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Main Boards => General Walking Discussion => Topic started by: Owen on 20:06:10, 03/07/19

Title: ATV taxi to the top of Cairngorm anyone?????
Post by: Owen on 20:06:10, 03/07/19
http://parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2019/07/02/give-hie-an-inch-at-cairn-gorm-and-they-will-take-a-mile-the-ptarmigan-and-atv-tourism/ (http://parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2019/07/02/give-hie-an-inch-at-cairn-gorm-and-they-will-take-a-mile-the-ptarmigan-and-atv-tourism/)


Is nothing sacred? £60 for a ride in an ATV (4x4) up to the summit of Cairngorm.
Title: Re: ATV taxi to the top of Cairngorm anyone?????
Post by: Bigfoot_Mike on 20:22:35, 03/07/19
This sounds a terrible idea. What a wonderful way to ruin a fragile habitat. This reminds me of my late neighbour and friend Keith, who was vehemently opposed to the plans for the funicular railway, believing that this would destroy the environment and be the thin end of the wedge for further development. How right he was. I would have thought that the Snowdon railway and blockhouse on the summit would have put an end to any such development - alas not ( I haven’t seen the new cafe, only the old one).
Title: Re: ATV taxi to the top of Cairngorm anyone?????
Post by: richardh1905 on 22:14:12, 03/07/19

Absolutely shocking behaviour by HIE.


ATVs have NO PLACE in such a fragile environment.
Title: Re: ATV taxi to the top of Cairngorm anyone?????
Post by: fernman on 22:22:06, 03/07/19
The funicular is going to be closed for some time
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-48853067 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-48853067)
so maybe it's an attempt to lure tourists and bring in some alternative income in the meantime?
Title: Re: ATV taxi to the top of Cairngorm anyone?????
Post by: vizzavona on 07:42:07, 04/07/19
An attempt by the folks that work on the mountain to stir the HIE into some action over this problem?
I guess that the offered service will use the existing tracks that have been used by the skiing operations for several decades? Look at the alpine slopes after the snow melts from the skiing areas where attention is paid to maintaining the vegetation and tree life. I can't image that the folks up there would take the vehicle all over the high ground without any consideration for the vegetation.
As the report says it is only money that will fix this scandal.  Shoddy work by those that build the structure holding up the railtrack? The funicular from Bourg saint Maurice up to Les Arcs has been in operation for decades and as far as I know without any problems....maybe they used contractors who did not have shoddy methods of working with concrete?

As the man who passed away in his late thirties, and who would have become a Grand old Master, doctor, musician, writer, raconteur and mountaineer said in his Cairngorm Commentary in 1962...Ten years ago Coire Cas was as dreich a place as you might find anywhere in the Cairngorms. As a Coire it was totally devoid of character.  At the time of writing it contains one large continental type chalet, a chairlift that works occasionally, and on the average week-end in February, upwards of a thousand skiers of all shapes and sizes. I must confess that I now find Coire Cas more stimulating...………………...Nevertheless the danger in the Coire cas sheme is that it may be the forerunner of others which would threaten the finer and more remote fastness of the Cairngorms.
So wrote Tom Patey nearly sixty years ago.
Title: Re: ATV taxi to the top of Cairngorm anyone?????
Post by: richardh1905 on 12:48:57, 04/07/19
I really can't get over the stupidity of this proposal - it's not as if there is a scarcity of summer tourist attractions and activities in the Aviemore area, including off road experiences on far more suitable terrain.
Title: Re: ATV taxi to the top of Cairngorm anyone?????
Post by: vizzavona on 08:47:58, 06/07/19
Richard...You are correct to point out that there opportunities for 4 x 4 trips at a lower level in the Cairngorms.
Yesterday on my afternoon off-road bike ride, a circular one from the wildlife park to the ski road and then out via the Speyside Way section back to Kincraig, I came across a Land Rover full of aged folks on a trip, I guess, of the Rothiemurchus trails....all very friendly and we all shared a few words after they held back at a wide ford that I was in the middle of crossing.,,,and this very close to where you came out of Glen Einich towards the end of your walk to Braeriach.
I think what I was attempting to highlight regarding the Ski area proposal was that the driveable  road in Coire Cas has existed for over fifty years.  Whenever a ski area is developed inevitably some sort of 4x4 rough road, beyond the tarred surface up to the parking area, will happen as does happen in every ski area.
As far as I'm aware during the construction of the funicular railway no extra/new roads were cut on Cairngorm?  Additionally the creep into other coires that the Grand Old Master wrote about did take place with ski uplift constructed into the Coire na Ciste.  The two stage Chairlift has been removed as has the Aonaich T-bar uplift leaving the West Wall Poma tow for skiers in what to many folks is their favourite skiing section on Cairngorm.  Skiers who ski down  to the lower part of the ski road, when conditions of snow level allow, can return to the main area but the regular bus service from the lower parking area. There is still the poorly built old Café come ticket office building to be removed from close to where the Chairlift started.
I guess I am one of the few folks? still around who took their first steps onto Cairngorm when skiers walked from the 'Hayfield' with skis on their shoulders to reach the skiing in Coire Cas....not forgetting we school-age walkers camped on a rough bit of ground, now the modern Camping/Motorhome site at Glenmore.
 



 
Title: Re: ATV taxi to the top of Cairngorm anyone?????
Post by: Owen on 10:41:51, 06/07/19
My understanding, which may well be totally wrong, is that the zigzag road up to the restaurant was meant to be temporary and should have been removed once the funicular was up and running. This obviously hasn't been done. It's this road that will be used by the ATV.
Title: Re: ATV taxi to the top of Cairngorm anyone?????
Post by: vizzavona on 12:51:31, 06/07/19
Hello Owen....the zigzag track is a bypass of the steeper bottom narrower section of the Coire Cas ski run ( vehicle track when the snow melts) is just part of the so called road up to the Ptarmigan area. Combined with another track on the far side of the Cas ski run and finally the traverse from Ptarmigan to Coire Cas all combine to produce a rough road up to the high ground....also a fairly easy ski run down from top to bottom when skiable.
As long as I can recall that track system has existed on Cairngorm since my acquaintance with the area for skiing in the winter of 1975.