Skiing and Boarding on Cairngorm
February 23, 2009 on 6:31 pm | In Snowboarding, Skiing |
The snow arrived at the right time this year, so that the conditions were great for the start of the mid term holidays! This meant that everything was open and running really well during this period.
The staff on Cairngorm have reacted well to this and everyone has really pulled the stops out to ensure that it runs as well as possible. Many customers are unaware of the amount of unseen work that goes on to ensure that it runs smoothly.
Our hats go off to them all but in particular to the ski patrol, pisting and engineering staff who come in very early (when most of us are still in bed) to clear the road, piste the runs, open lifts etc. Below is a picture taken down the Day Lodge poma track showing a full car park!
During the half term the weather was a bit warmer and so snow was gradually lost over this period. As of today we could still just about pick our way down to the Day lodge, but some of the other runs are now broken. The Day Lodge poma, West Wall poma and Car Park T-bar now all require more snow to operate.
Despite this, the top still has plenty of snow and is good skiing and boarding, and you can still get down the White Lady and Cas.
For those people who are unaware of the Scottish ski resorts the freeze/thaw cycle is completely normal, and just a product of our weather systems and being a relatively low country on the edge of the Atlantic!
We should get some more snow soon and I fully expect to be skiing and boarding well into April (or even May) like the last 2 years.
Our ski and snowboard school is teaching kids from the local primary schools during the week over the next month, and I am sure that our Snowlimit programme will again have over 100 local kids on it each weekend. This year we have over 65 instructors, all of whom are passionate about their sports and have a desire to pass it on to others.
Inevitably however, this job is made easier if we have good weather, and our customers can have a memorable experience!
Mike Shepherd
http://www.theskischool.co.uk
In the winter I am the Director of The Ski School and The Snowboard School on Cairngorm Mountain, which employs over 65 ski and snowboard instructors each winter. In the summer I am a dinghy sailing Coach and run courses all over the north of Scotland, as well as dabbling in many other watersports.
