The resort has contracted with Leitner-Poma of America to replace all 60 cabins with 55 new ones, according to a Park City Mountain spokesperson. It will involve slight re-engineering of the gondola’s towers and terminals to support the change.
A KPCW count midday Tuesday found that 13 of the 60 cabins are out of service. That’s more than 20% of the fleet.
According to a resort employee, the issue at hand is the door actuators. Those are what lock and unlock the cabin doors.
The gondola first opened in 1997, and is one of only two portals out of the Canyons base along with the Orange Bubble Express.
The gondola upgrades are unrelated to a separate capital improvement push the resort recently made — unsuccessfully.
The Park City Planning Commission made headlines when it agreed to block two lift upgrades the resort hoped to construct last summer. After that project was nixed, those lifts, including a high-speed eight-pack, were sent to Whistler Blackcomb instead.
The Red Pine Gondola upgrade, however, will not require approval from a government body.