Patroller’s Blog - “The Big Dig - Not Over Yet”
There have been posts on other sites that we are requesting volunteers to come and help us with the digging, this is not the case. We have arranged for members of the Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team, The Ski School,and G2 Outdoors ltd to assist us. We can not safely supervise members of the public in this operation but we appreciate the offer of people wanting to help. Our road and car park situation is not yet at a state where we can manage the public safely and also concentrate on the operation to get open for snowsports.The snow gates at Glenmore will remain closed.
Thanks for your understanding
Colin
January 17th, 2010 at 12:06 am
Good luck with getting it clear, I cant think of another job in the UK that has to cater with anything like the challenges you and the team have had to overcome to get as far as you have, never mind what you still have to do.
January 17th, 2010 at 1:00 am
I think what you guys have been doing up there the last few days is one hell of a task, been great to hear it unfold on the comments of the previous blog post.
Hope you get luck on your side over the next few days and your open for operation soon!
January 17th, 2010 at 5:43 am
Thanks very much for the comments which the whole team deserve, i think the plant operators deserve a special mention for their professional and cheery attitude.
Cheers
Colin
January 17th, 2010 at 10:10 am
This story has turned me into a blog addict..! Those of us that complain about our work or the services your teams provide should hold our heads in shame cause no matter what crap comes our way its nothing to the conditions you all work in! Actually I’ve become quite envious and has made me realise what a boring job I have!!!! Keep up the good work Its greatly appreciated and my fingers are crossed for opening soon as the Annual leave is on reserve for the reopening day !!!
January 17th, 2010 at 2:49 pm
Thanks Lorraine.
Weather permitting we should be open for snowsports tomorrow, with the Cas, Ridge, Car Park and Sheilng uplifts to start then hopefully the M1 and Day Lodge coming on later. The digging team have done an epic job today with most of our track and tunnel now clear of snow, however there is still a lot of work digging round the Ptarmigan building, doors and fire exits and such. Must give a special thanks to all our staff who came in and got cheerfully stuck in. Also a big thanks to the Cairngorm Rescue Team, Ski School, G2 Ltd., Race Club coaches and all the rest who came in to help us get things up and running again.
We will probably run a two way traffic system as the Link road still needs widened by the blowers and if we fill the top two carparks we will have a shuttle bus on standby.
Cheers
Colin
January 17th, 2010 at 9:15 pm
A big well done to colin and his team for their outstanding efforts on the hill especially with the resources on hand. it seems a lot of people think you can just magic a snow blower out of your behind. There are people out there that dont realise you have forgotten more about scottish skiing than a lot of people know. Keep up the good work.
January 18th, 2010 at 11:03 am
I can not believe the amount of snow up on the mountain. I am sure it was hard to clear the roads. The pics and videos don’t look real as there is so much snow. Long may it continue up there. I hope to head over in mid February when hopefully there will still be most of the snow that is there now. Keep up the good work guys
January 18th, 2010 at 11:56 am
Good job to the ‘gorm staff and everyone else for getting that road cleared!
As everyone else was I was sitting waiting for good news this past weekend so we could make our way over from Aberdeen. As the weather and mountain would have it we obviously never got out (nature is the boss up there!).
After keeping up with developments through the site/blog I have to say that everyones efforts are appreciated and it is obvious there are real issues on the mountain. Bad feeling and airing moans aren’t really constructive and the perpetrators should be ashamed.
I’m really chomping at the bit to get out there this week but more than likely I’ll need to wait until the weekend, the joys of daily life….
Mountain looks fantastic, hopefully all that snow will hang about for the rest of the season!!
January 18th, 2010 at 12:42 pm
Well done Colin to you and your team for getting the road clear! After reading the earlier blogs on the volume of snow I was nearly going onto ebay to check out the price of second hand helicopters… The more I read the more I want to get up there and get boarding. How are the conditions of the runs since the redistribution of snow and ‘the big dig’? I’m planning a trip up this Wednesday. Have you any idea (weather permitting) what the lift status will be?
January 18th, 2010 at 12:52 pm
Thanks again folks, having a couple of days of now to recharge the batteries, i believe there is more snow forecast on Wednesday, and by that time i would think we would have most things up and running. The ridges are pretty scoured in places but all the pistes and trails have an amazing amount of snow in them, full depth and fence to fence and beyond the fences, and the slight thaw has been good to pack it down well. It is shaping up to be a long season.
Cheers
Colin
January 18th, 2010 at 6:56 pm
Hey Colin, massive thanks to you and the lads for the mega dig effort, much appreciated.
Colin, I came up to Aviemore on Boxing Day and spent 70 quid on one nights accomodation in a local B&B.
Combine this with £30 at the Skiing Doo restaurant for a meal, £20 at the Cairngorm Hotel for drinks, £35 in Ellis Brighams, £20 fuel at the Esso station and probably another £30 on bits and bobs at the supermarket and the Coylumbridge Hotel.
Colin, there is only one reason I come to the Spey Valley and that is to ski on Cairngorm.
Colin, do you think the local businesses are fully aware of the contribution skiiers still make to there livelyhoods and do you not think it would be nice if a few of them would contribute something towards the annual running costs of CML (such as the cost involved in hiring the large JCB diggers or snow clearing equipment).
Do any local businesses contribute Colin, or are they just burrying there heads under some of that gloriously deep snow?
January 18th, 2010 at 8:04 pm
Excellent work on the digging out, a mamoth task indeed. We are on our way up from Yorkshire on Friday and looking forward to boarding on Sat/Sun, i think it will be tip top by then !
January 18th, 2010 at 9:41 pm
Excellent work with the dig guys! Hopefully see you soon after I get these pesky exams out of the way….
January 19th, 2010 at 11:27 am
Great to see the hill open again and thanks for all the YouTube footage - have really enjoyed seeing it all - amazing effort all round.
Did anyone see the footage of the Cairngorm slopes from the air on STV on Monday? It was in a programme called \Scotland’s Winter Wonderland\ and it’s still available online @ http://player.stv.tv/programmes/scotlands-winter-wonderland/2010-01-18-2000/ (the Cairngorm footage is in Part 2). Superb pictures, not so sure about the narration though …
January 20th, 2010 at 11:24 am
Hi Colin,
You’re not having much luck with the weather
. Hope you get the roads open for the weekend as (selfishly) I plan to come over for a ski on one or both days. Also I hope the winds don’t drift too much snow back across the train track after all your (and the volunteers) hard work clearing it last week.
January 20th, 2010 at 12:37 pm
More Snow! Jeez! Will no doubt give a nice fresh surface on any slabbed and scoured areas. Hope it abates quick enough for the week-end trade, you guys really deserve some return for your efforts!
January 20th, 2010 at 7:02 pm
Who do you get your weather forecasts from, are you contracted to a certain weather forecasting provider or do you gain forecasts from a mixture of sources. Just curious after reading your front page where it says - Due to blizzard conditions (not forecast), the roads are blocked with more drifting snow.
Would you say this years forecasts are any better or worse (accuracy) than previous years.
January 20th, 2010 at 8:07 pm
Can somebody who is more switched on than I am tell me if it’s possible to watch the youtube stuff full screen? It’s pretty fantastic on the wee size and makes us realise just what a mammoth task it was… but full screen would be great!
January 20th, 2010 at 8:13 pm
Hi James
We sort of keep an eye on MWIS and the Met Office mountain forecast and the various forecasts on the BBC and ITV but you can only get a 60% accuracy. Normally the wind is pretty accurate but sometimes not the snow, i keep an eye on the snow berries meself:0)
Andrew
Dont know to be honest i,ll ask the resident buff tomorrow if we get there.
Cheers
Colin
January 20th, 2010 at 8:14 pm
Andrew
Click on the Youtube logo on the bottom of the “Wee screen” which will take you to the video on youtube site. Then click the screen icon in the bottom right hand corner and bobs your uncle:)
Awesome videos! I cant wait to get up there.
Colin big credit to you and the team!
January 20th, 2010 at 8:36 pm
Thanks Colin and Gerri - got it - fantastic
January 20th, 2010 at 8:54 pm
Colin
Haven’t been up for about 10 days now and itching to get back up there. Enjoyed it so much two Sundays ago, had the M1 run to myself everytime I went down, and the lady then was lovely. God knows what its like now!
A trick for all when it comes to weather in the Gorms, it can be flat calm in the valley and blowing a gale on the hill. It can be dry in the valley and snowing on the hill. It can be colder in the valley than it is on the hill. Its the joys of weather, its hard to predict!
Just make sure you plan your journeys and expect the unexpected! If the mountains closed well go and do some other activities in the area, theres hundreds of things to do…. If the mountain is open, then get up and enjoy it!
Colin you and your team keep it up! I hope to slide on Monday or if not the following Friday before I go off on a hot holiday and try skiing in the sand followed by skiing indoors with a lot of vertical and maybe skiing on water! Gotta keep in practice
Cheers,
David
January 21st, 2010 at 7:08 am
oh well, looks like the road is closed again. think this site crashed @ 06:45 with everyone checking to see if the message had changed.
I guess I could go to work now…..nah, there’s always Hillend Dry ski slope to go to.
I still can’t believe how much snow you guys have got, I’ll just have to wait a wee bit longer to get back up midweek. I just can’t bring myself to queue at the weekends.
January 21st, 2010 at 10:05 am
David,
Everyone should read your blog, it’s so right. Anyway, enjoy your hot holiday, maybe the weather will have settled down by the time you get back!
January 21st, 2010 at 10:44 am
Good positive post David. In these days of doom and gloom I find it a refreshing tonic to look at this blog and its comments which are virtually all (rightly) supportive and cheerful - in the face of fairly massive adversity.
On a slightly different subject - I have always strongly argued against the gang of folk who knock the funicular and say it should never have been built - but I have to admit that as someone remarked on here recently, a modern gondola from Glenmore to the Ptarmigan top station would have removed the need to dig the road out over and over and would have enabled Colin and his merry men to get a decent night’s sleep occasionally. The mid station would need to be at the Shieling site to cater for late season skiing. But this is all pie in the sky; we are where we are and there just isn’t the cash around to turn the clock back and start again (thinks: does Donald Trump ski? If not could we offer him free ski lessons?) And maybe Aviemore should have an indoor snow dome facility for when there’s too much or too little real snow! Or a large dry ski slope.
January 21st, 2010 at 1:58 pm
Colin
As for the youtube videos, they have been shot on a digital camera / iphone so the resoloution isnt all fantastic full screen. If you go to the CairnGorm Mountain’s Youtube channel, the screen is slightly bigger and there a few more bits of footage aswell. Hope this answers the query.
Ruari Mac
http://www.youtube.com/user/CairnGormMountain
January 21st, 2010 at 7:03 pm
Jeez, nae luck. I hate to think what it was like if you are describing it as horrendous. Just shows you how fickle the weather on the hill can be. I is a bit ironic the year you take positive action by getting a snow fan you get this dump of snow, if this what happenss, how about getting in delivered in October this year. Fingers crossed you get a bit of fair weather soon.deceased macys