First of all a correction to my previous post concerning Ops1 facebook post saying Monday was busy and I thought he was having a laugh with us. Apparently Monday had nearly 500 snow sport users and an additional 300 funicular tickets sold , this is unusually high for a Monday especially late March. What we were seeing on the mountain is very low density of people with all the terrain and a large amount of off piste open, empty bars going round and deserted runs. I think the use of “busy” confused me, meaning well attended where what we are seeing are very quiet runs and lifts. Hay hoe, I am happy to correct my mistake when I am wrong

Anyway today...

A cold morning with snow and hail shower passing though reducing visibility. By 11:30 the cloud was thinning giving glimpses of sun. The over night and this mornings snow showers have freshened the upper mountain making the Ptarmigan and Ciste Bowls a good place to be.

The Ciste and No1 gully had been pisted superbly giving such a nice surface to ski on. This is where many people were. Gully 2 is unpisted, still nice to ski but a little scratchy in places. With he fresh snow on the upper runs I headed over to the coronation wall. There was some fresh here but not much. The ski down was a little hard, quite controllable but not like the snow in the Ptarmigan bowl.

The White Lady was a little disappointing. It looks like it was pisted last night and then frozen. It did not soften much and even on the last runs down you could still see the frozen corduroy form the machine, grippy but juddery to ski. With so much good skiing around it was best to leave alone.

The Cas and Gun Barrel are good. The lower runs quickly soften up and are a bit heavy at the end of the day as you would expect.

Again a very quiet day… no cant say that, a low density day with the large amount of terrain open Ok I will drop that now….. my bad.

Nice to ski with Snowmandave today, hope I did not break you!

Graeme

Gully No1, a very nice ski down. Snowmandave telemarking at the top.


The Ciste is wide with good snow all the way down to the road way.


The west wall poma return road from the ciste. This was getting brown a couple of days ago, now patched and white again. Taken from near the bottom of Gully 2.


Ryvoan has been patched very well and back to full width.


Coronation wall looking over to the head wall. A bit firm to ski but still nice and had to do it twice.






Edited 1 times. Last edit at 18.18hrs Wed 28 Mar 18 by WindyMiller.

Attachments: Gully No1.JPG (211kB)   Coronation Wall.JPG (186kB)   Ciste.JPG (151kB)   Ciste Return.JPG (221kB)   Ryvoan.JPG (181kB)  

Hi Graeme,

Nice of you to take an easy ski morning with me! Thanks for talking me into doing those red runs, I needed a more expert person to follow, for as long as my legs held up!

I ended up going down the traverse & hit it at the same time as a serious hail stone squall hit, coming UP the traverse...any exposed skin was seriously exfoliated!!!

Then hit the gunbarrel & headed back up top, for a few more laps of the easy stuff. Did a final run down the mountain & managed to tele down the Gunbarrel which was soft, & nice. not too sticky, just right. Got to the car park at 3:30pm as that was all my thighs could take!

I managed to drive the 1hr home ok...getting out of the car was interesting...

Anyway if you got any shots of me (one defo as above) could I have a copy for my records? Pm me.

---That was not a fall, I intended to do that!---

Graeme, do you know what the story is with the posts on the Daylodge? Why install fence posts when the area is covered in snow? Or do they have another purpose?

Reason is so they can be mechanically knocked in by a Piste Basher, rather than taking weeks by hand in the summer.

Thanks Alan. Good to know they are improving the fencing on the Daylodge. The other areas of new fencing have made a great difference this season.

The rail fences are generally taller, they are also what is considered optimal porosity. Both factors combined will significantly increase the maximum snow trapping potential of a given fence, as a general guideline a 6ft tall fence can trap twice as much snow before reaching saturation as a 4ft fence.

In the particular case of the Daylodge Poma and Run, hopefully both sides of the Tow and outside of the run will be so fenced, because not only should this significantly improve the durability of the Daylodge Run - in SE winds it should also reduce to some extent the snow reaching the problematic upper section of the Access Road.

Extending the M2 down from the corner of the Daylodge Poma, around the flank of the An t-Aonach (through or close to the glacial drainage cut) then down the areas known as the Aonach and Rita's Ridges to the Ciste Carpark should provide a much more resilient snow route to the Ciste Carpark and again help a wee bit in reducing drifting onto the Link Road.

Indeed a dedicated fence line curving in a gentle traverse from the Home Road to the Ciste Carpark never less than 70 to 100m from the Road could substantially improve the road situation and provide a green return route to the Ciste Carpark.

Good points on the drifting Alan. If this was done it could well be money well spent.

Oops.....I hope that you were not given too much of a telling off. They are very lucky to have you market their business for them with the excellent pictures that you post up almost daily.It's also good to know that Ops1 continues to be an avid WH reader.
Top marks to you for your reports and to Alan for continuing to allow CairnGorm to be promoted on this site despite their behaviour earlier in the season when they removed the WH webcam from the ski club hut and also the AWS which had collected data that had been willingly shared with them and with HIE to support the case for snowmaking. We all know that the replacement webcam has seldom worked which has been a source of continuous embarrassment for them
Some people might regard their collapsing market share as Karma.

Kind regards

Olderalan

There has been 3-5cm for fresh snow over the mountain significantly changing the surface conditions especially higher up. First thing in the morning the new snow was down to the car park but by the afternoon the fresh was mainly confined to mid station and up, a little still lower down. Most of the mountain remained below freezing in the very cold south easterly wind. Even in the sunshine it still felt cold.

The Ciste side in particular caught the snow, the story of this season. The upper bowls were good and the east sides of the ptarmigan and ciste were getting fresh tracks much of the day.

The Cas was odd, it was hard and very lumpy and not very pleasant, the gun barrel was similar with larger lumps. It did not improve all that much during the day. The lady caught some of the fresh snow but not as much as the ciste side. As you skied the lady you could feel yesterdays hard surface underneath. Not a problem as the ciste side was so good and that is where the informed were skiing.

The guys have been out playing with the pisteie beasties again and another new run has appeared off the high traverse into gullies 1+2. Gully 0.5 starts just as you go through the gate on the high traverse and runs at a 45o angle across the east side of the ciste and meets the gully roughly at the same place as gully no1. I would class this as a blue run. So now we have a blue, red and black on the east ciste. 1+2 are still excellent to ski. The ciste is in excellent condition and the road out to the west wall poma is easy.

Had a go again on the coronation wall. Yesterday is was fine, a bit scratchy. Today it improved significantly with the fresh snow. The fresh snow has improved the access root off the Ptarmigan too. Still a few rocks to watch but much better than yesterday.

Nice to meet winterhighlander “somefrustratedskier” this afternoon. I hope you enjoyed your first day back for some time.

By 15:30 the clouds were thickening with snow showers passing through. The light started to flatten so it was time to head home.

I have some interesting pictures to post, many more than the 5 limit here so I will put them on my facebook page.
[www.facebook.com]

Graeme

The new run, we were calling it Gully 0.5 as it is just before gully No1. Running from the upper middle of this picture to the bottom left.


High on the east ptarmigan looking over the bowls. The new snow has freshened things up nicely.


On the way over to the coronation wall. many for the rocks that were poking through yesterday have been covered. Some people were skiing just here back to the top station.


The coronation wall now has fresh snow on it.


The cas side has good cover and is normally a good reliable place to be. Not the best today, hard and lumpy. Ciste side by far the best place.








Edited 1 times. Last edit at 16.35hrs Thu 29 Mar 18 by WindyMiller.

Attachments: Gully 0.5.JPG (217kB)   Ptamigan Bowl.JPG (197kB)   Above Ptarmigan.JPG (196kB)   Coronation Wall.JPG (160kB)   cas side.JPG (223kB)  

A stormy day on the mountain. Fresh snow down to the car parks but like yesterday this melted fairly quickly. Above burnside the snow is accumulating and above mid station significant accumulations. By mid morning the wind picked up causing the Ciste and Ptarmigan lifts to go off. Surprisingly the WWP and M1 kept on allowing access to the upper mountain and the Ciste side. By the afternoon few were using them.

The accumulating snow has transformed the area though the heavy drifting is exposing some of the hard base in places. Areas such as the Ciste Gully , the Aonach Bowl and the M2 have lovely fresh snow.

The shuttle bus was running, not for the car park as the cas car park was not full, but for skiers using Laogh Mor. This area is gaining snow too with the heavy showers right down to the ciste car park. The laogh Mor bowl was a very nice ski and had to be done a few times. The road out was a little lumpy but not a problem.

The team have created a ski cross course on skiers right of the Ciste Bowl, just below the entrance gate to gully 1+2. I tried to get pictures but the poor visibility was causing problems. I gave it a go but in the strong winds it was difficult to keep going. The last turn seemed to be up hill and I had to exit early to get into the ciste gully.

Not a day for hanging around so headed down the road early.

Could be interesting tomorrow with the new snow and hopefully less strong winds.

Graeme

Riding the Fiacaill Ridge Poma at about 09:30. Then it got worse the higher you went up, much worse!


Aonach Bowl is gaining snow, falling and wind blown.


The new ski cross run. Difficult to photograph and use in the weather. Strange sort of up hill leg on the last bend.


Heavy snow showers much of the day. Laogh Mor gaining nicely.


The lower slopes were more sheltered than higher up. Some fresh snow down here too but a bit sticky.






Edited 2 times. Last edit at 16.37hrs Fri 30 Mar 18 by WindyMiller.

Attachments: Aonach Bowl.JPG (159kB)   Ski Cross.JPG (154kB)   Fiacaill Poma.JPG (163kB)   Lower Slopes.JPG (217kB)   laogh Mor.JPG (173kB)  

Ina Forum Thread that seems almost entirely dedicated to trumpeting the "Positives" about Cairngorm.......It seems long overdue for some of the Negatives to be declared !

Let me start with this total farce of naming "new" runs in Coire na Ciste.

For goodness sake Windy...it's the EAST WALL...nothing more nothing less !

And the obvious Gully (made increasingly more difficult to ski in it's entirety-by the considerable shortening of the ski-able Ciste Gully, with that daft traverse two thirds of the way down)is called EAST WALL GULLY....nothing more nothing less.....other than for those of us who know it as MacLaren's Gully !

So there is absolutely no need for minus this and minus that gully !!

If the Team !! want to play about there in the PB's, why don't they bring in the Machine that is fitted with the "Post Whacker" and re-instate the line of fencing that has almost totally disappeared over the years, with a spur off to the shoulder of Coire Lui Mor ? At a meeting with Ops 1's Boss Mannie (Ewan Kearney)over three years ago this was suggested and agreed !! To be done when there was sufficient snow !

However the main negative,undoubtedly reducing Cairngorm's severely reduced Skier Day Numbers and therefore Market Share is the disastrous lack of Uplift and Facilities in Coire na Ciste ! Never think that a few "Bums" (ski or otherwise) on the seats of a ......seldom effectively promoted....Shuttle Bus will take the place of uplift installed by people with vision, unlike the Mob up there now, who only trumpet about how great they are, as their Ship comes even closer to having it's Gunwhales overcome and then slipping beneath the waves !!

For the last 20 years plus the piste maps name then as Gully No1 and No2. I will continue to use the names for them that are on the piste map so that others know what I am talking about. In 40 years of skiing Cairngorm I have not seen markers in the areas they now have pisted. If you want to be negative and not discuss the actual conditions please go to the thread that is designed just for that. This is the conditions thread. I will continue to report the conditions on how I see them.

The snow has continued to accumulate across the mountain further improving the cover. The snow is not powder, it is heavier and packs down quickly. The brisk NE wind is causing drifting though there are many sheltered areas to be found.

There was a mishap on the WWP and it had to go off for a few hours mid morning for repair. This had a knock on effect closing all of the Ciste area and the Aonach bowl. The unexpected consequence was Coire Laogh Mor became inaccessible as the rope was across the access gate to gully1+2. The bus was there waiting but I can be picked out on the mountain from over a mile away so I was not going to duck the rope. I had a chat with ops2 at lunch time and got the ok to head down. Also spoke to the lifties to make sure they were aware of what was happening and not to report wayward skiers ducking the rope. A few folks started using the coire again. It officially opened shortly after when the WWP came back on and the Ciste side became the playground of choice again.

The ground team have pisted more routes down the east side of the ciste. It is now more piste than off and many people were making use of the new steep runs. The only real off piste left is the lower half of Gully No2.

I took a tour round some of the more traditional pistes on the mountain, the Fiacaill, cas, gun barrel, lady etc. All good but when you have the large playground of the ciste that is the place to be. In the cold temperatures the lower slopes did not become slushy. They remained as good granular spring snow. One area that has not filled in is Jeans Bowl, often the saviour of the mountain in poor snow seasons this year it is just not filling in constantly. It stripped out during one of the storms and never recovered. Not a problem with 99% of the rest of the mountain in top condition.

The East Lady has been tracked out and as I said the snow is not powder and it packed down. The East Lady is more like a run now, a good alternative to the Lady its self.

The NE wind is bitterly cold and the visibility at the top was not good so the ski school were holding their standing classes at the day lodge where the snow factory had been used to make the large patch. Still wide and deep.

The slopes were very quiet all day, no queues at all and empty bars going round. The Upper cas car park did fill slowly and a few cars were using the lower cas. People arriving at lunch time were able to find places in the upper. The shuttle bus was there just for skiers using Laogh Mor, much appreciated.

Graeme

The East Lady is now compacted down into a wide piste.


East lady meeting the main run.


Gully No2 is one of the last areas not pisted on the east of the ciste.


The Fiacaill run is good but if you look over to the lower part of Jeans Bowl you can see bare areas, probably the only area on the mountain that is bare.


The day lodge run. A deep layer of snow on the tow path.








Edited 1 times. Last edit at 17.05hrs Sat 31 Mar 18 by WindyMiller.

Attachments: Daylodge.JPG (242kB)   Mid Mountain.JPG (216kB)   Fiacaill.JPG (177kB)   Gully no2.JPG (145kB)   east lady.JPG (212kB)  

"Please Sir"

I've not seen "Jean's Bowl" on a Piste Map......ever !

The operating company thinks a lot of things it does have never been done before... which just serves to stregnthen the impression that CML has accumulated 1 winters operating experience 57 times.

This year will be the first time they've gone bust then? To be fair, circuses are nowhere near as popular these days.