A small selection of photos showing summer maintenance work, taken on the walk back down CairnGorm Mountain on Tuesday 16th June after the visit to check out the snow fields over the back.

The first two photos show the re-profiled M1 Poma unload ramp, steeper, higher, but wider fan out (to stop people catapulting round the bullwheel).

Following photos show new lifting rigs being fitted on the Coire Cas Tow, the Carpark Tow’s bullwheel mast down for repairs and repaint (two new or refurbished/repainted bullwheels in the Cas Carpark).

Final photo, the Sheiling Tow’s novel counter weight, or is it a CairnGorm proof ‘weather stone’. The captions might read:

Stone is Wet: Raining (or the lifty couldn’t make it till his next break).

Stone is Dry: Not Raining.

Shadow on the ground: Sunny.

White on Top: Snowing.

White on one side: Horizontal Snow.

Can’t see rock:  White Out (or mystic smoke drifting from lift shack).

Swinging rock: Bloody windy.

Bouncing rock: Lard Ass just got on/off Tow.

Rock Gone: Armageddon.

On Saturday 30th May with a perfect blue sky around 20 people gathered at Glenshee Ski Centre from 10am for a guided walk about with Dr Adam Watson. A selection of photos from the day have been put up in the Pix from the Slopes, as well as a number of photos/links and discussion about the day in the forum.

Gathering at the Cafe

To start the day off prior to heading up the Cairnwell Chairlift and onwards to the Summit, Dr Adam Watson explained the proposed itinerary for the day over morning coffee, while Iain Cameron (Firefly) explained his idea behind the meeting, partly as a thank you to those who have contributed to snow patch monitoring in recent seasons through filling reports and photos on Winterhighland over the summer months.

As part of the day Adam Watson then introduced Willie Meston a manager at Glenshee who spoke about the company, Glenshee Ski Area and the season just past, there was then a question and answer session about Glenshee. Some of the questions were from recurring themes on the Winterhighland Forum and some of these were answered by the A4 handouts from Willie Meston.

Willie Meston gave a brief presentation on snow management at Glenshee, the principle method being the snow fencing, then grooming and snow farming with the Piste Bashers and finally the limited snow making capability that is primarily used on the Claybokie run.

Key points from this:

• Snow fence management and repair is a major undertaking, Glenshee are currently replacing between 1000 and 2000m of snow fencing per year.
• 1km of snow fencing was replaced on Glas Maol in summer 2008 including extensive repairs to the fenced traverse from the top of the Poma out to Centre Gully.
• Newest Piste Basher is a 10year old Kassbohrer.
• Different wind directions favour different fence lines and parts of the Ski Area.

Existing snow making system:

• Entirely manual system, staff have to be on site to start up and stop the system.
• Constant adjustments needed as temperature, humidity and wind fluctuate. Staff need to keep a constant watch as a sudden change in temperature could result in the guns blowing out water and ruining the existing snow by turning it into sheet ice.
• A small water storage pond between the foot of the Cairnwell T-bar and Claybokie Poma.
• The six manual fan guns used on Claybokie have a start up wet bulb temperature of -3°c, but -5 or lower is better.
• In clear settled weather conditions with light winds such as under high pressures temperature inversions can be an issue, temperatures down to double digits below 0°c in Braemar but above freezing on the mountain.
• Requires significant electricity input and Glenshee has to generate own power. System for Claybokie consists of the fan guns which are rated 30kW each, a 150kW water pump and uses a 380kVA generator.

Snow Making on the Claybokie on 31st Dec 2008.

Why & how was the Tiger Tow Removed:

Tiger T-bar taken out of service for safety reasons due to steepness and difficulty of up-track, to many serious accidents with the situation described as almost an incident every time the tow was switched on.

Towers were dropped out of the ski season and when there was sufficient snow on the ground Piste Bashers went down the line and were used to remove the towers from the hill-side.

Is there any life expectancy issue with the Cairnwell lifts, esp. the Chairlift?

All the existing lifts remain serviceable, however (as has already happened with the Cairnwell and Carn Aosda T-bars where the old diesel drives have been replaced by electric drives) the remaining diesel drives could be replaced in future. Cairnwell Chairlift will under go a refurbishment if it is remaining in long term operation.

Will the Courrour Poma operate again?

Courrour Poma has not operated for 8 years and it is unlikely to operate again in it’s current location. Subject to funds being available it could be moved to a more useful location, potentially to double up Butchart’s (T-bar or Poma). Decommissioned lifts being used as spares. Some newer poma tower work platforms have been removed and placed on older towers to make work on the lifts easier.

State of play with Meall Odhar T-bar and Pomas

Meall Odhar T-bar and Caenlochan Poma

Issue raised about redundancy and capacity issues as this has been a bottleneck in recent seasons.

Willie stated that the Meall Odhar T-bar would be serviced and that lack of time/resources meant it had not been possible to get round to it prior to the arrival of snow last season. Plans for future refurbishment of the T-bar with a new electric drive to replace the old diesel drive with external gear box - as with Butchart’s T-bar, more efficient, easier to maintain, more reliable and less diesel storage sites to maintain with electric drives. T-bar generally would be used as back up and for extra capacity at peak times as boarders prefer easier access over the back from the Caenlochan.

Also mentioned with regard stoppages that the Caenlochan line was considerably more exposed than the other two lifts.

Mention that Meall Odhar and Butchart’s T-bars could receive ‘redundant’ electric drive stations from CML.

Reliance of Surface Uplift for access to Glas Maol and Fionn Coire

The discussion over lifts on Meall Odhar brought the discussion onto the subject of the problem of not being able to access the reliable snow fields and runs in Coire Fionn due to runs/uptracks on the way over being incomplete.

Glenshee have a proposal for a Meall Odhar Chairlift to replace the Meall Odhar Poma on a slightly different alignment to the poma. Would need further good seasons to have funds to install such a lift.

Devil’s Elbow and/or Centre Gully Access Lift?

In the 1980s a detailed proposal was worked up for the installation of an access Chairlift from the Devils Elbow to the foot of the Meall Odhar T-bar. This would have addressed the access problem from the South where the road is more prone to closure in snowy weather than the road from the North.

Company concerned about extent to which such a plan would divide the Ski Area base facilities, without adequately dealing with the Glas Maol access issue. Meall Odhar or Coire Fionn could still be broken, while Glas Maol skiable, but still not accessible.

Late 80’s into the 90’s idea surfaced for an alternative Northern approach for a low level access lift, from the North side of the Ski Area. A new chairlift would head from the A93 up Centre Gully to the foot of the Glas Maol and Coire Fionn Pomas providing access to both without relying on either being complete. This remains the long term objective and is considered the best solution to the issue of reliable access to Glas Maol.

Glas Maol Summit from A93. Chairlift would largely be out of sight in Centre Gully.

Alternative lower cost solution to improving Access to Coire Fionn

All potential solutions have the issue of funding. An alternative approach is to extend the Sunnyside Chairlift towards the Meall Odhar Cafe, providing an easier interchange with a Meall Odhar Chairlift. This would would enable access to Coire Fionn regardless of snow conditions on Sunnyside, Cluny/Tom Dearg and Meall Odhar. However Glas Maol could still be inaccessible in this scenario.

Signage

Donald Morris brought up the subject of signage along with with the Gaelic bi-lingual signs which were put up this season just past. As a result of increased holiday visitors rather than local day trippers this season, navigation around the Ski Area has been an issue and new piste direction signage and extra instruction signs on correct use of the T-bars is planned.

Summer Activities, Mountain Biking?

Cafe at the road side is open daily following the refurbishment prior to last season. Cairnwell Chairlift will operate daily during the summer from Mid June this year.

Glenshee plan to use the Chairlift for downhill mountain biking using the existing estate landrover tracks on the Cairnwell side. Plans to add features to the sides of the track to enable the track to still be used, this means riders can easily avoid any feature without dismounting.

Other Plans / Issues for Glenshee?

Adam Watson mentioned the issue of Glenshee suffering in terms of funding support due to being the only Scottish Ski Area wholly outside of the HIE area. This contrasts to the situation at CairnGorm and Nevis Range and to a lesser extent at Glencoe and the Lecht where HIE has funded or contributed to funding of infrastructural improvements.

Willie Meston stated that another small lift that is a high priority is to install a short Chairlift between the Ticket Office building and the Cairnwell Cafe. This would make a huge difference to visitation in limited snow cover, as numbers drop dramatically if people have to walk to the Cafe. This is esp true when skiing is on machine made snow on Claybokie. Increased ski numbers in such situations would allow increased use of snow making and in good conditions remove the bottle neck at the Plastic Slope Poma.

The chairlift is currently sitting at the end of the Car Park adjacent to the Dink Dink Poma. There is not a current costing for it’s installation, though this is being looked at. New rules on installations (EU Cableways Directive etc) mean increased costs to bring lift up to scratch.

For other potential lift projects, Willie Meston mentioned the extent of availability of second hand lifts that are relatively modern at low cost if they can be transported from mainland Europe due to many French resorts replacing uplift on a 15year cycle.

Cairnwell Chairlift

Discussions were wrapped up with Iain Cameron and Dr Adam Watson leading the thank you to Willie Meston for his time and for allowing use of the Chairlift. The group then headed up the Cairnwell Chairlift before walking to the Summit where the fantastic visibility gave excellent views in every direction. Adam and Iain are preparing a full account of the walk about and afternoon discussions and site visits in Glen Clunie which will be made available in due course.

On behalf of all participants may I once again thank Glenshee for hosting the day, Iain Cameron for setting the ball in motion and organising the day and Adam Watson for a fascinating and informative day.

Wed 4th March.

Forty Eight inches (four feet!) of light powder fell at Kirkwood overnight Tuesday into Wednesday. The shuttle bus was delayed leaving South Lake, but when we left Highway 88 was open to Kirkwood and epic day awaited. But as we headed out of town an avalanche hit the Carson Pass closing Highway 88. At one point CalTrans estimated a 2pm opening, so the bus prepared to turn around, just then a police car drove past and opened the snow gates! No-one got into Kirkwood till lunchtime apart from 50 lucky so and so’s who were staying up there, so after a frustrating wait staring at snow gates that only added to the anticipation, Kirkwood more than lived up to it’s claim of America’s Deepest Snow. It was simply off the scale….

When the Cornice Express opened giving top to bottom riding it was simply mind blowing, face shots with every turn, even lower down where they piste bashers had been ! Powder, machine packed powder, on the trails, in the bowls, in the trees, the sheer amount of snow that fell overnight is simply mind boggling. The pics speak for themselves, except that they just can’t portray just how deep the powder was!

Taking advantage of the time difference between Scotland and California for an early morning start on Saturday, getting up at 4.45am and trundling all the luggage across the street from the Millbrae Travelodge near SF International Airport and jumping on the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit System) at 5.45am.

Traversed across the full length of the BART Network from Millbrae in the South to Richmond in the NE to join the Amtrak Capital Corridor’s service to Sacramento the state Capitol and their onwards coach link to South Lake Tahoe. The BART is a whole lot more luggage friendly than the tube and a couple of lifts down then up is all thats needed to transfer from BART to Amtrak at Richmond Interchange. A stress free and cheap way to make the trip, like a 1/5th of the cost of an flying to Reno and the somewhat optimistically  named Reno Tahoe airport, it’s a good 90mins by bus back West on Highway 50, thus little benefit for the hugely more expensive air fare.

Track works before Sacramento though meant only a short 30min trip on the double decker Amtrak train, just enough time to scoff a hot dog and breakfast baggle for breakie, very American, before decanting to a train replacement bus to Sacramento. So it’s not just ScotRail !

Sacramento Valley Station is like something right out of the Wild West, an old red brick station, who’s main concourse resembles a church with long solid wooden pews !

From there it was back on another bus, the Amtrak link to South Lake Tahoe over the Echo Summit on Highway 50, soon after Placerville the first remnants of old drifts at the side of the road from previous winter storms that brought lower level snow. From Placerville Highway 50 starts to really climb, the freeway soon gives way to a narrower road, a mix of dual carriageway, single carriageway and long crawler lanes. We’re climbing to the Twin Bridges before Echo Summit as I type this, the road winding and twisting its way skywards and to the main winter snowline.

Sunny under part cloudy skies, but you can tell from the increasing high level cloud that weather is moving in. Snow expected to reach this evening or overnight, another 15 to 20inches of fresh forecast for Kirkwood through Sunday. However rather high snow levels in the warm sector, down at lake level in South Lake at a mere 6200ft, the forecast is Heavy Rain… Is that sun I saw on the CairnGorm webcams in the afternoon !!

Getting Close To Tahoe (2.30pm PST)

Shortly after Echo Summit Highway 50 starts to descend towards the Tahoe Basin, however it doesn’t so much descend as plunge precariously! This is the point for those who aren’t the best with heights to close their eyes and pray (though preferably not if driving). Photos can never do this section of road justice for it’s sheer exposure. For all effective purposes the mountain ends, a thousand feet below your right tyres Highway 89 winds through the woodland on the way to Kirkwood.

Well OK not much of a Road Trip yet, more of a frustrating crawl along the A96 towards Aberdeen. However it does mark the first stage of the journey…

This time tomorrow (Friday 27th) it should be fasten seat belts time for the final approach to San Francisco International Airport. The observant amongst you will have spotted the return of the  ‘Return to Kirkwood’ Graphic on the General Situation. It’s just minutes away from hitting 0 days to go…

During the 2005 and 2006 Seasons much of Winterhighland was run from 8 time zones away from a base 7800ft up in the Serria Nevada mountains at Kirkwood Mountain, with some assistance from closer to home with the reports and pix.

Armed with camera and shinny new netbook, I’ll try and post regular blogs and a few pics from the trip. The base will be South Lake Tahoe CA, taking in Kirkwood, Heavenly, Squaw Valley, Homewood and perhaps somewhere else, of course it’s weather dependent. Another 15inches of snow is due to hit Kirkwood Saturday.

Oh and yea, it just had to be done, a Big Mac in Mcdonalds at Elgin to get in the mood !!

Location: Under a railway bridge in Aberdeen freeloading on some wifi.

Mood: Excited!

(See below for English)

Tha sgitheadh ann an Alba air dreach gu tur ùr a ghabhail tro phrògram farsaing de shoidhneachan dà-chànanach agus stuthan taic Gàidhlig ann an Ionadan Sgithidh na h-Alba. Tha an t-seachdain seo a’ comharrachadh crìoch na ciad ìre den phrògram leis an dà chuid, Ionad Sgithidh na Lice agus Ionad Sgithidh Ghleann Sìth, gu foirmeile a’ cur air bhog an soidhneachan ùra Gàidhlig agus am mapa-slighe a tha gu h-iomlan dà-chànanach.

Mar phàirt den iomairt seo, tha an dà ionad air Planaichean Gàidhlig ullachadh, agus leis an sin a’ dèanamh cinnteach gum bi am modh dà-chànanach a’ leantainn air adhart san àm ri teachd agus gum bi ìomhaigh mòran nas àirde aig a’ Ghàidhlig anns na h-àiteachan sin.

Tha Ionadan Sgithidh na Lice agus Ghleann Sìth air iomairt nan soidhneachan ùra agus nam mapaichean a chur an gnìomh tro chom-pàirteachas eadar Comunn na Gàidhlig, Bòrd na Gàidhlig agus Iomairt na Gàidhealtachd ’s nan Eilean le Bòrd na Gàidhlig a’ solarachadh taic ionmhasail don iomairt.

Tha am pàirt cudromach a tha aig sgitheadh ann an eaconamaidh na h-Alba agus an tarraing a tha aig sgitheadh do gach aois a’ ciallachadh gu bheil comas aig àireamh ùr den t-sluagh ruighinn air a’ Gàidhlig, agus fiosrachadh fhaotainn air an lìonmhorachd de chothroman a tha co-cheangailte rithe.

Thuirt Rosemary Nic a’ Bhàird, an Ceannard an Gnìomh aig Bòrd na Gàidhlig, “Tha sinn glè thoilichte gu bheil comas againn taic a chur ris an dà ionad, an Leac agus Gleann Sìth, gus a’ Ghàidhlig adhartachadh agus a cleachdadh nan obair làitheil. Is e seo a’ chiad turas a tha Planaichean Gàidhlig air an cur an sàs sa roinn phrìobhaideach, agus tha miann làidir againn aire an t-sluaigh a tharraing gun raon fharsaing de chothroman obrach a tha rim faotainn tron Ghàidhlig.”

Thug Comunn na Gàidhlig (CnaG) taic practaigeach do na h-ionadan sgithidh agus chruthaich iad na mapaichean-slighe dà-chànanach. Dh’aithris Eàirdsidh MacGilleathain, Ceannard ChnaG, gu bheil e comasach do gach gnothachas sa Ghàidhealtachd agus na h-Eileanan taic ionmhasail agus practaigeach fhaotainn gus soidhneachan dà-chànanach a chleachdadh. “Bidh sinn a’ solarachadh taic do raon de ghnothachasan, agus an-dràsta fhèin tha sinn a’ sireadh chompanaidhean eile aig a bheil toil a thaobh soidhneachan dà-chànanach a chur an sàs.”

A’ bruidhinn air leasachaidhean aig Ionad Sgithidh Ghleann Sìth, thuirt Graham McCabe, Ceannard an Ionaid, “Tha sinn gu math toilichte leis na soidhnichean agus tha luchd-tadhail mar thà air ùidh mhòr a nochdadh sa Ghàidhlig. Bidh sinn a’ dèanamh tuilleadh san àm ri teachd”.

Cha ghabh cudromachd na Gàidhlig do dh’eaconamaidh na h-Alba a bhith air a mheas fo luach agus tha Iomairt na Gàidhealtachd ’s nan Eilean den bheachd gur e inneal làidir gun choimeas a th’ anns a’ chànan gus gnothachasan a bhrosnachadh. Thuirt Alasdair MacLeòid bho Roinn Fàs Choimhearsnachdan aig Iomairt na Gàidhealtachd ‘s nan Eilean: “Tha InG a’ faicinn na Gàidhlig mar mhaoin-taic do ghnothachasan agus do choimhearsnachdan na Gàidhealtachd ‘s nan Eilean. Tha e na adhbhar toileachais a bhith a’ faicinn an dìoghrais ath-nuadhaichte seo agus an taic dhan Ghàidhlig air feadh na Gàidhealtachd, agus tha InG daingeann a thaobh ar cànan, ar dualchas cultarach agus ar traidiseanan a chur gu feum ann an leasachadh na sgìre. Tha cleachdadh na Gàidhlig air soidhneachan na dhòigh èifeachdach agus buadhach gus a bhith a’ taisbeanadh uaill nar dearbh-aithne agus buntanas àite dhaibhsan a tha a’ còmhnaidh ann agus a’ tadhal air a’ Ghàidhealtachd ‘s na h-Eileanan.” Mar thoradh air an uimhir de dh’obair eadar-theangachaidh agus ghoireasan a chaidh a chruthachadh, tha comas aig an dà ionad sgithidh fiosrachadh a chur air na làraich-lìn aca co-cheangailte ri ainmean àiteachan gach ceàrnaidh agus mar a thàinig am briathrachas Gàidhlig gu bith.

‘S e Ionad Sgithidh na Lice a fhuair na soidhnichean an toiseach ‘s thuirt Seumas Mac an Tòisich “Bidh luchd-tadhail a’ faicinn saoghal dà-chànanach a thaobh soidhnichean a-nis. Togaidh seo ìomhaigh na Gàidhlig sa sgìre seo ‘s le daoine às na bailtean mòra”.

Bithear a’ leantainn air an obair aig An Leac agus Gleann Sìth le leasachaidhean ionnan aig Ionadan Sgithidh eile ann an Alba tro sheusan a’ gheamhraidh. Tha Comunn na Gàidhlig a’ cur fàilte air fiosrachadh air ais mu na leasachaidhean sin agus air seòladh puist-dealain a chur air bhonn a dh’aon ghnothaich gus cothrom a thoirt do neach sam bith fios a chur thuca.

Skiing goes Gaelic

Skiing in Scotland has taken on a whole new look with an extensive programme of bilingual signage and Gaelic support materials at Scottish Ski Centres. This week marks the completion of stage one of the programme with both The Lecht Ski Centre and Glenshee Ski Centre formally launching their new Gaelic signage and fully bilingual piste map.

As part of the initiative both ski centres have prepared Gaelic Language Plans which will ensure that the bilingual approach is continued in the future and that Gaelic will have a much enhanced profile at the locations.

The Lecht and Glenshee Ski Centres have delivered the new signage and maps through through a partnership between Comunn na Gàidhlig, Bòrd na Gàidhlig and Highlands & Islands Enterprise with Bòrd na Gàidhlig providing financial support for the initiative.

The important role played by skiing in the Scottish economy and its appeal to all ages means that a whole new audience is now able to access Gaelic and be informed on the many opportunities available through the language.

Acting Chief Executive of Bòrd na Gàidhlig, Rosemary Ward said: “We are very pleased to be able to support both The Lecht and Glenshee to promote and use Gaelic in their daily business. This is the first time that Gaelic Language Plans have been implemented in the private sector and we very keen to draw attention to the extensive range of employment opportunities available though Gaelic.”

Comunn na Gàidhlig (CnaG) provided practical support for the ski centres and supplied the bilingual piste maps. Archie Maclean, Chief Executive of CnaG, said that all businesses in the Highlands and Islands are able to access financial and practical support to use bilingual signs. “We provide support to a range of businesses and are actively seeking other companies who might wish to introduce bilingual signs”.

Speaking about the developments at Glenshee Ski Centre, Graham McCabe, Managing Director said, “We are really pleased with the new signs and visitors to the ski centre have already expressed great interest in Gaelic. We will be continuing with this approach in the future”.

The importance of Gaelic to the economy of Scotland cannot be underestimated and Highlands & Islands Enterprise believes that the language is a unique and powerful tool to help boost business. Alasdair MacLeòid of Highlands and Islands Enterprise Strengthening Communities Group said, “HIE sees Gaelic as an asset to businesses and communities in the Highlands and Islands. It’s tremendous to see this renewed passion and support for Gaelic across the Gàidhealtachd, and HIE is committed to utilising our language and our cultural heritage and traditions in the region’s development. The use of Gaelic on signs is a striking and effective means of communicating a pride in our identity and a sense of place for those living in and visiting the Highlands and Islands.”

The extensive amount of translation work and resources created have resulted in both ski centres being able to add information to their websites relating to the place-names of each area and how the Gaelic versions of terminology was arrived at.

The Lecht Ski Centre was the first to implement the bilingual signs programme and James McIntosh, Centre Manager said “All visitors will now experience a bilingual world as far as signs are concerned. This will undoubtedly raise the profile of Gaelic in this area and from further afield”.

The work at The Lecht and Glenshee will be followed by similar developments at the other Scottish Ski Centres during the winter season. Comunn na Gàidhlig welcomes feedback on these developments and have set up a dedicated email address to enable anyone with an interest to contact them.

Wishing all readers of Winterhighland all the best for 2009 and hope you had a good one whatever you were up to on Hogmanay.

New Year’s Day brought a flurry or two to the mountains, nothing very significant by any stretch however it was enough to take the edge of the hard base on CairnGorm and the continued cold weather with light winds has allowed the Lecht and Glenshee to fire up their old fan guns to enable all the Eastern areas to offer some riding over the New year period.

The snow making equipment at the Lecht and Glenshee certainly isn’t state of the art and being entirely manual - someone has to go and turn on each hydrant at the required flow and set up the gun - means it’s very cold and wet work, so a big shout for the guys who spent the New Year Holiday getting cold and wet so we could have some more runs to play on !

The success with limited old manual equipment does raise the question of just what might be achievable with a modern, more extensive and at least to some extent automated system. Winterhighland’s AWS (Automatic Weather Station) at the SSC Hut at 2500ft on CairnGorm Mountain has logged over 760hours where the wet-bulb temperature has been cold enough for modern Ratnik Sky Giant air/water guns since the end of October. (Not all these hours would have been suitable due to wind,  but the data also shows the degree to which the foot of the White Lady can be sheltered in certain wind directions. This has implications elsewhere on the mountain in that there will in some wind directions be part of the mountain where snow can be made even when high winds are plaguing much of the mountain.)

Winterhighland into 2009

Well for one thing the blog admin which had problems following an upgrade to the software is fixed! More importantly the site has been widened, partly to accommodate additional advertising, some from Google Adsense, some shared snowsports adverts with Fall Line Media. The really important bit is why these adverts are needed - they are contributing to the substantial cost of a brand new dedicated server for Winterhighland which should significantly improve site load times and stability despite the volatile traffic spikes that inevitably hit whenever snow is forecast and so far it has coped admarilly with some early surges in traffic that October’s excitement caused.

The wider format is gradually being rolled out and it also allows for a summary lift report on the general situation page, wider thumbnails for Pix from the Slopes on the GS and area report pages, plus much larger thumbnails on the front page.

The UK Ice Conditions Server now links into the GS page with the latest photos, several small improvements will be rolled out across the site to provide more cross links to the various member supplied photo galleries on the reports servers, particularly the public reports so they better integrate and compliment the Pix from the Slopes.

Here’s to a snowy 2009.

After some computer troubles with my admittedly ageing desktop PC, the main machine for updating Winterhighland has been replaced by an EeeBox, a slimline micro PC desktop follow up to the EeePC netbooks that has an astonishingly small power consumption of just 20watts! Yet still has a 1.6GHz processor, 1GB of Ram and a 160GB hard drive on board, built in WiFi and a 10/100/1000mb ethernet port and without any fans, it’s as good as silent.

Anyone who doesn’t have big CPU munching tasks or is looking for a second PC, this is a little gem worth considering. It comes in at under £200 for the base unit and is proving more than able to deal with a 21inch monitor with a 1680 by 1050 resolution.

All the development work is done on Linuxbeast - not such a modest consumer of power when it’s on (which as a network server is most of the time), but with no need for a powerful windows machine and a desire to avoid the unrequired bloat of vista and the uneccessary extra processing juice to handle it, the price tag, the power consumption, the sleek little box that sits on the shelf and the virtually silent computing it brings seemed worth a shot and so far so good.

Also, a new PC with XP is a good PC imho, XP was light years ahead of win 98, it’s also light years ahead of Vista in terms of usability and relability!

Winterhighland’s blog has been upgraded to the latest version of Word Press after a few tears this evening, and more importantly only registered Winterhighland members who are logged in to the site can post comments. This should hopefully reduce the amount of spam posts (was in the region of 100s every week though many caught caught in the Wordpress moderation net) but without the inconvenience of using a different (ie Wordpress’ own) login system for the blog.

It’s sounding pretty damn wild outside even in Inverness, it’s gusting to 50 at the relatively sheltered ski club hut location on CairnGorm, while at the tunnel mouth its rattling in at a steady 80 with higher gusts! It’s currently dry, but the FL is above the summit now and it wont stay dry for too much longer.

The snow on Friday is going to get a shift as this weeks autumnal roller coaster continues, but a longer cold spell will sweep in behind this depression with more snow on Sunday, possibly to quite low levels later in the day. Winter’s coming….

October has marked it’s arrival with the first Snows of the upcoming winter, as a Northerly Plunge sends temperatures diving. Thursday saw the first reasonable covering of snow on the higher tops of the Cairngorms, and there’s also a smattering on the tops in the West.

It all add’s to the excitement and anticipation at the season ahead, but don’t get too carried away just yet - winter proper is officially 11 weeks away yet, that said it’s another sign of the seasons unstoppable march back to winter.

The past two seasons started the last weekend of November (2006/07) and first weekend of December (2007/08) on CairnGorm Mountain with lasting snow, though cover became more limited in the run up and around Christmas both years.

You can now watch how things are shaping up this autumn with our mid-mountain webcams and live weather real-time weather station on CairnGorm Mountain which are now back online following completion of the reinstatement works to flood damage on the hill road (which necessitated the switch off of the power supply for safety). Our cams and AWS are situated in the Scottish Ski Club Hut at 2500ft near the foot of the White Lady.

CairnGorm Mountain has also installed an automatic weather station and two new webcams for the new season, these can be viewed at www.cairngormmountain.com/web-cam and the AWS is located just under 1000ft above the SSC one at the Tunnel Mouth.

The First Snow at the Mid-Station:

See also Pix from the Slopes for a couple of photos from up top on Thursday 2nd October.