Vernon ski hill announces plans for new gondola

Jun 13, 2017 | 3:43 PM

VERNON, B.C. — Silver Star Mountain Resort has announced plans to add a gondola.

The high speed, 8-seat Doppelmayr lift will run from the village to the summit, replacing the Summit double chair, which dates back to 1970.

“These new cabins will whisk guests from the bottom to the top of the Summit in a third of the time of the existing double chair. The ride will now take four and a half minutes from Village to summit traveling at five meters per second over a distance of 1063 metres with a vertical rise of 293 metres” says Brad Baker, Director of Operations and Maintenance for SilverStar.

The Gondola will feature floor to ceiling glass to provide spectacular views of the mountain.

Initially, the lift will have 21 cabins with an uphill capacity of 1,200 people per hour.

The Gondola will service more than 16% of the existing terrain, plus provide the fastest access to the Comet and Alpine Meadows terrain pods from the Village.

“The gondola installation facilitates additional future capital improvement projects, such as the addition of an Alpine Restaurant between the Comet and the Gondola lift, installation of a lift in the Terrain Park, and options for a summer coaster or pipe,” says Ken Derpak, Managing Director.

Work on the project will begin this month with the engineering and design for an installation of the tower, top and bottom terminal foundations, as well as the targeted installation of the top station to be completed this summer.

The second and final stage of construction will resume ahead of a grand opening in July 2018.

“All of SilverStar is excited to celebrate our milestone 60th anniversary year with the completion of our new Gondola; this delivers a world class improvement to our guest experience for both winter and summer offerings,“says Jane Cann, Chair / President.