Conditions still getting better by the day .. the pictures tell the story!

Helen Rennie , one of our ambassadors sent me this unusual photo taken on the White lady this week( Ok - so the fact there is snow on the White Lady is unusual anyway)!  

 The reality is that “smooth, trouble free operation” and “Scottish ski area” is a contradiction in terms.  In the early blogs this year, I explained some of the challenges that make the simple comparison with Alpine resorts  totally inappropriate, but the most challenging times for any ski business are the beginning and end of the season.  Contrary to the usual annual rumour - we have no fixed plans about closing for skiing - we just react to the conditions and although the official end to the season has always been the end of April, if we have snow and skiers, we just keep going. There just comes a point when the number of skiing customers and the costs of operating don’t stack up and we are forced to pull the plug. This approach has its challenges. Some of our winter seasonal staff have already moved on to pre-planned summer activities/jobs and others will be leaving soon. Staffing changes always impacts on operations. With CairnGorm  Mountain being a year-round business, there is never a perfect time for the permanent team to take holidays, but after Easter is normally quieter and an opportunity for a few to escape to the Alps. In a couple of weeks, delegates will be attending the annual trade ski area conference in Grenoble. Our corporate hospitality team has already held our first wedding at Drumintoul Lodge last week-end with 150 guests….  Quite chilly in a marquee, and a lot of work.  This year we have had to delay some of our summer preparations although we have a major schedule of summer works to get through. But, to put all this in perspective, we are delighted we are still able to offer good skiing.                       Bob     

We have now been asked to keep the Ptarmigan tow closed while the investigations are  on going - we hope this will only be for a couple of days. I am told the Crash site is a few hundred meters above the Ptarmigan tow return wheel. We are still getting very heavy snow here – but with light winds- almost alpine! I have added some more pictures which were taken by mountain rescue team members on Sunday .You may have seen reported over the week end that a plane crashed somewhere near to Cairn Gorm . This was outside the ski patrolled area , but we have been providing  the rescue team and emergency services with  support as well as assessing any potential pollution issues.

I thought I would share with you the view from my window this morning (Saturday 5^th April).  As you can see we are back to full winter up here. We did loose some snow during the week , but the forecast is now to stay cold on the hill for the next few days and once again  we have a good base of snow in the main gullies  and therefore we should be able to provide some good skiing  as long as the wind does not get up too much.

We opened for skiing on 1^st December and it now looks increasingly likely that we will be able to ski into our 6th Month – May.    With our artic, rather than alpine climate, Scotland traditionally has a long season, but in recent years Spring has tended to come early- not this year!  I think I will keep the plants inside for a bit longer yet.

 Bob

Stopped on the way home from work - I never get tired of this view!

 Storm bound today(Friday- midday )  – we made a call to not even attempt to open with the forecast for continued strong winds and difficult road conditions. We have been able to have a look around and this storm is really making a difference. The White Lady looks really loaded as do the lower slopes and the Day Lodge Poma. Zig zags are full.  Top still out of reach. Forecast is changing and we now expect winds on Saturday not to be too bad( don’t quote me – keep an eye on the up to date forecast)   we will open what we can – will be excellent when the wind dropspostscript- Saturday am : well we got it wrong : The wind dropped and did not go back up as forecast and we lost the potential to open in the afternoon. Today’s another challange - no where near as stormy - but still very windy ….. forecast to drop ( crossed fingers again!! ) Bob

  With a clear diary for once and a good forecast I decided to take a day off and go skiing - after all skiing is what attracted me to work here in the first place!  Although we had lots of new snow over Easter this came with strong northerly winds and conditions could best be described as Baltic, including total white-out at the top of the hill for several days. Many of our Easter visitors never got a view and most were stuck on the Cas in what could only be described as challenging January conditions. But what a difference a day makes: yesterday the weather broke and winds dropped. The CairnGorm team had been working hard through the stormy days to try and ensure we could open the wider mountain as soon as possible and yesterday was the day! I have attached a few photos below. It was great to be able to ski the Ciste Gully, West Wall, East Face of the Gully, M2 and the rest…. With the temperature still at -8 at the top,  it meant that it was possible to piste the M2 all the way down to the Day lodge and off-piste snow was still light enough to enjoy and avoid the rocks!

The good news for Scottish skiing is that all 5 areas now have good snow and this provides a real opportunity for Scottish skiers to enjoy some excellent spring skiing into April. Being able to spread skiers around the 5 areas means that queuing is unlikely to be a problem. This is excellent news for the whole industry. We are particularly pleased for the Lecht; despite lots of snow this winter – the snow level has generally been higher up the mountain - over the last few weeks the Lecht has suffered, but now there is good snow at all levels and most importantly this has coincided with a holiday period.  Within the industry we believe it is important that all 5 areas continue to prosper.

Bob  

  In Scotland the snow comes in with the wind and clearing snow from fire exits, keeping snow away from the tunnel mouth as well as preparing the get-on ramps is simply a matter of hard graft and a good shovel.  For those of you who have been up recently you will notice we have been doing a lot of shovelling – and this continues to make the best of the snow we have. Last week-end we were able to rebuild the Fiacaill Ridge poma track and during the week we have been working on the West Wall poma track and hope to open it from the bottom once the winds drop a bit.

It’s a shame there is not a competition for the best view from a chief executive’s office – there are definitely days when  I think I would be in with a good chance of winning.  This can be frustrating when I look out and see what I am missing, but today it’s a total whiteout – not unusual in itself, but less common at this time of year. We are still enjoying full winter conditions but with the advantage that when the sun does come out it actually makes a difference. Once again the weather is teasing us – here we are at a major holiday week-end and today is so stormy that we have had to close all the lifts. We hope the weather will improve over the week-end and into next week. We certainly have plenty of snow - we just need the right weather.

At this time of year I normally try to escape for a week to the Alps; it always serves to remind me what a great life I had when I used to teach skiing and mountaineering for a living. This year we went to Norway at New Year instead and enjoyed some brilliant cross-country skiing near Lillehammer.  Although I will miss the alpine trip, the spring conditions here look like they are going to continue well into April and I am sure there are going to be some great skiing days to come as well as some touring on the plateau…but I think I will leave that until the sun shines!

Bob   Ps picture of digging out the tunnel –from last year- when the wind was in the South!