The Killington Skyeship Gondola

[snoloco]

I skied at Killington today, and the Skyeship Gondola is finally operating as intended, with both stages connected together. For the past month it's been only the upper stage open, since it took forever to make snow down to the base. Every time I ride the Skyeship, I'm reminded of how unique and impressive it is.

It's actually two separate lifts, each with their own haulrope, drive, tensioning, and control system. Each stage can be run independently, or they can be connected to operate as one continuous lift. The mid station appears to be one long terminal, but it is actually two separate terminals, the top of the first stage and the bottom of the second stage, with a connector rail between them. When the connector rail is in use, the cabins interline between the stages, and the control systems for each stage are synchronized. This means if the stop button is pressed on the upper stage, it will also stop the lower stage. If the trail to the bottom of the lower stage is open, they will typically always run the lift with the stages connected. They will run only the upper stage early season when the trail to the base is not open, and they will run only the lower stage if the upper stage is on wild hold. If there is a problem with the connector rail, or the lift is running on diesel, then it has to run as two separate stages.

It was built in 1994, which makes it 28 years old, but is still cutting edge to this day. It's also one of the fastest lifts around, with a top speed of 1200 fpm. They do tend to run it at or close to this speed. Today it was running at 1150 fpm.

Here's a full recording that I took back in 2019.

Edit: I don't understand why this thread was broken out.

 

[bplinder]

I was thinking of parking at the bottom of Skye, for smaller crowds and low hassle. How does it work to get to the top. Does the one gondola go from the bottom to the top, or would I switch mid-mountain?

 

[snoloco]

I was thinking of parking at the bottom of Skye, for smaller crowds and low hassle. How does it work to get to the top. Does the one gondola go from the bottom to the top, or would I switch mid-mountain?

Every time I've been there, they have the stages connected. You just stay in the same cabin and go all the way up. They always add people at the mid station, but you don't have to get off if you came from the bottom.

 

[MarzNC]

Every time I've been there, they have the stages connected. You just stay in the same cabin and go all the way up. They always add people at the mid station, but you don't have to get off if you came from the bottom.

Are there other gondolas set up like this in the northeast? In the USA?

 

[Harvey]

The Old Red Gondola at Gore was two stage. It made a turn at the transition point too.

 

[Brownski]

I’ve always thought Whiteface would benefit from a two stage gondola. It would take some competent engineering of course but if it was set up right, the ability to download easily could really improve their early and late season options by accessing the upper mountain when the bottom was mud.

 

[raisingarizona]

That’s really cool Sno, thanks for the post.

The last time I rode the killington gondola was around 1988-89. It was a 4 person and it went to the peak. All I remember was it was really cold and this guy at the base of the gondola was wearing stretch pants and one of those creepy looking ski masks with the biggest snot-sickle hanging off the nose piece that I’ve ever seen! The images that stick……weird

 

[raisingarizona]

I’ve always thought Whiteface would benefit from a two stage gondola. It would take some competent engineering of course but if it was set up right, the ability to download easily could really improve their early and late season options by accessing the upper mountain when the bottom was mud.

Makes sense to me.

 

[snoloco]

1200 fpm. You love to see it.

 

[tirolski]

1200 fpm. You love to see it.

Coming in hot.