Sea to Sky Gondola reopening on June 11

The beleaguered Sea to Sky Gondola in Squamish is set to reopen later this month.

Twenty-five new cabins from Switzerland are currently being installed as the attraction plans to welcome visitors starting June 11.

It will be another restart for the gondola after its main cable was cut for the second time eight months ago.

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“You absolutely take a hit when someone is out to get you,” said Kirby Brown, general manager of Sea to Sky Gondola. “Whoever was doing that, they put our team in direct danger. That night they could have killed somebody quite easily.”

In what police described as an act of vandalism, the gondola’s main haul rope was deliberately cut on Sept. 14. Dozens of empty cabins smashed to the ground.

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Something similar happened just 13 months prior.

“The difference between the first time and the second time was an understanding that now we are a security company as much as we are a tourism company,” Brown said. “We need to offer and do something very different than anybody has done before.”

The company says it has hired its own in-house team of highly qualified security personnel.

“Top-notch people from three-letter agencies and top military positions,” Brown said.

There is also a new system in which cabins will be taken off the cable and parked on ground level at the end of each night.

Meanwhile, RCMP continue to search for whoever was responsible for the vandalism.

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“There is no doubt about it — we’ll all breathe a sigh of relief when these folks are held accountable for the damage they’ve done,” Squamish Mayor Karen Elliott said.

Brown said the company knows there will be no guaranteed number of visitors or revenue — but said it is ready to regain public trust.

“Anybody who has trepidations about coming, we get that,” Brown said. “It’s incredibly safe: the safest lift installation in the world.”