rampant Wrote:
@igloo4you Can you answer if the proposal for the new chair from access chair to spring run will be high enough to allow traverse from it to main basin t-bar/Rannoch button? As this seems to be a question on several peoples minds due to the fact it will alleviate stress on both the cliffy chair and wall t-bar in regards to top mountain access and negate the massive queues which occur at weekends.
Cheers
Brian
The proposed chair does not interchange with the upper mountain lifts. To go that high would significantly increase wind exposure on part of the hill that is a good deal more exposed than Ski Tow Gully. It would also mean a lift over green graded terrain for the most part that could only be used by advanced riders because they would have to come down part of the Spring Run to access the mid and lower mountain.
Perhaps more than that, traversing from that location to the base of Ski Tow Gully goes across the main snowfields, and the intervening rock bands. It's easier to return to the Cliffy / Wall T-bar from the Spring Run than get back to the Main Basin T-bar, with a new beginner tow and big increase in Plateau capacity the pressure should be indirectly reduced on the middle lifts freeing up capacity for those wishing to return to the mid-mountain.
From the Flypaper and East Ridge it's actually easier to ride out to the top of the Access Chair in good snow cover, so having much greater uplift capacity on the Plateau would really help with that as well.
I know much internal discussion went on with regards the pros and cons of different options, but for example a chair linking the Access Chair to the base of the Cliffhanger would give no extra riding capacity and just dump people faster into mid-mountain queues (same reason why a new Carpark Chairlift on CairnGorm is a bad idea unless there is a significant upgrade of mid-mountain capacity first).
The proposed chair will potentially allow new fenced green runs further out on the Plateau, which will further help with reliability of returning from some of the upper mountain runs, as well as providing a much smoother progression curve for novices. It will also make the snowsports area very balanced in terms of range of terrain, and making the upper leg of Mugs Alley Blue might further shift some demand to the Plateau and new Ski Tow freeing up a bit more capacity on the Cliffhanger.
I'd quite like to see a mid-line loading station on the Access Chair either near the old top station or a tower or two below, which would allow a far out fenced run on the Eastern edge of the Plateau to sweep around on a line that would allow people to get quite a bit further down the East Ridge and bowl of the Flypaper and still return to uplift most of the season.
