When you're being hauled a couple of thousand metres up a mountain, you definitely want to be sure that there's some serious hardware supporting you.

(Actually I just questioned myself about that statement, but no, it's correct; you ascend more than 2km between the base site at 1,300m and the Eagle's Nest at 3,466m.)

The gondolas of the Skyway Monte Bianco can supposedly hold 80 people, though I doubt that a full one would make for a pleasant ride. 20, 30 maybe? That's not bad, you can see out of all sides of the gondolas and have space to move about.

However consider the weight of 80 people; if the average is say 75kg, that comes out at 6,000kg, which is three or four medium sized cars' worth. Each cable needs to support 100 tons, though which of the many and varied definition of "ton" that is, isn't clear. Let's just say, "a lot".

The far end of the cable is anchored into the rock of the mountain. On this end, though... well, it's pretty clear how heavy and strong the metal of both the wheels and their mountings is.