Yesterday I was skiing at Cairngorm and noticed a lot of things that give me an unexpected spike of hope in amongst the background noise of bad management and decision making that has plagued and ruined the mountain for skiers over the past 15 years.

I also talked to 3 members of the ski patrol, 4 lifties, 2 pistenbully drivers and got a sense that business is somewhat back to normal, with a routine now in place and an eager desire to see the ski season prolonged for as long as people are willing to visit. There was a lot of good conversation about works in the pipeline and the hard work the staff have put into getting as much open as possible.

Initially, I was just pleased to see snow-farming had been done to get the Car-Park tow working - lots of evidence that snow had been moved around.
That can do attitude was seen again at 2pm with the running of the M1 poma, which I was originally sure wouldn't run.
It then got better when the White lady was groomed 2 widths wide and the WWp and ptarmigan also getting some prep work done for Saturday.

I'm told that there is still a plan to get the rest of the snow fencing replaced in the next two years - which is certainly achievable and the new stuff is working very well.

As for the ciste, well the huge piles of disused chairs, scrap metal, reels of cable and skips of junk that were by the old base building were gone and the area looked pretty tidy.

I'm saying this because while I still feel that HIE needs to get its act sorted out, there does at last seem to be a sense that someone sensible and with customer interests at heart is working away behind the scenes at CGM to make the most out of this admittedly dire situation.

I just hope the same person notices the flaws in SE's re-development plan and realises that a chairlift up the M1 is not a sensible idea and that snow making won't solve all of the problems.

Video from Friday in which I aplaude the efforts of the staff: [www.youtube.com]

I have tried not to bash cairngorm but today I have to and think bad practice is still going on.

I’m sat in the car park now and it looks like no snow sport today. After soeaking to some one they basically knew the car park t track wouldn’t survive tonight but failed to mention that online. Also they only posted about possibly no snow sport at 8:45 I’m sure it was bloody obvious when the staff saw the snow melt on up track.i also can’t see any shovelling snow at the bottom of the track where it’s missing. They may be doing it higher up but after asking staff no one knows anything and waiting for updates.

If the big wind break sorry snow factory was still on there would be a way to reach mid mountain but that’s another storey.

I now have drive to the lecht to get done skiing as I have a feeling it won’t be happening here and even if it dies they won’t telk you.

Next report says they can ferry people up to mid mountain with a atv. It would be nice to maybe mention That is a possibility to staff before people left.

01cookjk.....I don't agree !! Whilst HIE (who have been involved in the place for near enough Twenty years plus) are still running the place...it will fail !

You really need....like others have done....to look into the place and it's miss-Management....in depth !

Oh, and HIE have massively influenced SE and changed their Report !!

The latest yin in charge....canna say too much on here......but in her blurbs on TV Porkies !!

I also notice you are Applauding the Work of the Team ! With HIE now totally running the show, they just turn-up and get paid Public Money.....certainly NO such system at the other Ski Areas !!

And this is also the same Team, that have driven Cairngorm to failure three times now.........

Gorminator, I have looked into the place in depth, its not like im un-educated in that respect. In any case, you don't know me or my research. In the past I have been heavily critical of HIE/CGM and NR, so my report yesterday is somewhat more balanced and less biased than you might expect.

I am a fan of Glencoe and Nevis Range, with Glencoe winning that competition, so whats with your crack?

Ideally though I would like to see the mountain in full public hands, but ideally also after HIE have awarded a grant to whoever decides to run it and promise not to meddle or interfere. In the meantime, Im just happy to accept whatever skiing can be had.

One criticism I do have for them is not continuing to run the SnowFactory till at least the end of the Scottish School holidays.

If you'd looked into the place in a bit more depth....done a bit more research, then you'd know why the Snowfactory isn't running.

Kind regards

Olderalan

EXACTLY !!!

And it doesn't need much Research.....just a sprinkling of COMMON SENSE !!!

Why isn’t the snow factory running? I can find some speculation but no answers.

I’m probably a bit annoyed as wasted hours driving up to cairngorm today to be told conflicting information.

Dummies have been spat oot pretty far in here, it's been said some are still airborne...

Still waiting to hear where the ciste mob and co would get the cash from and what they'd do with the rest of mountain if they had plans ???

Good to hear, snow fencing that has been done up does look pretty sturdy.

Great Video, conditions looked fab on the higher slopes, Its a real shame funicular has been out of action, I hope Cairngorm and management sort out the issues over the long term and make it a premier ski resort, since its a been a poor season overall for all ski centres, Cairngorm would have fared much better over the long run, if they had Funicular running or chairlifts to provide access to the upper slopes.

Getting rid of Ciste chairs was a terrible decision as they could have used it as a back up and paid dividends this season.


Hopefully common sense will prevail for the next season.

I think the effects of not having the funicular were seen this season more than most given the quality and quantity of snow above 900m and the lack of it below that level. I would bet they would still be open if the funicular was running.

On a side note, I also realised that my fondness of high-speed Poma lifts does have a flaw - no mid-load uploading, which is possible with T-Bars or fixed grip buttons. One wonders if the M1 would operate more if it was doubled up with a T-Bar lift.

Most auto stacking Pomas are variable speed, though some seem to have a dial that starts at fast and finishes at stupid!

The West Wall Poma (and before it’s demise the Aonach Poma too) is explicitly set up for mid-line loading. This is usually done at the bottom of the Ciste Fairway for extra capacity in the Top Basin, but in theory it could be done at any point as a stop button can be wired into any of the tower circuits to provide a means of stopping the lift.


^waiting for WWP at bottom of Ciste Fairway.

The Aonach Poma actually had a post with control wires just below OverYonder from where the lift could be controlled.

Once the hangers have been loaded onto the line the rack is held open and the hangers slide straight through.

Between them the magic carpets at the Lecht have been open well over 100 days, indeed each magic carpet has been open over 100 days and there have been plenty of days where it was one or another carpet.

In contrast even including partial use as a beginner tow, the Car Park T-bar has only managed about 46days with a double snowfactory and 13 state of the art fan guns. However it should be noted, without the snow making you would count the open days for the CPT on one hand!

If either the Funicular or Ciste Chairs were available for uplift, the CairnGorm would be open and would have the most terrain and uplift capacity on offer. The top tows, WWP for Fairway (and potentially a chunk of the West Wall itself and a traverse of the M2 over the top of the Aonach Bowl) and the Cas T-bar from top of Gunbarrel.

This season can not just be passed off as terrible because of the snow and weather conditions experienced. For Scotland as a whole it appears significantly worse than it was because of the shiteshow on CairnGorm. For the first time in its history the Ptarmigan Tow built in 1964 has not spun once. That is not because of lack of snow, but because of the accumulated actions (and perhaps more importantly in-actions) over many years by HIE and CML.