George,
Good to read your post(s)...hope your recovery is progressing.

Any initial maintenance work that's been done on the Ciste Chair must have taken place in March when there was no snowsports....the team will have been too busy since early April when the snow returned.
While it is good to hear that at last something might be happening it should be remembered that this isn't to do with snowsports and will have a minimal beneficial impact on winter uplift.

Regards

Olderalan

Figures quoted in the press of over 10,000 skier days in April and mid last week a figure was in the press of having passed 3000 for May. Given the numbers on the hill Sat and esp Sun and Monday which were busy I believe that is CairnGorm now past the 60,000 skier day mark (which I've heard was the budgeted figure).

I would imagine they work financial years other than length of ski season therefore this year would be poor but next year would have a decent chance of coming out ahead?

Most companies financial years do not coincide with the tax year. It generally depends on when the company was founded/started trading.

CML since 2008 have financial years ending at the end of March, prior to that it was end of April.

In that case 2011-2012 would be very poor - but 2012-2013 great start.

Look how dreadful their clothes look, I pity people who had to wear such awful clothes

Things have changed somewhat. Equipment has come along way, if you were warm and dry what is the problem. Have you never seen the monoski's or dayglo suits that are still seen today and are throw backs to the 80's. Now those are cringe worthy, apologies to the monoskiers club I read about a while back.

Still not unusual to to folk in oil skins, boiler suits and yellow workie's jackets....thats what I like about skiing here it's not too full of a*seholes taking themselves too seriously.

Some of the old mterials were not that bad though.Wool is actually very good and is now widely used in many fancy ski wear, albeit the new Zealand merino wool. All my mountain underwear and mnost of my socks are still largely wool (ICebreak merino).
Woolen shirts are much better than the cotton t-shits that many people wear today. I have some merino wool base layers but generlaly use polyester shirts that are quick drying.

Down is a far better insulator than most modern artificial alternatives. I have modern down sleeping bags and a North Face down jacket.

Leather is still an incredibly robust and useful material. I have several pairs of leather hiking boots and casual shoes.


The best skis you can buy are still made primarily of wood.



Of ocurse I love my modern goretex, softshells, stretchy ski pants and my modern dunafits + ski boots.

Im sure that we all would love to see the glenmore gondolla being built and have many great reasons for it.
Im wondering though, has CML ever considered/mentioned it? or is it just a skiiers dream?

ALso how much in genral do gondolas and chairlifts cost, and how much did the baddoch chair cost?
ben

I was told the gondola was one of the options on the table when the finicular was built and favoured by folk in the area, however those in power decided the train would be better. A poor option IMO and certainly not the best for snowports.

Gondola aint going to happen now, at best we'll see the chairs back running in the next few years....i least i hope so!

I have a question re gondola in today's park environment?
Would it get planning permission. Reason behind the question for ecacuation and rescue would it likely require the ground underneath to be cleared (good part any way) and access roads back to current transport infrastructure.
I know it's nowhere near as a difficult terrain as in other countries but this the over protective nanny state. Also what impact would excessive snow have on operations due to any evacuation/rescue plan. Ie could it only operate if road was open.

Hopefully I am way off with my thoughts

Quote:
Ie could it only operate if road was open.

There is no road to the top of the Gondola at Nevis Range, nor the Access Chair at Glencoe (which is partly above a mountain river gorge). The majority of the Funicular is some distance from the hill road in Coire Cas (entire length of the White Lady).

Completely off topic, but is the Ptarmigan cam broken? It is still showing 1st June on the photo.