Cairngorm Mountain |
Aviemore, Inverness-shire. PH22 1RB |
| Tel : 01479 861207 |
| Website : www.cairngormmountain.com |
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Cairngorm Mountain is just a few miles from
Aviemore, reached by a scenic road which passes through sections of the Old Caledonian
Pine Forest. It was opened in 1961 with the installation of the Car Park and White
Lady Chairlift. Forty years on and there are now 17 lifts and the two chairlift's
have been replaced with a new Mountain Railway that was opened on December 24th
2001. For beginners, Cairngorm offers an excellent area at the top of the mountain
that holds it's snow for most of the year, although on busy days the nursery slopes can
resemble a vast colony of crippled penguins!! |
| The Facts |
Prices
(2003-4) |
 | Altitude - 1,650 ft to 3,600 ft (550m to 1200m) |
| Pisted Runs - 37 Km |
| Longest Run - 2.2 Km (1.36 miles) |
| Maximum Vertical Descent - 2,000 ft |
| Number Of Lifts - 16
 | 1 Mountain Railway |
| 2 Chairlift's |
| 7 Poma's |
| 6 T-Bars |
|
| Number Of Runs - 19
| 3 Green (16%) |
| 6 Blue (32%) |
| 9 Red (47%) |
| 1 Black (5%) |
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| Up-lift Capacity - 12,000 per hour |
| Snowmaking - No |
| Mountain Cafe's - 3 - Car Park, Shieling and Ptarmigan |
| Off-Piste Ski-ing - Yes |
| Ski & Snowboard Schools - Yes |
| Ski & Snowboard Hire - Yes |
| Ski Clothing Hire - Yes |
| Shop - Yes |
| Artificial Ski Slope - No |
| Ski Guiding - Yes |
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| Lift Passes
| 1 Day All Area - £24.00 Adult - £15.00 Child |
| Half Day All Area - £18.00 Adult - £12.00 Child |
| 1 Day Beginner Area - £15.00 Adult - £10.00 Child |
| Half Day Beginner Area - Not Available |
| 1 Day Mature Student All Area - £18.00 |
| 5 Day All Area - £96.00 Adult - £60.00 Child |
| Funicular Railway Ticket (Return) - £7.50 Adult - £5.00 Child/Senior |
|
| Equipment Hire
| 1 Day Ski Hire - £15.00 Adult - £11.50 Child |
| 1 Day Snowboard Hire - £15.00 Adult - £11.50 Child |
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| Instruction
| Private 1.5 Hour Lesson - £38.00 per person |
| Group Morning Or Afternoon Lesson - £20.00 per person |
| Group Morning And Afternoon Lesson - £30.00 per person |
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| Special Deals for 2002/3
| "Go On - Try It!" - £50.00 Adult - £45.00 Child/Senior
 | 1 Day Instuction, Equipment Hire and Lift Pass |
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| 5 Day Package - £200.00 Adult - £170.00 Child/Senior
| 5 Day Instuction, Equipment Hire and Lift Pass |
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Comments About Cairngorm Mountain.
| Andy Willcock - 01/03/2002 |
Having skied at Cairngorm for many years, and loved the experience, my
thoughts have changed over the past two years. Although the snow quality is usually
the best to be found in Scotland, the staff and management are useless. Let me
explain. February 2001 and we were on holiday in Scotland. It had just dumped
a good 12 inches of fresh powder on the hill. We arrived at the Glenmore Snow Gates
at 08:00hrs to find them closed, not because of a blocked road, but because they were
assessing the runs on the mountain. We waited, and waited and waited to be told at
12:30hrs that they would not be opening today, please go away!! So we did, along
with hundreds of other people that were waiting there too. For the next two days the
mountain was closed because the wind had changed direction and it was blocking the road as
quick as they could clear it. That's fair enough you may think, but when I got home,
I was browsing the net and found some message board where someone was complaining about
what I have just mentioned. Someone from Cairngorm, with a traceable and accurate
e-mail address, had posted his comments about it. He was a member of the Ski Patrol
that season, and explained the reason why Cairngorm was shut for three days. All the
staff, including Ski Patrol, Snowplough Drivers, etc, were out enjoying clear blue skies
and fresh powder!!! What a way to treat loyal customers!! The second incident
happened in the half term break in February 2002. We had gone, just to see the new
Funicular and Ptarmigan Restaurant, and were having a good day, apart from the lift queues
which were getting on for 20 minutes!!. The sun was out, the snow was excellent,
what more could you ask for!! Then things started to go wrong. We were ski-ing
down the Ptarmigan Bowl to the bottom of the Corrie Na Ciste T-Bar and we noticed that the
lift had stopped working. We waited for a few minutes until it was running again and
then continued the run. When we joined the back of the queue, the lift stopped
again. At this point, by the way, the wind had picked up dramatically. The
lift staff, got on their Ski-Do's and went up the hill, we presumed to fix the lift, so we
waited. We must have been there for 30 minutes if not more, and at this point some
people were starting to walk back up the hill to the Ptarmigan Restaurant. (the snow
cover was insufficient to ski back to anywhere near the car park) More and more
people joined the exodus back up the hill, so we went along too. The wind by now had
picked up to around 55 mph and was blowing icy snow straight in your face. Half way
up the hill, we were passing men, women and children who were sat down, being blasted with
snow, who just could not continue any further. It was near white out conditions now.
When we reached the top some hour an ten minutes after the lift stopped and
informed them of the exodus, only then did the Ski-Do's and Piste Bashers go down the hill
and pick people up. At the top we were informed that they were evacuating the hill
due to the increasing wind speed and they had stopped the lift to get people off the
hill!! In the Ptarmigan building, I lost count of the people who were getting
medical attention for collapsing/fainting!! It was like a scene out of a casualty
department after a major incident!! Anyway, by the time we got to the car park it
was 16:20 hrs, some two and a half hours after joining the lift queue!! The
evacuation was a complete shambles, and I refuse to rely on Cairngorms Staff with my
families safety in the future. Just to put the icing on the cake, I telephoned
Cairngorm on my way down the hill, to express my disgust at the days events, to be told
that someone would ring me back. To this day I have not had that telephone call, or
a reply to the letter I sent upon my return. Cairngorm Is Crap!!! |
| Craig Burry - 14/05/2002 |
With regard to the previous comments, it sounds very much to me like bad
management. It is understandable to assume that because you have bought a lift
ticket, you should be given appropriate assistance. However, it is also
understandable that people undertaking any visit to the mountains of Scotland, should
prepare and equip themselves for the conditions. Just because there are a few tows
on the mountain, doesn't make it a safer place. If you do not have the confidence to
get off the mountain in any weather condition, you should not be up there!! Also if
people take there children higher than the beginner area's then it is entirely their
responsibility for their safety. The bottom line is, don't rely on anyone else for
your families safety, after all, you took them there!! In my opinion, Cairngorm
isn't crap. I have never heard of the staff doing what you mentioned in February
2001, but if I had the chance of getting "freshies" on an empty mountain, I
would have probably done the same!! |
| Andy Willcock - 15/05/2002 |
I have to reply to the above comments. Firstly, we were prepared for
the weather conditions. It was others who were not. Secondly, Craig should
know that the Ptarmigan Bowl, is a beginners area!! He claims to know Cairngorm
quite well, so you would have thought he would have known this!! Thirdly, everyone
in our party, even the children, could quite happily and confidently ski back to the car
park, if the snow had been there. In case you forgot, the snow cover in February
2002 was not that good, and the snow line was at about 2900ft. I assure you, if the
snow line was below the car park level, we would have skied down to the car park and no
more would have been said. Finally, I am still disgusted at the way we were
evacuated off the mountain. They could have done it a lot better if they hadn't have
made us walk half way back up the mountain to get on the only means of transport down the
hill. They should NOT have shut the Corrie Na Ciste T-Bar when they did. They
could have left it running, and posted the Ski Patrol at the top of the lift and directed
everyone towards the restaurant. And when you consider that this was the first year
of the funicular working, and it hadn't been tested in high winds, it does cause some
concern. |
| Alan Mackay - 04/10/2003 WinterHighland
Webmaster. |
Just to comment on the above notes about the state of play
in 2001. Basically what is written above happened, But its not a
conspiracy theory to keep the snow for themselves. The then Operations
Manager (AA) refused to allow the snow gates at Glenmore to open because she
was worried about "the cut on the link road being so narrow, might fill in
quickly if the wind changed direction". The fact that the link road
would have no impact on an evacuation, made no difference. She wanted
the cut widened to 2 Snow Blowers width, and her decision was final, despite
the link road being black tarmac!! Two whole days later, the cut still
wasn't widened, but Bob Kinnard opened the resort anyway. It wasn't
just staff that were up there. The BASI had a few groups up there,
along with some people who had skinned up from Glenmore. There were a
few more instances of this happening in 2001, where AA refused to open the
Glenmore Gates because the link road wasn't clear. She stated time and
time again that Cairngorm will NOT open from Corrie Na Ciste. What
happened on a Sunday Morning at 9:00am?? Cairngorm was operating from
Corrie Na Ciste!! The difference?? It was AA's day off!!! |
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