The History: This Poma gondola 6 was originally installed at Palisades Tahoe, California in 1985. There, this gondola replaced a 3 year old problematic Yan detachable gondola. It ran from the base area to what is now the Gold Coast Lodge. In 1998, they decided that it was time for a capacity upgrade on the Poma gondola, and chose a Doppelmayr 28-person Funitel. Thus, this lift was partially removed when the Funitel went in, even though the top station remained largely intact. In 2004, Lake Louise purchased the entire gondola lift, and the rest of this lift was disassembled and hauled up north to Louise. At Louise, they wanted to replace 2 lifts: an aging Yan detachable quad, and an old Mueller double chair. So, in 2004/2005, they installed the gondola up a completely new alignment. The gondola starts near where the old Yan detachable started, but instead, ends close to where the Mueller double ended. So in essense, instead of having 2 redundant lifts service the lower mountain, Glacier can be the sole lower mountain access lift, while the gondola can be the upper mountain access lift. While this gondola’s terminals may look like they are Leitner design, it is actually a custom fabrication that Lake Louise did to make this lift match the other Leitner terminals of Glacier. In the summer months, lake Louise will take a few cabins from this lift and use them on Glacier, as a chondola for sightseeing.
The Lift: This is a regular Poma gondola. It has 25 towers, and early CWA 6-person cabins. At Palisades, both stations were in enclosed buildings, but here, they are regular lift terminals. The towers are definitely Poma design with extensions welded on. I do not know how many cabins there are, but there is also a special hospital car that stays on the line always.
Specifications:
Design Speed - 1200 ft/min
Normal Operating Speed ~ 1100 ft/min
Design Capacity - 2800 p/h
Drive - Top
Return - Bottom
Tensioning - Bottom (Hydraulic)
Towers: 25
Cabins: 85
Recorded on January 10, 2022
12 янв 2022
