Steamboat, CO: Wild Blue Gondola Lower

This massive base-to-summit Doppelmayr D-Line 10-person gondola was completed in two phases during the Full Steam Ahead project. The first phase was in the summer of 2022, when the lower section was installed, running from the base area to a new beginner area called Greenhorn Ranch. Essentially, this replaced the Preview triple and runs next to the first section of Christie Peak Express for less than half its length. For this section’s first season in operation, it didn’t really do much other than providing an alternate route to Thunderhead Express. That all changed in 2023, when the upper section from Greenhorn Ranch to Sunshine Peak was built after the 2022-23 season. Now, one can take just a single lift from the base to the top of the mountain. Once the upper section was built, Wild Blue became the longest and fastest 10-person gondola in North America, totaling 3.16 miles in length. The whole system has a total of 171 CWA Omega V cabins, and the first section has 10 towers. The first section is relatively short at 4267 feet long. The drive system for the first section is a two-ring Doppelmayr Direct Drive, located at the top of this section. The design speed is 1181 fpm (6 m/s), but it was running at 981 fpm in this recording.
Recorded Mar. 30, 2024.
Upper section ride: • Steamboat, CO: Wild Bl...
Music used:
Birdseye Blues - Chris Haugen

[@Sterlingclub24]

I wish I got this on camera but my camera died 7 seconds after I started recording

[@TwinSkiingLiftsRides]

Sorry to hear that! At least you can say you rode it!