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 Cairn Gorm for their very survival.

Can't see where we're going, but we'll 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 is 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.

Cairn Gorm is in the midst of one of its stormiest winters in decades.

It's January. It's never nice in January, or February.

If it is, it's a lucky day.

The mountain team have been battling against the elements to make

the most of the good days.

It's borderline with the tows again,

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

It's busy.

It's February. Half-term holidays are just a week away,

but snowstorms are playing havoc with mountain infrastructure.

Do you want us to get the return wheel or not? Yeah.

Ski tows are getting buried. 'We're not going to get this open today,'

just the amount of snow we need to shift, but we'll get there, slowly.

Buildings are disappearing, and the funicular railway, vital to

transporting skiers up the mountain, is under constant threat.

Today, I'm digging this out,

and it'll just be filled up again tomorrow.

The man responsible for moving the thousands of tonnes of snow

that's crippling the ski area is Adam McInnes...

The ski patrol entrance, up to the eaves.

A lot of snow in there, uh?

HE LAUGHS

Top's already buried, so

there's no point in wasting machine time

and man-hour time digging it out

if it's just going to fill in again tomorrow, you know.

Aye, we'll do what we can.

But...you know there's a storm coming.

The snow that Adam is delicately traversing in his piste

machine is 8m deep, changing the landscape completely.

No, it's incredible. You see it most years,

just how much snow a storm can bring in, you know.

You've got ropes above you and fences below you...

and big drops, you know.

The half-term holidays are a key moment for the ski resort.

A successful week will mean the difference between a great

season and a poor one.

Head of operations, Colin Matthew, has got to make sure the train

and lifts are ready for the rush.

Masses of snow after that storm.

Huge drifts round the top station, the tunnel mouth.

So the whole team's just, sort of, digging out.

The sheer volume of snow, it's just amazing, from mid-mountain up.

And if we just, er, keep consolidating

the snow we've got for half-term, it's looking pretty promising.

Pretty upbeat.

If we get a good half-term...

it can make and break the whole season, really.

Yes, we've got snow at this level.

Just a pity the wind wouldn't go down and then

we could get a bit of skiing done.

The ski patrol team is heading to the top of the ski

runs to see what's needing done to get them

in good shape before the skiers and snowboarders arrive.

First light, so we're just having a wee look about.

Lot of snow over the last couple of days.

Machines are just piste-ing out the lower slopes.

And it isn't long before Iain has an unusually snowy problem to

contend with.

Someone's broke the lock on it. They've actually wrecked it? Yeah.

There's a small office for the patrollers halfway up the hill,

and someone's broken in to it.

It's hard enough trying to get going when there's been

a storm, let alone trying to dig out some of the buildings and stuff.

They expect to be shifting snow off the slopes -

they hadn't bargained on doing it for desks and telephones.

Most people have to dig snow out of their office first

thing in the morning, then...

HE LAUGHS

Need to get back in. Yeah.

Ten miles below the mountain,

the village of Aviemore is basking in very different weather.

The businesses in the village rely on the snow to

attract their customers,

and they are all gearing up for a very busy half-term.

Three years ago, Londoners Simon

and Tanja Hughes moved to Aviemore to manage Pine Bank Holiday Chalets.

'How often in life are you going to be presented with

'an opportunity like this?'

We love it here, and really settled, and...

it is just a good place to live, you know.

The chalet park is owned by Simon's father,

and the couple are working hard to modernise it.

This is one of our oldest chalets.

There's been a lot done to it over the years, new windows and new

roof and things, but in order to get it to the standard that we think

it should be, we have to spend quite a significant amount of money on it.

We're trying to move forward all the time, I suppose,

and, sort of, meet and exceed expectations,

and the expectations are always changing.

Money's tight for the young couple.

Shortly after taking on the chalets, they bought over local bar

Super Panther, to try to bring in more cash,

and then baby Maisie arrived.

Off up to Super Panther to have a chat over a few things

and talk about a party that they're planning in a couple of weeks.

There we go, all wrapped up.

I guess I'm quite lucky, in many ways, that Maisie can

come along to my business meetings.

To begin with it was very hard because I wasn't able to help Simon

at all, and he was basically running the two businesses on his own.

I mean, that's one of the reasons I'm up, erm, sorting out

the bar for Simon, because he's obviously focused on the chalets.

Oh, I'm out of breath, I'm unfit!

Hello!

Simon and Tanja want their bar manager Jeremy to come up

with some new party ideas to attract the half-term custom.

Can you give me a hand?

But it's soon clear that there's a difference of opinion on the available budget.

I really want to get some decent posters.

OK, last posters. We're not paying to get them printed.

You're not?

It's not going to generate any money, Jez. What's the point?

It won't. It's just throwing money at something and it's not...

You know, we'll spend money on things that will generate money.

Printing posters, or printing themselves is not going to generate any more money.

But everything that we do...

looks cheap.

Because it's done in-house.

Cos we've got no money. I mean, Jez, seriously,

asking Simon to pay 50 quid already is like pulling his teeth out.

It's coming out of his pocket.

It's just not going to happen.

BABY CRIES

Oh, what is it? You can't just throw it on the floor.

Jeremy goes back to the drawing board.

All right.

CairnGorm Mountain is a unique ski resort in Britain,

and that's partly down to its funicular railway.

Opened in December 2001,

the funicular can carry up to 120 skiers, from the base station

to the Ptarmigan visitor centre at the top, in just five minutes.

But its controversial

and much debated design can create havoc during the winter months.

Managed to buy the only funicular in the world that is snookered by snow,

but, hey, you know, keeps us fit.

With the track acting as a huge snow fence, the team are often left

to clear this 21st century masterpiece from tonnes

of snow in a much more Victorian way.

It's for poor lifties only.

At the tunnel mouth, chief digger, Whopper, is in charge of the digging team.

Been here since seven. Done the bottom of the track first thing.

Been here since eight.

What's the time just now?

After ten?

This is the 25th time this season that the team have had

to clear the tunnel-mouth and track.

Maybe lunchtime before we get going.

Five hours on the track.

HE LAUGHS

At Pine Bank, Tanja reports back to Simon on the outcome of her

discussion with bar manager Jeremy at Super Panther.

How did it go with Jez?

Yeah, fine. Yeah? I think

he's a bit annoyed that we don't want...

Well, I said we didn't want to pay to get the posters professionally printed.

Where are they going to go, you know?

Well, that's what I said.

You know, it's not going to generate any extra, you know, people,

income or...

So, I think his ideas are good. Yeah.

And he's e-mailed over posters and things.

We need to do that this weekend.

Cool. OK.

All right. I'm going to go and see if the stove's in.

Ooh. Want to come?

I wouldn't mind seeing it, actually. Can you just hold Maisie, while I get...?

As part of their updating of the chalets,

Simon's been getting wood-burning stoves installed.

Whoa! Yeah, it's good.

No smoke's coming in the room. No. Looks good in here.

Does, doesn't it? Yeah.

Yay. Good. Stove number two.

The business is...it's slowly improving, isn't it? Year on year.

Yeah, yeah, year on year.

Our three years here, we've increased turnover every year.

Yeah. There's still room to improve our occupancy, which is why,

you know, one of the reasons we're doing some work, just to,

sort of, make them more appealing.

But it's going well. Can't complain.

Yeah.

High on the mountain, beyond the ski slopes,

the heavy snow that attracts the visitors holds its own dangers.

A walker is reported to have fallen through a cornice.

Iain Cornfoot leads the ski patrol on a rescue mission.

He's fallen and possibly broken his ankle, we've heard.

But the area that he's in is very avalanche prone.

We've had a lot of heavy snow this morning on a...

quite a strong westerly wind, which is filling in that area.

So...the problem for us just now is how we protect

against an avalanche, if we're putting people on there to rescue them.

And at this point, we have to make a decision if we're even

going to put people in there.

Yeah, he's fully 30m up.

He's not far up, he's pretty far on the slope.

Just going to take a ski sledge.

Weather's pretty horrible, poor visibility,

but we'll try to get the guy to walk off if he can, onto safer ground.

Make it a bit safer for us.

A planned evacuation on this guy,

to see whether we need to connect everyone up the hill or...

With the high risk of avalanche, Iain makes the call to hold

back at a safe distance whilst the climber's friend lowers him down.

One of us under each shoulder maybe?

Yeah. Just walk him down.

All the pre-season training that the ski patrollers have undergone

is paying dividends.

Jim, do you want to put the bag down, and we'll just put Jim

straight into it and then put a splint on from there?

Yeah, thank you!

Well done. Thank you. Yeah, we just

splinted the gentleman's leg.

We're going to get him strapped into the stretcher and head down to the base.

Just pretty much the standard, sort of, ski injury, and we'll have a look down there.

Might take this up to here, first of all, John.

How does that feel? Not too tight anywhere? No, it's all right.

All right, Iain?

Yeah, just leaving the site just now.

Probably just myself and Jim, head down with the gentleman. Over.

Thanks, guys! Cheers.

The guy was pretty cold so we just did a quick scoop and run.

He's twisted his ankle on the way down, probably broken his lower leg.

And then as he's managed to arrest his fall,

he's still on an area which is high avalanche risk.

And if we had have put additional people in there, additional loading on that slope,

then it could have triggered the avalanche.

The police had already called an ambulance

so they were waiting. Quick handover and he's on the way to hospital.

I guess people have to take a certain responsibility for themselves,

and that was good.

His friends and a couple other people who went to help, to get him down to a safe location.

The Super Panther team has finally decided that what Aviemore

most needs in the depths of winter is...a beach party!

We're basically going to fill the inside of the bar with sand

and make it into a fake beach.

Jeremy has ordered up two tonnes of builders'

sand to convert the bar into something a bit special.

I'm going to move...table, what would be table two, move these

across a bit further and just come out to this...length here, and then...

Jeremy's in charge. I've got work to do at the chalet, so it's busy.

Busy departure day, Sunday.

Yeah, lots of chalets leaving,

quite a few coming back in.

So, yeah, need to head back there.

CLAPPING

Crack on. Has he turned up just in time? Yeah.

It's hard enough just to run one business, you know, but to have to

run his father's business and to own his own business, I couldn't do it.

To be fair.

And I think, you know, that's why Simon does struggle with it all,

and at times he's probably found that he can't give everything

100%. There's only one of him

and he can only be in one place at one time, so,

yeah, it's hard.

Jez, I'll get some photos and stick them on Facebook, yeah?

Super Panther is now transformed and ready for the big beach party.

It looks good, yeah?

Aviemore's hottest night of the winter!

It looks brilliant.

It's a shame we couldn't have filled the whole thing,

but I think Simon didn't like the idea. I think two

tonnes of sand was probably enough for him to shovel this morning!

It's harder work than our nine-to-five jobs that we did before,

and you worry a lot more cos you have more invested, obviously.

But then, I wouldn't change it, you know.

It's really nice to be doing this.

And also, to be able to do something, you know,

while I have a baby.

Just...

It does keep me, you know... Just a couple of hours a day,

it's just nice to do something that's, you know,

maybe not baby-related, you know.

As the party gets under way,

the customers are not the only ones feeling the joys of summer.

Yeah, very good. Yeah, we got busy, so, can't ask for more.

So, yeah. Not a full bar, but a busy bar.

So, all is good.

And Aviemore knows how to party, whatever the weather.

Along the road at the Ski-ing Doo, another party is well under

way, as resident barman and keen snowboarder, Brett Drummond,

keeps the CairnGorm ski hire team well watered.

These reprobates! These are our finest customers. Ski hire!

HE LAUGHS

The CairnGorm crew. Looking good, Sarah!

It's one of the boys' leaving nights

so they're having a good send-off for him by the looks of it.

Aviemore born and bred, Brett's been boarding up here all his life.

I'd happily live up here for the rest of my life,

and that's being a local, you know.

I love travelling but this'll always be my home. For sure.

Last season Brett broke both of his ankles,

a consequence of pushing himself too far on one of Cairn Gorm's ski jumps.

How's your day been?

Er, pretty chilled out. Trying to get my ankle back to normal.

It's been abnormally sore, but I'm going to the hospital... What have you done?

I don't know. When I sneeze, you know you get that feeling through your body?

It turns into pain in my ankle. It's the strangest thing.

It has a different effect for me!

THEY LAUGH

Like an itch you can't scratch, Brett will have to wait it out.

Have you seen this? That's from this morning.

Oh, wow!

The direct feed from the mountain webcams are a constant

reminder of what he's missing.

Just a shame I can't use it!

Finally, the sun is shining

and the half-term customers are beginning to arrive on Cairn Gorm.

But only half the mountain can open today.

The funicular railway is buried yet again.

It's a continuing headache for head of operations, Colin Matthew.

I wish it would just all settle down for half-term.

Big weekend coming up. That's a big weekend.

Monday, potentially our busiest day of the year.

So, who knows?

The mountain teams are well used to clearing the tracks,

but nothing on a scale like this.

Dig the train out, fills in again.

Dig the train out, fills in again!

Enough is enough. Colin comes up with a cunning plan.

It's Dig Like A Dog Day.

Volunteers are being summoned up from Aviemore and the

surrounding villages, to help save the mountain's weekend.

50 of them.

OK, guys. My name's Jim.

Thanks very much for volunteering to help us out.

A chap called Whopper, who's in charge of our lifty crew.

If you've got any problems, come and see myself and Whopper

and we'll try and sort it out.

You want some help with digging? Yeah, if you want to help?

The half-term customers are already arriving,

the queues are lengthening, so with only the lower ski slopes open,

the volunteers need to dig hard, and get this train running, fast.

Obviously, it's half-term and the whole valley relies on this

place being open and getting people here.

Guest houses, pubs, shops, the whole lot.

It affects everybody, you know.

This is probably the... Coming into the busiest week of the year.

So, if we can get this open tomorrow, it'll be a big bonus.

Good progress. See that there, right?

That's pretty much bang on perfect.

Might even be done in half an hour for here.

That's great.

This is the easy bit, though.

Out of the wind, not blowing back in when you're shovelling it out.

So, yeah, it'll be a lot more challenging further up.

To help with the challenge of clearing the drifts from the track,

one of Cairn Gorm's longest-serving characters gets called into action.

The line here, like, never ever seen it that deep in here, like.

Nothing like it.

There's 40 feet of snow down there, over that bank. Easily, like.

I haven't seen that before.

For over 40 years, Tom Moody has worked on Cairn Gorm's slopes.

He's seen plenty of changes over his time on the hill,

including the construction of the railway.

We'd poor winters after it was built and it was 2010

when they got a real bad one.

And this was like this then, like, you know?

But I don't think it was... It wasn't even as bad as this, though.

You know, we'd a bit of snow,

but no' of the depth and length of snow that there is in here, like.

Definitely a lot more this time.

Saving the volunteers valuable time and effort,

Tom coolly scrapes away tonnes of snow from the side of the track.

Aye, it's handy having that concrete line there, just to keep you right.

You can just skiff down the side of it here

and it just peels off as nice as you like.

That'll do it.

That's me finished this bit here. It's time for lunch.

The pressure of running both their businesses

and a family has been building on Simon and Tanja.

In the cold light of day,

they've made a big decision about their bar, Super Panther.

Super Panther, we've put on the market...

..just cos it's... It was a difficult decision.

Not what we wanted to do, but... No, it's...

When we took it on, Maisie was not even a collection of cells.

We didn't have Maisie. Oh! A ghost!

Now, you know, we want to have days where we take Maisie out

and enjoy her.

And, I mean, Simon's been working, well, every day

and often in the evening, as well.

Yeah, in the summer, I'd do days here and night shifts up there.

And it's... It's no life, you know.

I mean, that's one of the reasons we, sort of,

left the London rat race, to kind of get a bit of quality of life back.

So it's farewell, Super Panther,

and time to concentrate on making a big success of the chalet business.

The big dig is making good progress, and in the funicular control room,

train driver, Jules Roberts, is finally preparing for a trial run.

This is our monitor which shows us what's going on

at the tunnel mouth.

The wind is the only thing that really stops the train,

other than huge amounts of snow, which we have at the moment.

Ah, she lives!

The tunnel door is open. The train is ready to roll.

Tunnel's pretty much done, then it's just this last section here.

And I think, hopefully, we can move the train.

Yeah, I'm clear. Fire that bad boy up.

Oh! OK.

The wheels are turning, over.

After being dumped with more snow than a railway can handle,

the funicular is, finally, operational.

It's looking very good.

I think we should be a go, and we'll make some very happy campers.

The hard work of all the volunteers has saved the day.

The resort is now fully open for business.

Is that us? Yes.

Aye. Do me.

The tracks are clear, the train is full, the wheels are turning.

It looks pretty snowy.

Yeah, it looks good.

And with snowboard at the ready, ankles repaired,

Brett is finally going boarding again.

I'm so nervous now.

Good God!

It actually feels really good.

It's all feeling really good. All right.

After a hugely frustrating winter, Cairn Gorm is finally delivering.

3,200 people on site today, which is a massive achievement.

The queues weren't that bad, once people got spread out.

It was quite a really successful day.

Always wanting to raise the bar, Colin has arranged

for floodlit skiing, extending the half-term holidays into the night.

And he's roped in fitter, P-Man, to help with the floodlights.

That's the worst thing about carrying a radio.

There's always a job at the end of it!

Just waiting on them warming up.

The sooner they warm up, the sooner I get tea.

There's one, there's two, there's three...

A-hem!

There's three. There you go.

Tea-time.

P-Man can get his brew and for Colin,

the incredible hard work from the team and all the volunteers

has been worth the effort.

I never thought there'd be so many people at night.

It was just amazing, the amount of people who stayed on.

It was a bit gobsmacking how many people...

So yeah, perfect day.

Half-term, one of our busiest days for many years, so it's real good.

It was incredible, yeah.

A lot better than I was expecting, which was really good, yeah.

I did two runs, so I'm going to claim that and then go

and have a beer, I think.

High-five everyone. Give them lots of cuddles!

Next time on The Mountain, a hard season starts to take its toll...

There's a real, real loud

labouring sound coming from the motor.

Spud The Piper attempts to ski on the white stuff...

And it's competition season on Cairn Gorm.

Oh, yeah. That was some money, yeah, money for that!