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alan


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27th Mar 2024
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Climbing and Gorm Lift Access?
Date Posted: 10.20hrs on Sat 1 Nov 03
Since the opening of the funicular, the option of quick access for climbing and touring to the platuea and over the back to Loch A'an has been lost, due to the restrictions on the VMP.

The chair was probably most used in the depths of winter when daylight was short. If lift access was available to climbers and ski tourers, would anyone still use it?

Would the Ciste Chairs be of any use for gaining faster access, if so would anyone use them? Esp if the suggested extension of the Ciste Chair to the Ptarmigan Restaurant was completed? As existing lifts, the Ciste Chairs are not covered by the VMP and can be used by skiers and non skiers alike to gain access to the summit area and platuea.

Some degree of usage of the chairs by non-snowsports customers would generate some extra revenue to juistify operating the chairs if reasonably priced chairlift tickets were re-introduced. It might also if set at an attractive price, attract some people not heading into the Northern Corries, but going over the back away from Coire Cas as far as parking goes, and taking some traffic round to the Ciste would be no bad thing at weekends. Any thoughts on this?

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Peter S


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Re: Climbing and Gorm Lift Access?
Date Posted: 10.20hrs on Sat 1 Nov 03
I suspect that any Planning application to extend the Ciste Chair would be conditioned in a similar way to the Funicular legal agreement, ie preventing access to the Plateau or beyond.
alan


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27th Mar 2024
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Re: Climbing and Gorm Lift Access?
Date Posted: 10.20hrs on Sat 1 Nov 03
I believe not for two reasons, firsly section 50 agreement is not, nor can it be retrospective, it has no impact on existing lifts, plus the funicular closed system is a complete system including the Ptarmigan Restaurant, the chairlift is just a lift. Certainly with the existing chair setup there is no restrictions.

Plus planning issues aside, the main reason for restrictions on the funicular was EU funding which could not be used for any project which in any way could potentially affect the integrity of EU protected sites. No EU funding would be used to extent the chair, so not an issue.

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Doug


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Re: Climbing and Gorm Lift Access?
Date Posted: 10.20hrs on Sat 1 Nov 03
Can see it might be of interest to lazy walkers & ski tourers but unless it runs from very early morning it'll be of limited use to climbers headed to the Loch Avon basin.

Even when the White lady chair was open to all I found it was quicker to walk/skin up to the Ptarmigan most days.
Essan


Posts: 52
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23rd Dec 2014
Re: Climbing and Gorm Lift Access?
Date Posted: 10.20hrs on Sat 1 Nov 03
Whatever happened to the long walk in....? sad smiley

That's the best thing about the funicular for me - it means to 'climb' Cairn Gorm you actually have to climb it!

Mind you, if I had my way there'd be no private vehicular access to Glen More and everyone would have to walk in from Coylumbridge grinning smiley winking smiley

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alan


Posts: 10768
Joined: Nov 1994
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27th Mar 2024
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Re: Climbing and Gorm Lift Access?
Date Posted: 10.20hrs on Sat 1 Nov 03
I do hope ur joking... there are some that called for the closure of the A86, A939 and A93... killing loads of rural communities in the process.

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Jim


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27th Feb 2021
Re: Climbing and Gorm Lift Access?
Date Posted: 10.20hrs on Sat 1 Nov 03
Reminds me of something that Muriel Gray wrote - she reckoned that if you wanted to climb a Cairngorm peak for all its height, you'd have to start at Aberdeen!!!

Jim

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Essan


Posts: 52
Joined: Nov 2002
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23rd Dec 2014
Re: Climbing and Gorm Lift Access?
Date Posted: 10.20hrs on Sat 1 Nov 03
I was deadly serious..........

.........nah joking really smiling smiley

I do think there should be some effort though in climbing hills.

I'm sure quite a few people would want to use the chairlift if they could. Whether it'd be enough to make it financially viable though is another matter.

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Andy


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2nd May 2019
Re: Climbing and Gorm Lift Access?
Date Posted: 10.20hrs on Sat 1 Nov 03
Aonach mor run an early gondola for climbers during the winter. Seems to be quite popular. As a ski tourer and lazy person I would welcome a lift up to the plateau....only problem is I don't think my dog would like the idea much!
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