Hacker News Reader

Comment by monk_e_boy | Hacker News Reader

PEAK 2 PEAK Gondola - Cable Installation

2:12 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHsF1kRKEV0

TLDR; Spool out cable (rope), lift the end up with helicopter drape it over the sheave train (the wheels on the cross arm) pull out more rope, etc

View on HN

How do they tie the cables together? To get 9KM of cable they must use multiple spools and somehow tie them together. I'm curious how they're joined so they do not become the "weakest link in the chain" and are not too bulky for the wheels.

There's another video here that covers the splicing aspect:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5itSfxJoXY4

It's spliced like any other rope, you can see this in action here: https://youtu.be/5itSfxJoXY4?t=183

The splice for the Vail lift is about 300 feet long apparently.

Oh my god, there's a guy riding on the outside at the end of the video. I've been on this lift several times and it's scary enough in the cabins, I couldn't imagine doing that in a million years.

You should try a different angle of imagination: the guy is tied to the cabin (or maybe even the part that is directly tied to the ropes) with a safety harness. You on the other hand, are just standing/sitting in the cabin, not tied to it. Should the doors open, should the attachment somehow fail, ... you would actually be in a less safe situation than the guy. Yeah I know the chances of any of these are minimal, but the chance of anything going very wrong with lifts is on average minimal. Trying to think in another way about it sometimes does wonders for deaing with fears, at least for me.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com