At approximately 4:30AM on Saturday, August 10th, employees of the Sea to Sky Gondola noticed that the gondola's haul rope had fallen, rendering the lift inoperable, according to a press release. After investigating, Squamish Royal Canadian Mounted Police concluded that the approximately 2-inch-diameter cable had been deliberately cut by vandals. Kirby Brown, the gondola's general manager, echoed the RCMP's conclusion in an interview with CBC. "It's just an incredibly unusual thing to happen," he said. "We just did our maintenance on the line very recently and it was a big, thick, beautiful healthy rope." Luckily, no one was injured during the incident.
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The RCMP's Inspector Kara Triance estimated that the vandalism has resulted in over $1 million in damage, even before accounting for lost revenue. Investigators are currently seeking witnesses who were hiking on nearby trails around the time of the incident. Anyone with information to report should call the Squamish RCMP's non-emergency line at 604-892-6100.
