Since the subject of CML during the second part of the 90's has been raised in another topic here is some food for thought.

The 1994 and 2001 seasons are comparable in terms of quality of the season, skier days for the seasons at CairnGorm Mountain are as follows:

1993-94: 425,000
2000-01: 113,000

That startling statistic as much as poor seasons explain the situation CML is in. Managing to alienate and drive away 2/3rds of your customers in five years is quite something!!


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Alan,

Thats a very interesting statistic, and potential worrying if you have money invested in scottish skiing.

As far as I am aware the number of people skiing (or boarding) in Scotland seems to have dropped off across ALL the scottish ski centres in the last 10 years - not just cairngorm. I would say other reasons for this are probably as follows:

- Foreign holidays have become much more affordable in the last 10 years, especially with the advent of budget airlines and cheap package deals. For most people a week in France is enough skiing for one year.

- Between 1994 and 2001 there were quite a few crappy seasons, which probably put alot of people off skiing in Scotland. In the 1980's (if rumour is to be believed), every season was a decent one.

- Schools/youth clubs run alot less outdoor activites these days due to the fear of litgation etc. I reckon this is how most people get involved in skiing for the first time.

Incidentally I reckon 2001 was a good season, however there was more snow back in 1994 from what I remember. Was that not the last year Glenshee managed to run into may?!

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Post Edited (10:51 hrs on Wed 24 Sep 03)

There was more snow in the West in 1994 by a long shot compared to 2001, but not the case in the East. Glenshee shut on the last weekend in April because they needed to remove their core staff to Glenislia for the summer. I heard though that the Meall Ohdar lifts were operated a couple of weekends in June by the SkiClub, can anyone confirm?

However the drop at CairnGorm is so spectacular, that there must be a sizeable chunk of self-inflicted damage. During the rough times of the late 90's, the Cairngorm Chairlift Company should have done everything it could to look after it's snowsport customers, instead it's antics resulted in many voting with their feet, and increasingly unpredictable manangement decisions also put people off.

Crazy operating policies such as the ski road having to be black before they would open the snowgates etc, reducing the wind operating speed of the White Lady Chairlift, keeping the Ciste closed, was all because the top manegement were to nervous about their resonposbilities, because they didnt have the experience of the mountain environment to make the calls they had too. The difference between someone with the immense mountaineering experience of Tom Paul or John Maclean making the calls, compared to some manager dropped in from M&S, who thought three flakes of snow was a white out, was plain for all regulars to see.

Even during 2001 the weekend of 24/25th March, on the Saturday, CairnGorm could have opened, but the snowgates remained shut, because of drifting on the link road, Anne Angus said "we dont operate from the Ciste, no way", 24hrs latter, Bob Kinnaird did exactly that! If AA had been there that Sunday, CairnGorm would not have opened, and would have remained shut for the entire week as the link road could not be cleared!

The number of probably wholly unneccessarily stormbound days alone, increased skier frustration as snowsports become less reliable. It all had an impact, and means CML now has a huge mountain to climb.

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Who and when was the last manager at CML/CCC that everybody liked their and ran the area the way the customers liked. No offence to the current manager.

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Post Edited (13:55 hrs on Wed 24 Sep 03)