Its the Aviemore factor that keeps folk coming to CML in my book. If Glenshee had a place like Aviemore within 15 mins they would come in droves. Although it was busy on Saturday the snow was lovely, so was the weather, 5 lifts open not 4 and everyone I spoke to was having a great day. Really good to see so many kids out enjoying themselves too. Give me a "bad" day at CML over a good day at Braehead any day.

"5 lifts open not 4"

Didnt include the polar express because of how useless it is; Its too steep for a start for true beginners and too short/slow for anything but beginners. Would have been much more useful if located elsewhere.

Kids and the ski school seemed to like it :-)

Polar Express would be a good place for a couple of novice boxes, very short laps and a dedicated tow.

Probably due to other lifts being T-bars and very busy.

The polar express is certainly far from ideal, ask an instructor.

People ask if the Polar Express could have been more useful somewhere else, how about providing a link between the Ciste Chair / the West Wall Boardwalk and the West Wall Poma.

In my view running in parralel next to bottom bit of the prarmigan T-bar would have been better. The ski school tends to use that area allot anyway and its much wider and flatter than its current location. Only problem is it would get in the way of the main park a bit.

I dont know why its so short either?
Im doing my 35hrs level 1 istructing at the moment and in my experience having a longer run is much more effective than a short one in teaching terms. Some kids will only manage one turn in the length of the polar express. I could go on...

Nah, no need.

Wasn't it supposed to be longer by one more tower, but the planned location for the extra tower was unsuitable (due to a spring?), so it was shortened to the present length. Just a runour i remember hearing so probably bears no realtion to reality

According to this video blog from Colin Matthew the Polar Express is "the longest lift in the world, twinned with the Aiguille du Midi in Chamonix."

[www.youtube.com]

Not much point in making it longer, then!

Cairngorm on The One show tonight.

Yeah, not as good as I was hoping. That said it wasnt bad at all. If I wasnt a Scottish skier Im not sure Id find it that inspiring. But eh oh thats maybe just me. Still this 'Cairngorm is the only ski area in Scotland' vibe that was present with the ski sunday peice as well.

agree but if you read this thread its a double edged sword, limelight isnt all its cracked up to be....shame these programs arent focusing on the skiing and boarding comps, maybe the english dome rats would travel more if they seen it on the BBC

Be nice to skiers...they have enough problems already

Its Scotlands Premier Ski Area 50th Anniversary not sure what else you expect. Its the second slot this year on prime time tele, really good advertising, something that CML has been slated for in the past. Really like that they got Bobbie Birnie, his daughter and two grand daughters in the clip - shows the heritage of Scottish skiing, Colin and Avalaff nowhere to be seen.

I think what was really good was that the clips managed to capture Winter Scotland on a good day in a what could be considered a poor snow season, that must be good for all areas.

Anyway its good to see Cairngorm leading the way in getting Scotlands skiing on the map

I thought that the visual impression (which is what tele is all about isn't it ?) gave a really positive view of Scottish snow sports, and verbally it was described right from the start as Cairngorm Mountain, not Aviemore, which I regard as major progress.

CML have pushed the PR of the 50th anniversary, and the media have responded very well. You can't complain about media content focussing solely on CGM, if they aren't being fed the necessary PR from the other centres.