Who's going skiing and where - 2021 #postcrisis
Discussion
Lord Marylebone said:
I feel sorry for all those who have businesses and suchlike in the Ski areas. Awful.
A lot of smaller operators have already written this season off as much as they can, Hunkered down, reduce costs as much as possible, assume little/no revenue, make a loss and carry it forward as Directors or Other Loans.Grateful for any bookings but ring fencing all clients money until after they’ve been in case it has to be refunded.
Marcellus said:
Lord Marylebone said:
I feel sorry for all those who have businesses and suchlike in the Ski areas. Awful.
A lot of smaller operators have already written this season off as much as they can, Hunkered down, reduce costs as much as possible, assume little/no revenue, make a loss and carry it forward as Directors or Other Loans.Grateful for any bookings but ring fencing all clients money until after they’ve been in case it has to be refunded.
eps said:
Yep, it's going to be brutal for some. Although by 'reducing costs' I guess some members of staff would be left with little or no income.. Does furlough exist in the Alps? Although some should have saved for a rainy day, some prices in resort are eye watering.
Seasonal staff have big gaps in income, even if they have summer work as well. Being able to rent/buy within a commute of the workplace is also very expensive, so there may not be much slack to save for a rainy day.... and who could predict the impact of pandemic?
Condi said:
Welshbeef said:
Those living in country and who can drive to resort will no doubt have a great season.
Birmingham to Glencoe is 7 or 8 hours. Doable on a Friday night, if you wanted. Flight from London to Edinburgh only an hour.
vaud said:
eps said:
Yep, it's going to be brutal for some. Although by 'reducing costs' I guess some members of staff would be left with little or no income.. Does furlough exist in the Alps? Although some should have saved for a rainy day, some prices in resort are eye watering.
Seasonal staff have big gaps in income, even if they have summer work as well. Being able to rent/buy within a commute of the workplace is also very expensive, so there may not be much slack to save for a rainy day.... and who could predict the impact of pandemic?Most ski resort workers I have spoken to say they pretty much live hand to mouth, even if they have been doing it for 30 or 40 years.
The guys working in the hotels, bars and restaurants often move to the beach resorts to work the summer season, and the ski instructors, lift operators, airport transfer drivers etc often switch to building/labouring in the summer.
So many of them could be hit massively by this.
lemmingjames said:
Welshbeef said:
Is it worth advance buying Scottish ski passes else thousands of other skiers might max out all capacity.
Yes definitely, and travel insurance, and tyre insurance, and a tent just encase there's no accommodation 
The real issue comes, of course, when you consider that it is entirely impossible to predict conditions in Scotland more than 3 days in advance, so planning a trip that might be some months away is sheer folly; there is a distinctly non-trivial chance that the lifts will be unable to run, or simply that there won't be any snow. Plus of course the rather more practical point that so far as I know, none of the resorts sell day tickets in advance.
deckster said:
To be fair, it's not an unreasonable question. Scottish resorts are small and on good weekends it is not unknown for them to fill up and stop selling ski passes by mid-morning. You definitely should plan to arrive early; this was the ticket queue at Glencoe at 9am on a decent Friday back in March 2018.
The real issue comes, of course, when you consider that it is entirely impossible to predict conditions in Scotland more than 3 days in advance, so planning a trip that might be some months away is sheer folly; there is a distinctly non-trivial chance that the lifts will be unable to run, or simply that there won't be any snow. Plus of course the rather more practical point that so far as I know, none of the resorts sell day tickets in advance.
This is sage advice.The real issue comes, of course, when you consider that it is entirely impossible to predict conditions in Scotland more than 3 days in advance, so planning a trip that might be some months away is sheer folly; there is a distinctly non-trivial chance that the lifts will be unable to run, or simply that there won't be any snow. Plus of course the rather more practical point that so far as I know, none of the resorts sell day tickets in advance.
Just for something different, we went to Aviemore for New Year a couple of years ago. While we were there, we drove up to the Cairngorm ski area and it was all just grass. There was one snow machine blowing snow onto a small tennis court sized patch for some kids to slide down.
The whole place looked run down, the funicular railway was broken (and has been for years), and it just all looked very sad. Apparently the snow is really hit and miss up in Scotland now.
Worse still, I later read that they got cocky over the success of the funicular railway for uplift of skiers to the top, and then set about dismantling loads of their chair and T bar lifts that also went from car park level.
Now that the funicular railway is broken, they have barely got any uplift left to get skiers up the mountain.
Lord Marylebone said:
Just for something different, we went to Aviemore for New Year a couple of years ago. While we were there, we drove up to the Cairngorm ski area and it was all just grass. There was one snow machine blowing snow onto a small tennis court sized patch for some kids to slide down.
The whole place looked run down, the funicular railway was broken (and has been for years), and it just all looked very sad. Apparently the snow is really hit and miss up in Scotland now.
Worse still, I later read that they got cocky over the success of the funicular railway for uplift of skiers to the top, and then set about dismantling loads of their chair and T bar lifts that also went from car park level.
Now that the funicular railway is broken, they have barely got any uplift left to get skiers up the mountain.
Cairngorm has been a clusterfThe whole place looked run down, the funicular railway was broken (and has been for years), and it just all looked very sad. Apparently the snow is really hit and miss up in Scotland now.
Worse still, I later read that they got cocky over the success of the funicular railway for uplift of skiers to the top, and then set about dismantling loads of their chair and T bar lifts that also went from car park level.
Now that the funicular railway is broken, they have barely got any uplift left to get skiers up the mountain.
k for years now. Apologies for Facebook link but if you read back far enough this https://www.facebook.com/savetheciste/ goes into some detail of the whole sorry story.On the plus side, further west things are much brighter with Nevis Range and Glencoe both investing heavily in infrastructure, to the extent that as above they are becoming victims of their own success. And when it's good, it's really good. The first of these was taken the same day that as the queue picture above, and the second was Nevis Range just before lockdown this year.
Switzerland has just removed the requirement for visitors from the U.K. (and most other countries) to quarantine on arrival. It’s not really the good news that it appears - the logic being that there are so many domestic cases that quarantine makes no difference.
Edited by telford_mike on Wednesday 28th October 17:42
deckster said:
Cairngorm has been a clusterfk for years now. Apologies for Facebook link but if you read back far enough this https://www.facebook.com/savetheciste/ goes into some detail of the whole sorry story.
On the plus side, further west things are much brighter with Nevis Range and Glencoe both investing heavily in infrastructure, to the extent that as above they are becoming victims of their own success. And when it's good, it's really good. The first of these was taken the same day that as the queue picture above, and the second was Nevis Range just before lockdown this year.
agreed, plenty of the discussions all over the internet. but the latest figure is circa £20mil being given to cairngorm to fix the train and keep the lights on for a little longer!!! adding up everything they’ve been given i think it’s up £30-40mil over the last 10-20 years!! which is scandalous considering none of the other resorts get any serious government. backing and have to make a proper go of things on their own. k for years now. Apologies for Facebook link but if you read back far enough this https://www.facebook.com/savetheciste/ goes into some detail of the whole sorry story.On the plus side, further west things are much brighter with Nevis Range and Glencoe both investing heavily in infrastructure, to the extent that as above they are becoming victims of their own success. And when it's good, it's really good. The first of these was taken the same day that as the queue picture above, and the second was Nevis Range just before lockdown this year.
also you will probably need to be buying tickets in advance for skiing in scotland this season. how she’s have already announced their plans (on their website) and basically lift tickets and parking need to be booked 24hrs minimum in advance. i expect others to make similar plans
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