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The Ultimate in Mechanized Skiing

by Lou Dawson March 9, 2007
written by Lou Dawson March 9, 2007

Pehaps this could be access for backcountry skiing?

Sell your snowmobile, trade in your SUV and orient to mass transit, it’s the ski lift bus!

I was placing products on the Vintage Ski World webstore today and ran across this image made back in the 1950s by famed skiing fine-art photog Ray Atkeson. To say the least it elicited a chuckle. I don’t know if they ever built a working model of this, it might be mock-up. But what a concept. You climb on a bus in Portland, Oregon. Later you’re still in your bus seat and you notice you’re lifted in the air and sailing up the mountain as a ski lift. Sort of like the car/airplane that futurists used to predict would save our transportation system.

From an engineering standpoint, one can only imagine the structural requirements for a tram that would haul a full diesel bus up a mountain and lower it back down. One also wonders at the wisdom of standing under it.


Fun stuff for Friday. Anyone know if they actually made a working model of this thing? As for Ray Atkeson, I’ll get more of his photos up on VSW this evening after testing some skis today; for now there are some Atkeson posters in their poster section.

Lou Dawson

WildSnow.com publisher emeritus and founder Lou (Louis Dawson) has a 50+ years career in climbing, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. He was the first person in history to ski down all 54 Colorado 14,000-foot peaks, has authored numerous books about about backcountry skiing, and has skied from the summit of Denali in Alaska, North America’s highest mountain.

www.loudawson.com
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