CAIRNGORM MOUNTAIN - A PANTOMIME AND A TRAGEDY

George Allan

The sorry saga of the Cairngorm ski area over the past few years would be bizarrely amusing if it didn't have such serious implications for skiing in Scotland and numerous businesses on Speyside. Readers of Nick Kempe's excellent Parkswatch blog will be aware of the financial and management complexities; suffice to list here the key issues:

• Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) choose Natural Retreats as the operator of Cairngorm Mountain, a company with no experience of managing skiing facilities- why? This was the company one of whose first statements was to make the grandiose claim that Cairngorm would host the Winter X Games.
  
• Natural Retreats invested little in the infrastructure while very significant management and administration fees went out from Cairngorm Mountain Ltd to the parent company. In January, two tows were taken out of action on safety grounds because of lack of maintenance.
  
• Cairngorm Mountain Ltd was unable to decide how to increase revenue. Firstly major plans to develop the Day Lodge were produced and quickly abandoned and then an application was submitted to build two artificial ski slopes adjacent to the car park; this application, which NEMT objected to because of the visual impact, was rejected by the Park. Plans to develop the Ptarmigan are still under consideration.
  
• The company constructed a track and made alterations to the terrain without planning consent.
  
• A welcome clear up of the whole area was undertaken but this could have been done more thoroughly. Part of this exercise involved the controversial removal of unused uplift which some hoped might have been brought back into use.
  
• Major structural problems have halted the funicular and it will remain closed throughout the coming summer.
  
• Late last autumn, Cairngorm Mountain Ltd went into receivership and HIE took over the running of the facility.

Throughout all this NEMT had been pressing the authorities to produce the long awaited 'masterplan' for Cairngorm Mountain promised under the Cairngorm and Glenmore Strategy. Finally Cairngorm Mountain produced a rather thin paper but this was immediately superseded by the document 'Review of Uplift Facilities at Cairngorm Mountain' commissioned externally by HIE. This lays out a ten year plan with an estimated price tag of £27m. It includes new uplift, with the funicular being relegated to ski school and non-skier use, along with additional snow making and a remodeled Ptarmigan. Proposed non skiing infrastructure includes a mountain coaster, a zip wire and an extensive lift served mountain biking system.

One of the main features of Natural Retreat's custodianship and HIE's oversight role has been secrecy and an unwillingness to engage with skiers, the Speyside community and environmental bodies. Before another penny is spent, some sort of external inquiry, completely separate from HIE, must be launched. While this should address past failings, more importantly it should consider whether the proposals in the 'review of uplift' are desirable, affordable and sustainable so that a more settled future for the mountain can be assured, particularly as climate change is altering the potential for downhill skiing in Scotland. Furthermore, who should manage the facility and what government agency should be responsible overall. The Aviemore and Glenmore Community Trust are still waiting in the wings with proposals for community management. The catalogue of problems under HIE's watch suggests that HIE, itself, is not the right body to hold overall responsibility.

NEMT's ongoing focus is the environment. Management of the existing infrastructure and any new developments must be carried out in ways which not only ensure that the area itself is safeguarded, and, where possible, enhanced, but also that the whole northern side of plateau is protected. With this in mind, we do have anxieties about the visual impact of an alpine coaster, a zip wire and extensive mountain biking trails. Regarding the latter, there is the concern that biking high on the mountain will encourage more people to venture on wheels across the plateau.

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