We are enjoying the most extraordinary conditions here at the moment. I Left the office at 6pm and set off into the mountains for a couple of hours ski touring - had the mountains to myself apart from this mountain hare.
Bob
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April 17th, 2008 at 9:52 am
Bob,
looks great, have been enjoying the conditions whenever possible lately (not enough!). Full marks to the team, I’m sure the conditions makes things easier all-round but you lot are doing a great job, great to see the beasties doing the rounds late into the evening and finding more and more terrain to groom and make accessbile around the hill. Full marks.
Looking forward to plenty of more days this season
April 17th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
Bob,
the photos from the last few weeks are, for a cairngorm skier of some 30+ years (and I am still under 40…), stunning.
I aim to be there may bank holiday, so keep up the good work…
April 18th, 2008 at 8:30 am
Congratulations to the team - loving the conditions at the moment and your efforts to keep Cairngorm open are really appreciated. Doing my best to get a few car fulls up this weekend. The photos really help.
Well done and keep up the good work.
April 18th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Bob,
I was up on Tuesday and was very very impressed. When the clouds cleared and the sun came out in the afternoon, the conditions were absolutely stunning. I skied every run and everywhere in between I think. The conditions were as good as I have experienced in the Alps or Scandinavia. The lack of any wind was probably the most unexpected part though.
Great to see all the runs getting pisted and maintained. The ciste gully was different class and M2 and Aonoch bowls a joy to ski on. There really is no need to go abroad when such a fantastic area of terrain is available on our doorstep, if only our climate would allow us more opportunities to enjoy it!
Just out of interest, do you expect to record a profit this season now that skier days targets have been surpassed? I really hope so.
Well done to all CML staff (and the snow gods)
Regards
Andy
April 18th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
What an extraordinary outcome this season after all the gloomy comments on global warming! A satisfied customer extramiled Cairngorm Mountain’s ski facilities just the other day - so, well done to the team. See the comment on the extramilescotland website
April 18th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Its good to receive all the positive comments–sadly we can’t take the praise for the snow or weather -both out of our control. We do ,however, believe its important to make the best of the snow when we get it and the Cairngorm team take a pride in trying to do this, it has been an extraordinary few days. Too often we have to manage disappointment when conditions are poor and this can be really demoralising for the staff team.
The reality on the trading front is we now have all but recouped our losses from last year – which were fairly substantial. We could not afford to carry out all the maintenance we wanted, so the first priority is to catch up with this during the summer. The good news is that all five Scottish areas are still in business for next year and Scottish skiing is alive and kicking. Lets enjoy the snow while it is here!
Bob
April 18th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
I’m catching up on news and photos from Scotland after spending the last couple of weeks in Austria and boy do I feel like I’ve missed out on some great home skiing!
It’s wonderful to see such fantastic conditions prevailing in Scotland generally and at Cairngorm in particular, hopefully they prove to all that there can still be fantastic wintersports in Scotland despite what some say in the press and elsewhere.
I’m amazed it’s still so good, I was at Nevis and Glencoe at Easter and thought it was good then but the snow appears to have been coming and coming since then and these pictures from Cairngorm show just how good it’s become - what a fantastic season it’s turned out to be all in all and good to hear that it’s helped to turn the tide from last year.
One of the many great things about this year is that more skiers and boarders from south of the border have started to take notice of the possibilities in Scotland and those that have been coming up have been posting some fantastic photos on popular forums like Snowheads - this kind of publicity and word of mouth reporting on Scottish skiing can only be of benefit to all the Scottish ski areas in my opinion and has hopefully swelled the number of tickets sold and revenues taken.
On a personal note I’m hoping you’ll be keeping the tows turning into May because I’m planning on ending my season at Cairngorm on the May day weekend, hopefully in the company of a few Snowheads and others who’ll be coming up too.
Mind you, if you carry on into the summer we may well get another posse together for yet another trip - mid-summers day anyone?
April 18th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
.. I religously check the website every day - and it does my heart good to see how beautiful the mountain is this year!! I am holding out for the snow to hold up till May so that I can come back up.. maybe some day soon I will stop being a beginner skiier!!
April 19th, 2008 at 1:05 am
Bob - I was up on an after work tour on the same evening and in fact I think I may have spotted you below me as I puffed my way up the fiacall a coire cas. It was a beautiful evening and an absolute privilege to be out there.
I’m delighted that this season has been financially productive for you (and the other scottish ski areas). I know that it’s impossible to predict what the weather will bring in the seasons to come but I’m sure your team at Cairngorm will make the most of whatever snow you get when it arrives.
Meanwhile though I’ve noticed that each day this week you’ve had 1000 or more skiers and boarders on the mountain. I hope that means that for this season you’ll have the lifts running for some time yet…..
Mike
April 19th, 2008 at 7:32 am
The numbers we have been reporting include non skiers, but we have now reached 57,000 skier days - that’s our best number since the Funicular was installed. We did do around 55,000 skier days, I think it was a couple of years ago.
We are obviously delighted that we can continue to offer good skiing, although as I explained earlier the end of season has quite a few operational challenges for us. The last of the Easter holidays finish this week end and it will be interesting to see how much interest there is in mid week skiing from now on . We will try and match our service with the market – but whatever we will be skiing into May.
The benefits to the ski area are obvious, but the operating company on the hill is just one part of a whole chain of businesses that benefit indirectly including retail, accommodation providers and even the petrol stations. This is good news for our fragile highland economy and all of us that live in this area. We are part of a local destination management organisation and very much believe in working together to provide our visitors to the area with the best experience we can , ultimately this benefits of our local community-those who live and work here.
Bob
April 20th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Hi Bob,
I’m thrilled for you all, having been following your excellent season via the web. You’re having a great end to the season, just a pity that you’re unlikely to be open (I guess) for the second weekend of May. If you were I’d seriously think about it even after 5 months of snow in France!
April 20th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Wow!! Looks absolutely fantastic. I spent 6 years teaching on Cairngorm in the early 90’s when we had some great winters. Sentimentally I still have a look at the website in the hope that you have a good winter, as I now spend all year in Switzerland, where coincidentally we have / are having an awesome season also.
Hope you get a good April and May skiing!!
April 20th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Just returned to Glasgow from a fantastic weekend on Cairngorm. Amazing snow cover,never seen the Coire Cas so good. Weather fantastic,can’t wait to get back up and look forward to skiing in May.
Well worth the season ticket !
April 20th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
I saw lots of snow to the north while driving from Edinburgh to Glasgow yesterday. Reminded me of when I used to ski in Scotland (last time in the mid - 90s). In fact it sooo got me thinking that the whole family (5), which didn’t even exist back in the 90s, are coming up tommorrow for a first taste of scottish skiing. Looks like being a rare coincidence of lots of daylight, half decent weather forecast, some snow, and an Edinburgh bank holiday!
April 21st, 2008 at 10:48 am
Hello all.
Weekend 18-20 Apr’ 08
What can I say? After a rather spontanious decision “lets drop everything, finish work early& drive to Aviemore!” on Friday morning. We (me, the mrs, sis & fella), left Blackpool, Lancashire in the late hours of Friday, to arrive at Aviemore for the first funicular up (having had a full scottish breakfast of course!)
The snow was fantastic. We came up for 4 days at the end of Feb/Beginning of March, and were intoxicated by the mountain. Having had neither Ski’d or boarded before, we had a cheeky hire, and a taste of snowsports at Cairngorm.
Suffice it to say we return, for a full assault with the brand new equipment to be broken in, and with wounds from last time to be re-opened. The sun was goregous, the snow - amazing. AND THE PEOPLE - STAFF & LOCALS are honestly some of the nicest, warmest people we’ve ever had the pleasure to meet. The youth hostelling experience makes accomodation so convenient, we can sleep, eat and board, surely thats all life requires!!??!!
We’re hooked! A regular holiday slot booked- year after year (snow provideth) WE’LL BE BACK!!!
Keep doing what your doing! It’s working!!
With our warmest thanks.