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The Whistlers

Sep 06 2006


The Jasper Tram

 


The Whistlers
This is not the true summit but a false summit that the Tram upper terminal sits on.

Wednesday September 6th 2006

The Whistlers is a minor summit near the town site of Jasper Alberta,

To get to The Whistlers summit is either a fairly good hike or you also have the option of flying up a good deal of the way to the summit on the Jasper Tram.

The Jasper Tram is not like the usual Chairlift or Gondola. When I examined it I noticed a few differences. First and most interesting is rather than the usual multiple towers to support the weight of the cable and cars, there is only one tower. The lone tower lies just short of the half-way point up the mountain.


The top of the Tram is now visible. This image is from just before the halfway point. You can see the other car coming down.

The immense distance makes the cable sag in a hyperbolic curve

The view from the upper terminal. A car is on the way up.
The car arrives at the upper terminal
 

 

Take a trip on the Jasper Sky Tram!
The Sky Tram
lower building

The Jasper Tram is also bi-directional. This means rather than the usual circular loop that multiple gondolas-chairs take, the two cars go back and forth up and down the mountain. They ride on a stationary cable and are towed by a smaller one inch cable.

The trips are referred to as flights. Because of the great distance between the terminals and the lone tower, the distance off the ground is more than the usual height of a chairlift.


 The upper terminal from the trail above		  
Looking down to the upper terminal from higher up

"The Whistlers" is apparently named after the Hoary Marmot although my own guess would have been the Pika. I did not see either species of rodent on the upper peak. I did see two Ptarmigans though.


 Male Ptarmigan

  


Female Ptarmigan

 


 View of the Town of Jasper from near the summit		  
Indian Ridge
Indian Ridge is also a scramble and is in Alan Kane's book.

 


The view south towards Mount Kerkeslin
Telephoto shot of Mount Robson, highest peak in the Canadian Rockies at 3954 meters or 12972 feet.

I took a few photos of the surrounding peaks at the summit and then got back down. Cindy was feeling unusually vertiginous this particular day and decided to hang back down the trail.


Panorama of the Victoria Cross Range to the north of the Whistlers. The Whistlers are at the northern most tip of the Trident Range.

Pyramid Mountain is at the right.

Slowly, but very deliberately, the brooding edifice of seduction, creaking and incongruous, came into being, a vast Heath Robinson mechanism, dually controlled by them and lumbering gloomily down vistas of triteness. With a sort of heavy-fisted dexterity the mutually adapted emotions of each of them became synchronized, until the unavoidable anti-climax was at hand.

Anthony Powell
1905-2000, British Novelist

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