Ski Club 2.0 Home
Snow Reports
FAQFAQ

Mail for help.Help!!

Log in to snowHeads to make it MUCH better! Registration's totally free, of course, and makes snowHeads easier to use and to understand, gives better searching, filtering etc. as well as access to 'members only' forums, discounts and deals that U don't even know exist as a 'guest' user. (btw. 50,000+ snowHeads already know all this, making snowHeads the biggest, most active community of snow-heads in the UK, so you'll be in good company)..... When you register, you get our free weekly(-ish) snow report by email. It's rather good and not made up by tourist offices (or people that love the tourist office and want to marry it either)... We don't share your email address with anyone and we never send out any of those cheesy 'message from our partners' emails either. Anyway, snowHeads really is MUCH better when you're logged in - not least because you get to post your own messages complaining about things that annoy you like perhaps this banner which, incidentally, disappears when you log in :-)
Username:-
 Password:
Remember me:
👁 durr, I forgot...
Or: Register
(to be a proper snow-head, all official-like!)

More Bad News From Cairngorm

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
This is all so sad! Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad However I can remember suggesting (back in the late 80's) that they should send people to see how the glacier snow in summer is managed to get an idea of what could be done. Here they stockpile snow at the end of the winter season and move it to where it's needed during the summer. It doesn't last all summer, but it's a great help. Deep piles of snow last longer than thinly spread stuff. I distinctly remember suggesting this to Tim (?surname) who was the CEO before the one before Bob Kinnaird. The point about snowmaking is always that you make it when you can against the inevitable thaws. Last winter in the alps showed us how much we now rely on it (when it couldn't work).

From the funicular point of view it's just daft not to let peeps go up in it and then walk down (which they can do freely here using the uplift we have). I wouldn't want to walk up, but I'm sure I'd be happy to go up, visit the summit and then walk back down again. There must be many peeps like me. It would certainly put me off going up if I was there in the summer.

On the subject of marketing Cairngorm as a beginner area, IMO it's about the worst place I've ever worked for teaching beginners: there are no flat areas to start with, there are fences everywhere for the poor s*ds to run into, not to mention streams and boggy patches. I've always thought Cairngorm was much more interesting for the intermediate and above skier.

It's also worth noting that when Nevis range started, straight away they allowed booking of the mountain restaurant for all sorts of evening "dos" and ran the gondola specially. Why have CML or it's predecessors never taken advantage of this possibility?

I can really see no hope for the skiing there, and the people who suffer will be the locals, who already have very limited employment opportunities, and who have virtually no say in what's happening to their environment or way of life. Highland clearance anyone?? Evil or Very Mad
ski holidays
 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
easiski, They don't need to travel that far. The Lecht management does a good job of moving around whatever snow is available.
latest report
 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?
Dave Horsley, I've never been to Cairngorm, but from what you guys have been saying I would bet fairly heavily they'll do absolutely s*d all with the cable. Looks like a classic case of avoiding the protests that would occur from actually dismantling the tow, by leaving it to rot for long enough that there'll be no alternative but to then do just that.
snow report
 brian
brian
Guest
GrahamN, you read my (cynical) mind. Evil or Very Mad
snow conditions
 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
GrahamN, well done you've sussed them pretty quickly!

I totally agree that chances are they'll leave the cable to rot and that this is a classic case of avoiding protests about removal - I feel the same is currently the case with the Ciste chairlifts too!

Add to that their utter lack of cash (and running a business in the way they do it's no surprise this is the case) and I'd guess they probably don't have the resources to pay for removal anyway unless someone else foots the bill (as was their hope in the Ciste until that particular 'cunning' plan fell through rolling eyes ).
ski holidays
 You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
easiski wrote:
This is all so sad! Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad However I can remember suggesting (back in the late 80's) that they should send people to see how the glacier snow in summer is managed to get an idea of what could be done. Here they stockpile snow at the end of the winter season and move it to where it's needed during the summer. It doesn't last all summer, but it's a great help. Deep piles of snow last longer than thinly spread stuff. I distinctly remember suggesting this to Tim (?surname) who was the CEO before the one before Bob Kinnaird. The point about snowmaking is always that you make it when you can against the inevitable thaws. Last winter in the alps showed us how much we now rely on it (when it couldn't work).

Yup, there has been discussion of snow farming and preservation over on Winterhighland and I've certainly seen it done in various parts of the Alps (including L2A). I have this cynical feeling such planning is beyond them but I'd love to be proved wrong...
Quote:
From the funicular point of view it's just daft not to let peeps go up in it and then walk down (which they can do freely here using the uplift we have). I wouldn't want to walk up, but I'm sure I'd be happy to go up, visit the summit and then walk back down again. There must be many peeps like me. It would certainly put me off going up if I was there in the summer.

That particular one isn't their fault though, the funicular wouldn't have been built without such restrictions being agreed.
Quote:
On the subject of marketing Cairngorm as a beginner area, IMO it's about the worst place I've ever worked for teaching beginners: there are no flat areas to start with, there are fences everywhere for the poor s*ds to run into, not to mention streams and boggy patches. I've always thought Cairngorm was much more interesting for the intermediate and above skier.

I totally agree, I learnt there and it was pretty appalling as I recall but I grew to love it as my skiing progressed - sady most of what I grew to love is in the Ciste which is now mostly ignored by CML.
Quote:
It's also worth noting that when Nevis range started, straight away they allowed booking of the mountain restaurant for all sorts of evening "dos" and ran the gondola specially. Why have CML or it's predecessors never taken advantage of this possibility?

Need you ask given their record?
rjs wrote:
easiski, They don't need to travel that far. The Lecht management does a good job of moving around whatever snow is available.

No surprise there - they've made the effort to buy in snowmaking (limited though it may be) and work hard to maximise whatever snow they have, I sense a 'slight' contrast with CML there somewhere.
snow report
 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
roga, When I'm back in Bath we must get together and have a "bash CML" moan and drink!!! I'm sure Stainforth or whatever he calls himself here will join us - he used to come up and stay in my chalet in the good old days!!
snow report
 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
easiski wrote:
roga, When I'm back in Bath we must get together and have a "bash CML" moan and drink!!! I'm sure Stainforth or whatever he calls himself here will join us - he used to come up and stay in my chalet in the good old days!!


It does make me laugh- most of the people on Winterhighland ski at Cairngorm and spend there time pulling it to bits on the forum. There is however a few of us (some more vocal than others) that ski at the other centres and we tend to spend our time saying how great our resort is and how it’s so much better than every other resort in Scotland.
Wonder why that is wink
snow report
 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.
Perhaps because the other areas haven't removed 50% of their mid/upper mountain capacity and access ! For a response to Global Warming (CML love to tell us that's the problem!) closing the remaining chairlifts while keeping the four bottom lifts in Coire Cas and removing 2 of the 4 mid mountain tows is quite ingenious ! rolling eyes

There is no exact figure for the cost of fixing the Lady Tow but a figure getting banded about is something between 10 and 20 grand (heading to the upper figure if the rope needs replaced). A day ticket costs £27, say 10k to fix the lift, well thats under 400 day tickets and I'd hazzard a guess they'll lose a lot more than that just through the fact they haven't fixed the lift with people going elsewhere or staying at home, let alone loss of capacity if conditions are decent.

All the Scottish Ski Areas are going to be seriously streached by a decent season in terms of gearing up for it, but none as much as CairnGorm and to be honest a good winter next season could be as much of a calamity for CML as a repeat of last season!
snow report



Terms and conditions  Privacy Policy