The Sea To Sky Gondola, in Squamish BC halfway between Vancouver and Whistler, is not even operating yet but this past week suffered a serious accident when a cabin fell off the line during testing and suffered the "damage [that] was too significant to repair."
Scary shit. I mean, when was the last time you even heard of a cabin or chair falling off the line? What exactly is going on over there that would even allow this to happen?
What's the Sea to Sky Gondola you ask? Well, that's a very good question. To put it at it's most basic, it is a gondola to nowhere. Yup, you heard that right. It's simply a tourist attraction, designed to milk anyone who might be on their way up to Whistler of their hard earned cash. Too much? Ok, maybe just a bit, haha, but it does seem like an awful strange project, although one that a lot of (lazy) people will get to enjoy.
The CBC reports, "A cabin that fell off the new Sea to Sky Gondola near Squamish, B.C., on Tuesday morning, has sparked an investigation by transportation and company officials.
The cabin was empty and nobody was injured in the incident. The company says the cabin fell during routine testing of the new gondola.
The lift moves the cabins 2135 metres across and 849 metres up to a viewpoint 885 metres above sea level.[hi-bc-120508-sea-to-sky-gondola]Officials say the cabin fell off the lift during routine testing, but nobody was onboard and nobody was injured in the incident. (Sea to Sky Gondola)
The company issued a brief statement saying, "Doppelmayr, manufacturers of the lift, and the British Columbia Safety Authority are working with Sea to Sky Gondola staff to determine the exact nature and cause of this incident."
While The Province adds, "No one was injured and no construction delays are expected after a gondola compartment fell from the Sea-to-Sky Gondola during testing this week near Squamish.
Project general manager Jayson Faulkner said the incident took place Tuesday morning and is being investigated as a “construction incident.”
Testing was being done on the gondola in advance of its scheduled May 2014 opening when the gondola compartment fell."
