CABLE HOISTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 August 1939, Page 8

CABLE HOISTS

ACCESS TO WINTER SPORTS GROUNDS. FACILITIES IN FRANCE. France has a number of mountain cable hoists, and in three years time, when work is completed on the Aiguille du Midi, it will possess the highest in the world. Cable hoists have become more numerous since the vogue for winter sports set in and it became necessary to devise means for carrying ski-ers up to high snow-fields in the shortest time. And what serves the ski-er also serves the mountain tourist in summer.

The greatest cable hoist in France at present is to be found at Chamonix. This is the Brevent cable hoist, which in two sections carries tourists a distance of nearly two miles. The first section, of 1967 yards, is by a cable supported by six pylons, but the second second i‘ by a cable hanging in a single span of 1475 yards. The journey is thrilling, and in many ways resembles a flight in an air-plane, of course much slower. Twenty-five people can take their places in the cabin, which is soon skimming over the ground and then rising higher and higher. When the first stage of the journey is ended at Planpraz. the passenger feels he is used to the novel mode of travel, but he-may be excused a momen of misgiving when, before starting on the second stage, he looks at the cable almost lost to sight in the distance as it stretches away upwards on its 1475 yards single span, like a spider’s thread, to the top of the Brevent. The cabin glides along the cable, to which it is hanging, and the empty space below grows deeper and deeper, the earth soon 984 feet below. At the end of the haul the cabin, because of the sag of the cable, climbs almost vertically, parallel with the side of the mountain. At last the little station is reached and the passengers alight, climbing the last 30 yards to the summit. The view that awaits them at an altitude of 8,282 feel, is a panorama of great beauty, a sea of mountains. A French writer describing the cable hoist journey says, “Nothing is more imposing, nothing more arresting. We regret to have to descend from this height. In the cabin we try to capture for ever the grandiose scene. We press against the side, looking everywhere around and below us, and one cannot help but fee) a deep gratitude to those who have schemed and laboured to give us such a beautiful and unforgettable experience.” Chamonix possesses two other cable hoists, that of the Aiguille du Midi already mentioned and that of Les Houches, close to the town.

It is the cable hoist of the Aiguille du Midi that is destined in a short time to be the highest in the world when its final section is completed. The total length of cable of this hoist is 3 miles, to which will be added a further section of a mile and a quarter. The cabins, holding 25 passengers will reach the terminus in 7 minutes. The cable hoist of Les Houches is swung above and close to pine trees, and while not reaching the heights of the other two, offers on every side a magnificent mountain panorama.