(This is the last of four posts see here, here, and here about how the £14-20 million proposed by Highlands and Islands Enterprise to repair the funicular could be better far better spent on snow sports within the geographical area for which they are responsible).
Proposal
A new triple chairlift adjacent to the Wall T-bar would replace the Cliffhanger Chair giving on ski access to the Main Basin T-bar and directly serve the full spectrum of green, blue, red and black terrain.
Detail
The proposed lift would start on slightly lower ground in front of the Plateau Cafe and slightly below the Cliffhanger Drive Station. The proposed lift would run on a NNE/SSW axis to the north west of the Canyon (black) terminating on a natural ledge of level ground just above and behind the Rescue Station at the base of the Main Basin T-bar.
The top station would be at an elevation of 870m, some 30m above the top station of the single seater Cliffhanger Chairlift. Unlike the Cliffhanger Chairlift the proposed lift would provide ski-off chair / ski-onto tow access to the Main Basin T-bar and Rannoch Button that serve the upper mountain. It would thus also provide direct access to the Wall and Canyon areas, which like the top tows currently require a short uphill walk from the top of the Cliffhanger.
In addition to easing rider flow around mid-mountain and between mid-mountain and the upper tows the proposed alignment has additional advantages over the Cliffhanger alignment:
- Construction of proposed lift does not interfere with operation of existing infrastructure, thus could if necessary be phased over two summers.
- Significant increase in mid-mountain uplift capacity combined with improved rider flow, coupled with the big capacity boost of the under construction Rannoch Triple Chair on the Plateau, should ease pressure on top tows as a larger number of riders will complete full vertical laps each run.
- With a new improved bridge over the mountain river it would be accessible from the Wall without the need to cut short the run as required for the Cliffhanger.
It is proposed that the new lift would replace the Cliffhanger Chairlift, but that the Wall T-bar would be retained for peak capacity and alternative uplift when north-west winds don’t allow the chair to run. .
The lift capacity needs to be finely tuned between achieving a beneficial increase that changes how people ride the mountain to spread the load across all the uplift more effectively, yet at the same time not having so much capacity that it can completely swamp the upper leg of Mugs Alley (narrow green) leading to an unpleasant experience and increased risk of accidents.
Future Development
This proposed lift has been placed so as to have potential to be incorporated into a further phased upgrading of the uplift on Meall a’ Bhuiridh.
As per the dotted purple line on the photo, the alignment of the proposed new Canyon Chairlift has the potential to extend upwards to the top of the upper tows and a short distance downwards to the point of natural convergence of various mid-mountain runs to the north west of the Kassbohrer Garage.
Days potentially lost to wind in severe weather, should be considered against burial closures which afflict the upper ski tows in even moderately big snow years. It is the good days that the top tows can’t physically be dug out that cost more income than storm days where only a handful of people would brave riding the upper mountain.
Additionally, such a chairlift would likely enable the upper mountain to open earlier than the present arrangement and remain serviceable later in the season and/or in leaner snow conditions too, in part by freeing up the robust snow holding of Ski Tow Gully as an additional ski run.
With this potential future development in mind, the proposed Canyon Chairlift should be built with new towers for a modern 6 seater detachable chairlift so the existing towers would need no modifications for a subsequent extension.
Return to the base of the full length lift would be assured through the majority of seasons with an automated snowmaking system on Old Mugs Alley to the base of the chairlift. This future lift extension could be configured with the flexibility for a non-detaching mid line loading station to serve either just the upper or mid-mountain as required in marginal conditions.
The projected uplift above the Plateau elevation would ultimately in this scenario consist of just a 6-seat detachable chairlift and the retained Wall T-bar.
What you can do [Editor]
If you agree that new ski capacity at Cairn Gorm, the Lecht and Glen Coe would be a much better investment than repairing the funicular, as argued by Alan in these posts, please consider responding to HIE’s Survey on its new “vision” for Cairn Gorm (see here). While the first two questions appear designed to put anyone off responding, below there are a series of questions where you can indicate what type of development, if any, you think are appropriate for Cairn Gorm and you can prioritise your preferences.
My thoughts exactly. The lift line is ideal, and yes, having the chairlift arrive at a higher elevation is crucial to allowing assess to the main basin lifts.
I have also considered uplift into the main basin, but because of wind potentially affecting the lift (I’m thinking while it is already to windy to operate anyway (50mph+) It would be foolish to think a chairlift could be built at any elevation higher than 920m at Glencoe.
A more realistic proposal for Glycogen to help elevate ques at the main basin lifts would be a T-Bar or Even better Poma going up the entire length of the Spring Run or one from the Bottom of the wall to just below the top of Etive Glades.
The wind factor is one reason for suggesting an upwards extension of a mid-mountain chairlift as a future project, as opposed to going all out at the start with a single project to put in a lift straight to the summit. It would allow wind data to be collected specific to the proposed lift extension, but Glencoe do see days where the Main Basin T-bar keeps running but wind closes the Cliffhanger Chair, Wall T-bar and Plateau Poma!
However replacing the Top Tows with a chairlift would increase the skiable terrain by freeing up Ski Tow Gully as well as helping improve the distribution of skiers around Meall a’ Bhuiridh. It would be something of a retrograde step in my view to put a surface lift up the Spring Run, it would reduce somewhat the area of skiable terrain and we’ve already seen the demise of the Tiger T-bar (Glenshee) and White Lady T-bar (CairnGorm) in part for insurance liability and H&S reasons due to very steep and difficult up-tracks.
A surface lift line on or chairlift to the side of the Spring Run would almost certainly be more wind exposed than in the vicinity of the existing upper tows. Far more useful and bringing more terrain into play for almost all ability levels would be a tow of similar length to the Coire Pollach in ‘Ba Bowl’ – the area below the Flypaper that would allow return from further down the East Ridge and open up more early intermediate terrain in the vicinity of the tow.
What about expanding the resort area instead providing more uplift to crowded runs.
The new Rannoch Chairlift on the Plateau that is under construction, along with the associated Rankin’s Return run will help spread out skiers and boarders. With the Rannoch Triple Chair in operation there is an expectation that more people will lap the full on mountain vertical in one run, as Rankin’s Return nicely links the Eastern side runs on the upper mountain back to the base of the Rannoch Triple and Plateau Poma. At present the Poma is a significant bottleneck which discourages people from returning to below the mid-mountain.
If the ultimate proposal in the article was fulfilled, with a chairlift to the top of the mountain, that would free up Ski Tow Gully for additional skiable terrain and would help avoid congestion in the lower Main Basin through the Haggis Trap area.
Though the scope for increasing terrain is quite limited above the Plateau, one potential modest additional lift that would in my view be really beneficial would be a tow of similar length to the Coire Pollach Tow situated in ‘Ba Bowl’ the shallow bowl below the Flypaper that drains East South East. This lift would run at approx right angles to the Plateau Poma and terminate a short distance above the under construction Rannoch Triple Chairlift. It would allow more of the East Ridge area to be skied from the lifts and provide additional early intermediate terrain in the vicinity of the tow.
aye lets encourage more idiot beginners up to the top so they can fall all the way down and sue the company
Has it ever been done before? Using a fixed triple with detachable six pilons, and remoddeling inbetween?
Wouldn’t it be cheaper to place a secondhand detachable quad (they are available secondhand) from the get go, instead of doubling the works required and wasting the triple equipment in the long run?
Secondly, for that length a fixed chair is much cheaper and not unusual to not be detachable, especially with a loading carpet comfortable 2.5m/s speed can be achieved.
The proposal for the triple chairlift to the NW of the Canyon can be constructed without any interference with the existing infrastructure and subsequently the fixed grip triple chairlift could continue to operate while the upgrade / extension was built, allowing that work to be phased over a couple of summers if required.
The cost of installing and then uninstalling, and reinstalling a detachable station would add massively to the cost and mean the lift could not operate during any part of phase 2 construction. The fixed grip return station of the Canyon Triple could be designed and built such as the structural uprights of the return station would be capable of forming part of the extended lift line. There is a surplus of carriers from the Rannoch Triple Chair which could provide the majority if not all the actual chairs for the Canyon Triple.
The only equipment potentially redundant would be the fixed grip chairlift drive – but it could potentially be reused on site or sold on.
While the overall line length would give a comfortable ride time at 2.5m/s, experience with storm damage to the Quad Chairlift at Nevis Range means a detachable lift would be preferable if going above the Rescue Shed. A detachable would mean storm damage to the installation was much less likely to occur and should enable a faster restart after big storm / snow events. The original White Lady Chairlift on CairnGorm was detachable for a good reason!
In my experience the main queues at Glencoe are at the Plateau poma, cliffhanger chair and top tows. The plateau chair under construction should solve the 1st queue. The Wall t-bar allready provides an alternative to the cliffhanger chair with a better connection to the top lifts and customers currently skiing off the cliffhanger may prefer to use the new Rannoch chair on the plateau so queue 2 may also be reduced. That leaves the top basin queue as the main priority. I would suggest a chair that you could ski down to from the new Rannoch 3man with a top station somewhere towards the top of the top basin. Something going from around the cafe or even the flat ground below the Wall t-bar bottom station to around the top of Etive Glades, but in as good a wind protected position as possible would be my choice. Thereafter I would invest in 2 1km long repositionable ropetows. One would run in the snow filled gully east of the access chair so you could return to the new Rannoch 3man without having to heather hop or combat ski back to the access chair. The other would go into the bowl below the Flypaper to allow skiers to enjoy the full length of the East wall down to around the 2000ft contour and get back out by lift. Rope tows are cheap, simple and flexible, easy to move to where the snow is. Both these lifts would also open up a large amount of easy , currently little used but snow sure terrain. Finally I would like to see some piste smoothing work and proper snowmaking on the access run, at least covering chaos corner down. Sking down to Chaos corner frequently possible but it gets very lumpy and scoured below that.