Well my Christmas present has been this Blog, something we have wanted to do for quite a long time, but it’s only now that it has reached the top of the list … so here it is….. the Cairngorm Mountain Blog. Perhaps the single most important topic here on the mountain is the weather. It’s what I call “the added dimension” in our business. It has such an impact on everything we do and is totally unpredictable and therefore creates an element of inherent inefficiency that we constantly strive to keep to a minimum. One of the most popular Cairngorm sayings is “You should have been here yesterday” and this happened last week. On Tuesday we had excellent conditions and actually managed to open for skiing down to the middle station. Within 24 hours the hair dryer from the SW had all but stripped the lower mountain of snow and following another three days of warm winds we were left with only enough snow to operate the Ptarmigan tow and the new trainer tow. At the same time we have been gearing up our staffing for the main winter season, knowing that when the snow returns we will need to be able to cope with up to 3,000 skiers and boarders arriving in the space of an hour!
This week has been the calm before the storm, from both a weather and visitor perspective. The High pressure has meant that we have had some incredible days at the top, not only have the views been spectacular but the temperature has been very much warmer than in the valley due to the temperature inversion. We have expienced temperatures as warm as + 7 at the top and as low as -9 in some of the villages in the Glen. Loch Morlich is now frozen over and I have attached a picture of some chancers walking out over 100 meters from the shore, a rare event these days.
The weather is now on the change and we are hoping for snow over the next few days. We expect to be buzzing with visitors over the Christmas holidays and the dozen or so skiers who enjoyed the slopes today will be replaced by possibly 1,000 visitors a day over the next few days. As always, it will be down to the weather. The first challenge is getting to work and even that’s not guaranteed as we often loose day’s to storms at this time of year… But then that’s “the added dimension” that makes working on Cairn Gorm such an interesting challenge. Bob 
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December 21st, 2007 at 4:36 pm
Brilliant photo’s
December 24th, 2007 at 9:27 am
Great to see a blog on the site now, thats a great photo he’s either very brave or very stupid!!
Wish i could get up to the mountain in winter, i only ever seem to make it in the summer months. Keep up the wonderful work you do, its always a pleasure to head up north into the clean highland air.
December 25th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
well done Bob, this is a great idea. a daily or regular update from yourself on operations / conditions etc is very welcome. It was great to be back out on skis these past few few weeks. Merry Christmas and a Snowy New Year
December 27th, 2007 at 9:46 am
I like the Blog. What a shame that the hard frost was replaced on Boxing day by a horrific mild wind and rain.
Where is the snow!
This is the ski industry on its knees!
December 28th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
Great blog. Great pics and graphs. Trouble is I am only on half a Mb broadband because I live in the sticks and I wonder if you are not making the pics small. 95247 bytes for the lake one! The pages are now taking ages for me to load.
Image Resizer is great and free.
This PowerToy enables you to resize one or many image files. When resizing you can choose from one of four standard sizes or choose a size that you specify. You can also choose to resize the original image or create a new one. Right click any image(s) and select ‘Resize Pictures’ in the context menu. If you choose small it will be faster to load and still looks good. How about it?
It is still worth waiting to get such up to date info but IT IS SO SLOW.
December 29th, 2007 at 1:53 am
That can’t be safe, standing on that ice!
January 1st, 2008 at 10:18 am
Hi great blog, cant wait to get up there in Febuary, hope there is some snow.
PS get that webcam fixed HAHAHAHAHA
January 3rd, 2008 at 12:52 pm
A huge thanks for your recent blog’s and so encouraging to know that skiers are still very welcome on Cairngorm Mountain.
Having felt very marginalised in the last 6-7 years due to huge changes on the mountain, it is extremely pleasing to know that skiing still remains
an integral part of your company.
Keep up the good work Bob.
January 5th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Great to have a Cairngorm Blog. Well done Bob. However your piece on the snowfall is a tad misleading. The increase in snowfall on Cairngorm over the years is for the top of Cairn Gorm at 1090m. Last year there was more snowfall and snow build at this level up since 2001 but as you know most of this melted by the time it had got to the top of the Gun Barell. Hopefully if all is in our favour it will once again remain at lower levels too this year.
January 6th, 2008 at 8:31 am
About the comment from Jamie on not being safe on the ice on Loch Avon. It is easy to check if it is safe by removing a block of ice by chipping a block with an ice axe. 3 inches is fine for walking on near the edge. In years when the Grand Curling Match took place between teams from the north of Scotland and teams from the south of Scotland when hundreds of curlers and their stones were on the loch 6 inches of ice was required to be safe. The last match was held in 1979 on the Lake of Menteith. Ice forms at the rate of about 1inch per day if the temperature is minus 10c overnight
January 6th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Enjoyed reading the blog. A great idea which gives people a bit of an understanding of the difficulties and logistics challenges that you face.
Fingers crossed that this week’s predicted snowfall materialises and that I can get up there next weekend.
Here’s to a bumper season in 2008!
January 6th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Good idea with the blog, but i wish you would get that web cam at the top fixed or removed, its absolutly no use to judge whether to make a long journey, when the thing is displaying pictures from Dec 28th 2007!!
you will most definatly be loosing revenue, just due to this fact.
January 7th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Everyone on the hill is helping making the experience on the hill a great one!
Special note of appreciation to the piste bashing crew , ski patrol and the those involved in making things work!
Runs are great and given the challenges of the weather you people are helping create a very special experience in a very special if somewhat challenging environment.
I should know I worked as ski instructor there for many years and although it will never be easy it is always interesting!
Thanks again to all of you. You are doing the mountain proud!
Matt Ferguson
January 9th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Great photos on the blog. Very tempting to come this weekend. If those two photos were on your home page everyone would know the conditions, even if your web cam is dodgy. Please them on they are very persuasive.
January 17th, 2008 at 9:47 am
That would be a great idea about the photograph on the home page or anywhere else on the site, maybe a daily photo conditions.
PS.. Theres an error on the flash content in your main header, you may want to get webmaster to have a look at it.
February 7th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
Great blogs, super idea!
guys can you get that webcam fixed:) When I see the view wanna cry, need more brightnes there.
April 8th, 2008 at 10:59 am
Superb images, brings back happy memories. Currently 27 degrees here in Hong Kong! Looking forward to skiing next winter.