Everyone knew the first crossing of the PEAK 2 PEAK Gondola’s Sky Cabins was going to be a momentous occasion. We just didn’t know exactly when it would happen. The Sky Cabins were on the mountain, the carriages were installed and the only thing left to do was wait for the okay from the mechanical and electrical teams.

On Thursday, September 18 a press event was held to announce the official opening date of December 12 as well as to show off the Blackcomb terminal building and all of the Sky Cabins. There were even a few cabins out on the line! To our surprise, Thursday was also the day we found out it was very likely the first twelve cabins would be making their way across the 4.4km/2.73 mile span to Whistler Mountain the very next day on Friday, September 19.

Finally, the day we had all been waiting for (besides the official opening) was here! We were told it would happen after 8am so we made sure to be on the mountain early. Time passed with no action until finally around 10:30am we could make out a faint red blob against Blackcomb’s flank.

My cell phone rang and I was told by Construction Manager Rick Temple that we should watch for the first Sky Cabin and its passenger, Mathias Zundrell. Passenger….WHAT!?

Apparently, it is normal procedure for a Doppelmayr engineer to ride the carriage of the first gondola across, never mind if that puts him 436m/1,427ft above the valley floor with just a harness and a hardhat!

Mathias looked very nonchalant from his perch on Sky Cabin No. 5 and he waved as he glided by high above us. At each lift tower the PEAK 2 PEAK stopped so he could check the gondola’s mechanisms. The remaining Sky Cabins followed and now Whistler’s terminal is housing twelve Sky Cabins so the remaining 16 can be put on the line over at the Blackcomb terminal.

Construction on the terminal buildings is still ongoing but we are getting close to the end of this two year construction project!