It is said that a picture speaks a thousand words, so here are a couple of thousand words (with a few more overlain) which show a naturally made case for the West Wall Chairlift.

Access to the WWP last week

The top photo was taken from the Laogh Mor Return bridge at the foot of the lower Ciste Gully on Wednesday 17th March, the day before the forecast storm force winds brought a significant thaw.

No Access to the WWP this week

As of the weekend no on snow route from the Ciste Gully, East Wall or the natural fall line of the West Wall (indicated by black arrows) back to the West Wall Poma remains.

All available routes involve crossing heather and uphill traverses to minimise this. The solid red line indicates a common route, while the dashed lines indicate the variations being attempted. All involve leaving the Ciste Gully at a height that misses out a substantial part of the run, compared to the Chairlift Boadwalk (purple line).

For now it remains easier to ski out the Ciste Gully to the car park, but this is a very low level run (below 2000ft) and can’t be expected to last far into spring.

Despite the faff of reaching the West Wall Poma  a significant proportion of the runs are lost, this puts of people off using the area, limiting terrain for more advanced riders. Plus the Poma itself deters intermediates and families from utilising some of the best blue graded terrain on the mountain.

Sign the E-petition to reinstate the Ciste Chairlifts: www.savetheciste.com