H11lly on the lower M2 below the old Aonach Poma top terminal. Full report and lots more pics: [www.winterhighland.info]

Just rescuing this thread from page 4! Hopefully it wont be slipping off the front page again till May at least.

I spy T-bars...





Edited 1 times. Last edit at 14.52hrs Thu 1 Dec 11 by alan.

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I hadn't intended heading up but the web cam looked too tempting by eleven so I changed my mind.
There was more snow than I expected and the bars were being put on the the ptarmigan tow. The new snow canon was on the lower slopes too.
I crossed paths with Sandy MacBean on the 105 so some of the photos in the report are his... the sunny ones [www.winterhighland.info]

Helen

Helen, the photos look fabulous! Hopefully not too long now...

A wee birdie told me Sunday... Ops meeting tomorrow will consider the latest forecasts and situation on the hill, Saturday looks very stormy, Sunday not quite so wild on this evenings MWIS forecast. Maybe just maybe only a couple more days of waiting...

Wow. Great news Alan! I just watched the Ops update from last week on YouTube, Colin mentioned that there is ski patrol training this weekend? Do you think that will affect their decision to open?

It appears to be snowing in Aviemore now...

So Hilly clocks another consecutive month -

They get a snow cannon and it snows, lets hope we don't see it again until May!!!


Not sure if anyone will remember the old snow making they had at Cairngorm, is the position of the snow cannon roughly where the old snow making used to be? Could not make out if its higher up on the Fiacle

Daveski here's one of Sandy's photos that shows a better view of where the canon was yesterday afternoon


Helen

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Let's hope for another good season

Thanks - so its top of the trainer tow, the snow making used to be down at the bottom. In your photo looking down, it was on the slope that rises up to the left at bottom of tow - it was a long time ago.

Pass on my regards to Sandy

daveski - that's the top of the shieling button drag lift (platter or poma) and not normally referred to as a trainer tow anymore. The new 'trainer tow' is also called the 'polar express' and the very short poma in the ptarmigan bowl.

There is now a water sump used as a small reservoir for snowmaking between the top of the shieling platter and the home road and underneath the train track. I think the idea is that the snow is made here because it is easier to push it downhill onto the 3 shieling pistes and lower still onto Burnside and the car park runs.

pfairbrother - Yeah, never really understood why they changed the name - it used to be a great tow to teach the use of t-bars - I guess that was why it was called the "trainer" - that was in the days when the car park tow stopped at the top of the hill above. I had forgotten the car park tow had been extened and probably explains why the snow making was there.

I wonder how many people are about now that can still rember using all the old lifts?

Well that was a nice and useful update from CairnGorm Mountain just before 4pm... not!

How about some info about what is happening on the hill, if we're close to having enough snow, if there is or is not a possibility of the season getting underway in the coming days or if with the forecast and current state of the hill it's a no go until at least next weekend?

According to report from ski club GB on Snowforecast , they hope to open on the 8th Dec if the snow continues. not sure how accurate this is.