 1997 when 

Hugh Smythe, President of Intrawest Resort 

Operation Group, and Paul Mathews, 

President of Ecosign Mountain Resort 

Planners Ltd., based in Whistler, British 

Columbia, were on a technical visit to 

Switzerland. After inspecting the new 150passenger 

aerial tramway from Blauherd to 

Rothhorn in Zermatt, they were in a helicopter 

on a flight towards the famed Matterhorn, 

and Mathews pointed out a silver 

thread in the sunlight which links the 

Trockener Steg station to the Klein Matterhorn. 

Mathews commented that the distance 

between the last tower on Mayer’s 

Plateau to the Klein Matterhorn was 2.7 

kilometers. Smythe asked the relevance of 

that fact and Mathews replied, “That is the 

same distance from the bottom of the Harmony 

Chair on Whistler Mountain to the 

bottom of the 7th Heaven Express on 

Blackcomb Mountain.” The big idea for 

the P2P was born that day. 

Mathews’ company, Ecosign, has been responsible 

for master planning at Whistler 

and Blackcomb since the mid 1970s. Upon 

returning home from Switzerland, Mathews 

and Smythe commenced drawing up the 

first plans for a link between the two 

mountains. 

With the technology available in 1997, it 

was possible to achieve a capacity of 1125 

persons per hour with a 125-passenger aerial 

tramway cabin or 1350 persons per hour 

with a 150-passenger cabin. The thought in 

those days was that this would just be a link 

for skiers and snowboarders during the winter. 

The initial concept was for a reversible 

aerial tramway to cross Fitzsimmons Valley 

with no intermediate support tower. The 

cost of about CAD $15 million dollars 

(1997) seemed astronomical at the time, 

but the concept was intriguing. 

Is the Peak 2 Peak a ski lift, a transportation 

solution or just a big WOW factor? 

Actually, Ecosign and Whistler/Blackcomb 

believe that the Peak 2 Peak Gondola is all 

three. 

A fantastic ski lift 

Hugh Smythe has always described 

Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains as two 

large mushrooms sitting side by side. There 

is the slender stalk up to a large cap on each 

mountain, with the stalk representing the 

access systems from the valley floor and the 

mushroom caps representing the large 

alpine bowls on each mountain. Both 

Whistler and Blackcomb have three major 

climatic zones, delineated by elevation: the 

lower mountain, from 775m up to about 

1250 meters, the sub-alpine one from 1250 

to 1900 meters, and the alpine zone rising 

up to 2250 meters. Blackcomb has two access 

systems, the Excalibur Gondola from 

Whistler Village (with an angle station at 

Base II) and the Wizard Chair from the 

Blackcomb Benchlands. Blackcomb has 

four high-alpine zones including 7th Heaven, 

Jersey Cream Bowl, the Horstman Glacier 

and the Blackcomb Glacier. The capacity 

of the sub-alpine and alpine zones on 

Blackcomb Mountain is 13,500 skiers per 

day. Whistler Mountain currently has three 

access systems including one from Whistler 

Creekside, at 650 meters elevation, up to 

the Roundhouse, at 1,835 meters, and two 

from Whistler Village: the Whistler Village 

Express Gondola and the Fitzsimmons and 

Garbanzo detachable quad chairlifts. 

Whistler has five alpine bowls: West Bowl, 

Whistler Bowl, Glacier Bowl, Harmony 

Bowl and Symphony Bowl. Whistler has a 

capacity of about 18,000 skiers per day in 

the sub-alpine and alpine zones. Hence, the 

reference to two large mushrooms. 

The mountains are so large and total journey 

time from Whistler Peak or Blackcomb 

Peak down to Whistler Village and back up 

the companion mountain is so long that 

skiers generally choose one mountain over 

the other on any given day. It is also very 

inconvenient to change from one mountain 

to the other in response to the conditions 

such as fog, blowing snow, wind or simply 

crowding. The Peak 2 Peak Gondola will 

change all of that forever! Customers will be 

able to change mountains at high elevation, 

from one mountain restaurant to the other, 

in just eleven minutes. 

A transportation solution 

Concurrent with the first idea for the Peak 

2 Peak Gondola, Ecosign was hired by the 

Resort Municipality of Whistler to draw up 

a comprehensive transportation strategy for 

the resort. The thinking then was that it 

would be necessary to build a road from 

Function Junction, at the entrance of the 

Resort Municipality of Whistler, that bypassed 

Whistler Creekside to move large 

flows of traffic directly to Whistler Village. 

This by-pass road, including intersections 

and bridges, had an estimated cost of about 

CAD $85 million (1997 dollars). It was also 

considered that Highway 99, within the 

Resort, would almost surely have to be 

widened to four lanes to accommodate the 

ever increasing volume of traffic. Armed 

with the new idea for the Peak 2 Peak, 

Mathews and consulting transportation engineer 

Reid Crowther built a model of the

transportation and traffic systems to show 

that, with the Peak 2 Peak, it was unlikely 

that these large and expensive highway upgrades 

would be necessary. If the Peak 2 

Peak tramway were built, day skiers and 

overnight guests could simply go to the lift 

closest to their parking lot or accommodation 

and quickly access the mountain of 

their choice, or even ski both mountains. 

Whistler and Blackcomb have five entry 

portals: Whistler Creekside, Whistler Village 

to Whistler Mountain, Whistler Village 

to Blackcomb Mountain, the Wizard base 

to Blackcomb Mountain and Base II on 

Blackcomb. Without the Peak 2 Peak, people 

parking or sleeping in any one of these 

five neighbourhoods or entry portals normally 

must move by car or bus to the portal 

of their choice. The transportation model 

proved that a ropeway across the valley connecting 

the two mountains could save the 

Resort Municipality of Whistler the huge 

expense and the environmental impacts of a 

four-lane highway bisecting Whistler Valley. 

While certain people wonder at the cost of 

the Peak 2 Peak Gondola, Whistler/Blackcomb 

may well have saved local taxpayers 

something in the order of CAD $100 million. 

A big WOW factor 

We are confident that the Peak 2 Peak Gondola 

will substantially increase the attractiveness 

of Whistler and Blackcomb. When 

visitors travel up the Wizard and Solar 

Coaster high-speed chairlifts to the Rendezvous 

Restaurant on Blackcomb Mountain, 

cross the Fitzsimmons Valley to reach 

the Roundhouse Restaurant on Whistler 

Mountain and then ride back down 5 kilometers 

on the Whistler Express to Whistler 

Village, these summer and winter tourists 

will have traveled 13.6 kilometers on a connected 

aerial ropeway system. This will provide 

unsurpassed views of the resort in the 

valley and the pristine wilderness of the 

glaciers in Garibaldi Park and will provide 

unique mountain experiences for people of 

all ages from around the world. 

Ecosign’s responsibility for the 

Peak 2 Peak 

�� 

l Development of the general concept 

l Refinement of the concept with the 

Whistler/Blackcomb management team 

l Evaluation of different systems 

l Detailed terminal site planning 

Paul Mathews 

�� 

ISR: What were 

the main challenges 

in handling 

the project? 

P. Mathews: The 

main challenge 

was to convince 

anyone that this 

amazing lift 

made sense. Lat- 

INTERVIEW 

Paul E. Mathews, President, 

Ecosign Mountain 

Resort Planners Ltd. 

er the challenge was financing CAD 52 

million then finally, logistics as how to 

get all of that steel, concrete and ropes 

up the mountains. 

How long did the planning phase last? 

From Feb. 1997 until 2007 when construction 

began. 

Is Peak2Peak the limit for ropeway engineering, 

or are there even bigger 

things to come? 

So far as I understand it, this is quite at 

the limit of current technology. It will 

hold 4 world records; total length, free 

span, height above the ground and total 

connected tourist ropeway of 13.6 km. 

Will there be larger, higher, longer lifts in 

the future? Sure. 

Photo: Ecosign

Photos:Whistler Blackcomb 

Operating Company – 

Dave Brownlie, President and 

CEO, Whistler Blackcomb 

ISR: What prompted 

your company to 

launch this exciting 

project? 

D. Brownlie: We 

asked ourselves 

many questions and 

challenged our current business model by 

asking the following: Who is our customer 

today and who will our customer be in the 

future? How will we grow our business beyond 

the 2010 Games? How do we leverage 

our unique assets? How will we differentiate 

ourselves in the market place? How can we 

drive our business all year round? As we answered 

those questions, we started to get very 

excited about the opportunity of joining our 

two mountains with the Peak 2Peak Gondola. 

What makes Peak 2 Peak so special for you 

as the operator? 

The Peak 2 Peak will dramatically enhance 

the guest experience on our mountains both 

in winter and summer. With Peak 2 Peak 

more will be accessible to all of our guests 

every day, including variety, snow, glaciers, 

bowls and restaurants. The Peak 2 Peak will 

be one more reason that Whistler Blackcomb 

is the No. 1 resort in the world. On a professional 

basis, the planning, development, construction 

and operation of a lift of this size 

and scale is a wonderful opportunity. 

And what makes it special for the user? 

In the winter time it is about the experience 

on the mountain, and Peak 2 Peak joins all 

of what Whistler Blackcomb have to offer 

every day in an 11-minute ride. In the summer, 

the Peak 2 Peak will be a must see must 

do attraction with its unsurpassed views of 

both rugged alpine rock and ice on one side 

and a resort village nestled between the two 

mountains on the other. At 4.4 kilometres in 

length and a 3 km free span the Gondola 

breaks three world records; an engineering 

feat in itself. 

Whistler Blackcomb Interviews 

Stuart Rempel, Senior VP of 

Marketing and Sales, Whistler 

Blackcomb 

ISR: Peak2Peak is 

already being touted 

as the new hallmark 

of Whistler 

Blackcomb. What 

impacts do you 

think the new installation 

will have 

on tourism in the 

region as a whole? 

S. Rempel: Whistler Blackcomb’s new Peak 

2 Peak Gondola will become a year-round 

attraction for Whistler and will become 

Canada’s and British Columbia’s newest 

tourism icon. It will clearly differentiate 

Whistler from any other resort in North 

America. Whistler is already one of the 

most popular mountain resort destinations. 

Awareness of Whistler and the Peak 2 Peak 

Gondola will benefit greatly from international 

exposure from the 2010 Olympic 

and Paralympic Winter Games. 

Photo:Whistler Blackcomb 

Arthur DeJong, Mountain Planning 

and Environmental Resource 

Manager, Whistler Blackcomb 

ISR: The ecological 

footprint of a project 

is now a decisive 

factor in the 

field of leisure 

amenities. What 

environmental impact 

did the Peak 

to Peak Gondola have on your resort? 

A. Dejong: Clearly the most significant 

portion of the Peak 2 Peak footprint is the 

terminals. Both terminals were placed in a 

preexisting development area, dramatically 

reducing the net impact. Lift line width 

ranged from 10 to 20 meters, facilitating 

the lay-out and placement of cable. The 

overall footprint of Peak 2 Peak is very 

comparable to a typical detachable quad 

placement on Whistler Blackcomb.

Doug Forseth, Senior VP of Operations 

for Whistler Blackcomb 

ISR: Can you tell us 

something about the 

planning process 

and the financial 

side? How long did 

the planning phase 

last? Were there any 

special problems? 

And what level of 

capital spending are we talking about? 

D. Forseth: The general idea was born in 

the late 1990s when Hugh Smythe (Senior 

VP of Mountain Resorts, Intrawest) was in 

Europe looking at ski areas with Paul Mathews, 

president of Ecosign Mountain Planners. 

Intrawest had recently purchased 

Whistler Mountain and Hugh was dreaming 

about connecting Whistler and Blackcomb 

Mountains at the alpine elevations. 

More formal planning got underway in 

2005 when discussions started with Doppelmayr 

and Ecosign about what type of 

lift(s) might be used to connect the two 

mountains from the restaurant elevations of 

Whistler and Blackcomb. Envisioning sessions 

were conducted with numerous Intrawest/Whistler 

Blackcomb entities to 

brainstorm what we thought the project 

might look like and to vet all possible options. 

Several Whistler Blackcomb and 

Doppelmayr people did a field trip to 

Kitzbuhel, Austria to see first hand a similar 

3S gondola in operation. Terminal locations 

and various combinations of lift equipment 

were considered but ultimately the jig-back 

tram (like Grouse Mountain) was the chosen 

solution and today’s location of the terminals 

on each mountain was determined. 

Numerous activities were undertaken in the 

summer of 2005: 

a) Geotechnical studies were completed. 

b) Initial business plans were drafted to 

make the business case for this investment. 

One of the outcomes was that the jig-back 

tram concept would very quickly prove to 

have inadequate capacity and therefore was 

not a good response to this opportunity. 

Doppelmayr then proposed their 3S Gondola 

technology, which more than doubled 

the capacity. The decision to go for a different 

type of ropeway was a $20 million 

change. So it was back to the business case 

for consideration of what the additional 

cost and increased capacity meant for the 

viability of the project. But it still penciled 

out and we continued to plan and seek Intrawest’s 

final approval for the project. 

c) Doppelmayr was funded to carry out 

the preliminary technical design of the 

newly selected 3S Gondola. Their work included 

foundation designs, ground profile 

surveys, code issues, cabin configuration, 

airplane warning systems, transportation of 

the ropes and lift components from Europe 

to Whistler, evacuation systems and production/installation 

schedules. 

Applications for the project were lodged 

with the British Columbia Provincial government 

early in the fall of 2005, with approvals 

received about four months later. 

In 2006 a selection was made to choose 

Cannon Designs as the architects of the terminal 

structures. and the initial concepts 

were developed. 

Community consultation was performed in 

late 2005 and early 2006 to explain the 

project to the citizens of Whistler, BC. Presentations 

were also made to the local municipal 

government in order to get their approval 

and support. 

During 2006, Intrawest Corporation had 

launched a review of where the company 

was best positioned to move ahead. All options 

were being considered, and by late 

summer it was becoming obvious that in 

fact Intrawest Corporation was likely to be 

sold. Commitment to a $51 million project 

would obviously have a material effect on 

the sale, and it was decided to suspend the 

project until the future direction of Intrawest 

Corporation was settled. Discussions 

were undertaken with the prospective 

buyer Fortress to advise them of the Peak 2 

Peak project and the possibilities/commitments 

that would come with the project. 

Business plans were shared with Fortress in 

an attempt to bring them into the picture 

and provide them with essential information. 

With a possible construction start in 

May 2007, it was essential that no time be 

lost. Design work still needed to be completed 

on the lift equipment as well as the 

terminal structures. The sale of Intrawest 

was completed in late October 2006 and 

Fortress as the new owners immediately put 

their minds to seriously reviewing the Peak 

2 Peak business plan. After about 90 days of 

review, Fortress gave their approval to continue 

the project. Construction commenced 

in May 2007 and Phase One was wrapped 

up in early November of that year. The primary 

goal of Phase One was to have all of 

the concrete poured for both terminals and 

all four towers as well as erecting towers 2 

and 3. Tough early winter conditions hampered 

the construction schedule in September 

and October 2007. Roads had to be 

plowed, and moving concrete to the alpine 

was a difficult task. However, all but three 

concrete pours were completed and that left 

us in a good position to resume construction 

in April 2008. Construction was completed 

by fall 2008. 

5

Photo: R. O’Neill 

INTERVIEWS 

Peter Luger, project manager 

ISR: What were the main challenges in the implementation 

of the project? 

P. Luger: With such a mega project, there are very 

many constantly changing challenges. I would like 

to limit my remarks here to what I found to be the 

three biggest. 

Developing the project, planning the ropeway engineering and observing 

the work schedules: With its 3km span, a new and highly aesthetic tower 

design in the form of tubular lattice work, and the need for close collaboration 

with the management at Whistler / Blackcomb and the local planners, 

the project was basically one long challenge. And the nine hours time difference 

also helped to ensure that my working day was often very long. 

Collaboration with the Canadian ropeway authority (BCSA) and the individual 

rulings required to get the 3S system approved constituted a further 

challenge that needed my attention throughout. The Canadian ropeway 

code does not cover such an innovative and complex system as a 3S gondola. 

That made it necessary to submit requests for variances for all the items 

where the Peak 2 Peak diverges from Canada’s CAN/CSA Z98-01. 

On-site installation and co-ordination of the work has also been one of the 

main challenges in the last two years. With the help of the fantastic, highly 

motivated teams from Austria, Canada and Switzerland, we really rose to 

this challenge! The installation team leaders in particular did a superb job; 

I merely had to provide the support. 

Could you briefly describe the main phases of the work on site? 

Erection of towers 3 and 2 in the period from 27 August to 21 October 

2007. That meant we achieved our goal for the first year on site before the 

snows came. 

Installation of the terminal systems in May and June 2008. At the same 

time towers 1 and 4 were erected, and the finishing touches put to towers 2 

and 3, which are 62.5 m high. In the first five weeks, the terminal installation 

team from Wolfurt and Canada showed such commitment that they 

were able to make up for the two-week delay to the commencement of 

works caused by the amount of snow on the ground. 

Transporting the ropes from the Fatzer plant in Romanshorn to the top of 

Blackcomb Mountain. 

Rope stringing from May to September 2008. The complex preparations 

for stringing were performed simultaneously with installation of the terminal 

and line equipment. And stringing could begin the moment the first 

track rope arrived at the terminal. That was a real challenge for our Swiss 

colleagues from Garaventa, and it was handled with perfect planning and 

organization. 

Installation of the electrical systems for the Peak 2 Peak Gondola and the 

four evacuation gondolas from mid-June to the end of September 2008. 

Installation and commissioning of the evacuation systems at the end of August 

and beginning of September 2008. 

Assembly and finishing work on the 28 carriers in September. 

Final adjustments and internal start-up of the complete installation in 

October. 

Final inspection and approval by the authorities in November, with the 

whole system ready to go right on time on 15 November 2008.

Warren Sparks, 

Executive Vice-President 

& General Manager 

Doppelmayr CTEC Ltd 

ISR: What do you think were the decisive 

criteria in choosing a Doppelmayr ropeway? 

W. Sparks: The Doppelmayr and Whistler 

Blackcomb relationship goes back to the mid 

1980s. Doppelmayr has supplied the majority 

of their 38 lifts. Doppelmayr developed 

the tricable gondola technology, which is the 

only product suitable for a profitable business 

model for the Peak to Peak ropeway 

link. Whistler is determined to be the best 

Michael Doppelmayr, CEO 

Doppelmayr/Garaventa Group 

ISR: The 3S Peak 2 Peak is now complete 

and it is one of the world’s most spectacular 

ropeways. How do you feel about it? 

M. Doppelmayr: Real good! The success of 

such a huge project can never be taken for 

granted. But in this case, everyone involved in 

the project did a fantastic job. My thanks go 

to Whistler and Blackcomb for placing their 

trust in us and giving us the opportunity to 

show just what we can do. I am grateful to all 

our subcontractors and partners who have 

contributed to the success of the project. And 

last but not least, I want to say a big thankyou 

to our employees, to our teams in Canada, 

Switzerland and Austria for their total 

commitment. It was the perfect interaction of 

all parties to the project that made it possible 

to rise to the challenge in such convincing 

style. I wish Whistler and Blackcomb every 

success with their operations, with a zero accident 

rate, and I wish the users a great time as 

they enjoy the feeling of flying! 

What is the position of the 3S system within 

the Doppelmayr product portfolio? 

The 3S is a very important system for us – for 

one thing because we are still the only ropeway 

manufacturer worldwide to have actually 

built such a ropeway. We have been able to 

further develop the 3S system thanks to the 

know-how of our group affiliate VonRoll. And 

of course, our pioneering role with this system 

also strengthens our position as the technolog- 

ski area in the world and so they chose the 

best ropeway manufacturer in the world. 

How long did the negotiations last? 

We have been looking at a solution for the 

Peak to Peak link for over ten years. We 

considered gondola systems down to the 

valley and we also considered large reversible 

tramways. But only the tricable 

gondola pencils out for this application. 

Can you say something about the contract 

award process for such a project? 

The contract award process normally re- 

ical and innovation leader in the international 

ropeway industry. 

Do you expect more orders for 3S to come in 

now that Peak 2 Peak has been completed? 

With its record-breaking unsupported span 

and other benchmark features, the 3S Peak 2 

Peak is obviously a very special ropeway. But 

for me, that is not really the question. What is 

much more important is that we can offer the 

right system for every ropeway application and 

project, whether it be a 3S, 2S, Funitel or a 

continuously circulating gondola. 

Do you know of any other operators interested 

in a similar solution, i.e. crossing a deep 

valley to connect two ski areas? 

No, there are no interconnection projects like 

Whistler/Blackcomb in the pipeline at the 

moment. But there are several projects worldwide 

in which our 3S technology is called for. 

But of course, I can’t disclose any details at 

this moment in time. 

quires several years 

to properly present 

and explain enough 

details and specifications 

so each party 

understands exactly 

the scope and 

timing of their respective 

contributions. If the contract documents 

are drawn up and written properly, 

there is usually much less confusion and debate 

during and after execution of the project. 

Nonetheless, any successful project also 

requires a great deal of trust, fairness, goodwill, 

cooperation, communication and 

commitment on both sides. 

Photo: Doppelmayr Photo: J. Schramm 

7

Photo:Archive ISR 

Why a 3S system? 

Professor Josef Nejez, ISR, 

explains the technical reasons 

for the choice of the 3S system 

for the Peak to Peak Gondola. 

In order to understand 

why 

the 3S system was 

found to be the 

optimum solution 

for linking two ski 

areas located on 

either side of a 

deep valley, we 

must first of all 

consider the basic 

Prof. Dr. Josef Nejez 

differences in 

terms of engineering and operation between 

the main types of aerial passenger ropeways 

on the market today. 

The main differences between modern 

ropeway systems concern the number of 

ropes employed and the mode of operation. 

With regard to the ropes, the basic distinction 

is between monocable and bicable configurations, 

and for the mode of operation 

between reversible (jigback) and continuously 

circulating systems. 

The ropes 

In the case of a monocable system, fixed or 

detachable grips are used to attach the carriers 

to a rope that provides support and traction 

at the same time. The rope employed 

on a monocable system is called the haul 

(or hauling) rope. 

On a bicable system, the carriers are suspended 

from a carriage that travels along a 

track rope and is pulled by a separate haul 

rope. In this case, carrier support and traction 

are distinct functions performed by 

two ropes of different construction. The 

track ropes take the form of full-locked coil 

ropes, which are highly compact on section 

and thus ideally suited to absorb shear loads 

(wheel loads from the carriages). The haul 

ropes are round strand Lang’s lay ropes, 

which have two key characteristics that fulllocked 

coil ropes do not: the flexibility 

needed to negotiate the rope sheaves and 

suitability for splicing so as to create an 

endless loop. The hauling rope on a monocable 

system must also meet that require- 


Although the haul rope is not yet in place 

here, the rope configuration for the 

3S system is clear. 

ment and the same rope construction is accordingly 

used as for the haul rope on a bicable 

system. 

There are other significant differences between 

full-locked coil ropes and round 

strand ropes which affect their potential uses 

in the field of ropeway engineering, 

namely the rope strength design factor, fill 

factor (share of the metallic section in the 

geometrical section of the rope) and rope 

surface. Compared with round strand 

ropes, the full-locked coil ropes used as 

track ropes can have a lower rope strength 

design factor, while the fill factor is higher 

and the rope surface is much smoother. The 

lower design factor and higher fill factor 

provide for longer spans, while the 

smoother surface provides a better track for 

the carriage wheels. 

So far we have only referred to one track 

rope and to one haul rope or hauling rope, 

meaning a rope that serves to provide support, 

traction or both support and traction. 

But each of these functions can be assigned 

to more than one rope. On big jigbacks, 

this is usually the case with regard to the 

support function; instead of just one track 

rope such installations are built with two 

parallel track ropes. Similarly, if the haul 

rope on a continuous loop system (gondola) 

is replaced by two parallel synchronized 

haul ropes with a gage that is wider than 

the width of the carrier, we have what is 

No need to be a tightrope walker for a highlevel 

walk on the 3S system!

known as a Funitel system. Installations 

with two or more haul ropes are not normally 

built today, however. 

Operating mode 

In the case of a reversible system or jigback, 

the cars travel to and fro between the terminals. 

They do not pass through the stations. 

In the normal case, a reversible operates 

with two carriers, which have a bigger capacity 

than the gondolas on a continuous 

loop system. System capacity on a reversible 

is determined by carrier capacity and transit 

time (including dwell time in the terminals). 

This means that system capacity also 

depends on line speed and the length of the 

line. 

A circulating system, on the other hand, 

operates with a large number of smaller carriers 

moving continuously in the same direction 

on two lines (uphill and downhill) 

between the terminals, and the carriers pass 

through the stations. In this case system capacity 

depends on individual carrier capacity 

and the time interval between the carriers 

but not on line length. 

From these distinctions and other ropeway 

engineering fundamentals (output of the 

primary mover, rope tension, etc.), the following 

basic principles can be defined for 

the choice of operating mode: 

Reversibles are the system of choice for 

short, steep lines with a significant vertical 

difference between the terminals and also 

for long unsupported spans. 

Circulating systems are ideal for long lines 

with relatively little vertical, with monocables 

used for short spans and bicable solutions 

for medium spans. 

The 3S system 

In certain respects the 3S combines the respective 

advantages of reversible and circulating 

systems. In terms of ropeway engineering, 

the 3S is a bicable circulating system 

with twin track ropes. In the case of 

the Peak 2 Peak, this rope configuration is 

the key to the record-breaking 3 km unsupported 

length of the middle span and to a 

design capacity of 2050 P/h and direction. 

A comparison between the 3S and reversible 

systems shows that, for the 4.4 km 

line linking Whistler and Blackcomb, a reversible 

would have to operate with 300passenger 

cabins for the same system capacity. 

That is 50% more than the biggest reversible 

cabins built to date. The stop-and- 

go mode of operation with the relatively 

long terminal dwell times required for passenger 

handling with such big cabins would 

be much less efficient than the comparatively 

continuous traffic flows available with 

the 28-passenger gondolas actually chosen. 

A conventional bicable installation would 

not have been the solution for the Peak 2 

Peak either because of the very long unsupported 

span across the valley. In the case of 

a bicable circulating system, the haul rope 

can be supported by sheave trains on the 

towers but haul rope support between the 

towers is only provided by the carrier grips. 

This means that the weight of the haul rope 

is transmitted to the track rope via the gondola 

carriages. This mechanism is especially 

problematical when the gondolas are fed 

onto the line at the start of operations in 

the morning and again when they are taken 

off the line in the evening; when the first 

gondola enters a rope span in the morning 

and the last gondola exits the span in the 

evening, half the weight of the haul rope in 

that span is supported by the grip on the 

gondola and is transmitted to the track rope 

via the carriage. That involves very considerable 

additional loads on various components 

with a number of negative consequences, 

e.g. on the service life of the track 

rope. 

With the 3S system, the problem is solved 

with the help of slack carriers with an integrated 

haul rope support sheave attached to 

the track ropes at relatively short intervals. 

That ensures even distribution of the 

weight of the haul rope on the track ropes. 

It also avoids longitudinal swing in the carriers 

resulting from the dynamics of acceleration 

and deceleration (starts and stops) 

and avoids the danger of haul rope entanglement. 

This solution has long been em- 

performance in strong winds. 

ployed on big reversibles with double track 

ropes. 

Another big advantage of the 3S system is 

also worth mentioning, and that is its outstanding 

wind stability. The twin track 

ropes act as dampers on lateral swing in the 

carriers, and that is the key to the exceptional 

performance of the 3S in side winds. 

The Peak 2 Peak Gondola, for example, is 

designed to operate in 80 km/h winds, 

which makes it the least susceptible to 

strong winds of all the Whistler Blackcomb 

lifts. 

In summary, one is tempted to say that, had 

the 3S system not yet existed, it would have 

been necessary to invent it for the link between 

Whistler und Blackcomb! 

Josef Nejez 

3S Peak 2 Peak Gondola 

Altitude Whistler terminal 1834 m 

Altitude Blackcomb terminal 1870 m 

Vertical height 36 m 

Line length 4400 m 

No. of towers 4 

Tower height 35 – 65 m 

Longest span 3024 m 

Max. height above ground 436 m 

Track ropes 2 x 56 mm 

Haul rope 46 mm 

Drive terminal Whistler 

Drive output (continuous) 520 kW 

Tensioning terminal Blackcomb 

Haul rope loop 8850 m 

No. of carriers 28 

Carrier capacity 28 pers. 

Line speed 7.5 m/s 

Carrier interval 49 s 

Transit time 11 min 

System capacity 2050 P/h 

TECHNICAL DATA The 3S configuration offers excellent 

9

Swiss ropes shipped 

across the Atlantic 

The Swiss ropes for the spectacular Peak 2 Peak 3S gondola arrived 

at their destination in Whistler, Canada, right on schedule 

on 17 June after a journey of 18,000 kilometers. 

Five rope reels weighing a total of over 

440 t were shipped to the Canadian ski 

resort from the wire rope production plant 

of Fatzer AG in Romanshorn (Switzerland) 

in what was a feat of logistics: by truck 

from the plant to Basle’s Rhine port, by 

barge up the Rhine to Vlissingen (Netherlands), 

by ship across the Atlantic and 

through the Panama Canal to the Port of 

Vancouver in Washington State (USA), and 

then by train to Whistler. There the ropes 

were hauled up to an elevation of 1860 m 

on Blackcomb Mountain on a special heavy 

haulage trailer ready for the 12-14 week 

stringing process. That involved air-lifting a 

straw line across the valley and then drawing 

in successively thicker ropes until the 

Photos: Omnitrans Corp. Ltd. 

actual track ropes and the haul rope could 

be pulled into place. 

The stringing and tensioning operations 

were completed during the summer, with 

the haul rope splice performed on August 

29 and 30. 

The splice in itself is a noteworthy acheivement; 

it is 68 m / 220 feet long, and it took 

a fourteen-man crew over fifteen hours to 

complete. Norm Duke, a Fatzer AG certified 

splicer from Wyoming, led the team of 

seven Whistler Blackcomb employees and 

six Doppelmayr/Garaventa employees to do 

the job. 

It is what is called a long splice, with the 

strands from each end of the cable untwined 

and then re-braided together with- 

TECHNICAL DATA 

INTEGRA track ropes 

4 ropes, each 

- 4760 m long 

- 56 mm in diameter 

- weighing 85 t 

- or 90 t including the reel 

STABILO haul rope 

1 rope 

- 9490 m long 

- 46 mm in diameter 

- weighing 76 t 

- or 82 t including the reel 

out the plastic core of the rope to ensure a 

perfect bind that maintains the haul rope’s 

diameter of 46 mm. Norm Duke has 

spliced many of Whistler Blackcomb’s 

Fatzer ropes and most recently worked on 

the Symphony Express. 

Doppelmayr’s unique 3S gondola technology 

has each cabin traveling along two 56 

mm track ropes which bear the weight of 

the Sky Cabins, with the haul rope pulling 

in the middle of the two tracks. Each track 

rope exerts the force of a Boeing 747-400 in 

mid-flight on each terminal building! The 

haul rope was the only splice needed for the 

PEAK 2 PEAK Gondola since the track 

ropes are stationary and do not loop from 

Blackcomb to Whistler.

Max Baumann, 

Vice President 

Marketing & 

Sales, 

Fatzer AG 

ISR: Do ropes for 

3S installations 

have to meet any 

special requirements? 

M. Baumann: Wire ropes for 3S systems 

have to meet the same requirements as on 

normal jigbacks and gondolas. Apart from 

dimensional accuracy, breaking strength 

and precise length of lay, such ropes must 

above all have as little twist and tension as 

possible so that the challenging task of 

stringing is not made even more difficult. 

How was the stringing handled on the 

Peak 2 Peak Gondola? 

The crews from Garaventa and Doppelmayr 

did a great job. Low loaders hauled 

the almost 90 t ropes up to Blackcomb 

Mountain terminal. From there straw lines 

were used to pull successively thicker ropes 

and finally the actual track and haul ropes 

down the valley to Fitzsimmons Creek 

with the help of a temporary cable lift. 

INTERVIEW 

From there a second cable lift provided the 

power to pull the ropes up Whistler 

Mountain’s flank to the terminal station 

there. 

Can there be any increase on this gigantic 

system? 

The Peak 2 Peak Gondola has 56 mm 

track ropes and a 46 mm haul rope loop 

with a total weight of 342 tons. That is 

pretty impressive. 

But the Tung Chung bicable gondola built 

by Leitner had 70 mm track ropes and 

42 mm haul ropes plus lightning conductor 

cables and evacuation ropes weighing a 

total of 485 tons. The 42 mm haul rope 

for the second stage was 11.1 km long and 

weighed just under 86 tons, while the two 

4 km track ropes weighed 112.8 tons each. 

That must make them the heaviest track 

ropes ever employed on a ropeway! 

We are currently working on the ropes for 

two industrial ropeways for the Linth- 

Limmern hydropower scheme in Switzerland. 

They have a total weight of 885 tons, 

and the 90 mm track ropes are presumably 

the thickest ropeway track ropes ever installed. 

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28 Sky Cabins from Switzerland 

The completion of the PEAK 2 PEAK Gondola ropeway and the arrival of 28 CWA Sky 

Cabins set the stage for what was the biggest construction milestone in the 

installation of the ropeway – the first Sky Cabin to cross the recordbreaking 

3 kilometre/1.88 mile unsupported span between Whistler 

and Blackcomb mountains. 

Photos:Whistler Blackcomb

ith the haul rope spliced and all 

“W28 Sky Cabins transported to the 

Blackcomb terminal, our next objective was 

to get the cabins on the line and send 12 

across the span to Whistler,” says Rick Temple, 

PEAK 2 PEAK Gondola construction 

manager. “We were able to send them over 

by late September, and are on track for the 

upcoming December grand opening.” 

The Sky Cabins were shipped across the Atlantic 

from Olten, Switzerland, where they 

were manufactured by CWA, global leader 

in the design and construction of ropeway 

passenger carriers. The individual crates 

were then loaded onto ten trucks for the 

journey through Canada. 

Cabin engineering 

The cabins are from the ZETA family, 

which has been designed specially for use 

on FUNITEL and 3S systems and is available 

in various sizes with a choice of layouts 

for between 20 and 40 standing or seated 

passengers. For PEAK 2 PEAK, a configuration 

with 22 seated and 6 standing passengers 

was selected, and the ergonomical seats 

are upholstered in black. There is a central 

seating unit with folding seats (with locking 

mechanism) to provide additional space according 

to operating requirements. 

The attractions of the ZETA include grade 

access and plenty of space with all-round 

panoramic views. With its wide central 

doors, it is ideal for wheelchair users and also 

for transporting goods. It is suitable for 

urban applications, for summer and winter 

tourism, and for public transport in all climate 

zones, with continuous hand rails 

available as a meaningful safety feature. 

ZETA cabins have an easy-to-clean non-slip 

checker-plate floor with forced ventilation 

and drainage channels. 

The ZETA is a 98% lightweight alloy design, 

with load-bearing components made 

of fine-grained steel. This combination of 

materials has proved highly successful over 

the years. The cabin is CE-compliant and 

suitable for use on all brands of ropeways. 

Thanks to its aerodynamic shape, the ZE- 

TA offers excellent performance in wind. 

The automatic door unit is state of the art 

and complies with the relevant codes and 

standards. It is integrated in the gondola 

roof and accessible from inside and outside 

of the cabin. The doors have remote cable 

operation with an actuation lever fitted to 

the hanger. 

The PEAK 2 PEAK Sky Cabins are the first 

ZETA cabins to have laminated safety glass 

windows, which have a distinct gray color. 

The Sky Cabins also have on-board lighting, 

with the lighting fittings integrated in 

the cabin roof, as is the p/a system. The 

power is supplied from a battery pack. Two 

of the cabins feature glass floors, enclosed 

by a railing, for a bird’s eye view of the 

Fitzsimmon’s Valley 436 metres/1,430 feet 

below. 

The contract for PEAK 2 PEAK also included 

delivery of a dedicated maintenance 

cabin with a roof hatch for working on the 

line. 

13

INTERVIEW 

Rico Wehrli 

ISR: Do the carriers for 3S installations 

have to meet any special requirements, 

and what was the reason for choosing the 

ZETA gondolas? 

R. Wehrli: CWA’s ZETA cabin was developed 

specially for 3S and FUNITEL systems, 

and so it was a logical choice for the 

project. 

What were the main challenges in your 

work for Peak 2 Peak? 

Whistler placed a strong emphasis on the 

design of the cabins. The glazing, for example, 

is laminated safety glass instead of 

the usual polycarbonate. 

The seating configuration is also new. It is 

in the shape of an H, with part of the central 

seating unit removable for summer operations 

so that passengers can move 

Felix Rhyner (left), CEO, and Rico Wehrli, 

Sales Manager of CWA Constructions 

SA/Corp. 

around and enjoy the view from every angle. 

Every gondola has on-board lighting and a 

public address system, and two of them 

have a glass floor panel so that passengers 

can really appreciate the heights involved. 


Photo: C.Amtmann 

Those two gondolas are finished in silver, 

in contrast to the red color used for the 

others. 

In spite of the optionals ordered, we still 

had to keep to the maximum weight limit. 

The gondolas are also fitted with a new 

door monitoring system, which employs 

magnetic induction instead of the usual 

mechanical system. 

What is so special about this project? 

I guess the Whistler-Blackcomb website 

provides the best answer to that. 

Can there be any increase on this gigantic 

system? 

The history of engineering shows that 

there is always scope for progress. I think 

we just have to wait and see.

TECHNICAL DATA 

● Cabin dimensions: 3544 x 3250 x 2400 mm 

● Cabin weight: approx. 1400 kg incl. glazing 

● Payload: approx. 2240 kg 

● Cabins engineered in aluminum

IMPRINT: 

Owner Bohmann Druck und Verlag Gesellschaft m.b.H. & Co. KG, A-1110 Wien, Leberstrasse 122, Telefon: +43(1)740 95-0, Telefax: 

+43(1)740 95-537, DVR 0408689, Publisher: Komm.Rat Dr. Rudolf Bohmann, Managing directors: Mag. Dr. Gabriele Ambros, Gerhard Milletich, 

Editorial office: Mag. (FH) Josef Schramm, Editor in chief, Mag. Christian Amtmann, Editor in charge, Mag. Alice Keönch, Assistant, 

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Tel. +1/801/468 26 62, China: Dr. Ou LI, Dr. Schober Str. 84, A-1130 Wien, Tel. +43/1/889 74 10, Fax +43/1/889 87 19, E-Mail: 

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special issues, Subscriptions rates: one-year: € 124.60 (excl. VAT, incl. mailing 

charges). Bank accounts: Bank Austria AG 653-092-700; Österr. Postsparkasse 

1732.755. Production: AV+Astoria Druck, A-1030 Wien, Faradaygasse 6, Circulation 

1 st half-year 2008: 7,400

Photos: Neveplast Another 

INTERNATIONAL ROPEWAY REVIEW 5/2008 43 SNOWTUBING 

good year at Neveplast 

Sales at Neveplast reflect a growing interest in the summer mountain infrastructure in 

addition to and support of the standard winter offering. 

Neveplast is the world leader in the production 

of artificial ski slopes. Following 

a very busy year in 2007, with a terrain 

park and a ski slope in Rome among the 

many installations built, the Italian company 

has again done very well this year, handling 

several major contracts for ski slopes. 

The advantage of Neveplast installations is 

that they offer guaranteed skiing 

without the use of water, 

and skiing on compact snow 

with a good side grip from 

sub-zero temperatures up to 

40 degrees C. The company’s 

products are engineered to the 

highest standards and combine 

a high level of safety and 

environmental protection 

with very low running costs. 

In addition to a number of 

big slopes erected for events 

and demonstration purposes, 

Neveplast also installed three 

permanent ski slopes in 2008 

using the Np30 system: a 780 

ft. ski slope in Kangwoland, 

South Korea, plus two installations 

in Italy, one in Mottarone 

above Lake Maggiore 

and the other in Sila, in the south of the 

country. Mottarone had two Tubby slopes 

installed in 2007, and they have been so 

successful that the sports and recreation 

area there is being upgraded to include a 

school camp for skiing and snowboarding. 

In Sila, too, Neveplast has built two Tubby 

slopes in addition to the 400 ft. ski slope. 

Neveplast has also 

been active on the 

North American 

market, with three 

Tubby slopes installed 

for summer 

snow tubing in 

Amesbury with a total 

length of 1,950 

feet. And there are 

many other Tubby 

installations now in 

place worldwide. 

All these orders 

show that ski resorts 

are starting to recognize 

the importance 

of developing a 

summer offering in 

addition to their 

core business in the 

winter season. Apart from being an attraction 

their own right, summer ski slopes, 

summer terrain parks and summer snow 

tubing slopes are an excellent vehicle for 

promoting winter activities in the resort 

during the summer period. 

www.neveplast.it 

PROMOTION

Photos:Archive 

ROPEWAYS 

A Rainforest Experience 

Voted Australia’s Best Major Tourist Attraction, the multi-award winning Skyrail Rainforest Cableway 

is recognised not only as a premier tourist experience, but as a world leader in eco-tourism. 

Skyrail Rainforest Cableway, Cairns Australia 

operates in the Barron Gorge National 

Park, in Australia’s World Heritage 

protected tropical rainforests, just ten minutes 

north of Cairns city. Stretching for 7.5 

km, it is the world's longest gondola cableway. 

There are 32 towers along the way, 

with the tallest being 40.5 m high above the 

rainforest floor. Gliding just metres above 

the rainforest canopy in comfortable sixperson 

gondola cabins, the Skyrail journey 

immerses the visitor in an intimate rainforest 

experience. 

It takes 1.5 hours to complete a one-way 

journey with 20 minutes spent at each station 

allowing scenic look-outs and giving 

information from the forest floor on boardwalks. 

Starting at Caravonica Terminal, the 6seater 

gondola rises high above the rainforest 

canopy where it pauses at Red Peak Station. 

This station is at the top of the mountain, 

and one can hop off the gondola and 

take a tour along the 175-m boardwalk 

through the rainforest. 

From Red Peak, the gondola continues to 

Barron Falls Station with its breathtaking 

44 

The Poma six-seater gondolas provide a bird’s eye view of the rainforest. 

views of the magnificent waterfall. From 

here, Skyrail descends to Kuranda Terminal 

– the end of the line. The little village of 

Kuranda is a short walk from the terminal 

where restaurants, shopping, and environmental 

shows are available. 

Skyrail Construction 

The original Skyrail concept was conceived 

in 1987 and was followed by seven years of 

pre-construction feasibility studies, an environmental 

impact study and numerous other 

reports and assessments, and consultation 

and approval processes with local, state and 

federal governments and local communities. 

Construction commenced in June 1994. 

Skyrail’s tower sites were selected to coincide 

with existing canopy gaps, and were 

surveyed to ensure no rare, threatened or 

endangered species would be affected by 

construction. 

Before construction commenced on the 

tower sites, the leaf litter and top soil were 

collected and stockpiled for reintroduction 

when construction was complete. Plant 

seedlings were catalogued at each site, then 

ENGLISH SPECIAL 

Skyrail Facts 

The cableway is 7.5 km long. It has a total of 

114 gondola cabins, each capable of seating 

six passengers, providing a carrying capacity 

of 700 passengers per hour in each direction. 

The cableway can operate at a speed of 5.0 

m/s; however its normal operating speed is 

much slower to provide guests with the maximum 

time to enjoy their rainforest experience. 

There are 32 towers in total. The highest 

tower is 40.5 m high. 

Red Peak is Skyrail’s highest station at 545 m 

above sea level (1,788 feet). 

The Kuranda Station sits at 336 m and Caravonica 

Terminal is only 5 m above sea level. 

The steepest section of the cableway has a 

slope of 19 degrees. 

Skyrail Rainforest Cableway has 15 km of 

40.5 mm galvanised steel rope. 

There is a multi-core communications cable 

which runs in the middle of the towers, between 

the two lines of haul rope. This carries 

all the voice and safety circuit communications. 

The cableway is driven by a 383 kW DC electric 

motor located at each drive station, the 

Kuranda and Caravonica Stations. Each drive 

station has a back-up diesel motor and a further 

auxiliary hydrostatic drive. 

Cableway Leitner POMA of America 

Cabins Sigma (Sigma-Composite) 

Haul Rope Fatzer / TrefilEurope 

Electric Drive ABB 

Diesel Drives Cummins 

PLC system Allen Bradley

Kamov helicopters were on duty for placing 

the terminal systems and towers. 

removed and propagated during construction, 

and re-planted in their original locations, 

with the saved top soil and leaf litter, 

when construction was complete. 

The towers were constructed in 10 m x 10 m 

clearings and placed as far apart as mechanically 

possible. 

The tower footings were built largely by 

hand, up to 5 m deep in some cases, using 

picks and shovels. There were no roads built 

during Skyrail’s construction. Workers had 

to walk in to the remote tower sites each 

day, carrying their equipment, which took 

up to an hour each way. 

Helicopters were used extensively to assist 

construction. The helicopters were used to 

carry equipment, materials and cement to 

INTERNATIONAL ROPEWAY REVIEW 5/2008 45 ROPEWAYS 

The upper part of the lattice tower being 

placed on the base section ... 

tower sites and rainforest stations. The helicopters 

carried their loads on 100 m long 

lines to avoid wind turbulence affecting the 

sensitive rainforest canopy. 

Due to the size of the tower sites, they were 

difficult to locate from the air, and GPS 

satellite navigation and radio communication 

was used to enable the helicopter crews 

to pinpoint the ground crews and tower 

sites. Specialist heavy-lifting Russian Kamov 

helicopters were used to carry towers to the 

tower sites. The towers were flown-in in 

sections and assembled on site; some tower 

sections weighed up to five tonnes each. 

The cableway haul rope was then laid and 

tensioned across the towers by the 

helicopters. 

... and the tower head added 

The Red Peak and Barron Falls Stations 

were designed to blend in with the surrounding 

rainforest and minimise environmental 

impact, and were built in pre-existing 

clearings. Helicopters transported 900 t 

of steel, cement and building materials into 

the Red Peak Station site. 

Fifteen months and $ 35 million later, 

Skyrail opened to the public on 31st August 

1995. The cableway was originally installed 

with 47 gondolas, giving it a carrying capacity 

of 300 people per hour. However, a 

$ 2.5 million upgrade completed in May 

1997 increased the total number of gondolas 

to 114 and carrying capacity to 700 

people per hour. 

GSt 

IMPRESSUM/IMPRINT 

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Redaktion ● Editorial staff: Chefredakteur Mag. (FH) Josef Schramm; Leitender Redakteur Mag. Christian Amtmann; Fachtechn. Redakteur Univ.-Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. techn. Josef Nejez; 

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Druckauflage 1. Halbjahr 2008 ● Circulation 1 st half-year 2008: 7.400

SNOWMAKING 

Automatic snowmaking at Snowshoe Mountain 

Snowshoe Mountain Resort is located in West Virginia. Approximately 10 million people live 

within a radius of three to four hours driving distance with a number of major urban centers 

including Washington DC, Richmond, Greensboro, Baltimore and Philadelphia. 

Snowshoe has a long tradition as a ski 

area. In mid-November they opened 

their 35th ski season with the best snow 

coverage ever. The resort has built a reputation 

as the winter sports destination with 

the most skiable terrain and the best snow 

conditions in the mid-Atlantic and Southeast 

regions of the USA. 

The Resort has twenty years’ experience 

with manual snowmaking using mainly 

“stick” guns and a few manual fans. Before 

upgrading to automatic snow guns, the resort 

decided to test equipment from several 

manufacturers including TechnoAlpin. 

These tests were performed on Skidder near 

the top of the mountain with the emphasis 

on the following; 

l Performance in strong winds and blowback 

conditions 

l Noise emissions near the lodges 

l Performance in the marginal temperature 

range 

l User-friendliness 

l Reliability of the automation 

Tex Ritter, Snowshoe’s Director of Mountain 

Operations, explains: "For the winter 

season of 07-08, Snowshoe Mountain Resort 

leased five automatic TA-M18A mobile 

electric fan guns. Based on their performance 

over the season – being dependable, 

energy efficient, and making great quality 

snow over a wide temperature range – we 

decided to purchase the five leased M18’s 

and elected to go with a fully automated 

46 

TechnoAlpin system of fifteen additional 

tower-mounted M12’s and M18’s on our 

beginners’ area for the 08-09 ski season. 

The total number of TechnoAlpin fan guns 

in our fleet is now twenty. After a hundred 

hours of snowmaking with temperatures 

ranging between 8-28 degrees F, we were 

ready to open the beginners’ slope on November 

21st with more snow than ever before 

this early in the season." 

The core of the fully automatic snowmaking 

system is the TechnoAlpin ATASS software, 

which provides central control and 

monitoring of the complete installation, 

and is an efficient and safe way to operate 

the snow guns remotely. 

At Snowshoe the central computer is located 

approximately 3500 ft away from the 

snow guns. A fiber optic cable suspended 

on the Ball-Hooter lift towers was installed 

to transmit the signals between the computer 

and the twenty snow guns located at the 

top of the mountain to reduce installation 

costs (no excavation work) and to eliminate 

the danger of lightning. 

TechnoAlpin North America, with CEO 

Geir Vik and his 8-man team, was the perfect 

partner for Tex Ritter and the people at 

Snowshoe, who gained access to TechnoAlpin’s 

twenty plus years’ experience in 

the engineering and installation of fully automatic 

snowmaking systems. The TechnoAlpin 

worldwide customer base has now 

ENGLISH SPECIAL 

Automatic snowmaking at Snowshoe 

Mountain 

increased to more than 760 customers in 37 

different countries with a yearly production 

of more than 2000 snow guns per year. 

Snowshoe is owned by the INTRAWEST 

Group, which also owns Blue Mountain, 

Copper Mountain, Mountain Creek, 

Panorama, Steamboat, Stratton, Tremblant, 

Winter Park and Whistler Blackcomb. 

More information about Snowshoe Mountain 

Resort and images from the snowmaking 

are available at: 

www.snowshoemtn.com l 

Photo:TechnoAlpin

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