Killington Town Gondola

Jonni

**Please note this is a fantasy/conceptual idea. While I would love it if something like this would come to fruition, it is just me screwing around in Google Earth - and is NOT real.**

Seeing photos of gondolas around the world becoming more of an option for public transit rather than strictly just transportation up the mountain - there are often times I wish some of our larger ski areas in New England would build machines like this. I love seeing installations like the Palisades Tahoe gondola, Telluride's Free gondola, the Breck Connect gondola, Disney's Skyliner, and the like. So I present to you, the Killington Town Gondola.

This gondola would top out around 15,000 feet long and have 4 stages/5 stations. The idea of this would allow easy transportation from satellite parking lots to many of the points of interest along the Killington Access Road. I did try to setup the alignment to effect the fewest number of businesses/buildings along it's route but still have stations such that it would allow easy walking distance from most places. Ideally hours of operation would be daily 7am to 8pm and 7am to 10pm on Friday/Saturday. It would operate during summer, fall and winter with a few weeks downtime in Spring for maintenance. Shoulder seasons would only operate 4 days a week to allow for some maintenance during the week. Cost per ride would be $1 and employees/Killington locals could apply for a free pass. Financing would be a partnership between the town and the resort.

Yeah, I realize I should be skiing right now - and I will be skiing tomorrow at Cranmore - but I wanted to share a good ol' hairbrained idea.

lotsoskiing

Stowe needs something like this.

millerm277

Fun concept.

As far as realism:

Killington's not really struggling for road capacity relative to most resorts, so there's not much motivation in that sense, no serious traffic jams there.

K's village goals are of building up a village center thing in the K-1 area - not sure better access to "competing" businesses on land they don't own is something they'd see as a positive.

On the other hand, K does own the Wobbly Barn and satellite parking down that far I believe has been floated as an idea before.

newpylong

The village is not going to be in the K1 area but the confluence of Snowshed and Ramshead. That would be a more natural terminus for such a gondola.

hazlntskier

Places this makes sense in my mind are Loon (Route 112 to South Peak), Waterville (town to Green Peak) and Okemo (Downtown to base area). In each of these situations they could argue improved environment issues (fewer cars etc.) and off season improvements. I also would add Stowe to the list.

ADKskier

This is actually a cool Idea but I think the end or start should be near something significant like a hotel or large parking area. With the New Six Peaks Village coming I would change your end point to the village instead. The Village is going to take up most of the parking areas at Ramshead. So in theory they could push those lots further down the mountain and connect them via Gondola, or even an open air like they use at Tremblant.

I'm still waiting for North Creek and Gore to build their Ski Bowl Village and Gondola to Gore Base....aka (Proposed/approved lift 14). Honestly I think it would make more sense at a resort the size of Killington. There's no real bed base in North Creek Proper or at the ski bowl like they had envisioned..

z1000307470

ADKskier;c-59478 wroteThis is actually a cool Idea but I think the end or start should be near something significant like a hotel or large parking area. With the New Six Peaks Village coming I would change your end point to the village instead. The Village is going to take up most of the parking areas at Ramshead. So in theory they could push those lots further down the mountain and connect them via Gondola, or even an open air like they use at Tremblant.

Totally agree, but no open air cabriolet for this long lift. ;)

ADKskier;c-59478 wroteI'm still waiting for North Creek and Gore to build their Ski Bowl Village and Gondola to Gore Base....aka (Proposed/approved lift 14). Honestly I think it would make more sense at a resort the size of Killington. There's no real bed base in North Creek Proper or at the ski bowl like they had envisioned..

We will all be long gone before Front Street ever does anything that looks like their plan. I think Front St submitted their plans in 2006 and got approval in 2008. Gore added Burnt Ridge in 2008 and the Ski Bowl Interconnect in 2011.

Some version of the North Creek/Ski bowl/Gore main base gondola has been on various Gore UMPs for decades. Somebody has a very dark sense of humor.

Jonni

So I had actually thought a little bit about the Six Peaks Village and how that would integrate with a gondola like this. In the most recent Killington Podcast where they discuss "the village" (Link) there was some discussion about getting skiers/riders to and from the rest of the mountain and what role the current lift system would play in that. While it was brief, there was some mention that potentially the remaining Snowshed Double chair (of the original double double) might get realigned or reconfigured (read: replaced) to help move people up to K1 to relieve the pressure off of the Ramshead and Snowshed lifts from increased traffic as a result of the village.

My idea with this would be having that connection from the village to K1 could be beneficial. Currently there are 3 (4 if you count the Snowdon Six) ways out of the K1 base and only 2+ ways out of where the village would be. Yeah the Snowshed double could move some people out of there as is, but you'd still be putting a lot of people on the Snowshed Quad and Ramshead lifts if you've got traffic from the village AND a town gondola that terminates at the village. A stage that goes between the K1 and the village would give more options and also benefits for the rest of the year when it's not ski season: think creek to peak.

I also very much echo the ideas of this sort of thing working at Okemo, Loon, and especially Stowe. I had even done a similar mock up for Stowe, though it would be incredibly long both in length and ride time. IIRC I had figured the line to be something like 33,000+ feet long with a minimum of 4 stages. It is technologically possible as the world's current longest gondola is the Zlatibor Gold Gondola in Serbia that was built by Leitner/Poma is around 9km long (29,527') and has two stages. That makes the ride time around 25 minutes running at 1,200fpm (30 minutes at 1,000fpm).

I doubt Vail would ever consider building anything like this at Okemo or Stowe, but I do see it as a possibility at Loon or even Killington for that matter. While ideas like this may not directly benefit the ski areas themselves, it does benefit the surrounding town(s), which in turn does benefit the ski areas since it ties everything together. You get Stowe Mountain Resort - and the town of Stowe. You get Loon Mountain - and the town of Lincoln etc.

rickbolger

Agree, Loon/Lincoln is ideal for this...but I'll add that it would have to be steam powered and run on rails! ;) :)