Here are some pictures of the “nuts and bolts” of the ribbon raceway from today:

The tether the Climbers will travel on will be fastened at ground level to these pictured steel, highway-repair plates.  Each one weighs about a ton.

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These are the dampers (partially assembled) used to minimize the whipping about of the tether which will be almost surely caused by local wind conditions.  This was a real problem last year – hopefully well addressed this year.

This is the trolley which will sit at the top of the ribbon.  The Climbers will ascend updates to this trolley.  A trigger mechanism at the top will stop the Climbers ascent.  I’m told a camera is also going to be posted on this, so this should give us some pretty cool shots.

As always, click on the thumbnails for a larger version.