Bob’s Blog (CEO Cairngorm Mountain Limited) Continues:
You may be surprised by snow fall records
The fact is that the amount of snow falling at Cairn Gorm each winter over almost half a century, has been fairly consistent, in other words there has been no noticeable reduction in snow fall during this period. This may come as a surprise to some as there is no doubt that there is a perception that we get less snow than we used to. Of course this is only half the story; where we are seeing changes is in the length of time the snow stays around, particularly on the lower parts of the middle runs, which are the most popular at Cairn Gorm for intermediate/advanced skiing. What brought this to my attention were excerpts from a draft dissertation about Met Office trends for Cairn Gorm, by Jamie Munro. If you are interested in this you can contact Jamie at [J.R.C.Munro@sms.ed.ac.uk]. One of the other unexpected changes that Jamie’s data is showing is an overall reduction in wind speed…. interesting. This may help to explain why the gullies have not tended to fill up as much as the old days. I have attached a couple of his graphs for interest below. 
What does all this mean for the prospects of good skiing on the mountain? Scottish skiing has always been marginal, it’s just that the good times are not as frequent as they used to be and that makes the business model much harder to deliver. However there is no doubt in my mind that we will continue to get good snow and there will be times when the weather patterns allow us to enjoy the very best of Scottish skiing from time to time. We ask a lot from our weather – for the best chance of good skiing there needs to be a set sequence of the right conditions. First we need it to snow; traditionally our best snow comes from an occluded front often from the South-West. We need the wind to fill the gullies and provide a base that can survive a few days of milder weather. Then we need the wind to drop and the temperature to stay low for as long as possible so that we can enjoy the skiing, followed by more snow and more wind….. What we have been experiencing is snow, quite often not with the wind, followed immediately by warm winds - what we call the hair dryer! With the snow comes all the work to get the ski area open as fast as possible, as well as communicating these rapid changes to our customers . The company spends a lot of time and effort in trying to do this only then to loose the snow, the customers and any business benefit. Covering these basic costs is becoming increasingly challenging. We are often compared to Alpine resorts where there is a far more stable climate and customer base … but we remain determined to make the best of what we have. Given these current climatic fluctuations, snow making would be a very high risk investment, we have not written this off and will come back to this in a future Blog.
I make no apologies for going on about the weather, at the end of the day it provides our livelihood. This week has been fairly typical, I am sure there are other businesses, apart from skiing, that rely on the right conditions and when the weather does not behave it can be extremely disappointing for both our visitors and the staff. Imagine operating a large department store in Oxford Street and gearing up to open on Boxing Day. All the staff arrive, there are queues of people waiting outside and then at the last minute you can’t open. Well that was our Boxing Day this year - with winds gusting over 100mph, potentially one of the busiest days of the year turned into another exercise in managing disappointment. Not only are our customers disappointed, it’s very hard for the staff as well as news our bank manager does not want to hear! The ultimate loosers are Scottish skiers, as the only way Scottish skiing will remain sustainable is to ensure the ski areas can operate profitably even when the snow does not stay. But, losing a couple of days to storms in December is not unusual and today the wind has dropped a bit and we have some fresh snow. As we look towards the weekend it promises to be colder and snowier and there is every chance we will get some great skiing in this winter.
With best wishes for 2008!
Bob
PS The web cam gremlins continue to thwart our best efforts to get frequent updates. We continue to work on this as the one of our highest priorities and thank you for your patience. we know how important they are.
