We started skiing in the 1st December and it now looks like we will be skiing through Easter and probably into our 5^th month – April.  The freeze thaw and snow fall pattern has been on our side for once, although this has been a very windy winter which has meant that we have lost more skiing days than usual. Don’t ask me to define usual, the fact is there are few trends in the weather… we simple get weather!

At this time of year we are already beginning to focus attention on preparations for next winter. Apart from what we call line work on the tows we try and carry out a full service on each lift every 4 years.  I am told we have 28 kilometers of fencing – and this is almost another  full time job for a team to go round fixing and replacing damaged sections during the summer. At the same time all the snow vehicles get a full service and walkways and other structures get repaired or replaced. We try and build in improvements each year. The technical team is currently working on their shopping list of spares and we are also costing the repairs to the White Lady Tbar in the hope that we can find the funds to repair it. 

This weekend is the White Lady Challenge, organized by dedicated supporters of Scottish skiing, who are raising funds to help the company to be able to repair this lift.( more information on the main web site).   As far as I am concerned the principle of this is great and very well received by the operating company , I hope those involved have a successful and enjoyable  day.  We all know the future of Scottish Skiing comes back  to the climate and I suspect we will have to continue to think and work in innovative ways to give the next generation the best chance of enjoying what we treasure so much – Scottish skiing .

 Bob  

This entry was posted on Friday, March 14th, 2008 at 5:04 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.