It's a pity, really, the disappearance of Cibachrome. Seeing this thread and the Fujifilm GX617for sale concurrently in the classifieds reminded me of Tom Mangelson's local gallery.
http://www.mangelsen.com/?SID=ca3imsa618aj5ssi6jj7p9k513
Tom has galleries throughput the country and anyone really interested in what Cibachrome means should visit those. He shot a huge number of absolutely stunning landscapes with the Fuji GX617, and stockpiled and froze a lifetime supply of transparency film to use with it.
He mostly shoots digital now and no longer prints with Cibachrome, due to "environmental concerns", but instead uses the best conventional color processes available. If you walk through the gallery you will see an admixture of large Cibachrome prints made from 6x17 transparencies, and more recent, more conventional work. It is all exceptional, but the Cibachrome prints, in person, are pretty clearly the most exceptional ones.
If anybody wants to really understand the difference between an excellent Cibachrome print, and an excellent non-Cibachrome print, instead of listening to people talk about it, just spend an hour in one of the Images of Nature Galleries, and see for yourself.
Gone (mostly) but not (mostly) forgotten. Such a shame.