Cairngorm has twice as many skiers as last year

Boxing Day skiers, snowboarders and sightseers flocked to CairnGorm Mountain in Scotland from 8 a.m yesterday. By noon more than 900 snowsports enthusiasts had come to the mountain to enjoy the great snow cover from mid mountain up.

The Ciste Gully and East Wall of the Ciste Gully opened, providing some excellent skiing, although a ‘heather hop’ was required to get back to the West Wall poma. The Top Bowls, Cas, M1 and Lady are in great shape with lovely groomed soft snow on a hard base in Coire cas. The lower slopes however are narrow and icy in places, but still providing good skiing to Car park level. The M2 and Day Lodge runs are also in good shape. More snow is forecast for later in the week, which resort managers expect should top things up nicely.

The resort expects to be busy throughout the holiday period and has arranged, subject to weather conditions being suitable, for floodlit evening skiing and boarding to be available in the top bowls on Friday, Dec. 28 from 4 to 8p.m and again on Thursday, Jan. 3. Skiers who already have a day ticket, afternoon ticket or season ticket will be able to ski on into the evening on those days and others can come for the evening session from 4 p.m for a charge of £9.95. The resort’s Ptarmigan restaurant and bar will also remain open.

CairnGorm Mountain Marketing Manager Colin Kirkwood said, “The season has got off to a very promising start and a good base has built up with assistance in some areas from the snow guns we are trialling this season. We have already had twice as many skiers as we had had by the same point last year so we remain optimistic about the prospects for snowsports for the New Year while bearing in mind the huge variety of conditions we have experienced over the last three seasons.”