Looking good! The Glenshee car park was only about a third to half full today, I was expecting queue central, looks like it was the same for CG. Perhaps everybody has gone to that mountain range somewhere in the south for Easter?

Do cairngorm only open lifts subject to demand? Looking to head over tomorrow but its a long drive so only really worth it if everything opens. Weather looks to be a perfect bluebird though

Andy, the lifts of significance that were not running were the Day Lodge and the Car Park. There were so few people around and alternate ways to get up the mountain no one noticed them not being on. No queues at the train or the Ridge Poma. If needed they do come on, DSUK requested the car park t-bar yesterday to help them with some clients and it was put on. If you are coming primarily for the park the Ptarmigan and Ciste always run unless the weather turns bad.

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And to-day...

A cold start to the day with cloud skipping across the summits. The runs had set up firm though with the pisting were nice to ski, especially the Cas first thing, hard base with a good layer of spring snow on top. On the upper runs there had been a sprinkle of fresh snow. By lunch time everything had eased up giving soft snow top to bottom but the tops quickly crunched up as the cold clouds passed through, some dropping a little snow at times.

I can’t really give a good description of the runs as we spent the day lapping Coire Laogh Mor. The ground team had taken a pistie beasty in again and patched all the heather hops so it was now a continuous ski back to the car park steps. Unlike yesterday when we had the run to ourselves quite a few others had found it and the bus back was on occasion full. Strange that on the bus that every one knew each other!

Rent-a-crowd had set up gates down the white lady for race training in the morning but were gone by lunch time. There was still room down the side of the gates if you wanted to ski the lady or east lady.

Again, like yesterday is was unbelievably quiet, quieter than many mid week days this season. The only queue was in the Ptarmigan restaurant for lunch unless you were unfortunate enough to turn up at the M1 when rent-a-crowd turnd up too.

Some of the best skiing to be had, other than Laogh Mor which is in an other league, was on the Fiacaill, even lower down. But to be honest any where on the mountain is giving good skiing.

If you think the best time to go skiing on Cairngorm is January/February then you are missing out on so much. The warmer weather is creeping in and the snow is turning granular, a great time to be on the mountain.

Graeme

A sprinkling of fresh snow made the upper runs very nice to ski.


The wide snow fields of Coire Laogh Mor, firm forgiving snow.


Half way down Laogh Mor. You can see the road way out at the bottom. This its self was a good ski, undulating and interesting to ski. No more heather hopping as the brown areas had been patched.


The road end which was covered in foot prints yesterday has been pisted. Quite soft at the end of the day though. Be careful of the burn if you want to ski over it the snow is slumping down.


A number of people were skiing side slope on the Fiacaill, good spring snow here once it softened up in the morning.







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Attachments: Ptarmigan Area.JPG (168kB)   Road End.JPG (220kB)   lower Fiacaill.JPG (237kB)   Upper Laogh Mor.JPG (206kB)   Laogh Mor.JPG (264kB)  

Any indication if the shuttle bus is on for the week for uplift as we are into the holiday period or was it only up for the weekend as standby for the carpark?

Not sure Alan. We were discussing this afternoon. It was most definitely not for the car park to-day as the lower Cas car park was not full. I will try and find out tomorrow.

We arrived in the Ciste car park at 9 this morning to find the piste bully hard at work on the Laogh Mor return. It’s narrow, thin and more brown than white in places but what a hoot. Kudos to Cairngorm for keeping the run open.

They have also pisted above the Ptarmigan tow to several machine widths all the way to the Torrs making a fantastic top to bottom run if you put in the leg work. Fingers crossed the snow this week will allow them to keep the run open for Easter.

Thanks for the help Graeme. If you see me lapping the park feel free to say hi

Does anyone one know if CairnGorm still offer a cheaper midweek pass ? It doesn't show it on their website but they were selling them earlier in the season.

Very unlikely given the extent of terrain they have open I would say.

It just does not get much better on the mountain. A bit of a slow start with broken cloud and slightly chilly. This soon passed and by the end of the day it was hot with the sun splitting the sky. The firm snow quickly relaxed into granular spring snow mid mountain up, below this level it did get a bit heavy. All runs including the Ciste off piste were good, Gully 1+2, the Aonach etc. If you are an on piste skier the Lady was tiptop as was the Cas and Gun barrel and for lower levels the upper bowls had a slight covering of fresh to start then lovely and soft later. M2 and over yonder good for blue cruisers.

I saw winterhighlander Andy 9127 hitting the park and shouted over Hi but sorry I did not manage to have a chat. The park looked quite firm at that time but I am sure it softened like the rest of the mountain.

Started off with three of us skiing in the morning and ended up with eleven by the end of play! Hitting the steeps on the ciste side and finishing the day on the East and White Lady then back to the car park. A great place to end in the lowering warm sun. A great bunch and chat was good too.

Again, hardly a soul on the mountain.

Tomorrow is not looking so good, high winds but there could be fresh snow.

People pictures going on facebook later
[www.facebook.com]

Graeme

Skiing Gully No1 and joining onto the Ciste Gully.


The Aonaoch Bowl. Good spring snow all the way down. Met a Mother and Father here with two young lads who were thoroughly enjoying them selves. Think it was their first time on the Gorm.


You can not get into the East Lady form the M2 due to the rocks exposed in the last storm. It is easy to traverse in from the the Lady 1/3 down.


The place was empty. All the people in this picture were part of our group. The lady was just one big smile from top to bottom.


It looks like the shuttle bus will only be on at the weekends. To be honest I don't think they could justify the cost for just us skiing it! Maybe Ops1 should sit in the Natural Retreats Land Rover at the ciste car park and pick us up?








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Attachments: Gully 1.JPG (236kB)   White Lady.JPG (211kB)   Travers to east Lady.JPG (193kB)   Aonach Bowl.JPG (178kB)   Shuttle Bus.JPG (181kB)  

According to CML's end of day report it was quite busy for a Monday. Everyone must be avoiding you Graeme...lol
Having a Shuttle Bus operating on Saturday and Sunday as well as having a Pisted route down Laogh Mor was terrific. It's a real shame that nobody knew about it because no information was posted up until around noon on Sunday. If that information had been made available on Friday evening then a few more might have headed for CairnGorm.
I've noticed the references to how quiet it is. Interestingly, that hasn't been the case at 3 other Scottish areas this season.

I think Colin was being sarcastic as if you look at his pictures there were very few if any people in them and when we were talking at the end of the day it was mentioned how few people there were.




The reports from Glenshee and The Lecht were saying they were quiet too and Andy from GC also mentioned how few people there were there. To be honest if Glencoe was as close as Cairngorm is to us I would be skiing more at GC than CG. But I must say CG was exceptionally quiet over the last three days. Even mid term was not the mad crazy time it can be some times. I do think they are limiting ticket sales more often to keep the crowds down. May be we should start a new thread, "Is Scottish Skiing Broken?"

Graeme

Rather than making sarcastic comments, if that was what it was, isn't helping. It might be better to take an open minded look at why it is so quiet. If you read my post again, then you'll see that I referred to 'this season'. The numbers at the end of the season will show how well or how poorly each area has done. Your pictures, over the weeks, give an indication of lack of numbers. There will be 3 areas that have done well and one that hasn't.
As I said....running a Shuttle bus but keeping it a secret wasn't the best marketing ploy. All the good piste work just goes to waste if there aren't the numbers there to enjoy it.

Continuing with the theme of 'why is it so quiet'

In the 10 years up to 2013, CairnGorm had 40% of the Scottish Snowsports market share while Glencoe had 8%. So, for every 1 skier/boarder at Glencoe there were 5 at CairnGorm.

Would anyone like to guess what that ratio will be at the end of this season?

It isn't Scottish Skiing that is broken although there is considerable concern about the impact that CairnGorm is having on Scottish Skiing.

Kind regards

Olderalan

You might have a point older Alan. I was at Glenshee Sunday and th3 car park was probably half full or perhaps less. Still a decent amount of income for them on the back of @ good February. End of March when there’s been a decent season things do seem to tail off significantly. Easter skiing doesn’t seem on people’s radars any more...