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Alan Mackay


Posts: 10768
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27th Mar 2024
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Ceefax/Teletext snow reports (lack off!)
Date Posted: 15.45hrs on Tue 7 Jan 03
As you probably have noticed, certainly we've had a few emails, there are no reports on P421 of Ceefax, and only very vauge reports from the Ski Club of Great Britian on p198 of ITV Teletext.

While the Ceefax reports came direct from the resorts, they were probably the most relied on resource for final decisions on whether to go or not, just how much are they being missed?

[%sig%]
Alex


Guest
Re: Ceefax/Teletext snow reports (lack off!)
Date Posted: 16.36hrs on Tue 7 Jan 03
Like you I was shocked and saddened to see the demise of the Scottish ski reports on Ceefax.
The Telextext service is a little better than useless.Flicking through it this morning( it takes about 5 mins to find it and wait for the dam thing to come on the screen)I noticed that it was really up-to-date, updated on Friday!!!!
Well ,thats only 4 days late. 4 days in Scotland could see a season come and go.
I also think that the Ski Scotland web site could give out a bit more info on whats happening on the slopes. At most you get one sentence and usually a fairly dull one at that.
I do hope that more snow users post in their reports to this site.
James Maunder


Guest
Re: Ceefax/Teletext snow reports (lack off!)
Date Posted: 17.15hrs on Tue 7 Jan 03
Agree absolutely - Ceefax and Winterhighland are my first point of call for the snow reports. I assumed that Ceefax had a technical hitch, or that "they" were waiting for the season to start. If the ski centres read this - please get Ceefax up and running!
Alan Mackay


Posts: 10768
Joined: Nov 1994
Last Visited: 17:02
27th Mar 2024
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Re: Ceefax/Teletext snow reports (lack off!)
Date Posted: 17.33hrs on Tue 7 Jan 03
Update on Ceefax:

I have just had a call back from the BBC Weather Centre, Scotland is listed on the menu on P420, but shouldn't be, as p421 does not exist.

Apparently the Scottish Reports Service has "No scheduled start date"! I had heard that the service had been dropped, however this appears not to be the case, but the person was unsure why have reached January and no reports, he promised to get back to me with more info on what's happened, and if/when they might go live again.

[%sig%]
John Doherty


Posts: 33
Joined: Nov 2002
Last Visited: 05:07
2nd Sep 2007
Re: Ceefax/Teletext snow reports (lack off!)
Date Posted: 19.34hrs on Tue 7 Jan 03
I was looking at Page 420 on Ceefax today and it said "Scottish ski areas Page 421" as usual, this was at about 2pm this afternoon, however Page 421 was still missing and this txt has now been removed, I guess the reports will be properly added soon though. I seem to recall aswell that the start date of this service has been different ever year, so i guess this is a very late year.
AndyW


Guest
Re: Ceefax/Teletext snow reports (lack off!)
Date Posted: 21.46hrs on Tue 7 Jan 03
I have been in regular touch with the BBC recently, for more than one reason.
Firstly, the BBC's ski-ing pages have been saying that all the Scottish Ski Area's area "Not Yet Open" for ages. They dont now after i have complained!!!
Secondly, there pages state that Glenshee has 12 lifts!!! When i questioned this and told them that they actually had 23 lifts, i got a reply back from the Ski Club Of Great Britain, who insisted that i was wrong, and stated that they had 25 lifts. (this issue has been discussed elsewhere in these forums)
Thirdly, i have mentioned the fact that page 421 on Ceefax doesnt exist and when i looked, it didnt even appear on page 420.
When you consider that the BBC is well respected (supposedly!!) and the Ski Club Of Great Britain should know what is happening at British Ski Resorts, i think it is disgracefull. All this mis-infomation from people whose wages we all pay through our TV license!!!
I wonder if any of the Scottish Ski Area's have seen the lack of/incorrect infomation and i wonder if they could take any steps to ensure it doesnt happen again. I know i would try and get something out of them for not displaying the correct information.!!!
Alan Mackay


Posts: 10768
Joined: Nov 1994
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Re: Ceefax/Teletext snow reports (lack off!)
Date Posted: 22.08hrs on Tue 7 Jan 03
The ski areas themselves update the Ceefax pages on 421, but obviously if the pages and the system are not live, there is nothing they can do about it.

As regards the Teletext reports, I have been in touch with them, and they say that the Ski Club has taken over from Born2Ski as their data provider, and wanted a standard format for all reports.

The fact they have submerged the Scottish Reports amongst 20other pages on a different page from that published by all the ski areas (p198 not 197) is bad, but the format of the info is bordering on a bad joke, snow depths, and %open and run to resorts are hardly relevant! Over the weekend the ski club said they resorts were closed, the ski club was unaware of skiing in scotland in October, or at least their reports were!

[%sig%]
Andy Willcock


Posts: 74
Joined: Jan 2003
Last Visited: 04:09
15th Dec 2012
Re: Ceefax/Teletext snow reports (lack off!)
Date Posted: 23.34hrs on Tue 7 Jan 03
Further to my previous post, the BBC have at last changed the page for Glenshee and corrected the errors.[www.bbc.co.uk]
It took some doing, but at last a small result!!!!
Andy Willcock


Posts: 74
Joined: Jan 2003
Last Visited: 04:09
15th Dec 2012
Re: Ceefax/Teletext snow reports (lack off!)
Date Posted: 08.43hrs on Wed 8 Jan 03
SUCCESS!!!!
I have just looked at page 421 of Ceefax this morning and the Scottish Reports are back up and running!!!!
WEHAY!!!!
Mark Pickles


Guest
Re: Ceefax/Teletext snow reports (lack off!)
Date Posted: 11.52hrs on Wed 8 Jan 03
Wow. Power to the people eh?
Maybe if we all dance a little, it will snow some more...
Then they'll actually have something to report. winking smiley
Admin


Guest
Re: Ceefax/Teletext snow reports (lack off!)
Date Posted: 12.37hrs on Wed 8 Jan 03
Yup, back up! Good to see Nevis including actual weather as well as forecast weather, CairnGorm and Glenshee also repeat the forecast, so they have space to do this too. Will mention it to CairnGorm, they already have a page to do this set up, so they can just swap it, as long as the BBC dont' mind! But I guess Nevis just altered their page, since it's now different from the others!

Alan
Andy Willcock


Posts: 74
Joined: Jan 2003
Last Visited: 04:09
15th Dec 2012
Re: Ceefax/Teletext snow reports (lack off!)
Date Posted: 15.24hrs on Wed 8 Jan 03
Further comments to the above.
In my ramblings to the BBC, i also mentioned that Scotland gets very little coverage in their Thursday Night WeatherView programme. I am going to record it this week to see if they have increased their coverage of Scottish Ski Area's. Our other complaints seem to have been listened to so Fingers Crossed!!!
Admin


Guest
Re: Ceefax/Teletext snow reports (lack off!)
Date Posted: 19.41hrs on Wed 8 Jan 03
Well the Teletext Reports have finally been updated and, CairnGorm Mountain, the Lecht and Glenshee, have no snow and are yet to open this season!!!

Well what can you say!

Alan M.
Alex


Guest
Re: Ceefax/Teletext snow reports (lack off!)
Date Posted: 23.28hrs on Wed 8 Jan 03
It would be helpful if they reported the current weather at the time of update not just another weather forecast for the whole day.
Liz, Ski Club of Great Britain


Guest
Re: Ceefax/Teletext snow reports (lack off!)
Date Posted: 17.08hrs on Thu 9 Jan 03
I am the Information Manager at the Ski Club of Great Britain and I manage the snow report service operated by the Ski Club. I’d like to clear up a few points about the Ski Club’s snow report service and the snow reports for Scotland.

As you are probably aware, it’s been a very slow start to the season for the Scottish resorts and until late last week there were no Scottish resorts open for skiing. The Ski Club reports on 250 resorts daily (Monday to Friday) including the Scottish resorts and we have been faithfully checking the conditions in all of the Scottish resorts on a daily basis since our winter snow reports started at the beginning of November.

On Friday 3 January 2003, The Lecht opened some of its lifts for skiing. This was reported in the Ski Club snow reports for that day. The other four Scottish resorts were not open and were thus recorded. Over the weekend Cairngorm and Glenshee opened limited areas for skiing and this was accurately recorded on Monday which was the next snow reporting day for the Ski Club of Great Britain Scottish snow reports. Since then we have been reporting daily on the ski conditions in The Lecht, Cairngorm and Glenshee plus we have been recording that the other two resorts are yet to open.

The Ski Club’s snow data is sent to Teletext at specific times each day for their systems to upload the data to the analogue service. At any time of the day, users can see which date the report has been filed for any resort as there is a date stamp at the top of each page.

Alan MacKay has contacted Teletext with comments about the analogue service and commented that on 8 January that the Ski Club snow reports were incorrect and reported that Cairngorm, Glenshee and the Lecht were closed. In fact the Ski Club’s snow reports for 8 January were that Cairngorm, Glenshee and the Lecht were open and that Glencoe and The Nevis Range were closed. This is the case again today – confirmed on p197 of Teletext.

In addition to the daily snow reports, the Ski Club also publishes a snow editorial twice per week which also features the Scottish resorts.

It has been remarked that the Ski Club did not report on the fact that the Scottish resorts were open for a short period of time at the end of October. Although we did not publish a formal snow report for the Scottish resorts at that time, we did feature the Scottish resorts in Snow News on 31 October 2002

“Glenshee in Scotland had three lifts open over the weekend and with further snowfall they may open the lifts again this weekend.”

And in the next snow editorial it was reported:

“After weekend openings over the past few weeks, Scottish resorts are not open at present due to an increase in temperatures.”

In addition we also featured a news story about the early opening of the Scottish ski resorts.

“Scotland beat New England for a change this year and opened their slopes first thanks to the best early season snow conditions for at least five years.

The Lecht ski area opened for snow skiing and boarding on up to two feet (60cm) of fresh natural snow earlier this week after access roads were initially blocked by large snow falls.

Four lifts - Osprey, Robin, Wren and the Snowy Owl Chair were operating at time of compilation at The Lecht, serving a 600 feet (200m) vertical. Temperature is minus one Celcius.

A Cairngorm Mountain spokesperson said, "We hope to have some skiing on Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th October. This will be limited and wind and weather permitting. We will review this on Friday."

Over on the West Coast a Nevis Range spokesperson said today, "We have had further falls of snow overnight and there is a possibility we may open for limited skiing this weekend on un-pisted conditions. If we do open we will be operating the Alpha tow and possibly the Goose T bar. A final decision will be made Friday afternoon." "

The Ski Club promotes skiing and snowboarding around the world, throughout the year and we do as much as possible to promote the Scottish ski resorts through news features, snow reports, weather reports and resort information. The service that we are providing for Teletext this year is different from previous seasons but this is necessary for a variety of commercial, operational and accuracy reasons.

With fresh snow forecast for Scotland over the next few days, here’s hoping that more terrain will be opened in Scotland and that the second half of the season proves to be a success.

Thank you for all your comments about the Ski Club’s snow report service.

Have a great season

Liz, Betony, Alex
The Ski Club’s snow report team.
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