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alan


Posts: 10768
Joined: Nov 1994
Last Visited: 17:02
27th Mar 2024
What's this?What's this?What's this?
HIE announce removal of Coire na Ciste uplift
Date Posted: 06.51hrs on Wed 2 Aug 17
Today HIE released a press release confirming a £267,000 contract to remove infrastructure from CairnGorm Mountain. More details will appear in tomorrow's Strathy.

The most major component involves the complete removal of the Coire na Ciste and West Wall Chairlifts, including station and tower founds, other works include:

•Removal of the Coire na Ciste base building.
•Removal of the Aonach Substation / building.
•Removal of the Aonach Ridge, Aonach, Laogh Mor and East Wall snow fencing.
•Removal of the Aonach Poma tower founds and loading gantry.
•Removal of remaining ground structures of the White Lady and Fiacaill T-bars.

Since Natural Retreats took over CML in Summer 2014 HIE have already injected £1.1million into making the core lifts fit for purpose and £600,000 into building repairs (despite which the mountain continues to be littered with dilapidations).

The latest figure means over £2m of public money will have been spent dealing with the gross mismanagement of CairnGorm Mountain in the six year period when HIE had full control of CML.

With discussions locally about a community buyout of the mountain and given the complete lack of a long term strategic masterplan for the mountain, this development is completely prejudicial to future development options on the mountain.



Edited 1 times. Last edit at 17.05hrs Wed 2 Aug 17 by alan.

alan


Posts: 10768
Joined: Nov 1994
Last Visited: 17:02
27th Mar 2024
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Re: HIE announce removal of Coire na Ciste uplift
Date Posted: 17.25hrs on Wed 2 Aug 17
Of particular concern for the future is a discussion with Highland Council Planning in February 2010 regarding the pull down of the Aonach Poma towers and whether that was work that required planning permission.

I was informed that did not require planning permission, because the towers could be taken down off the founds and reinstated at a future date and what determined if the infrastructure was still extant or not in planning terms was whether the ground works for the lifts remained in situ.

Once the foundations of the towers and lift stations are removed, the uplift will no longer be deemed to be extant. Thus it will no longer be possible to reinstate the uplift without a fulling planning application and it will be considered on the basis that the area is undeveloped at present.

It is hard to seen any alternative conclusion that HIE are seeking to Coire na Ciste permanently beyond use of mechanised snowsports. With no facilities the continued use of the Coire na Ciste carpark itself must be increasingly doubtful and without it the scale of the business on CairnGorm isn't sufficient to be self sustaining.

Graham


Posts: 44
Joined: Feb 2003
Last Visited: 08:07
22nd Apr 2021
Re: HIE announce removal of Coire na Ciste uplift
Date Posted: 19.59hrs on Wed 2 Aug 17
Its hard to believe ....... where is the ambition and passion (in complete contrast with the Save the Ciste campaign and all the other ski areas). Given that there is genuine interest in a community led scheme in the Ciste, why the rush now after nearly a decade of complete neglect and disinterest?

[news.hie.co.uk]

I suspect they fear the prospect of an alternative offer on the mountain offering the best skiing on the hill which would further deplete skiing numbers at CM.

Very sad at least I have the memories

JC


Posts: 624
Joined: Jan 2007
Last Visited: 12:22
27th Feb 2024
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Re: HIE announce removal of Coire na Ciste uplift
Date Posted: 20.12hrs on Wed 2 Aug 17
Oh dear. So much money has been chucked at Cairngorm over the years to transform it from the flagship Scottish ski centre to the one that has shown no intention of even diversifying beyond selling more cakes and t-shirts. It's mostly become a touring-only place for me in the last 5 years and this announcement looks like confirming that for the future. Shame.

Doug_Bryce


Posts: 1373
Joined: Jan 2003
Re: HIE announce removal of Coire na Ciste uplift
Date Posted: 08.06hrs on Thu 3 Aug 17
Sadly the Coire Na Ciste uplift finally being removed isn't a surprise...
Since 2005 there has been a deliberate decision to focus on the funicular and summer trade - even if this was to the detriment of other aspects of the business such as snowsports.

The White Lady T-Bar used to be one of the most iconic ski lifts in Scotland.
Along with the other Coire Na Ciste uplift it could have been fixed (... for a fraction of the astonishing £2 million subsidy since 2014?).

Skiers, and the local area, have clearly not benefitted from this strategy.
The scale of public funds used to deliberately downsize operations is outrageous and should be subject to some kind of public investigation.




[www.haggistrap.co.uk]



Edited 1 times. Last edit at 08.07hrs Thu 3 Aug 17 by Doug_Bryce.

cbsnap


Posts: 39
Joined: Aug 2004
Last Visited: 15:24
13th Jan 2024
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Re: HIE announce removal of Coire na Ciste uplift
Date Posted: 11.06hrs on Thu 3 Aug 17
Disappointing news.

Regarding aspirations and ambition, whilst passing through Aviemore a few weeks back, my wife commented it's becoming like Blackpool (We've been visiting for about the last 10 years)...





PeterS


Posts: 980
Joined: Feb 2003
Last Visited: 12:21
13th Mar 2021
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Re: HIE announce removal of Coire na Ciste uplift
Date Posted: 12.22hrs on Thu 3 Aug 17
terrible decision which is likely to make any future plans much more difficult.

Hopefully someone has a good photographic archive of the Ciste so that we can remember what it was like and where the lifts used to be sad smiley



Edited 1 times. Last edit at 12.23hrs Thu 3 Aug 17 by PeterS.

alan


Posts: 10768
Joined: Nov 1994
Last Visited: 17:02
27th Mar 2024
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Re: HIE announce removal of Coire na Ciste uplift
Date Posted: 19.22hrs on Thu 3 Aug 17
After yesterday's news you really couldn't make it up that 3 hours ago CML used this to promote Season Passes on Facebook:





Edited 1 times. Last edit at 19.22hrs Thu 3 Aug 17 by alan.

Attachments: CML-pass-WWC.jpg (109kB)  
some frustrated skier


Posts: 236
Joined: Mar 2003
Last Visited: 21:55
16th Feb 2021
Re: HIE announce removal of Coire na Ciste uplift
Date Posted: 20.55hrs on Thu 3 Aug 17
Best of luck to them...... NOT!!!

Painful is all I wish for them

Olderalan


Posts: 1510
Joined: Feb 2006
Last Visited: 15:23
7th Apr 2019
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Re: HIE announce removal of Coire na Ciste uplift
Date Posted: 21.08hrs on Thu 3 Aug 17
alan Wrote:
After yesterday's news you really couldn't make it up that 3 hours ago CML used this to promote Season Passes on Facebook:

 




Edited 1 times. Last edit at 20.22hrs Thu 3 Aug 17 by alan.


There are no chairlifts at CairnGorm, so using that picture to promote the sales of season ticket could be infringing the Trades Descriptions Act.

Olderalan

jabuzzard


Posts: 885
Joined: Jan 2010
Last Visited: 11:02
16th Apr 2021
Re: HIE announce removal of Coire na Ciste uplift
Date Posted: 13.02hrs on Fri 4 Aug 17
I think it is pretty clear that there are one or more persons at HIE that would prefer to see all the ski infrastructure anywhere in Scotland erased from the landscape. It's the only thing that makes remotely any sense to explain their actions over the last 15 years.

h11lly


Posts: 2150
Joined: Dec 2002
Last Visited: 18:38
2nd Sep 2019
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Re: HIE announce removal of Coire na Ciste uplift
Date Posted: 16.56hrs on Fri 4 Aug 17
Sad, but particularly the removal of the snow fencing on the Ciste Side.

Although much of it is dilapidated it still helped create routes into the Aonach and Laogh Mor for those who wanted to explore, and on the occasions when the shuttle bus was running from the Ciste you could spend the day doing laps using it to get back to the Cas side.

I was also surprised that the winner of the recent photographic competition was a photo of a boarder standing on the weather station at the summit, which is outwith the ski patrolled area ! [www.facebook.com]

The choices Natural Retreats make baffle me !

Helen

Olderalan


Posts: 1510
Joined: Feb 2006
Last Visited: 15:23
7th Apr 2019
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Re: HIE announce removal of Coire na Ciste uplift
Date Posted: 17.26hrs on Fri 4 Aug 17
h11lly Wrote:
Sad, but particularly the removal of the snow fencing on the Ciste Side.

Although much of it is dilapidated it still helped create routes into the Aonach and Laogh Mor for those who wanted to explore, and on the occasions when the shuttle bus was running from the Ciste you could spend the day doing laps using it to get back to the Cas side.

I was also surprised that the winner of the recent photographic competition was a photo of a boarder standing on the weather station at the summit, which is outwith the ski patrolled area !

The choices Natural Retreats make baffle me !

Helen


The savetheciste campaign offered to voluntarily make repairs to the East Wall Gullies traverse line fencing and the Laogh Mor return fencing. We suggested that we could use some of the removed Chesnut fencing to make temporary repairs so that customers could continue to enjoy these routes....and NR would benefit from some positive publicity. Nobody will now be surprised to hear that our offer was turned down.

Olderalan

DonaldM


Posts: 871
Joined: Jan 2009
Last Visited: 20:58
10th Aug 2019
Re: HIE announce removal of Coire na Ciste uplift
Date Posted: 22.15hrs on Sun 6 Aug 17
jabuzzard Wrote:
I think it is pretty clear that there are one or more persons at HIE that would prefer to see all the ski infrastructure anywhere in Scotland erased from the landscape. It's the only thing that makes remotely any sense to explain their actions over the last 15 years.


I see your point but I think it's more bungling than that. Basically the officers at HIE don't know much about skiing. Having committed to supporting NR CML previously, they are now committed and find people like ourselves troubling as it presents another viewpoint, based on evidence. The reality is that it's hard to admit mistakes and do a u-turn.

Job losses are called "restructuring" and do on.

Doug_Bryce


Posts: 1373
Joined: Jan 2003
Re: HIE announce removal of Coire na Ciste uplift
Date Posted: 20.30hrs on Mon 7 Aug 17
Taking away the snow fences is just spiteful. When in condition the long run from ptarmigan to coire na ciste carpark was one of the best left served descents in Scotland.

It is clear since the funicular was built in 2001 that making it a success became priority - even if it meant sacrificing other parts of the operation. With benefit of retrospect the Ciste chairs were seen as a threat to the train as they provided alternate access to the top (outside of the notorious visitor management plan which doesnt allow summer visitors to venture outside).

Total list of lifts lost in last decade..

- White Lady t-bar
- Fiaciall Ridge t-bar
- Shieling
- Aonach Poma
- Coire na Ciste chair
- West Wall chair
- Link poma

This represents an approximate 50% reduction in uplift capacity. There can be little argument this was not by deliberate or by design.

We all moan that Cairngorm gets the lion share of public funding. However it is clear that neither snowsports, nor the local area, have benefited. Does anyone know the total public spend on Cairngorm since 2005? Clear act of economic vandalism... The entire Scottish ski industry has suffered as result.





Edited 2 times. Last edit at 20.33hrs Mon 7 Aug 17 by Doug_Bryce.

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