Gearing up
Thanks to those of you who have commented on the Blog entries so far. As a policy we will happily post comments that relate to the Blog subject matter. Feedback on other aspects of the operation is always welcome and we will try and respond as soon as possible, but we will not necessarily post your comments if they don’t relate to the Blog.
Listening to our customers is one of the most crucial and valued aspects of the way we work at Cairn Gorm. There are a number of ways in which comments are received including email, comment forms on site as well as just talking to our staff. At our weekly managers meeting we review customer comments and this helps us to provide a better service. We are proud to hold the “Hospitality Assured” accreditation, which is a national bench mark system used in the hospitality industry to ensure our business maintains a customer focus.
Every day is different at Cairn Gorm and this is one of the biggest challenges we face. On Friday we carried out our first evacuation of the ski area this winter. On the one hand we were pleased to see the snow, but when the wind changed from 20mph to 76 mph in a matter of minutes this presented some real operational challenges. The duty manager is responsible for managing this process, ensuring the safety of the public and staff is our first priority. On Friday the duty manager was John McMorran he put the evacuation procedure in place at 1pm and over over 500 skiers, boarders and members of the public (most of whom were not kitted out for the conditions) were evacuated by 3.20pm. We had to convoy cars down using the snow ploughs to ensure everyone got down safely.
We lost Saturday to storms, but enjoyed a good day’s skiing on Sunday. The fitters had to make final adjustments to the slow down unit on the M1, but we are finding that this is still not “racer proof” with the youngsters still tending to release the bar from between their legs which then shoots up into the slow down unit and causes problems. This caused 25 stops on Sunday, but it seems to be working fine now.
We are now working flat out to get the West Wall poma and the Cas on, as well as the lower lifts, in time for the week-end. Conditions are improving each day with more snow but strong winds forecast for later today- in fact it looks like we may have to tie some of the upper lifts down? .
Below is a picture of the lower Cas which now has good snow in the gun barrel, although the upper part of the Cas is still too thin to operate.
We are gearing up for a good skiing week-end ,
Bob 
January 8th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Hi Bob,
Thanks for the update. Appreciate that you’re dealing with old / temperamental equipment and it can never be easy. I thought your team did a great job on the 30th in making the decision to open up the Ciste t-bar ; helped dissipate the numbers on busy and beautiful day. Glad to see the numbers out as well (not just snowsports but cake-hunters too!).
Was at Glenshee on Sunday just gone and thought they did a tremendous job in bashing out the show and opening up the area - I hope they have a strong season this year.
Just a quick point. The decision to go to Glenshee was mainly due to the fact they had a bad season last year and I wanted to contribute, but also due to the limited uplift at Cairn Gorm. I appreciate the funicular is a good overall solution, but I’m not keen on standing around waiting on it when it should be possible to use the drag lifts. Glad, therefore, to read that you are hoping to have the lower drag lifts up and running. I have spent many hours Sprinting down M2 and up Daylodge these past few years.
Finally - do you think the chairs will ever come back into commission? Would be sad to see them go …
Good luck for the rest of the season.
January 8th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
I agree with all the above, you guys do a great job keeping the hill alive. To have more uplift and less standing around is the glue to attracting British skiers to stay a while on the slopes of Cairngorm. It’s a shame to come skiing and spend more time standing in boots than riding on skis. Thanks team
January 8th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Regardless of the reasons, be they valid insurmountable problems or mere excuses the facts speak for themselves:
Cairngorm claim to have the best conditions in years, yet they have the fewer maintained tows than ever, and less of those tows are running than ever before. Yet the prices are at their highest level ever — higher than any other resort in scotland, despite having less tows open than most.
If you end up having the fewest customers for years, don’t be surprised! The other resorts appear to be willing and able to maintain and operate more lifts, and take less of my money too.
January 8th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Bob,
Great to see things looking good - for a change. Will make sure that all the youngsters in SSC are educated in releasing the M1 pomas properly!
Will you be getting the White Lady pisted for the weekend?
Looking forward to my first weekend in Scotland this year.
January 9th, 2008 at 9:50 am
Hoping to be hitting the slopes this weekend. This blog is a useful way for people to know if its worth the 4 hour car drive. I’ll keep checking all week, and I’ll decide on Friday
Glad to see Scotlands season getting off to a good start!!
xxx