Bad news folks, all the snow has melted and all the lifts have broken down. You need to cancel you weekend plans for CG and go to one of the other areas

Boy was it good today, this has just rounded off one of the best weeks at Cairngorm for a long time. I had to keep reminding myself this is Friday and not the weekend. The top two car parks filled very quickly and the Ciste car park was in use with the shuttle bus but surprisingly the ski area was not busy at all, very little queues, if any, with all the terrain and lifts in use when required. If you are planning to come up this week end either come up early or get the bus up from the village and get dropped off at the base station door. It is going to get busy.

There was no fresh snow last night so the powder we have been enjoying is now compacted down. I would even say hard in places mid station down. the ptarmigan area is still soft all over. Jeans Bowl is tracked now but still a great place to ski. The WWP opened but was still experiencing a few hiccups and went off a few times. To use the WWP it was the M2, over yonder and Ryvoan. The Ciste is closed and there is a large bulge on the west wall its self, it is a no go area and there are warning signs every where.

The M2 is quite thin and rocky in the mid section. A few folks were getting caught out as it is quite tricky. I found nipping through to the right of the fence gave a much better ski. The Aonach Bowl was officially closed due to the snow still being a little thin but if you were light on your feet is was an amazing ski down. By the end of the day the fresh was tracked out here too.

The usual areas are still great, WL + top bowls, cas etc.

For those I was skiing with today there will be pictures put up on face book [www.facebook.com] later.


Graeme

Jeans Bow, tracked out but still excellent


Ryvoan


Over Yonder, great on both sides of the fence, easy to find fresh tracks






Edited 1 times. Last edit at 18.27hrs Fri 26 Feb 16 by WindyMiller.

Attachments: jeans bowl.JPG (263kB)   Ryvoan.JPG (261kB)   Over Yonder.JPG (242kB)  

I lost two pictures in the last post.

Looking over the cas and white lady from the ridge poma.


The Aonach Bowl, the snow is thin in here but like many others I could not resist it. A number of laps before it was tracked out.


Graeme



Edited 1 times. Last edit at 18.33hrs Fri 26 Feb 16 by WindyMiller.

Attachments: cas side.JPG (284kB)   Aonach Bowl.JPG (218kB)  

Photo looking up the Aonach Ridge, can get to shuttle bus stop by coming down line of drainage gully above end of link road.





Edited 1 times. Last edit at 19.06hrs Fri 26 Feb 16 by alan.

Attachments: image.jpeg (84kB)  

Cairngorm is pretty snowy now. I was there on Wednesday and it was pretty good, once the freezing rain first thing abated. However, CML still manage to get things wrong. The West Wall poma was still off. They said because there wasn't a safe route to ski to the tow. Well, it was pretty easy to ski the M2 along the ridge, or take the daylodge Poma up and take the snow covered traverse across the Aonach bowl. Of course, the real reason was the West Wall Poma was broken. Why not just say that instead of making up "not enough snow" stories. I wonder if it broke down when it was switched on for the first time this season. A December test run might have avoided the embarrassing situation of the not being able to get it running mid season and having to wait for off site help.

I'm also not sure why the bizarre loading arrangement at the Cas T bar has been set up. If the previous ramp was damaged somehow, why not just repair it. It's worked well for over 50 years. Chopping off the start seems a bit odd. It must be chaos with a queue the way it's been left.... but there were no queues on Wed

Why not reinstate the original loading point for the Cas, if the gantry is gubbed.

AIUI to do so would have required cableways directive clearance, but the current arrangement did not alter the actual lift - whereas lowering the drive onto the original plinth would have.

However it would seem that returning to an improved version of the original pre loading gantry configuration would be the best option. Some rock gibbons or granite retaining walls could widen the base area and make it all look much neater at the same time and reduce future upkeep costs via new gantry.

With the changes at the middle with the funicular the need for the loading gantry is reduced.

What is the current arrangement? I keep seeing people complaining about it.

Also what was the original setup?

It used to be mounted on a concrete plinth a few metres lower than the present condemed structure.....the reason it was raised many years ago was because it got buried in snow along with the initial top section of the White Lady Chairlift....no PB's in those days 1974/5/6/7 !

Another stunning day on Cairngorm. I did not want to go up to-day being a Sunday but it was Shona's first day off this week. We got on the slopes for 08:30 for the first lifts opening hoping to beat the crowds, 10:30 past as did 11:30 and no crowds? We could not believe it but it appeared quieter than Friday! Every lift was open including the WWP eventually after a bit of persuasion and they managed to absorb the three car park loads of people. The Ptarmigan and Ciste had reasonable waits as you would expect with all the ski schools, The M1 had two short lines and the cas was often ski on as were the lower lifts and the WWP. Very slight queue at the Ridge just after lunch when folks went back onto the mountain.

The snow was exceptional again, as it has been most of the week, by the end of the day the gun barrel was a little scraped but this will piste up fine.
M2 and day lodge should be avoided unless you are good at rock hopping but every where else is very good indeed. The off pise down Jeans Bowl and the Fiacaill has held up very well and was giving the best skiing on the mountain. My heart sank when I saw the pistie beasty running up and down it to connect the old Fiacaill run with the car park run but luckily they only made two passes. The pisted area was much worse to ski on than the unpisted!!

Questions were asked about the ski-ability to the Ciste Car park. We used the M2 right hand side over the fence down to over yonder, across the road way onto Rita's ridge, keeping high, swung left down the fall line into the main bowl then turning left to get around snow fence above the link road, sharp right to get right on to the bus stop. An easy and very enjoyable ski down. Over 3/4 had very good cover, the last section was thin but joined up with deep patches. Not combat skiing, easy and great in the strong sunshine.

Later there will be more pictures on Face Book with pictures of the folks skiing with us today and some of the views.

[www.facebook.com]

Graeme

This summed up today


If this did not encourage the beginners to learn then skiing is not for you.


There are just some times when you should not run the Pisteie Beatsty down a run. This was a good example, the snow was perfect before it was flattened then lumpy afterwards. Luckily there were only two passes of the machine.


Heading down to the Ciste Car park after leaving the M2 in the distance.


Looking down to the Ciste Car Park after dropping off Rita's Ridge.







Edited 1 times. Last edit at 19.19hrs Sun 28 Feb 16 by WindyMiller.

Attachments: top runs.JPG (271kB)   Ciste Car Park.JPG (288kB)   Heading down Ciste.JPG (283kB)   Jeans Bowl.JPG (272kB)   Ptarmigan.JPG (258kB)  

Hi Alan

Thanks for your help. As you can see from Windymiller's photos - we did ski down to Ciste car park - through Rita's Ridge. Was mostly great ski down, snow was still great, a bit sketchy at very end - but we got there - and didn't have to take skis off! Great day was had.

Hope all this new snow improves things even more - hope it doesn't turn to rain.

First days skiing after the thaw and bad weather. Over all since Sunday there has been a net snow loss but it is only a slight loss after the heavy snow yesterday. The big difference is the quality of the snow, much of it is hard and icy. It looks great but there is a thin cover of fresh over a hard icy base. The cas and top bowls are not too bad with only patches but other areas are scraped and polished.

I don't know who has been doing the pisting in the last day or so but it has not been good. The machine has been digging two trenches along its outer width and producing a multitude of death cookies where the tracks have been, not the usual high standard at all. This is made worse where there have been multiple passes leaving lines of ridges up and down the pistes which are hard and death cookies which bite back.

The WWP opened mid afternoon but with the M2 being striped of snow and the gully closed the only way in is Ryvoan. Ryvoan is only one machine wide and solid ice for 75% of the steep part beside the West Wall. The machines have mounded the snow up into steep banks down each side of the run so there is no ski out if you slip on the ice. Once you have started your ski in you are committed till the end. This was catching many folks out and not a pleasant ski at all.

The best skiing is the upper bowls, Ciste fairway, traverse, 105 and cas. Gun barrel not too bad but a little scraped. the best was the skiers left of the GB.

The fiacaill ridge is good where pisted but crusty on the off piste sections.The ridge run its self is quite good, a bit softer than the mid mountain.The lower slopes are hard.

I don't think it will take much more snow to return the mountain back to the play ground it has been and I hope some one takes a look at the PB600 to see why it is making such a mess of the slopes!

For the folks skiing with us today there will be some pictures on face book later
[www.facebook.com]

Graeme

The ciste area, fairly soft snow with some icy patches


The side of the gun barrel was nice to ski, thin and a little hard but better than the gun barrel its self


The old Fiacaill run, a good ski if you kept away from its centre.


Ryvoan, looks nice? don't be fooled the upper section was horrendous. Unless you have ice-skates I would recommend keeping away.


The lower slopes have a reasonable cover but hard and icy in many places.






Edited 2 times. Last edit at 19.36hrs Thu 3 Mar 16 by WindyMiller.

Attachments: Ryvoan.JPG (243kB)   Ciste.JPG (258kB)   Lower Slopes.JPG (283kB)   old Fiacaill Run.JPG (246kB)   cas.JPG (259kB)  

Graeme, The best snow on the Ciste side of the hill was in the Ciste Gully which was skied although it remains closed [with no evidence of any attempt to officially open it] Maybe there are valid reasons why it has never been open this season? but the operator is keeping quiet about them [other than the avalanche danger mentioned last week]
The fact that there is no boardwalk may be influencing operational decisions and those who use Cairn Gorm should be making their views known to management about that. It seems that NR believe that extending the WW Poma by 50m uphill is more of a priority than rebuilding the boardwalk.
They also believed that replacing the old Sheiling Platter with a new rope tow was a priority...despite all the evidence to the contrary. It was spinning today at 1pm with nobody using it and was subsequently switched off.

KR

Olderalan

yesterday was my first visit for a year. We had a great day's skiing but there didn't seem to be any improvements to uplift , but same old story M1 poma didn't open till 11 despite there being races on the White Lady & not sure when the west wall poma opened. Only real difference was the food..vg but vv expensive will take my own sandwiches next time.

A challenging day on the mountain. Heavy snow most of the day accompanied with high North NorthEast wind.

The wind was stripping the snow of the east facing runs such as the upper part of Jeans Bowl but the heavy snow was accumulating in the Cas and lower runs. The off piste is quite difficult with icy areas where stripped and large pockets of soft. Quite exciting in the flat light when you had no idea what was coming next! The top bowl was a no go area with the poor viability and high winds.

The falling snow is fairly wet around the mid mountain and was packing down quite quickly.

Graeme

With the poor conditions only a couple of pictures.

Snow accumulating down to car park but fairly wet. This will freeze tonight, nice!


Is the ciste over there or is it over there?


The cas was accumulating snow.





Edited 1 times. Last edit at 18.52hrs Fri 4 Mar 16 by WindyMiller.

Attachments: Cas Snowy.JPG (197kB)   Ciste Snowy.JPG (181kB)   lower Slopes.JPG (282kB)  

A good day on the hill today. The falling snow over the last couple of days has made a big difference to the piste surface and off piste most of the icy patches have gone.
The visibility was a bit suspect from mid mountain up but if you were daft enough to ski in the top bowl then pah to you there were so many excellent areas to ski for all abilities lower down and very little queueing at any of the lifts apart from rent-a-crowd race training using the Fiacaill Ridge Poma in the morning for a few hours.

The ciste gully opened for the first time this season and was a fun ski with you able to ride high on the walls or down the middle. The Aonach bowl was spectacular, untracked for most of the morning. The M2 and day lodge is much improved still a little narrow on the day lodge but fun.

The run of the day, Rita's Ridge down to the Ciste car park and use the red chair lift back to the Day Lodge, you know the one, the one with the wheels and seats inside and a driver at the front. The snow is now expansive down there and very good. I took a group of mix ability down and they all loved it. So much so we had to do it a couple of times.

Disappointment of the day? Jeans bowl, it is now skied out and more like on piste skiing, the surface is still nice but not the spectacular skiing we have been having.

Some people pictures going on face book later for those skiing with us today.

[www.facebook.com]

Graeme

The Ciste gully seeing some action by the Belgian


The west wall traverse, nice cover here, easy to ski back to the wwp.


Aonach bowl, fun....


Skiing to the ciste car park using Rita's Ridge


Plenty of snow down to the bus stop.. sorry the red chair lift....







Edited 1 times. Last edit at 19.03hrs Sun 6 Mar 16 by WindyMiller.

Attachments: Rita\'s Ridge.JPG (256kB)   Ciste Car Park.JPG (237kB)   West Wall Traverse.JPG (221kB)   Ciste Gully.JPG (198kB)   Aonach Bowl.JPG (236kB)