The snow continues to improve across the mountain.  We have managed to piste a  narrow route down to the middle – just, and hope that this freezes tonight to try and firm things up a bit. There is no base and lots of rocks and quite a lot of the cover is cosmetic so it looks better on the web cams than it actually is.  But as we left the hill tonight it was snowing hard and we are cautiously optimistic that we will be able to open for skiing on Saturday.  I know people are impatient to ski, but if we opened tomorrow with such a thin base we think we would very quickly be back to bare ground in some places – so hopefully the showers will continue over the next 24 hours as forecast and we will get our best chance to ski at the week end. The forecast for Saturday also looks good (don’t quote me - As always this may change).  I went for look myself this afternoon and skinned up to the top   and was able to ski all the way to the car park, albeit on lightweight touring skis.

We will be delighted if we can offer some early skiing this weekend. Personally I am fairly convinced we are in for a good winter this year, but having said that it would be unprecedented for the snow to stay on all but the upper parts of the mountain at this time of year.

We will update the web site with the latest information on Friday and if you decide to come, bring your rock hoppers and your sense of humour!

Bob    

We expect to have some wintry conditions next week and although it’s always good to see the snow, we are really busy with our schedule of works to get everything up and running for the main season.    Some of the more significant works this summer have included a new rope on the Cas which is one of our most popular lifts, a new and improved motor with inverters installed for the Ptarmigan tow and a lot of fencing work including the M2 and the elephant fence of the White lady – two key areas.  We have also rebuilt the ‘get off’ ramp for M1 tow which will mean there should be less down time from bars shooting up into the slow down unit.  All the line work and ski tow preparation is well in hand and we expect to have all lifts that were operational last year ready to run by early December. I can confirm that we plan to operate as we have done in recent years by providing access to as much snow as possible.

We are about to begin a month of scheduled servicing maintenance work on the Funicular and buildings. This should all be completed in time to open for skiing in early December. From 1st November the Christmas market will be open in the Day Lodge and the Cas bar will remain open, but the Funicular itself will be closed from 3^rd November until 5^th December inclusive. The policy of investing in making improvements to our winter service continues.This summer we have been working on improving our winter web-site – providing relevant information on a one click basis as well new live weather information and much improved web-cam pictures. Although the current web-site shows some samples from the new cameras, it does not show the full options that we will be running.  This work is ongoing and should be in place for the main winter season.

There is a lot of interest in Scottish skiing this year following the excellent end to last winter. We also suspect that exchange rates and the credit crunch will reduce the number of trips skiers will be making abroad this winter. Season pass sales are already well up on last year and we have adjusted the seven day voucher price to be more competitive as well as keeping the Highland junior pass at the same price as last year.  The team here remain totally committed to providing all our winter customers with the best possible experience that we can.  Our challenge is to match some of those great days we got last year … if the snow behaves we are up for this. Any excuse for a party ….  this is a picture of some of team from the recent breast cancer fundraiser “Get in the pink work day”    needless to say we raised loads of money and  had some fun !Bob

It’s always exiting when the first snows arrive. The outside team has just radioed down to say it is snowing at the top! It’s a bit cloudy so there is not much to see, but if the forecast for the next few days is accurate we are likely to see a few white Munroes.  It’s at this time of year the hills are beginning to look their best with rich autumn colours and white tops.  Although there’s a lot of weather between now and the real winter, it’s a reminder that winter is on its way.

If you visit the web cam page you will see some new views and regular updates from both cameras. We have also installed a weather station at the tunnel mouth so you can see exactly what’s going on. These improvements are part of our on going programme to provide our winterports customers with good quality information and the best service we can.  The team is now very much focused on preparing for the winter; let’s hope it is as good as the last one. The long range is predicting a colder than average season.   Bob