 Poster: A snowHead
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^ nice one, good piccies and vids 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Looks really good Winterhighland - I'm most intrigued by the gunbarrel - I've never been on the Gorm with it like that, looks rather 'interesting'! 
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Top Third of the Gunbarrel is decent width, middle narrow - then the lower section is wierd, I dont recall ever seeing a base banked up like that. The burncourse is filled in on the top half though which is great news if it can come through the next couple of weeks or so and the way the snow is it wouldn't take much drifting down the bank to fill in the burn on the lower half. In fact as Bob himself said today just a little more snow and there would be some really great top to middle skiing - kind of situation snowmaking could top of nicely and advance a decent enough start to a great start! 
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Did bob mention/discuss snowmaking at all???
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considering it's still only November, it looks really pretty good.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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II, Glad you had a good time - Ptarmigan looks well good, and the vid (not yours) from the traverse, 105 and towards the gun barrel/Zig Zags also shows remarkable cover for November.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Yeah, looks fantastic and it seems that the weekend forecast was pretty innacurate what with those predicted storms that obviously didn't materialise. Just goes to show that if the snow is available in Scotland you just have to take the chance and go for it.
Hopefully we're going to see more snow in Scotland soon to build on that base - cue the snow dances 
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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The freeze/thaw/snow cycling is continuing, but the base took a hammering in a period of sustained thaw conditions under torrential rain (the volume of water in the River Ness is boardering on Scary). Usually when we have early snow such a thaw period would wipe the hills bare, but this has not been the case this time because the snowpack was already fairly well consolidated. In the West snow remains on the upper runs behind fences and in the gullies, and at CairnGorm a base remains in the Top Basin, down the Traverse and 105 though it did break it wouldn't take a huge amount of snow to get the top going again. It's been snowing this morning and more is expected. Hopefully the weather will do the right stuff this weekend and ease of on the wind in time for us to be underway again next weekend.
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You know it makes sense.
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Latest from Cairngorm Mountain website. Quote - "If snow conditions remain as they are, we plan to open the Ptarmigan Zone this weekend for snowsports. Please check back regularly for further information"
Snow showers forecast above 600m tomorrow. Remaining at below zero temps until Sunday pm. Looking good for some more early season scottish snowsports.
And don't forget we have a forum at 1030 on Saturday with the CEO and some of his team to discuss many issues around the running of the ski area and future of scottish snowsports.
Paul
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Poster: A snowHead
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firstracks,
That looks pretty damn good by anyones stretch....good to see that all the bad weather we have had this week has added upto something. I would hope the alpes are showing the same as well
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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firstracks, Wow!
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Conditions were really nice - about 4inches of powder (crusty in places) over a hard, but thin in places base. Not bad conditions considering. Only the Ptarmigan bowl was open with the funicular, Ciste tow and Ptarmigan tow running. Was possible to ski most of the bowl, the Ciste Fairway, The Ptarmigan traverse and the Ptarmigan run itself. Though just at the top of the steep section it was a bit of skiing around the rocks. The traverse and 105 were complete, upper Cas was OK though the gunbarrel was not quite, but thetrain wasn't doing middle stops. Morning was probably the best wrt overhead conditions, but was unfortunately in an open meeting with Bob Kineard and senior staff on the future of Cairngorm, which went well.
Thats me in the picture spent the afternoon telemarking badly in the bowl untill the overhead conditions got a bit iffy - especially for a glasses wearer who'd left his goggles in the car!
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Dave Horsley, were there many peeps at the meeting, and did Bob and his team appear to take on board what you were all saying "Save the Ciste" I presume..
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brian
brian
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easiski, There were ~80 people at the meeting, but a fair percentage were from the ski school, who had had a meeting with Bob and co. prior to the open forum and stayed on. I thought the meeting was productive, we got a fair bit of info out of Bob and the head of engineering. Though they said they had no plans to run the Ciste chairs they did agree that they could run, that the Ciste chair had been used to move fencining and equipment in (but not people). To carry punters both chairs would require some maintainance work and a lot of safety checking and that wasn't going to happen. this year. When pushed with the question of what would happen if there was a serious failure of the WWPoma early in the season if the snow was really good and the WWP would take ages to fix could/would they run the WWchair t CML said they might if it would take less time and money to get the chair running than the poma. They have also backed off removing the chairs until they are replaced or planning is in place for them to be replaced.
They held up their hands to making a serious mistake with the new website, have put up a temporary one for winter, and the changes they showed for the modifications to the new site looked good.
They have enginneers coming in to look at the feasibilty of splitting the ww poma, but will consult further with customers before going ahead. Cost if it goes ahead likely to be ~50K
They have had York and a second company beginning with S in to investigate snow making and do some costings/feasibilty work. They may do some small scale trials this year around the Sheiling area. They also held up their hands to say it was a mistake not to have started collecting data in 2000/2001 when snow making was first muted as we would now have 5-6 years data. Winterhighlanders may try and set up some data collection this year to collect data and try and combine that with previous more limited weather data which goes back much longer to derive data on when snow making might have been possible in past years.
Some info was provided on the new ticket system and we were warned that there will be teething problems initially, but it should be much improved once it beds in. Tickets should be able to be purchased in advance on the web and in aveimore and can be collected in advance in aveimore or from a dedicated window at cairngorm.
Also open to suggestions on fencing issues, as some previous suggestions (mainly from Alan), on fence removals or realignments have been promising initially, but it is early days.
Thats a summary of what I remember, there should be a fuller set of minutes posted on Winterhighland soon from someone who took notes. I thought it was very worthwhile and useful and Bob and his team should be congratulated for coming forward and talking to us all in such a constructive way.
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brian
brian
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Dave Horsley, thanks for the report. Sounds mainly encouraging
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FAX for Sunday shows the HP building and some northerlies for Scotland. Plenty of fronts in the stream as well.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Dave Horsley, thanks for that, and the reports on WinterHighland are also very interesting. It all sounds reasonably positive. Now good publicity is needed and more peeps going skiing!
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Looks like Cairngorm are going to be open again this weekend - they're doing blooming well so far making the effort to open, am well impressed!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I see they've shifted the web cams so you get a better view of the slopes now - looks like a rail is being installed at the top at the moment and good to see the tows running yet again.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| Dave Horsley wrote: |
easiski, There were ~80 people at the meeting, but a fair percentage were from the ski school, who had had a meeting with Bob and co. prior to the open forum and stayed on. I thought the meeting was productive, we got a fair bit of info out of Bob and the head of engineering. Though they said they had no plans to run the Ciste chairs they did agree that they could run, that the Ciste chair had been used to move fencining and equipment in (but not people). To carry punters both chairs would require some maintainance work and a lot of safety checking and that wasn't going to happen. this year. When pushed with the question of what would happen if there was a serious failure of the WWPoma early in the season if the snow was really good and the WWP would take ages to fix could/would they run the WWchair t CML said they might if it would take less time and money to get the chair running than the poma. They have also backed off removing the chairs until they are replaced or planning is in place for them to be replaced.
They held up their hands to making a serious mistake with the new website, have put up a temporary one for winter, and the changes they showed for the modifications to the new site looked good.
They have enginneers coming in to look at the feasibilty of splitting the ww poma, but will consult further with customers before going ahead. Cost if it goes ahead likely to be ~50K
They have had York and a second company beginning with S in to investigate snow making and do some costings/feasibilty work. They may do some small scale trials this year around the Sheiling area. They also held up their hands to say it was a mistake not to have started collecting data in 2000/2001 when snow making was first muted as we would now have 5-6 years data. Winterhighlanders may try and set up some data collection this year to collect data and try and combine that with previous more limited weather data which goes back much longer to derive data on when snow making might have been possible in past years.
Some info was provided on the new ticket system and we were warned that there will be teething problems initially, but it should be much improved once it beds in. Tickets should be able to be purchased in advance on the web and in aveimore and can be collected in advance in aveimore or from a dedicated window at cairngorm.
Also open to suggestions on fencing issues, as some previous suggestions (mainly from Alan), on fence removals or realignments have been promising initially, but it is early days.
Thats a summary of what I remember, there should be a fuller set of minutes posted on Winterhighland soon from someone who took notes. I thought it was very worthwhile and useful and Bob and his team should be congratulated for coming forward and talking to us all in such a constructive way. |
DH -- Nice summary. It sounds like an awfully long list of failures. Have they had any successes?
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| Whitegold wrote: |
DH -- Nice summary. It sounds like an awfully long list of failures. Have they had any successes? |
Are you always so positive????
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You know it makes sense.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| Quote: |
Have they had any successes?
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Yes - they are open for snow sports and were open before a lot of european resorts. Fraid I didn't make it to Cairngorm this weekend, was doing a "fun" triathlon with HNSC including running up the Clashmac and back and cycling around the Bin on tracks covered in sheet ice!
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Poster: A snowHead
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| Dave Horsley wrote: |
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Have they had any successes?
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Yes - they are open for snow sports and were open before a lot of european resorts. Fraid I didn't make it to Cairngorm this weekend, was doing a "fun" triathlon with HNSC including running up the Clashmac and back and cycling around the Bin on tracks covered in sheet ice! |
That's a 'natural' success. Not a 'manmade' success. Anybody can press the start button on a lift when a bit of snow falls.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Whitegold,
I hear that the fish n chips in the ptarmigan are nice
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| Quote: |
Anybody can press the start button on a lift when a bit of snow falls.
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Not if they haven't barred them up or serviced them they can't!
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Cas tow to open tomorrow
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Winterhighland, great pix - how wonderful for Cairngorm to have such excellent conditions, while it appears that even the Lecht isn't open - very unusual. goood for them, long may they continue to run and let's hope they have thousands of skier days and we save the Ciste!!!
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Raining like mad here in N.I. at the moment and feels pretty cold. Must be heading your way.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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so is it worth a weekend trip to scotland then ?
or should i just head to the indoor place in yorkshire ?
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FAQ
A bit of commitment and you can ride it like a 1/4 pipe carve up the bank take air off the uptrack put a few turns in and drop back down the side, however if fear of an early bath puts you off you can hold a half forwards/half sideslip posistion on the bank. Was out on my good 1080s and didn't hit a rock all day despite several decents of the Gunbarrel and one of the Lady.
)
. Of to Arabba at the weekend and its been snowing in the dolomites today 
