Nevis Range Blog

Blue Skys in the park snow is grooming up very nice got a little box out and hopefully have a small kicker in the morning

..                                                                                                                                                                                                                          …

Its been a long time coming Finally got all the rails dug out up at the summit..

The team put in a good shovelling shift ..which let Chris and the new 300 get in and start to tidy things up .. got one rail in today and hope for a small kicker or roller and one more rail tomorrow.

Even managed A little Testing

The new piste basher was finally unloaded at Nevis Range carpark yesterday, in the middle of blizzard like conditions in the car park, fitting for a PistenBully 300 Polar. Coming from a resort in Switzerland, via the the PistenBully factory in Germany where is was reconditioned, it’s ‘new to Nevis’ with just some 3300 hours on the clock.

We’re looking forward to getting it up and out on the slopes as soon as possible! The blade is significantly larger than any of the existing groomers, so will be able to quickly shift 100’s of tonnes of snow around the pistes. Particularly useful building jumps and shifting snow in the summit terrain park.
It’s also got a flex-tiller which will leave a cleaner and much better prepared piste than before.

Now we just have to wait for enough snow to open!

Well its dumping with snow outside, Friday seen the mountain take delivery of Chris’s new toy a 300 polar from the good people at Kassbohrer which will be keeping the park sweet all season.

The runs are all filling in, and it just a matter of time now until the hill opens . Not going to lie getting really stoked for this season!!

Starting the season with some chanting and words to get you all thinking about why we all get so excited when the white stuff starts to fall and were the connection we all feel comes from.

…. Ah yea time to get deep !!!

Snow

Is a form of precipitation within the Earth’s atmosphere in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes that fall from clouds. Since snow is composed of small ice particles, it is a granular material. It has an open and therefore soft structure, unless packed by external pressure. Snowflakes come in a variety of sizes and shapes. Types which fall in the form of a ball due to melting and refreezing

Just as a teardrop is a manifestation of human emotion, and anger is an expression of repressed energy, so physical phenomena actually evolve from and are a manifestation of a spiritual energy. Thus snow is a channel of energy, speaking to us through visual imagery so that we can experience it with our bodily senses.

Tibetan Buddhist Symbols

Snow Lion
The Snow Lion resides in the East and represents unconditional cheerfulness, a mind free of doubt, clear and precise. It has a beauty and dignity resulting from a body and mind that are synchronized. The Snow Lion has a youthful, vibrant energy of goodness and a natural sense of delight. Sometimes the throne of a Buddha is depicted with eight Snowlions on it, in this case, they represent the 8 main Bodhisattva-disciples of Buddha Shakyamuni, the historical Buddha.

Associations: main quality is fearlessness, dominance over mountains, and the earth element.

Our Apologies if this is a little too deep ….

bring on the shred ……

The park team

Over the summer the Engineering team have been busy carrying out lift maintenance on the hill.

They’ve replaced the bearings on the Goose t bar return bull-wheel, which involved removing the haul rope and then lowering the bull-wheel to the ground in order to allow access to the bearings. The old bearings were then removed and replaced with new ones.  The picture shows the Goose t bar return bull-wheel with the haul rope removed and the the bull-wheel sitting on the ground.

On the Quad chair, repairs have been carried out to the seat backs, the safety bars and other moving chair parts, and the chairs are now back on the cable.

All of the spring boxes on the tows have been striped, cleaned, greased and any worn parts have been replaced.  So far the Warrens boxes are loaded and the Goose and the Summit boxes are waiting in situ.

We take grease and oil sampling from all the bull-wheels and gearboxes on the lifts and, depending on the results, we take corrective action, for example,  gear box replacement or refurbishment.  In total, we’ve replaced over 200 sheaves / wheel liners, and there’s an average 8 sheaves / wheels on each lift tower …

On Braveheart, the main engine and auxiliary backup have both received maintenance, including oil and filter changes.  Both the service and emergency brakes have been cleaned and all safety aspects tested. All the chairs have been loaded and 1,000 litres of diesel has been flown over … in preparation for the snow.

The Engineers

Towards the end of last month some mates of the summit park @ Nevis were putting on a music dance night at a night club in Glasgow “Shaka” with a skate, snow, surf vibe, and thought it would be great to do a mini rail jam outside the club.
The concept mini rail jam with real snow from the local dome,
The Summit team and van headed to Glasgow were we met up with the guys from Shaka.

We had a sit down meeting with the night club owner explained the idea,
the meeting went well and we were given the OK.
The local Sno!zone agreed to push some snow outside the night before the Event.” Massive thanks for the snow guys!”

The morning of the event the team assembled out the back of sno!zone and the shovelling began
to keep costs down we removed the seats from the back of the van and bagged up the snow stacking it up in the back then diving it to the club.
With the box and snow in location the team headed into the club which is open as a pub for food during the day and had a burger of the gods to keep the energy levels high…
heading back to the Club for about 9.30pm and started the set up which was in the alley next to the club the riders all started to arrive at 10.30pm not long after things got started.
Not every day you see zombies jibbing a box in a back alley filled with snow in November.

After the Jam all the riders headed to the club and partied like shred zombies should the £1.50 vodka probably helped

If you’re in Glasgow the next Shaka night is on 7th of December @ Chambre69 with two snowboard premieres Yes it’s a movie & Grindhouse followed by the usual shaka nonsense ..£1.50 for a spirit/mix .. yes please …

Hey Hey All,

It’s that time of year again - the mountain bike tracks with gondola access are closed (although the miles of trails in the forest and the Pinemarten cafe bar are still open all year round) and the mountain is preparing for snow.

The team headed up to the summit last week to inspect the ‘’summit terrain park” … to take a closer look at the condition of the features and to see what features need to be taken down to the workshop and repaired before use this season. Weather and snow permitting we hope to build and maintain a great park this season. With the features available, the plan is to build two three-hit lines - the first an easy line, and the second a little more technical, and this will still leave some features unused which will be used out with these lines. As soon as possible we’ll post a Park plan online - to give you an idea of what’s planned for the start of the season.

There’s also plans to host some more snow based events over the season - both in the park and over the back, so watch this space.

Looking forward to a epic season.

The Nevis Park team

The Engineers have been busy building new fencing on the hill … A total of 1200 metres of fencing is either completely new, or has been re built. 900 metres of this fencing is brand new rail style fencing. This rail type of fencing is much cleaner as there’s no wire used in the construction and, ultimately, it improves the look of the mountain and is in keeping with our environmental policy.

The lower part of Warrens run is now completely re-built using wooden rails - a total of 400 meters. The Alpha traverse is now completely re-built to the Goose burn - a total of 200 meters. The Alpha “get off” has been re-aligned to give better access to “Yokies” and Warrens drive. There’s been ongoing repairs to Switch and the Goose up-track. There’s completely new rail fencing on Goose to Fairway and the lower Rabbit run. A new line of rail fence has been built into the rocks from near the Goose drive to the Home Run Bridge which will give much improved access across the burn and will eliminate the dip, making the traverse much easier.

The Engineers

Work in the park began on Boxing Day as we started pushing snow from the Aonach Mor summit down to the Spectre run. This area in the past has been the location for the very large kickers. It takes weeks of pushing snow to build it up, but it’s getting there.

The main terrain park area by then had a very good filling of snow, benefiting from the improved fencing from the summer. We set the first of the rails up (jump on box) at the same time as the smallish kicker on the 7th, quickly followed by the rookie rail. The double “C” was set up next half way down the park, but many be repositioned. The rainbow box had to go down to the garage for some TLC but was quickly back up and in position in the park a few days later.

The remaining rails will be set up soon once we get some settled weather, along with one or two other new features. The dog box is to get new sheeting and will be a couple of weeks yet.

Also, we are currently developing a new addition to the park, which many of you have been asking for … watch this space

CHRIS

We’re looking for a small group of folk to help us help our customers when we’re really busy. You’d work a few hours a day, a few days over the winter, at weekends and at holidays. If you’re willing to give up your sliding time to help people, and talk about the snow & run conditions, about what’s going on and how to keep in touch, then this may be for you. If you’re interested, then please email davie@nevisrange.co.uk telling him why you want to get involved