Scotland Cairngorms: Uphill struggle for beleaguered ski resort

But even though temperatures at points dipped to -7˚ c, some watching events unfold on the mountain have hit boiling point, flushed with red hot anger accompanied by a chilling blast of ‘déjà vu’ that’s swept from the snow-capped mountain across the glassy surface of Loch Morlich and right across the Spey Valley.

There, dozens of small businesses, shops, guesthouses, outdoor ski hire and pubs and restaurants may well be wondering what this season will bring now the soap opera surrounding the mountain’s stop-start-stop again funicular railway has entered a new chapter.

Earlier this week, just as the snow clouds gathered, Cairngorm Estate operators Highlands and Islands Enterprise, owners of the mountain’s troubled funicular railway, said it couldn’t guarantee it will be fixed in time for 22nd December and  the start of the snow sport season.

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That, along with this week’s dump of snow, the inevitable harsh winter weather ahead and what appear to be more than just ‘snagging issues’ suggested when the funicular closed in mid-August just months after its return from repairs,  have sparked questions over whether it will make an appearance at all for this season’s snow sports fans.

If not, it would mean that despite £25m of public money spent on repairing the 2km railway, revenue grants provided by HIE to help prop up the snowsports resort - £125,000 last year alone - and the £750,000 of investment in the overhauled Ptarmigan Restaurant, winter is coming with virtually no reliable uplifts for them to enjoy the mountain.

And all locals can hope for is Mother Nature to help, by producing enough low level snow to enable skiers and boarders onto tows to take them up the mountain.

Others, meanwhile, already believe snow sports fans are voting with their boots and departing Cairngorm for other snow resorts.

This week the World Skiing Index, compiled by outdoor manufacturer Blacks – which has an outlet in Aviemore - showed how far Scotland’s once top ski destination has fallen behind its rivals.

Its rating, compiled before the latest delays to the railway’s opening were confirmed, put Cairngorm in fourth place, behind Glenshee in first place, Glencoe Mountain and the Lecht.

That is a long slide downhill from the late 1960s when a bold plan to make Aviemore a major Alpine-style tourist resort saw the area boosted with attractions including Santa Claus Land, a large ice rink, go-karts and new hotels, plus investment to develop the mountain ski area.

By the Seventies and Eighties, the area was without doubt the jewel in Scotland’s skiing crown.

Now, with repairs to the funicular railway still not concluded, Highlands and Islands Conservative MSP Edward Mountain says it’s time for a public inquiry into where it has all gone wrong and at what price to the public purse.

“It’s a disgrace,” he says. “I want to know where all the money has gone and why we have not got a railway that we paid £19m to put it up, and £25m to repair.

“That’s more than £40m invested for something that doesn’t work.”

He stresses: “I’m passionate about making the mountain work for Aviemore but I am frustrated with the appalling management.

“I don’t think anyone locally has confidence in it anymore.”

The issues can be traced right back to its construction, he adds, when concrete was favoured for the plinths on which the railway sits, instead of steel.

Adding to the problems was the arrival in 2014 of Wilmslow-based Natural Retreats UK, a company mainly focused on running holiday rentals, who took over running Cairngorm Mountain snow sports facility on behalf of landlords HIE.

It promised £6.2million of investment and “the best Terrain Park in the world” that would host winter and summer X Games.

Instead, facilities deteriorated, and assets were sold. With the railway broken and staff laid off, HIE stepped in to take over running the snow sports centre in 2019.

After a four-year break and a two-year programme of works to strengthen the viaduct, the funicular opened in January only to close again in August.

HIE say at this point, it can’t provide a date for reopening the railway.

A recent post on Cairngorm Mountain Resort’s Facebook page that confirmed  “technical difficulties alongside the approach of winter have meant that they are currently unable to provide a firm date for the railway reopening” was met with over 140 comments, many despairing.

“What a sad shambles,” wrote one follower.

“Total mismanagement, shut it down and put in chairlifts!,” said another.  

“Should have decommissioned it and put in … high speed chair lifts instead,” wrote another.

The chances of repairs now being completed for this season seem remote, agrees Mr Mountain.

“My concern is that there is snow now on the hilltops and working up there is really difficult at the best of times. I think that the chances of it opening for this season are very slim.

“It would be fine to say ‘we have had enough’, but it’s too important to the local community,” he adds.

“A restriction of the planning permission for it in the first place was that if it is not open it has to be removed, and that will cost a lot of money. That’s the conundrum we find ourselves in.”

The £25m reinstatement programme was funded by the Scottish Government and HIE and led by contractor Balfour Beatty.

However according to HIE ‘snagging’ identified issues with the tension of scarf joint assemblies linking vertical piers with horizontal beams on the funicular viaduct, which were said to fall “below the designated level’.

“Achieving resolution of the tensioning issue has proven more difficult and time-consuming than we had anticipated at the outset,” it added.

Others say the problems run far deeper.

Nick Kemp of Parkswatch Scotland blog, who has investigated funding and the issues surrounding the construction, says even if repairs get it running for a short time, its concrete structure is doomed to always cause problems.

“It’s not going to solve the thing.

“It has taken £25 million to repair it and the thing is still bust.

“HIE continues to give huge subsidy on an annual basis to keep it running.

“The funicular railway will never pay for itself. It’s justified as a loss leader for the rest of the economy, but it’s not contributed to that economy for five years and the area has got on well without it.”

Alan Brattey, of campaign group Save the Ciste, would rather see investment in new chairlifts to replace infrastructure on Coire na Ciste which was suddenly removed in 2016.

“It’s a national disgrace the amount of money that’s been poured in,” he says. “It is an enormous white elephant and from the day it went into service, it never carried anywhere near enough people to be sustainable.

“It has led to an insufficient amount of money coming to the hill business for more than two decades - that’s why the whole place is a museum piece.

“Everything hinges on the funicular railway.”

He adds: “The plug should have been pulled before they tried to fix it again but I suspect they’ll get it running then the begging bowl will come out to the Scottish Government asking for more millions of pounds to replace the concrete viaduct with steel.

“That’s when there will be a major campaign to say ‘don’t do that’, the Scottish public should not be forking out any more money on this joke.

“It needs to be removed from the hill.”

Snow sports enthusiasts have already switched focus, he says.

“People are already not coming, the numbers have collapsed in last six or seven years because people have had enough.

“The mountain hasn’t changed since I went skiing there when I was young. It’s still a great place to ski, but it has not got the lifts that people need.”

Meanwhile, businesses at the sharp end are stuck between weathering the storm and hoping visitors will see beyond the funicular’s problems.

At Snowbadgers Rentals, one employee insisted: “I don’t think anything will stop people coming. There are other things to do like hiking, cross country skiing and there are other ways to access the mountain.

“There’s plenty of positivity in the area and it’s not going to stop us having a good season.”

While Simon Grojec, of Aviemore School of Snowsports, says most are pinning hopes on the weather.  “We need a good winter with as much snow as possible. If there’s not enough, there’s no way to get up to the higher levels.

“What’s really frustrating a lot of people is the lack of communication about what is happening.

“Businesses are trying to plan accordingly, but it’s very difficult.”

At Aviemore and Glenmore Community Trust, which some would like to see take over running the snow sport resort, is also hoping snow and its community-owned ice rink will bring in visitors.

“We are hoping for snow so that all surface lifts can provide access for skiers and boarders,” says a spokesperson

“The rink provides access to winter ice sports and has seen the return of ice hockey, figure skating and the rink’s unique and niche offering of short-curling is proving very popular with visitors.”

As for a public inquiry, Fergus Ewing MSP for Inverness and Nairn and former Minister with responsibility for the ski resorts in Scotland, including Cairngorm, says that would simply soak up even more money.

“The very last thing that we require is a public inquiry. This would take years, cost hundreds of thousands of pounds or even more, and we would learn little or nothing we don't already know.   

“The repairs will be completed, and the railway shall then re-open and it will continue to support much of the local economy and skiing on Cairngorm.”

He adds: “There has never been a shortage of armchair critics over the years, a small but changing cast of those who opposed the funicular, mostly from the outset.

“But the support amongst the local people has been strong and secure.”

Snow sports enthusiasts have already switched focus, he says.

“People are already not coming, the numbers have collapsed in last six or seven years because people have had enough.

“The mountain hasn’t changed since I went skiing there when I was young. It’s still a great place to ski, but it has not got the lifts that people need.”

Meanwhile, businesses at the sharp end are stuck between weathering the storm and hoping visitors will see beyond the funicular’s problems.

At Snowbadgers Rentals, one employee insisted: “I don’t think anything will stop people coming. There are other things to do like hiking, cross country skiing and there are other ways to access the mountain.

“There’s plenty of positivity in the area and it’s not going to stop us having a good season.”

While Simon Grojec, of Aviemore School of Snowsports, says most are pinning hopes on the weather.  “We need a good winter with as much snow as possible. If there’s not enough, there’s no way to get up to the higher levels.

“What’s really frustrating a lot of people is the lack of communication about what is happening.

“Businesses are trying to plan accordingly, but it’s very difficult.”

At Aviemore and Glenmore Community Trust, which some would like to see take over running the snow sport resort, is also hoping snow and its community-owned ice rink will bring in visitors.

“We are hoping for snow so that all surface lifts can provide access for skiers and boarders,” says a spokesperson.

“The rink provides access to winter ice sports and has seen the return of ice hockey, figure skating and the rink’s unique and niche offering of short-curling is proving very popular with visitors.”

As for a public inquiry, Fergus Ewing MSP for Inverness and Nairn and former Minister with responsibility for the ski resorts in Scotland, including Cairngorm, says that would simply soak up even more money.

“The very last thing that we require is a public inquiry. This would take years, cost hundreds of thousands of pounds or even more, and we would learn little or nothing we don't already know.   

“The repairs will be completed, and the railway shall then re-open and it will continue to support much of the local economy and skiing on Cairngorm.”

He adds: “There has never been a shortage of armchair critics over the years, a small but changing cast of those who opposed the funicular, mostly from the outset.

“But the support amongst the local people has been strong and secure.”