Sea to Sky Gondola rides again, 6 months after cable was deliberately cut

The Sea to Sky Gondola reopenedFriday, just oversix months after a vandal sliced the main cable, sendingthe popularSquamish, B.C., tourist attraction to the ground.

The two-kilometre cable route, along with the 30 gondola cars attached to it, crashed overnight on Aug. 10.

Though no one was on board at the time of the crash, and no one was hurt when the cars fell to the ground, the incident caused up to $10 million in property damage.

The cause of crash, which occurred shortly after the cable had undergone regularly scheduled maintenance, was initially the source of much bewilderment.

It was only afterinvestigators located a deliberately severed section of the the six-strand55 millimetre-wide cable thatRCMP declared the incident a deliberateact of vandalism and the site "a crime scene."

The sliced cable meant the attraction had to close for the season, and 75 seasonal staff had to be let go.

Kirby Brown, the general manager of the Sea to Sky Gondola, said the last six months have been tumultuous.

"It's been a lot of learning, a lot of growing, a lot of painful heartache days. But here we are on the doorstep of reopening and that feels pretty darn good," Brown said.

Brown says the company got a new cable shipped in from Switzerland and a new fleet of cable cars. It's also installed an intensive security system, reorganizedthe leadership in the company, created a new web site, contracted with new suppliers and even revamped the menu in the summit restaurant.

The company says lift tickets will be discounted by 50 per cent during the reopening long weekend.

Watch the gondola take passengers up the mountain again:

Tourists and locals gather to board the Sea to Sky Gondola as it reopened to the public

5 years ago

Duration 0:43

The company says lift tickets will be discounted by 50 per cent during the reopening long weekend.

Will tourists board?

But he saysthere's still thechallenge ofwhether people will feel comfortable boarding the route after what happened last summer especially considering there have been no arrests made in the investigation.

"Not having somebody in jail isdefinitely, you know, a problem," Brown said, but addedhe'spleased with the RCMP's work.

He said he'sconfident the new security measures would immediately detect anytamperingnow.

"I think they will find somebody and until that time, I feel very confident that we'll be here and we'llbe able to operate safely and securely into the future."