These days Cairngorm Mountain is a very busy place throughout the summer, as well as our “normal” business we have lots of other things going on, and of course we are open 7 days of the week. At the week end we enjoyed hosting the inaugural Cairngorm Classic road cycling event. Promoted as UK’s highest event on a public road (632m) and held largely within the boundaries of the Cairngorms National Park, the event attracted over 350 cyclists of all standards.  The sting in the tail was the final climb up the hill road following 50 or 100 miles of cycling, depending which option you selected. Surprisingly at the Sugar Bowl section it is steeper than many alpine passes. (I took the easy option and enjoyed the 50 mile route). I am sure this event will grow in popularity – and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the organisers (for more information go to www.Handsonevents.co.uk). 

Other events coming up are:The Cairngorm Mountain Run on the 9^th August – 900metres of uphill slog for the really masochistic. www.cairngormmountainrun.co.uk  and in October the popular Cairngorm Charmer adventure relay running and mountain biking event  www.thecharmer.org On Sunday 22nd June the Biathlon Roller Ski Championships.will be taking place on the hill . This is  an opportunity to see some of the UK’s top biathlon skiers on roller skis. Racing starts at 9am on the hill road and the finish is at the Coire Cas Car Park. Racing will be  between 9.30am and 11am. 

As much as we enjoy helping to organise the events, we have a business to run and these events really do help to put Cairn Gorm on the map as well as increasing sales.  On Saturday the CAS bar was as busy as a winter week end with bacon rolls and cappuccinos top of the popularity stakes on the menu!

Bob    

As you will have seen in the press the operating company; Cairn Gorm Mountain limited is now owned by Highlands and islands Enterprise (HIE) and no longer by Cairngorm Mountain Trust.

As far as the team on site is concerned, it’s very much business as usual and we are working through our preparations for next winter as well as looking after our summer visitors.  Morale remains high as we go through these changing circumstances. I strongly believe this move is in the best interest of the company staff, our local community, the future of skiing and the protection of the environment. As we are now a subsidiary of a government agency we are directly accountable to HIE and this will inevitably mean changes in our internal operating procedures. However, there should be no noticeable effect as far as customers are concerned. During this initial phase HIE will carry out a general audit of the current operating company.  My understanding is that they are looking to restructure the operations to ensure that they can be profitable regardless of the fluctuations in our winters, a position that we have been working towards for some time.

We enjoyed excellent weather throughout May and this was reflected in above average visitor numbers, although the start of June has been a bit quieter. It will be interesting to see what the impact of the credit crunch, price of fuel and weak pound will be this summer. I attended a meeting chaired by the Minister of Tourism yesterday looking at the whole issue of sustainable tourism – in some ways we are already ahead of the game in this area, but in other ways we have a long way to go- not least of all our public transport infrastructure! 

Promises to be another full on summer.

Bob

Thanks to everyone who took part and to the Ski club for organising!

Bob

 I am still working full on at the moment with the change of ownership  as well as some internal rerstructuring. I Promise to come back and share some of the thinking with you, but at the moment its just too early to do this………back to the mountain ….

When the snow melts we are left with too many plastic bottles and rubbish throughout the area,  although we get all the staff involved in litter sweeps, particullarly around the buildings  we are now taking part in a  ” Big Spring Claen” inititiave and would like to encourage everyone  to get involved.

CairnGorm Mountain in association with the Ski Club of Great Britain are inviting the public to come and take part in the “Big Spring Clean”. This massive rubbish sweep of the CairnGorm Ski Area will take place on Sunday 1st June 2008. A great opportunity to do your bit for the environment and the mountain. Come and resigter in the Base Station at Coire Cas any time between 10am and 2pm on Sunday 1st June 2008.

It’s a fact, that one cigarette butt pollutes upwards of 1 cubic metre of water, a coke can takes over 200 years to decompose and even orange peel will not disappear in less than a year. All these items, and many more are found on CairnGorm’s slopes and path network along with the ubiquitous crisp packet and plastic bottle. All volunteers will be given bin bags, gloves and litter pickers when they reigster as well as a respect the mountain wristband. There will also be a prize for the person picking up the most litter plus free tea and cake for all volunteers.  The ‘Big Spring Clean’, is part of the Ski Club’s Respect the Mountain campaign (www.respectthemountain.com). We are  delighted to be a host venue and it’s a great opportunity for everyone to have a fun day out in the mountains whilst contributing to the well-being of the land by picking up as much litter as possible. The event, as well as helping the sustainability of the mountains and the wildlife, aims to raise awareness about responsible tourism and send a message to all mountain visitors about the seriousness of dropping litter. Similar projects run in the French Alps have seen shocking results with twenty tons of rubbish being picked up by volunteers in forty-one resorts in 2007.  Caroline Stuart Taylor, Chief Executive of the Ski Club explained the reason behind event: “Since the launch of our Respect the Mountain campaign in 2004 the Ski Club has been proactive in educating and raising awareness about what people can do to try and safeguard mountain environments. The ‘Big Spring Clean’ will help to raise awareness in our own country, promoting sustainability in the Scottish resorts and encourage mountain users to do their bit to help preserve their mountains.” 

For more information on the ‘Big Spring Clean’ visit www.skiclub.co.uk or for more information on the Respect the Mountain Campaign visit www.respectthemountain.com

Bob

 At this time of year our ranger team organise a staff sweepstake on how long it will take for all the snow to disappear from the Headwall of the CAS. Up until recent years there have been records of snow patches lasting through the summer in the Cairngorms, but this is now very unusual given the changes to our climate that we are currently experiencing. The earliest day all the snow has melted is the 7^th June and the latest has been the 28^th July. It is  possible to get fresh snow on the tops any month of the year  and  I know at least one person who has skied  (albeit on small patches of snow at times ) every month of the year.  It is not unusual for keen skiers to find a patch  on midsummer’s day . 

Next week we have a meeting with the other ski areas to look at how we can work together to help promote and develop Scottish skiing. These meetings take place in the spring and autumn.  This year we ended the season with just over 62,000 skier days, that’s around 37% of the Scottish ski market. Last year we had around 50% of the market, but that was unusual as our normal market-share is approximately 32%. 

Through the summer I plan to post blogs to keep you updated on what’s happening here on the mountain, but not quite as frequently as in the winter. We will be working on some major modifications to the web site – your feedback has been most helpful in telling us what does and does not work.  Thank you Bob   

Monday, the sun is shining and temperature first thing was already in double figures. The top car park is nearly full with Bank Holiday visitors and there are around a couple of hundred skiers/boarders enjoying the last of the snow.  We are no longer running the Cas tow .  The weather over the week end was not as bad as had been forecast although it was very windy on Sunday morning.  Most activities went to plan – but we cancelled the hog roast on the basis of Sunday’s original forecast and the snow hole and ice castle melted by Sunday!We plan to close for skiing for  the rest of the week and taking into consideration the weather forecast we are not optimistic about the week end – lots of warm weather all week.  We will have to make a call one way or the other, about Wednesday. …….. It may be time to dig out the golf clubs if you have not done this already.As we move towards the summer this is another busy time for all staff here at Cairn Gorm. We have already started our maintenance programme and have a lot of painting and sorting out to do following the long winter. A programme of summer walks and activities has already begun.

We are carrying out some restructuring   with very much the medium/long term in mind as well as a strong commitment to the skiing side of the business. … Back to the desk… at least on  a bank holiday the phone does not ring! 

Bob

A few pictures from touring at the weekend. Still almost full cover above 1,000 meters , with some snow down to about 700m.

 bob

 As promised we are going to be skiing into May, but for how long depends on our customers as much as the weather - if we get interest from skiers and boarders we will just stay open that bit longer.

We have put together a celebration week end for the May bank holiday including some great lift pass offers and activities-(ski for £9.25), this is our way of saying thank you to both our local community and our skiing/boarding community. The other way we can also say thanks to regular skiers/season pass holders is to try and remain open to allow everyone to enjoy a bit more spring skiing, although the numbers will inevitably drop off. It would be easy to pull the plug on it, but we don’t want to do this –it sends out the wrong message about our commitment to Skiing and our commitment to our loyal customers, nevertheless we will have to make a realistic decision at some stage, so much depends on unknowns – the weather and the interest.

I want to take this opportunity to publicly thank two key managers who will be leaving in May.  Firstly John McBean who has been heading up out technical maintenance department and secondly John McMorran who has been our safety manager and I know a popular point of contact for our winter customers.  I also want to acknowledge the efforts of all our seasonal staff, and finally our volunteer ambassadors, from the feedback I receive they really do make difference to our visitors experience on Cairn Gorm.   We believe our staff are our greatest asset and we work very hard on trying to be customer focused in what can be a very unpredictable and rapidly changing, sometimes even very challenging situation.  I am sometimes amazed by what can be achieved, against the odds, up here and that comes from a real commitment by staff to the Mountain. It does not always work – but with so many variables that’s inevitable. As with all successful organizations we strive for continual improvement and we are now taking the opportunity to review our internal structures. An important part of this includes taking into consideration your feedback and comments –can I thank those of you who have taken the opportunity to provide us with constructive feedback. - It is valued and welcome..

Not over yet… sunshine and lower winds forecast for Sunday and snow  .. So if you can get fuel …..

Bob      

Last weekend was the busiest of the season and we are now up to 60,000 skier days. Probably the first time ever that the busiest weekend has been so late in the season. Normally the busiest weekend of any season is the first weekend that we have good snow cover – early snow is always very popular – and this often means we are still gearing up the winter team so inevitably there are teething issues. By this time of year most aspects run smoothly, but we have had to recruit additional team members to fill the gaps of those committed to other summer jobs. Today we even started two new lift operators – and last week my daughter joined the team as a lift operator for four days!

Our marketing/PR team have been putting in a lot of effort to maximise the PR impact of the great conditions we have been experiencing. We really did get a lot of coverage for Scottish skiing including national TV and radio, the front page of national papers and a lot of regional coverage. This will create more confidence in the Scottish ski market for next season.- which has to be agood thing for the industry, our local community and Scottish skiers generally.

The weather is now on the change and I can already hear the wind blowing outside - but the forecast is for it to revert to colder conditions next week and we still expect to keep a base in the main gullies for a while yet. We plan to change to summer hours next Monday – opening from 10am with a reduced day pass price and I am still hopeful there will be a few good skiing days to come.

In recent years there has been quite a lot of doom and gloom about the impact of climate change on Scottish skiing, yet even the most pessimistic of predictions still suggest we will get snow in the Scottish mountains in the next few years and what we have just experienced only helps to confirm this.

At the recent Fifth World Conference of Snow and Mountain Tourism held in March this year Peter Keller, Director of the Lausanne University Institute of Tourism and Director of Switzerland Tourism Services, summarised the most important conclusions of the Conference. He affirmed that global warming was first recorded in 1955 and that it is caused principally by daily human habits. “This century, we await a 1º C -4º C increase in temperature. Following the 100-day rule, the current total of 609 ski resorts that exist today will drop to 500 by the year 2020, to 404 in 2050, and to 202 resorts by the end of century, all of which will be in Austria, Switzerland, France, Germany and Italy”, reported Keller. For those remaining resorts, the greenhouse effect will have to be stabilised by 2050. Gas emissions must be reduced and new renewable energy technologies encouraged. Keller concluded that climate change is a process that has been developing for some time, adding that companies and their objectives must therefore adapt to its requirements and consequences.

What does this mean for Cairn Gorm ? Quite simply – we are still in the snow business, but we need to continue our strategy of developing a business model that can take advantage of the snow when we get it, but does not rely totally on snow when it is not here. We do have a responsibility to ensure our activities on the mountain are sustainable so as to allow future generations to enjoy what we have; this means we do need to take on our global responsibilities in terms of emissions…yes, its challenge…but that’s life!

Bob

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