October Construction Re-Cap

At the summit, we have finished building our Chief Overlook and Spirit Trail viewing platforms. We continue to work on our walking/hiking trails and have added multiple viewing points and mini adventures to each trail.

The Chief Overlook viewing platform. Photo Credit Paul Bride

For most of October we had Gord Macdonald, Steve Lawrence, and the team from Macdonald and Lawrence Timber Framing Ltd. on-site building our iconic “Sky Pilot suspension bridge”. The suspension bridge is now complete and ready for our opening in Spring 2014!

Enjoying the views from our Sky Pilot suspension Bridge. Photo Credit Paul Bride

Construction of our Summit Lodge is well under way. The approx. 5,000 sq/ft viewing deck that surrounds the lodge is nearly finished. External walls, internal walls and the roof for the lodge are all in place. We are now waiting for the windows which started to arrive this week to be installed!

The Summit Lodge under construction earlier this month

We reached a major milestone in our project this week with the installation of all 14 of our gondola tower tubes. It was quite the feat as they were flown in by a helicopter during a windstorm with gusts that reached 40 + knots! It required excellent teamwork between pilot Gary Weber from Black Tusk Helicopters, and the Doppelmayr team which was lead by Jim Anderson and Jason Tyrrell. Everything went as planned, so a big shout out to everyone who was involved!

The team getting ready to fly the first tower tube into place. Photo Credit Sterling Lorence

Flying the gondola tower tubes into place. Photo Credit Sterling Lorence

The tower-heads and sheave assemblies will be flown in over the next few days once the tubes are all fully bolted down and aligned. They have survey points on each tower. Getting the alignment dialed is a critical stage in building the lift line!

Pilot Gary Weber with the winch deck in the air

The drive motors and gearbox for the gondola have been installed at the bottom drive station, and the 4270 metre haul rope has arrived and is waiting for the towers to be completed.

The 4270 metre long haul rope being dropped off

It is an exciting time for everyone who has been involved as we are starting to see the project come together! Stay tuned to our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages for more updates in November!