Sadly we have had to make a difficult decision not to re-instate the White Lady Tbar in time for this winter. I know this will be a disappointment to many, particularly as during the winter, we were very much of the opinion that we should be able to repair the White lady this summer. Unfortunately the situation changed in the Spring; firstly we do not have the funds to repair the lift and secondly there has been increasing concerns voiced by our own technical team about the extent of the work needed to repair this lift. We therefore commissioned an external report and this was taken to our Board last week, at which we made a decision to further delay the repair/replacement of this lift. The White Lady run will continue to be serviced by both the M1 tow and the Funicular uplift and this summer repairs have been made to the “elephant fence” to help improve snow holding on this part of the mountain. It is our policy to provide uplift that ensures skiers can make the most of what snow we get on the mountain and generally this worked very well last winter. A programme of on going investment in the skiing side of the business continues and this summer our technical operations team has carried out a full programme including motor upgrades as well replacing ropes and general line work. We are also working on web cam and web site improvements. I will keep you updated as we make progress. Bob
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September 5th, 2008 at 9:57 am
Have you considered recycling other out of use uplifts (due to poor snow cover)?
It may be expensive but there are other aspects to consider (might even get funding from elsewhere)
Removing an out of use uplift due to climate change, restoring that are area to its natural habitat - demonstrates corporate commitment to the environment
Recycling equipment again shows a corporate responsibility and commitment to the environment.
September 7th, 2008 at 9:15 am
Thanks Dave for your suggestions . Yes we have recylced a lot of stuff already and when we can’t find bits we need we contcat the other centres and visa versa.
bob
September 15th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Interesting philosophy in Scotland that we continue to repair existing hardware whereas on the continent the theme seems to be modernise and where possible reduce the number of lifts, but at the same time increase uplift capacity. To give an example, I skied La Plagne in France last year and as an civil engineer by profession took great interest in the fact that the ski company had replaced three old lifts with one new one. An old poma, a single chair (very old) and a two man chair replaced with a super fast 8 man detachable chair.
An experience not to be missed being gently scouped up at the bottom (all the family on the same chair with room to spare) then wisked up the mountain at 40kph (25mph), passing over a handful of pylons during the 400m ascent, to be gently unloaded at the top with the chair again detaching from the cable.
Environmentally they got green marks as the old lift infrastructure was completely removed, ground reinstated and made good making the whole hillside more asthetically pleasing to all - something most scottish centres need to look at.
I appreciate they vagaries of the scottish climate do not lend themselves to chairlifts, not to mention the funding of such improvements, but we could always dream of a super fast chair replacing both the white lady and M2 tows - now there’s a thought !
September 16th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
John,
Agree entirely with your thinking. We think we could replace several of the older lifts with fewer, faster, higher capacity, better wind tolerance uplift. It will come as no surprise that the only thing stopping this happening is finding the money. This will have to come from the business itself or external investment. The best way of making this happen is to get some good, consistent winters. Last year was good and this year is supossed to be colder than average … and we plan to make the most of it.
Bob
October 5th, 2008 at 9:54 am
Another use I found for the White Lady was the noise the gearbox made.
I was up for a weekend, clear visibilty on the saturday, white out sunday. I got lost in the white out and lucky enough, I picked up on the noise she made, and got myself out of trouble.
October 10th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Now that the White Lady Tow looks to be all but consigned to the past, Cairngorm now has one less core lift and as a result, the uplift capacity has been reduced further. Has the cost of resurrecting the West Wall and/or the Coire ‘na’ Ciste chairlifts been compared to the cost of repairing the White Lady? Even if at least 1 of these chairlifts was brought back into use, the reduction in uplift capacity caused by the demise of the White Lady Tow could be reduced.
October 16th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Less tows equals larger queues…..thats not a good thing in my opinion. Less uplift capacity yet the price of passes still increase?? I’ve had enough of my share or long queues, think I’ll stick to week days this season, the weekend is always a nightmare. Fingers crossed for a good season - I dont mind paying good money for a good days skiing.
If we are expecting a good season, please make sure those ploughs are ready and waiting to clear the roads so we can take full advantage of it!