The ride is remarkably smooth. In spite of being over three kilometers between the closest lift towers, our cabin on Whistler Blackcomb's new Peak 2 Peak gondola feels like a plush Cadilac. We're among the first people to ride the new lift; a priviledge afforded to contest winners, dignitaries and the media, and the entire experience seems downright sureal. Unless you've been lucky enough to have a helicopter ride over the valley between Whistler and Blackcomb, otherwise known as Fitzsimmons Creek, you've never had a view like this. Both mountains are exposed from previously unseen angles, and Whistler Village glimmers perfectly in the distance.

View of the valley.

The ride, which lasts around 11 minutes from station to station, achieves something once impossible: snowboarders can now make the spontaneous decision to switch from one mountain to the other, avoiding the lengthy descent to the bottom and the multiple lift rides required to reach the top. The implications are significant. On a powder day you can chase fresh tracks on both mountains, waiting to pounce when the next alpine lift opens, exposing a fresh bounty of untouched snow. Or, as Whistler Blackcomb's senior vice president of mountain resorts Hugh Smythe puts it, you can easily double your jib-and-jump experience.

"Being able to ride the park on Whistler, and then being able to ride the park on Blackcomb, will just provide significantly more variety and it all becomes much more accesible," he explains.

But it's not just snowboarders, of course, who will benefit from the new lift.

View of Blackcomb.

"It's going to be a different experience for different people," he elabourates. "If you're a sightseer and you're going across, and you're looking at the scenery from 1,400 feet above the river, and you're seeing the bears in the summer, or if you're an avid skier and you want to stay high in the alpine and ride both mountains, it's providing a full range that's accesible for everyone from children to grandparents. It'll be very individual. Some people will be marvelling at the technology, other people will be marvelling at the experience, and some people will just like how it changes skiing here. It'll provide a lot of experiences."

When it comes to the engineering required to build the Peak 2 Peak gondola, "marvel" is an apt description. Not only does it have the longest span between lift towers (3.024 kilometers), it also boasts the longest distance to the ground, with the cabins sitting a hefty 436 meters above the valley floor. (To put it in perspective, Toronto's CN Tower is 553 meters high.) And to provide a gut-wrenching view, two of the 28 cabins have a glass-bottomed observation window in the middle of the cabin floor.

Dave Brownlie, Whistler Blackcomb President and Chief Operating Officer.

First envisioned in 1997, the Peak 2 Peak is opening a full year ahead of the 2010 Olympics, drawing significant attention to the already famous ski resort. Built by Doppelmayr at a cost of $51 million dollars, it will forever change how Whistler Blackcomb is perceived and used by tourists, snowboarders and skiers alike.

"When we convinced the shareholders to put it in, it was really about the number of eyeballs that would be able to see this through the Olympics," acknowledges Smythe. "So it was important to have it here a year before the Olympics. As you've seen from today, we've had a significant amount of media up to see it, and we're just geting started. Whistler Blackcomb is on the map anyway, but now it's even more unique due to what we've been able to do."

Opening ceremonies.

My first-hand account of the Peak 2 Peak experience:

Click here to see an exclusive Push photo gallery of the Peak 2 Peak opening.

The Whistler Blackcomb site has an extensive series of videos documenting the construction of the Peak 2 Peak gondola, click here to view them.

And click here to see an exclusive Push video from the Motion Capture series on opening day from Whistler.