Original subtitles

This is the Cairngorm National Park -

Scotland's greatest winter wilderness.

Where snow is a way of life.

Yeah, snow's amazing. We love snow.

Through the depths of winter we'll be following the lives

of the people who depend on Cairngorm for their very survival.

Can't see where we're going but we just go anyway.

We'll witness their battles to keep the mountain open,

whatever the weather.

Every day's different, so, some days we'll come here.

You could use a leaf blower to get rid of it and then,

the next time you come back it's like digging concrete.

Hi, guys!

We'll get to know the struggles of the businesses of Aviemore, serving

thousands of tourists attracted by the snow and the stunning landscape.

If there's snow up there, and it's good snow,

I mean there's thousands and thousands of people can turn up.

And we'll meet the remarkable people who inhabit this very special world.

Everybody's always happy.

May all your children be as cute as the piper.

LAUGHTER

You've just got to try and be as happy as you can.

Welcome to winter on The Mountain.

For the team on Cairngorm, December was a frustrating month.

It's going to break the wind and we're going to catch a lot of snow.

With the big snows came gale force winds.

I like it when it's stormy, especially when it's snowing.

Builds character, I think.

And what skiing there was didn't last for long.

That's us open for the season officially now, weather permitting.

Woo-hoo!

Excuse me. Stop! Whoa!

But, maybe, a wee lull in the wind.

So we might officially open on Monday or Tuesday.

It's 5.30 on a freezing January morning,

and as mountain boss Colin Matthew drives the icy

road from Aviemore to the mountain, he's anticipating a hard day

ahead to get the resort open for the New Year skiers.

A lot of snow on the top half of the hill,

so could be a big digging job this morning.

If the wind subsides today could be a busy day.

First Saturday after New Year.

Some of his team have been on the mountain since 4am.

I can see some lights up near the top of the hill.

So, probably Adam and Tom are up with the machines now.

Ops 1 to Kiwi 2.

'Morning, Colin!'

Morning.

A lot of digging at the tunnel to do for them, Adam?

'It's not too bad, Colin.

'Three or four guys'll get it shifted pretty quick.'

Veteran mechanic Tom Moody is driving the team of diggers

up the mountain.

For Tom, gale-force winds

and a five o'clock start are just another day at the office.

The wind, I would say, is a good 50, 60 miles an hour

with a temperature up here of minus one.

Although it's not every office that needs digging out

when you get there.

We've got a bit of digging here before we even

get into the building!

The door is half buried in snow out there.

Heavy snows are blocking the tunnel mouth that takes the funicular

railway to the upper ski slopes.

Before opening time at 9 o'clock it has to be cleared.

And there's only one way to do that.

By hand.

Snow in Scotland's pretty unique.

It's never consistent.

You can get some of the finest

powder in the world because of our maritime climate.

It's very salty water so it's like...

When it first falls, it's dry,

but only after about a day, it turns into what's called

"Scottish powder", which is a wet slushy state.

By half past seven the team has broken through,

and the tunnel mouth is open.

Yeah! Morning, Stevie!

RADIO STATIC

Yeah, understood, Colin.

Probably need a wee bit of work with the machine. Over.

Iain Cornfoot is checking the ski runs to make sure all

the safety fences and marker poles are in place,

and that the lifts and tows are running freely.

There's a lot of work goes into set-up on a morning like this.

It just means that it's so much work for the guys to do,

and it's borderline with the tows again,

so the guys are having to recheck stuff and de-ice the top tows.

It's busy. It's nice though.

There's no-one about just now so on a morning like this it's nice,

especially after the weather we've had.

All those lights will probably be heading up here very shortly.

So we'd better get going.

At their ski-hire shop 10 miles below the mountain

in Aviemore, Brian and Carol Muirhead have been open

since 7am to catch the crowds before they head up the hill.

You're actually not quite early.

There is people who will be up there just now.

I mean, it is quarter to eight.

There will be people that camped up there for about half

an hour before you. Really?! Oh, yes.

Yesterday, it was very windy. It was 110 yesterday.

So we're hoping today the winds will drop.

At the moment they're digging out the tunnel.

So, it may be an extra 15 minutes before it opens.

But it'll be a good day.

And can we get him a helmet as well? Yeah, no problem.

Big one? Yeah.

That big enough?

Well, especially when I've got it on upside down!

Carol and Brian have been in the ski hire business for almost

30 years, and are beginning to think wistfully of retirement.

OK?

We started together in 1985.

And we're hopefully trying to get rid of it in a couple of years,

or a year.

In you come!

'I've worked with my wife since 1985. I don't have a problem.'

A lot of people have a problem, me working with my wife.

My wife is actually my pal and my drinking buddy,

so it doesn't matter to me.

I don't have a problem being out with my wife all the time.

Quite happy being second in charge!

HE LAUGHS

So, you know where to go. Have a good day. Enjoy.

See you later, guys. Enjoy your day.

Still an awful lot of people who are still here on holiday.

And also, they're going to get the Saturday people arriving,

who are going to be coming up.

So, I reckon, for us,

the next hour and a half to two hours we'll be pretty busy.

Do you want to come in here and, excuse me, take your trousers off?!

Oh!

The message is, "Get out of the bed and get up there!"

'Hey, Col, it's just to say that the 105 traverse,

'all very good skiing.'

And are we clear to start the M1 Poma for access? Over.

By 9 o'clock on the hill, the tunnel mouth is clear,

the ski runs are prepared, the punters are queuing to

get on the slopes, and the boss is a happy man.

Yeah, it's shaping up pretty well there, especially after

going from zero start to a stormbound blizzard yesterday.

The high winds this morning that first came in have just calmed down.

We've got bottom lifts on. Train's ready to go.

Great effort from the team.

Early guys in at four in the morning, five in the morning,

digging the tunnel out.

The same guys that dug the tunnel are working the ski lift.

So, a quick bacon roll and they're back out on their posts.

Yeah, it's looking good.

As the customers keep rolling in,

the pressure is on to get as many runs open as possible.

The West Wall is a Black Run - the most dangerous of all

the mountain ski runs.

Since four o'clock this morning Adam McInnes has been

out in his huge winch cat piste machine,

trying to get it open for the most adventurous skiers.

We've got an anchor point here,

so we're going to use the winch on the back.

So that's going to hold us from sliding down the hill

and when we're coming back up we're going to push a lot of snow

up to build the road, next on the down line of this lift.

Right now we're going down the West Wall Poma track.

It's the longest lift on the hill.

It's a mile long, this Poma, 1,600 metres.

It's also the steepest tow track that we have.

This side of the mountain hasn't been opened yet because we've been

so busy getting the rest of the mountain ready.

See the other car park, the Ciste car park?

That's the overflow car park.

From his vantage point, high on the hill, the sight of all those

paying customers makes the long hours worthwhile.

We put in a lot of hours to make it as good as we can, you know.

We all take a bit of pride in what we do,

and the finish that we leave.

You want it to be the best you can, you know.

In Aviemore, snow or no snow, Fraser Mackinnon, the butcher,

is getting ready for one of the great nights of his year -

celebrating the national bard, with the national dish.

Haggis, big-time haggis weekend.

Burns Weekend this Saturday, so all the Burns Suppers are on.

So we're flat out with haggis.

That's our bread and butter for January,

there's nothing much else going on.

Somebody said yesterday, actually, that they

couldn't believe how nice it was.

He said he'd never tried haggis

and he'd never wanted to face it, he said.

But he just raved about it.

He took half a dozen away back down to England with him.

So we had to warn him that there was a

duty to pay once you crossed the border.

And to make sure that the boot was locked because they get very jumpy.

Very, very jumpy, just about Carlisle.

Now, that's what you call a chieftain haggis.

The chieftain o' the puddin' race.

Fraser's only been running the business here for a few months,

and with plenty of competition from local supermarkets

he knows his survival depends on building a long-term reputation.

Some of the stuff that we do that makes the difference...

What we've got here is our dry-aged roast beef, fully traceable.

We bought this to hang it.

That's why high-end quality steaks in a private butcher's are more

expensive, because they've been hung and they're properly treated.

The difference in the flavour is 100%, 100%.

Don't think there's a private butcher in the land

that's not proud of what he does.

These are just in the cooling process just now.

Never really get time to eat them

cos you're constantly on the move.

So although I look like I eat all the pies...

I very rarely get a chance to eat them!

HE CHUCKLES

Further along the high street, at their ski hire shop, Brian

and Carol have brought in their son Craig to help with the winter rush.

28, 29 years it's been my life, every weekend in the winter,

so you just get in a routine - finish work, finish school,

whatever when you're younger.

You come up here on a Friday, you work the weekends,

then you go back to normality on the Monday.

He's grown up with the ski hire, so Carol's hoping that if they do

retire, they might be able to keep the business in the family.

And with the customers all despatched to the slopes,

the family album comes out.

That's me!

SHE LAUGHS

I was trying to avoid that bit!

This is This Is Your Life! Oh, my goodness!

It just makes you realise just how much of your life you've

spent around skiing and snow, and the children as well.

That's Aviemore.

One thing Brian has learned over the years is just how precarious

life in the ski industry can be in Scotland.

There's four peaks on a ski season.

One being Christmas,

one being New Year, one being mid-term, and one being Easter.

You need to hit two of them for you to make enough money to survive.

The mountain team is now well into January,

and the busy New Year holidays are a fading memory.

They're almost halfway through the winter season

and it still feels like it's hardly got going.

The snow is accompanied by gale force winds.

Brian Fishpool, one of the team of fitters, has been

given the order to close the car park to the public.

Well, the road's filling in bad. Got to keep everyone in the car park

until we've got it safe for them to go down.

But they're just... People are getting a bit anxious

and just slowly creeping down.

It's quite deceiving

cos it doesn't actually look that bad here, but it's the wind.

You can see there, just... Once there's loose snow, that's it,

you're just catching on the road.

There's nothing you can do about the weather, is there? You know?

You just go with it.

Colin Matthew and his team get around the table to assess

the forecast, but he's having a little trouble getting to

grips with modern technology.

Earth wind map?

Just say, "Open wind map" and it'll impress you.

Open wind map.

THEY LAUGH

Open. Earth. Wind. Map.

Just speak normally.

'I'm really sorry about this,

'but I can't take any requests at the moment.'

THEY LAUGH

Back in the real world, Brian gets a call to say that a driver

leaving the car park has got himself into trouble.

The car has hit one of the marker poles at the side of the road

and got wedged on top of it.

I think you've come in, hit it straight on, haven't you? That's it?

I hit it sideways. Yeah, sideways and just bent it,

and then it's just taken it underneath.

We'll get it cut off and then it should pull out all right.

Here's the cavalry, look.

Uncle P-Man's here!

Good old snow tyres. Look!

No chance that gripping in the snow,

like a pair of slippers.

There he is, the Plough King! It's just going to pull him out.

More hands in here. That's it.

All right.

Yeah, job's done, yeah.

Doesn't look like there's too much damage to the man's car.

Pretty lucky, really.

Thanks very much.

'It's a hard... It's a hard industry to be in whatever you're

'doing on the Scottish mountains with the weather.

'It's so unpredictable

'and it's not easy for anyone in the valley who's trying to earn'

a living on the Scottish mountains, I don't think, you know.

It's Sled Dog Day in Aviemore, when enthusiasts

from all over the UK descend on the village to mount up their sleds

and race their huskies through the surrounding forests.

With the mountain closed, there's no action in the ski hire shop,

so Brian's taken the chance of an afternoon off with

his daughter Leigh-ann and baby Aimee.

Oh, behave!

Despite today's lovely weather in the valley, it's

the weather on the mountain that's the main topic of conversation.

They're declaring Sunday to be 90mph at the moment.

So, for them to come out now and say that,

I reckon it'll be pretty bad. Pretty bad.

Some power! We've gone stormbound.

The mountain's stormbound.

And it's even going off that the winds are too strong

even for the train to run.

So, that's pretty, pretty big wind.

But you've got to live with it. Take it on the chin, as they say.

The wind's the big problem.

Just get the wind to settle down, everybody'd be quite happy.

There's Tony, he's got his other dog, the female.

All right, OK?

That'll be the smaller one. Is this the other one, Tony?

This is Frankie's sister.

Oh, right, hello, hello!

You're a lot smaller. Totally different.

How are you doing? How are you doing? Not bad.

And it's a good opportunity to bump into old friends to exchange

a bit of craic about future plans.

What about yourself? You still...

One year. Finishing up in May, June and that's us retiring.

Enough. The lease is up for renewal so that's me.

I'm 61 so time to bail out now.

Anyway, good to see you! It certainly is!

That's one of our bus drivers that used to drive our weekends

and bring them to here, so he's retired as well.

So there we go. Where did Leigh-ann go?

With the ski resort still closed to the public,

the mountain men are quick to find themselves a new challenge.

Jonny couldn't last cos he'll still be...

Jonny will still be...

Four of them have decided to enter The Strathpuffer -

one of the top ten endurance mountain bike events in the world.

Looking forward to it. Just getting everything set up.

Only a couple of hours before we start.

It's held every year outside Strathpeffer, just an hour

north of Aviemore, and none of them have ever done it before.

Just trying to get these negative vibes out of this man.

It's just...

Brian's talking about rice pudding and turbo trainers.

I'm talking about survival!

The race means 24 hours of non-stop cycling, 17 of them in the dark.

And it's P-Man getting the blame!

It really wasn't my idea.

It was, like, somebody mentioned it, and I was, like,

"Oh, yeah, that'd be great if we all did that."

And then it's kind of snowballed a bit from there.

So, I'm getting the blame for it, I think.

Good luck, everyone!

CHEERING

Despite their lack of experience,

they're hoping for a top 30 finish.

It's a team effort,

and Brian Fishpool gets the honour of first man out.

It's a sprint start, so each rider has to run to his bike...

if he can find it.

Well, at least he didn't run past us, like.

So, that's what we were kinda, like...

They're safely away,

but there's still 23 hours of tough cycling ahead.

It's time for a change of rider.

Is there any ice?

No, you're all right.

Well done, P-Man! Good job!

And a big fan has turned up to cheer for Jonny.

Who's going to win? CairnGorm Mountain!

CairnGorm Mountain!

No punctures, Jonny, or you get a forfeit lap!

The fact they're going to be out here all night

and we'll be tucked up in our beds...

I'm quite glad we'll be at home!

We'll text, maybe. See how they're getting on.

Whoo!

It's cold!

Spud the Piper has a different kind of long night ahead of him.

He's in big demand at the many Burns Suppers in the Aviemore area.

I'm just going to wear my traditional number one uniform tonight

because it's quite important, because this is the birthday

of our national bard.

So the only problem is I've had quite a bit of haggis for my

supper that my lovely wife cooked and my tummy's full of haggis.

So, it's kind of difficult for me to bend over to put my socks on.

You know, you have to make sure they're the correct height.

The correct height is three fingers below this bone here.

So, that's it there. Well, that's what I was always taught anyway,

by my father, who's a ex-army pipe major.

So, I have to do it correctly or else he would get cross.

Right, Kaz, I'll see you later. OK, then.

I'll give you a phone if I'm going to be late. OK.

OK. Lots of love. Bye.

Bye-bye. Bye.

Pipes, hat. Yeah, I'm ready.

If the truth was to be known, I'm involved round my life

with a lot of nutters.

Well, that's what we call them here.

People that are not very wise and, you know, just like,

they like a laugh, they like the craic.

And they're better known as nutters.

I would definitely, probably, be called a nutter by...

Well, I know my Highland dancer, she calls me a nutter, so you know.

But it's in a nice way, so... Ah, you know, life would be pretty sad

if you didn't have the craic, would it?! That's what I say.

Oi, oi!

Aviemore's not short of nutters.

Out on the Strathpuffer course the night is going

well for the mountain men.

Well done. We're going pretty fast, which is good.

We're getting lots of laps done, so... But this will really tell.

When we start getting tired.

Smiling at the moment!

I think that's the only thing that's going to get us through.

Just keep smiling, keep enjoying it.

Giving it big "oi, ois" as you come past.

Oi, oi!

Oi, oi!

Let's go. It's the Grant Arms Burns Supper.

So, he told me that they're ready for us,

so it'll just be whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, I think.

Spud is a piping legend, in demand at events all over the world.

He's played for stars like Madonna,

and averages over 50 weddings a year.

But his break into the big-time was inspired by a Burns Supper

so he's got a soft spot for tonight.

It was a lovely man called Mark Alexander.

He phoned me up and he said to me,

"Can you come and pipe for me tonight?"

I said "Yes, no problem". He said, "I need you to address the haggis".

I said, "Oh sorry, I can't". He says, "What do you mean, you can't?"

I said, "I don't know the address."

And he goes to me and says, "Well, you've got six hours to learn it."

So, that's what I did. I just learned it.

Just went into the toilet, the quietest room in the house,

and just learned it verse by verse.

HE PLAYS BAGPIPES

APPLAUSE

Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats and put them in a chair.

'I can remember I was a bit nervous back then, but I made it,

'no problem.'

Our chef, Sean, was out at first light this morning,

in the mountains.

And he managed to capture for us one of these elusive creatures.

And in the words of Rabbie Burns,

one of the world's most famous poets, I now would like to

recite the words he wrote after this wonderful creature.

Morning dawns,

and it's another rain-soaked start for mountain boss Colin Matthew.

Today is World Snow Day.

It's meant to be a worldwide celebration of the joys

of strapping on the skis.

It's a jinx.

I think every World Snow Day we do is... It's either stormed off,

high winds.

We've got snow anyway, so that's a celebration, I suppose.

These people that run resorts in Europe and the Alps,

they've got it easy.

I mean, this is... This is proper skiing. Proper mountain.

They think you're lying or joking when you're saying,

"Aye, we ski in 60 mile an hour winds.

"Heavy snow."

That usually shuts most resorts, but we keep on cranking.

It's pretty miserable just now out there. Look at that!

'It's heavy, wet snow in the middle level

'and then it's rain below that.'

Understood. Thanks, Tom.

Ops 1 to Patrol 1. Are you guys in?

There's still time for a kindly thought for their team

on the 24-hour cycle marathon.

I hope it's no' raining at Strathpuffer.

'I hope it is. I hope there's locusts

'and all sorts of pestilence and so they'll not do it again.'

With blizzard conditions raging above him, Colin's biggest

challenge this morning is to get his daily Facebook report posted.

Right, how can I make this sound appealing?

"Welcome to World Snow Day. Not."

At the Strathpuffer there's only four more hours' hard pedalling to go,

and Brian has developed his own unique strategy for getting

through the night.

Brian's just about gone in to beast mode.

Even though he's only got one more lap to do, he's getting in the zone.

He's actually listening to ABBA.

Justin Bieber and ABBA.

Yeah.

He tries to make out it's something cool, but...

Just sing, "The wheels on the bike go round and round."

HE LAUGHS

Come on!

Back At Base Station, Colin admits defeat.

World Snow Day has turned into No Show Day.

Yeah, that's affirmative. Everything cancelled.

I wouldn't even put the dog out in that. Would I?

See? A wee biscuit keeps everybody happy.

The finishing line is finally in sight.

Go on, P-Man. Come on!

Oi, oi, oi, oi, oi!

And the boys get back more or less in one piece.

Back, the boy's back!

For first-timers they did a great job.

They made it into the top 30, coming 27th out of 85.

The honour of the mountain has been upheld.

Well done, P-Man, good effort, mate.

30 laps. We're all happy with that, I think. Yeah.

Yeah. Chuffed.

Next time on The Mountain, the village has to lend a hand,

and a shovel, to get the train back on its tracks.

We've somehow managed to buy the only

funicular in the world that's snookered by snow, but hey!

Simon decides that what Aviemore really

needs in the depths of winter is a beach party.

It's not a full bar but a busy bar, so all is good.

I'm so nervous now.

And after 10 months off with two broken ankles,

barman Brett Drummond gets back boarding.

All right.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd