6 replies to this topic

[snoloco]

The gondolas at Whiteface and Tremblant have Gangloff cabins, which no other gondola North America uses to my knowledge. The two lifts are almost identical. They are both Doppelmayr lifts, with Tremblant's installed in 1998 and Whiteface's installed in 1999. They have very similar length and vertical also.

Almost everything else uses CWA, including lifts from both Doppelmayr and Poma. Why is this the case? I'd think anyone who has ridden in both types of cabins would prefer the ones that Whiteface and Tremblant use, as they are much more spacious, and the seats have padding. I'm kind of surprised more ski areas didn't order that design.

[NHskier13]

Cost came to my mind first. Also could be more weight / more load on line requiring beefier support components.

[snoloco]

The other interesting thing is that Whiteface and Gore (both run by New York State) both installed gondolas in 1999. Whiteface got a Doppelmayr with Gangloff cabins, and Gore got a Poma with CWA cabins. You'd think they would have done a package deal and gotten both from the same manufacturer. Whiteface did not have a single Doppelmayr lift at the time, and Gore did not have a single Poma, so standardization wasn't an issue either. Since then, Whiteface has used Doppelmayr for both subsequent lift installations (Facelift HSQ in 2002 and Lookout Triple in 2008). Gore used Poma for all subsequent detachable lift installations (Burnt Ridge HSQ in 2008 and Adirondack Express HSQ in 2014). However, they did not use Poma for subsequent fixed grip installations. Topridge is a used CTEC triple from Whiteface that has some Hall parts and was installed in 2002. Village and Hudson Triple are both Partek, installed 2007 and 2010 respectively.

[floridaskier]

One other with Gangloff cabins is the Jordanelle gondola at Deer Valley, which is a 1998 CTEC installation. It has 6-passenger cabins that are only loaded 4 at a time (very little traffic down there)

[SkiDaBird]

floridaskier, on 29 November 2016 - 01:52 PM, said:

One other with Gangloff cabins is the Jordanelle gondola at Deer Valley, which is a 1998 CTEC installation. It has 6-passenger cabins that are only loaded 4 at a time (very little traffic down there)

The fact that DV has the cabins makes me think it has to do with cost.

[Conrad]

Snowbasin has two gondolas (1998) that have a fairly similar design (a bit more rounded, perhaps).

[Sacdelic_Skier]

the snow basin cabins, along with the bridget gondola vail eagle hahn and banff scenic gondola re are cwa x model