 Poster: A snowHead
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17 tonne caterpillar earth moving tractor digging out the road just above the tree-line, long way to the Daylodge when this was taken.
Estimated to be 15ft of snow on parts of the road between the link the road and Cas Carpark. Ski Area StormBound for the day and unlikely to open before Sunday at the earliest given the forecast!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Just like the old days. I guess the road really needs a roof above it, like those ones which protect Alpine passes/railways from avalanches. Yet another trigger for a 10-page thread!
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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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best thing they could do with all that snow is take it up to the slopes and dump it on to them. is this possible?
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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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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Based on what I recall from 30-35 years ago, that storm may have buried ski tows on the top of the hill. The one time I was on Glencoe there was a T-bar with its cable about 6ins above the snow surface. Scottish snow storms are impressive. What's been the freezing level over the past few days?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Hovering between 1000 and 1500ft for the most part over the last couple of days, though at least a ground frost at lower levels overnight. Snow was very hard and the road very slippy this morning on my street in Inverness.
Quite long stretches of the funicular are buried, that one of the buried bits is the underpass to the M1 poma just underlines the amount of drifting. The direction was very good for the Ciste Gully, so hopefully the wind speed wasn't too strong. Up top the strength of the wind might have actually prevented the biggest drifts being right up the top, but the direction (SE) in 2001 was what basically removed the steep section of the Ptarmigan Bowl. M1 Poma track will need lowering in bits judging by the Webcam you'd need to duck to get under some of the towers atm.
Funicular tunnel remains an unknown, could be rather horrific for those who have to do the shovelling!!
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This is the current (pretty desperate) message on the CairngormMountain website:
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Since 04:00am we have been battling snow depths of up to 15 feet on the link road and down the road and have not yet reached the car park. We have 2 x 17 tonne Caterpillar Tractor Shovels and a JCB shovel hired in to help. Once we reach the Car Park assessments will need to be made on the Mountain. Keep an eye on the website and listen to MFR before setting off for the mountain.
Please note that due to conditions there were no staff on site to answer telephone calls. We also seem to be having technical difficulty in updating the phone message offsite. Until we can get onto the mountain to rectify this problem, please ignore this phone message. Until the staff get to the Day Lodge it will only be voicemail. |
The website itself isn't working properly, because (according to one comment I read) they've stuck some photos of the snow-digging on the front page.
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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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This is the current (pretty desperate) message on the CairngormMountain website:
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Since 04:00am we have been battling snow depths of up to 15 feet on the link road and down the road and have not yet reached the car park. We have 2 x 17 tonne Caterpillar Tractor Shovels and a JCB shovel hired in to help. Once we reach the Car Park assessments will need to be made on the Mountain. Keep an eye on the website and listen to MFR before setting off for the mountain.
Please note that due to conditions there were no staff on site to answer telephone calls. We also seem to be having technical difficulty in updating the phone message offsite. Until we can get onto the mountain to rectify this problem, please ignore this phone message. Until the staff get to the Day Lodge it will only be voicemail. |
The website itself isn't working properly, because (according to one comment I read) they've stuck some photos of the snow-digging on the front page.
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Wow, amazing amounts of snow and what a hell of a job for the guys digging the road out!
Hopefully the gullies are filling up and there's not been too much blown out of the ski area.
This could be a looooong season! 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Very difficult to gauge in the flat light, but a couple of the webcam shots show driftlines that suggest there could be a pretty constant gradient from the lower M1 across the Gunbarrel. It could be a trick of light, but possible the Gunbarrel is very well filled, fingers crossed. A lot of snow went from the shoulder of the hill around Horizon Road and the wind should have funnelled that straight into the Gunbarrel.
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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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After the Ski Road Dig will come the Funicular Dig:
Can you spot the tunnel mouth and yes that is a drift right across the Top Station!
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So calling it a giant snow fence isn't wrong! 
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You know it makes sense.
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Hope they're going to groom it nicely for me next week 
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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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The perfectly-groomed Bode Swiller, forget it. Next week on Cairngorm is 'bring a shovel'.
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Poster: A snowHead
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The BBC has a report this morning:
Too much snow closes ski centre
And the Scotsman has a virtually identical headline (but different copy), but with inverted quotes:
'Too much snow' closes ski resort
I prefer it without the inverted quotes, personally. Maybe it's a north-south thing.
Actually, the Scotsman should be aware that Cairngorm isn't a "ski resort", so that's one up for the British Broadcasting Corporation.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Colin onhis blog says you can now walk straight onto the top station roof due to the drifts and that where you pass under the train to get onto the Lady was just a wall of snow.
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Well i am back at the day lodge now, the diggers have about a 100m to go to reach the car park, and that is only single track up the down road,the other two are still in the Link Road working from each end, we will start the blower tomorrow morning widening the roads
We will not open tomorrow, there is masses of snow everywhere that need to be dug out, the Train track is buried in about 10 places, some of the M1 Towers are just poking out of the snow, you can walk on to the Top Station roof, where you used to ski under the track below the tunnel on to the White Lady is a wall of snow and who knows where the Tunnel is. I dont think i have seen as much snow in all my years up here. The wind looks
like it wont do us any favours over the next couple of days but we will keep plodding away and see what happens. The top bowls have escaped most of the drifting it all seems to have settled in the Cas side. Will post an update tomorrow on our progress.
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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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It'd be interesting to have some meteorological data on this. I imagine that snowfall/precipitation measurement on Cairngorm is very difficult, due to the high winds, but does anyone have an idea of how much (frozen) water was dumped on the mountain?
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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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The estimation is in the region of 185cm of actual snow fall since Christmas Eve on the upper mountain - mostly falling in light winds which was another remarkable thing about the cold spell. Obviously that being distributed evenly across the mountain and Plateau which lies to the South means that South to South East gales in cold air had an almost unlimited supply of snow to drift into the Snowsports Area. The photo of the SAIS team skiing off the 'Gorm was just at the treeline and you should be able to ski to the Sugarbowl level for a good while yet - maybe need a shuttle pus from there!
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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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CairnGorm remains stormbound and the latest word is that it will remained closed through the weekend.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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SAIS report 400cm depth at site of a test pit on the Upper East Wall of Coire Na Ciste this afternoon just north of the No2 Gully burn at approx 800m. The team skied out the Ciste Gully to the carpark.
http://saisncairngorms.blogspot.com/2010/01/strong-winds-and-rising-temperatures.html
It takes extraordinary rare set of circumstances to fill the gully in that far down, the stream is big, more a mountain river, and it requires a huge amount of loose snow to drift and just the right wind direction and speed.
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Seriously thinking of taking a road (and ferry) trip.
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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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CairnGorm Mountain a year apart, 15th Jan 2009 and 15th Jan 2010!
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Amazing 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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you can thank me for the extra snow as I now catch the bus to work reducing my carbon footprint
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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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russ_e,
Me too. New job and have been car sharing all week. 4 cars off the road!!
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Winterhighland, thanks for those pictures and reports. fascinating. makes the alps look pretty tame!
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You know it makes sense.
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Brilliant Winterhighland. That makes the whole thing come to life.
Talking to Tom Moody, one of the Engineer/Kassboher drivers on the hill on New Years day, about the incredible conditions and how remarkably level the snow was, he said, 'Aye and when the wind gets up its gonna make an awfie mess'. He wasn't wrong 
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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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Winterhighland,
What the hell was the piste basher trying to do though? 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Moving the snow away so there's more space to empty the digger buckets. Could end up with a skiable run alongside (or should that be above) the access road
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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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Also lowering the height of the cut on the down side so the road wont drift in as bad on North winds. Not much can be done about the uphill side bank.
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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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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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They really should find that new snow maker and turn it off now - you can have too much of a good thing
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FAQ
