Jackson Hole's "Tram-Formation" Website

Jackson Hole documents the replacement of its old tram with a new one.


If you ever skied Jackson Hole, you know the old aerial tram, installed when the resort opened in the winter of 1965-66, to be one of the icons of American skiing. For most of its four-decade existence, until it was taken out of service at the end of the 2005-06 ski season, it provided the only access to the top of one of the country's most formidable ski mountains.

Every 12 minutes, only 45 skiers would disembark on the summit of Rendezvous Peak, the country's largest single ski mountain, disperse in small clusters and begin skiing down 4,019 vertical feet of unsurpassed challenge, often through deep powder snow. For locals, it was routine. For first-time visitors, that first run down Rendezvous was often a defining experience.

In summer, the tram ferried camera-toting tourists who oohed and aahed and shutter-clicked in response to the jaw-dropping Teton views from the top and then rode back down. Ironically, those summer tram operations were bigger revenue generators for the Jackson Hole Ski Corp. than skiers who did laps, hoping to arrive at the tram dock when there wasn't much of a wait.

When the resort decided to replace the venerable old "red box" tram, they considered various options, finally settling on a sleek state-of-the-art tram that is larger (100 passengers), faster (nine minutes) and features larger windows than the old one. Of course, it had to be red.

The new tram is due to be operational in December 2008, and Jackson Hole has launched a dedicated website to allow people to follow the resort's "tramformation." The process is bittersweet, as such replacements of treasured old things with better new ones always are. The website depicts the project in videos, still images and words. Some particularly poignant shots show the faithful old tram ferrying construction materials to the summit for the new upper terminal -- rather like a doomed prisoner carrying rope to his own hanging.

Visit the site, wallow in nostalgia for the old tram and look ahead to the new, which will begin service this coming ski season. Perhaps, four decades from now, snowsports-lovers will be nostalgic for the "vintage" 2008 tram too.