It’s increasingly difficult to maintain, and not terribly efficient.
Locals all the same are mourning the upcoming retirement of a landmark tram that for 40 years has shuttled millions of skiers and summer tourists 4,139 vertical feet to the most challenging slopes and best views at Wyoming’s Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.
“Kind of a bummer,” summed up one avid skier, Chad Ovens.
A festival of skiers dressed in zany – and some of them scanty – outfits celebrated the end of the tram’s last winter season April 2. A snowball war broke out, and several affectionate hits went to one of the two tram cars, each of which carries up to 52 people.
The tram now is resuming its summertime duty carrying hikers, mountain bikers and sightseers to the top of Rendezvous Mountain. But after Oct. 1 – and another big party – it will be retired for good.
The resort is choosing to replace the tram rather than face the growing cost of keeping it running safely. Still, resort officials say the decision wasn’t easy.
“This tram, from almost literally Day One, has been the symbol, the icon, the brand, for not only tourism in Jackson Hole, but tourism in all the state of Wyoming,” resort President Jerry Blann said.
Painted bright red in honor of former resort owner Paul McCollister’s alma mater, Stanford University, the tram has carried some 9 million people more than two miles up the mountain.
Speculation over its replacement has become the talk of the town, and Blann said people often stop him at the gas station or grocery store to try to glean an idea.
Blann himself isn’t sure yet, although the resort has narrowed its options to two: either another tram with a couple of cars, or a bi-cable gondola system with smaller, but more numerous, cars. The resort may make a decision by the end of summer, according to Blann.
Either option could cost up to $25 million. Suggestions that the state might help cover that cost at the family-owned resort have found little support among state lawmakers, but Blann hasn’t given up on a government loan or grant. Federal money, after all, paid two-thirds of the tram’s $1.6 million cost in 1966.
“There still might be some options,” he said.
The tram replacement is tentatively scheduled to open for the winter of 2008-2009. Until then, a temporary lift with two-person chairs will get skiers to the top of Rendezvous Mountain. The lift will begin near the top of an existing lift from the resort base.
The existing tram has a snack bar at the top, but the new tram or gondola will have a full restaurant. “It will be nice to sit in a big tram, get out on top, sit in the restaurant, have a little coffee, have a little schnapps, and off you go,” said Peter Stiegler, an Austrian native who moved to Jackson Hole in the footsteps of his older brother, Josef “Pepi” Stiegler, who won Olympic gold for Austria in 1964.
Finding Jackson Hole residents with strong feelings about the tram isn’t difficult.
“There’s not many trips I think you can take where you can be riding 50 to 80 feet above the ground and see a little black bear eating berries below you,” said Heather Petty, a clerk at Wildernest Sports near the tram base.
“And there’s certainly the view from the top. It’s kind of cleansing. You can leave behind the bustle of whatever’s going on down below. You can see mountains and streams and lakes for as far as you can see,” she said.
In winter, Rendezvous Mountain can be anything but tranquil.
“It could look nice when you’re at the bottom, then you’re at the top and it’s just nuking 80 mph winds, with no visibility,” Ovens said.
For those too proud to ride back down, black diamond slopes are the only option.
Ovens said he once saw a group of inexperienced skiers get stuck on a ledge after riding the tram to the top. The skiers half skied and half fell out of the predicament. “It looked like they had broken backs and busted heads the way they bounced over those rocks,” he said.
But he said he saw the skiers up close later on, and they weren’t even scraped.
“Every cat’s got nine lives,” he said, adding: “But every tourist has 10.”
The tram at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, it seems, has just one.
If you go …
Jackson Hole Mountain Resort: www.jacksonhole.com, 307-733-2292 or 888-DEEP-SNO, at Teton Village off Wyoming 390 on the western edge of Jackson Hole, it’s the home of the tram. The tram is scheduled to run every day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through June 16, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. June 17 to Sept. 3, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sept. 4 to Oct. 1. The cost is $21 for adults, $17 for seniors (65 and over) and $9 for children under 15. Children under 5 ride for free.
Many people take mountain bikes on the tram and ride them down. Several trails make the 4,139-foot climb up Rendezvous Mountain, but it is a very difficult hike, whether you go up or down.
Lodging: Several lodging options are listed at www.jacksonholetraveler.com/lodging and it’s a good idea in summer to plan as far ahead as possible.
Nearby: A short drive north of Teton Village and Jackson is Grand Teton National Park, www.nps.gov/grte or 307-739-3300. Yellowstone National Park, www.nps.gov/yell or 307-344-7381, is about 60 miles north of Jackson.
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