On Tuesday afternoon the fun came to a premature and frustrating end thanks to one moment of careless disregard for the uplift infrastructure and fellow snow riders on CairnGorm’s Coire Cas.

A rider jumped off the Cas Tow just before a Tower throwing the T-bar away, which rebounded into the tower, derailing the rope and damaging the sheave assembly on the tower. This would be a lengthy stoppage at the best of times, but with dusk rapidly enveloping the mountain it meant the end of play and no last run for those waiting in the Cas queue.

Such stoppages by day ruin the uplift capacity, create queues and detract from everyone’s day, thus it’s everyones job to do their bit to help keep the lifts turning.

DON’Ts:

• Don’t use lifts that are unsuitable for your ability level, consider the difficulty of terrain that surface tows pass through.
• Don’t practice on ski tows and pomas that are not intended for novices, they are harder to ride and falls can cause lengthy stoppages (Pomas are particularly vulnerable to derailments due to miss-loads).
• Don’t jump of moving T-bars mid-line (esp just before towers!).
• Don’t get on a lift without knowing how to get off! It’s your responsibility to know how to ride a lift safely, if in doubt about any aspect of a given lift please ASK or take a lesson.

DO’s:

• DO stay under the tow line on surface lifts. This is CRITICAL to preventing derailments in high winds, do NOT drift outwards with the wind.
• DO get off the lift at the correct point using the correct unload procedure for that lift.
• DO pair up on T-bars. One skier + one boarder is more stable than one single boarder or two boarders, esp for inexperienced riders. (Shout for singles).

BULL WHEEL UNLOADING:

• The majority of T-bars in Scotland are designed for bullwheel unloading. Where this system is in use there will be a flat get off area underneath the bullwheel.
• Decide which person will deal with the T-bar, the other person should push off on arrival to the unload area so not to obstruct the person dealing with the T-bar.
• Keep hold of the T-bar as the springbox goes round the bullwheel and until the T-bar has fully retracted (or as close to fully as possible) before letting go.
• Do not drop T-bars in the snow or throw them at the bullwheel mast, the swinging bar could cause serious injury to yourself or others and potentially severe damage to the lift resulting in a major stoppage.
• Tows are fitted with Emergency Stop Buttons at the Top Station. In the event of accident or thrown T-bar going over the line, don’t be afraid to use them - a controlled stop is a quicker fix than an uncontrolled one!

QUEUING ETIQUTE:

• Queuing is an art form here, not fastest, fittest or biggest first!
• Form multiple short queues, long windy queues waste valuable skiing space.
• As the first queue clears into the lift loading area, the second queue should move forward to take it’s place, the first person in the 2nd queue joining onto the end of the 1st. Repeat as needed.

SPREAD THE WORD…. Many skiers and boarders may be relatively unfamiliar with surface lifts and particularly the common bullwheel unloading uses on many T-bars here, similarly to the unique Scottish queuing method. Everyone can help educate other users here, politely and courteously point out some of the oddities of Scottish skiing that help everything go smoothly.