Many of Scotland's mountains turned white yesterday as blizzard conditions brought snowlines down to quite low levels. But the weather is currently in roller coaster mode and temperatures short back in to double figures today, thawing a lot of it.
CairnGorm Mountain (www.cairngormmountain.co.uk), which has attracted over a quarter of a million skiers in the course of the last two seasons and celebrates 50 years of mechanised uplift next month, has devoted significant effort and expense into the maintenance of CairnGorm Mountain's skiing infrastructure over the summer, and announced some improvements too.
Alongside the completion of the annual maintenance on the funicular a new heated tunnel door has been installed to the upper 'underground' section of the funicular to reduce icing problems and facilitate faster opening in the mornings. The piste-grooming fleet has all been overhauled and serviced and the Rolba snowblower which can shift 1200 tons of snow per hour is back and ready for use.
In order to reduce queuing times at the Base Station a new ticket office is nearing completion on level 3 of the Day Lodge as well as the commissioning of a new equipment hire computer system.
"The resort is keenly awaiting delivery of a Techno Alpin snow cannon for trial for the season following last season's instillation of a water sump at the top of the Sheiling tow. Glencoe are also trialling the same machine this season with a view to comparing trial results," said CairnGorm's Colin Kirkwood.
The maintenance team putting in lots of new ground anchors for the Winch Cat pisting machine; 20 new anchors are expected to be installed across the hillside in various places including the Lower slopes, Gun Barrel, Traverse, M1, White Lady, East Wall of the Lady, Aonach Bowl and No.1 Gully. These anchors will not only help grooming steeper runs, but also allow easier pushing of snow uphill.
Over 2000 snowsports fans have already purchased season tickets for CairnGorm, some 10% more than at the same point last year.
The first mechanised uplift at CairnGorm, the White Lady chairlift, opened to the public on 23rd December 1961.