Friday, October 25, 2002
The unseasonal fall of appreciable quantities of snow at CairnGorm has encouraged the management of the ski area to look at ways of trying to give early season skiers a bit of a pre-season bonus by opening a couple of runs this weekend (26th/27th October). However, as always, everything remains totally dependent on local weather conditions and any opening, at least five weeks before the official start of the season, would only be on a temporary basis and with very limited skiing.
Earlier this week, CairnGorm Mountain announced that it would be closed from at least 4th to 14th November for its annual pre-winter season maintenance programme which this year, for the first time, will include the new CairnGorm Funicular railway along with the resort's other uphill equipment.
Said CairnGorm Mountain's Chief Executive, Bob Kinnaird:
"With a reasonable snow cover on the upper slopes for this time of the year, we will try to open the Ptarmigan Bowl area at the week end using the Coire Na Ciste tow. That might provide some enthusiasts with the opportunity to have their first slide of the winter but nobody should be expecting too much at this time of the year. Our plans are totally dependent on the weather and conditions on the day and, in all honesty, the forecast for Saturday and Sunday is not particularly encouraging with milder temperatures and windier conditions expected."
" Regardless of the present snow, we have always expected this weekend, the last of the October holidays, to be very busy with large numbers of non-skier visitors using the funicular to reach the Ptarmigan restaurant, the Shop at the Top and the Mountain Experience exhibition. All of these popular visitor attractions will be open as usual.".
The funicular will run to its normal Summer timetable over the weekend and, with a mixture of skiers and non-skiers as passengers, will not stop at the middle station as happens during the winter months. Skiers and snowboarders will be carried directly to and from The Ptarmigan along with non-skier visitors as during the other summer season months.
The funicular will open for passengers at 10.00 hrs and the last train will leave The Ptarmigan at 17.00 hrs; the Coire na Ciste tow is expected to operate from 10.00 hrs until 15.30 hrs.
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