Gore's Little Red Gondola

Never rode that one, but, pretty sure it was the same manufacturer as the old gondola at Killington that went from Rt.4 to the peak, and the same as the gondola at Big Sky I rode in my first visit to that place in the early nineties. That one was in really bad shape. The window fell out on one of our rides up, and the next day we looked down and another window was lying on the trail below. The next year they replaced it with a high speed quad.
 
The upper line of the red gondola (Von Roll-Habegger design) was a unique ride for eastern skiers. The up then down to the base of the Straight Brook chair, then steeply to the top was crazy. Some parts of the ride were above the tree height. My oldest was only 5 when we first rode it together. He loved it and was scared at the same time.
In the early 1990s, there was a cut made where the potential new gondola was going to be installed. We looked at that cut for a lot of years before the gondola was finally installed in 1999.
 
Benny Profane said:
the gondola at Big Sky I rode in my first visit to that place in the early nineties. That one was in really bad shape. The window fell out on one of our rides up, and the next day we looked down and another window was lying on the trail below.
Click to expand...
That doesn’t surprise me. They would store all of the cars in the Mountain Mall at night. After a round of revelry at MR Hummers some kids would kick out the windows and hike up the Ambush headwall for some screamers. Those things made great sleds, or so I’ve been told.
 
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I seem to remember Sugarbush also having little red gondolas?
(google confirmed)
 
gorgonzola said:
I seem to remember Sugarbush also having little red gondolas?
(google confirmed)
Click to expand...
They did. It ran base to summit on Lincoln Peak. Replaced by two triples in 1984, with the lower one called Sugar Bravo and the upper one called Heaven's Gate. The lower one was replaced with today's Super Bravo Express in 1995 and relocated to North Lynx to replace a platter lift.
 
Great article and cool prior post on the old red gondolas that brought back a lot of memories. I remember riding it on windy days when they would not let you ride it without a full cabin of 4 for the weight, certainly didn't give you a warm and fuzzy about safely making it to the top. By the end the doors never shut properly so there always seemed to be gaps of varying degrees that would flap, causing us to spend many a ride talking about the emergency procedure of lowering the rope through the loop on each cabin and what that rescue would look like. One of the more memorable rides was while transitioning through the mid station, someone's 200+ skis caught the edge of the exit door and made the cabin swing almost parallel to the ground and then snapped back, which was exciting as a kid, but I think would be terrifying to see now! Great memories though, and amazing it actually had such a good track record for safety, definitely did not feel that way.
 
Wasn’t the old gondola at Wildcat a two seater? I wonder what that was like. I imagine an uneasy claustrophobic sort of vibe while riding up in that.
 
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