Police in British Columbia have released new images from the night a suspect cut the cable to the Sea to Sky Gondola in Squamish for the second time in a year, sending dozens of cable cars hurtling down the granite cliff, once again shutting down the popular tourist attraction and nearly killed a security guard patrolling below. At a press conference Wednesday, two years since the second incident, Sergeant Chris Manseau said police released video and a thermal image of the suspect in hopes of generating new evidence. “We feel that by releasing this photo and video and reporting how close this person was to being killed, someone with information will come forward,” he said. “We are asking them to do this.” In the early hours of September 14, 2020, a saboteur walked into the gondola area, climbed a tower and cut a 52mm steel cable, causing the attraction to suddenly and completely collapse and shut down for more than six months. The same had happened just a year earlier in August 2019. In the video released on Tuesday, a security guard – hired after the first incident – can be seen walking down the gondola line shortly before 4am, illuminating the ground in front of him with a flashlight. Seconds after the guard clears the gondola’s path, the metal structure shakes violently, its cable just snapped. Sea to Sky Gondola general manager Kirby Brown described the ranger as “a very stoic person, a very strong person” and said the ranger was already on the phone with police when the cable was cut. “He had realized something was going on and was calling the situation to the RCMP at that time,” Mr. Brown said. “Suddenly, a disaster fell on his heels. It was shocking, disturbing. A couple of years have passed since then [and] he’s doing well, but it was almost a life-changing event for him.” Mr Brown said the company was doubling its reward to $500,000 for information leading to a conviction. Police are prosecuting the charge of homicide endangering life. “It’s a sliding scale based on the value the information brings to the investigation that leads to the arrest and conviction,” Mr Brown said. “There is a small table that is formed when this information is displayed.” The two incidents cost Sea to Sky Gondola more than $10 million in direct costs alone and forced the layoffs of more than 200 workers in a city already reeling from the pandemic shutdown. A gondola car rests on its side on the mountain after a cable snapped overnight on the Sea to Sky gondola, causing the cable cars to fall to the ground below.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press Sgt. Manseau said investigators believe they are dealing with an “extremely well-suited” lone suspect who knows the area well and had specific knowledge about what tools to use. However, they are open to the possibility that there was more than one suspect. Police have received about 100 tips over the past two years, talking to or eliminating more than 70 people of interest, he said. Investigators were looking into multiple motives, but had nothing concrete to share Tuesday. Mr Brown said the company has since invested in an “industry-leading” safety device that makes the lift the safest on the planet. In an earlier interview, he said he believed it was the saboteur’s ambition to bankrupt the company. “They haven’t done that. Not by a long shot,” he said at the time. The owners “all invested more. That made the company stronger.”
