Episode 1 The Mountain

Summer has come to the mountain.

Midges are brutal today.

Welcome to Scotland.

Argh! This is beautiful! Argh!

It's been a long, hard winter...

..but the summer season brings thousands of visitors

to Scotland's top outdoor adventure playground.

And, for the people of Cairngorm, that brings new challenges.

We've just discovered a gas leak.

Wooo!

In this episode - a couple try to make their music festival pay.

I think it will work this time.

Hi, guys.

The new boss, who's trying to step into his father's shoes.

He always used to say, "One year, this will all be yours, son.

"One year later, it will all be the bank's."

And work on the funicular comes to a screeching halt.

Stop, stop, stop, stop.

Welcome to summer on the mountain.

Whoa!

Windy up here.

On the mountain ridges of Cairngorm, winter is in retreat

and spring is in the air.

-RADIO:

-'You're listening to Wake Up With Speysound.'

Adam McInnes is on his morning commute.

6.30 in the morning, head to work.

It's nice weather for a change.

Nice and dry, no wind.

So hopefully it stays like this.

He leads the team of fitters and mechanics whose job it is to keep

the Cairngorm ski resort one of Scotland's top tourist attractions.

And their work doesn't stop when the snow melts.

As soon as the skiing's finished, you know,

summer kicks in for us guys. It's more busy in the summer, you know?

It's just ten miles from Aviemore to the mountain's base station.

It's not a bad commute to work, eh?

Not an office person.

In the summer months, the spectacular landscape

draws visitors in their thousands.

For many, the best way to experience it is a trip on

Scotland's only funicular railway.

This is the highest funicular in the UK,

and it first climbed its two-kilometre track in 2001.

The two cable cars are connected by a haul rope,

one climbing as the other descends.

The train can carry a quarter of a million visitors a year.

So it's in urgent need of a major overhaul.

The train's going to be shut down for six days.

There's never a good time to do it.

For mountain boss Colin Matthew,

closing the train to paying passengers means

no cash coming in, but plenty going out.

Another thousand pounds' worth of kit arrived today.

This is the running gear and suspension

and wheels that the train carriage sits on.

We've three or four different contractors in working on this project.

A lot of planning going into it. Deliveries from Europe,

customs, VAT. Nothing is simple, is it?

It's going to be a busy few days, so fitter Iain Pentland,

known to all as P-Man, is grabbing a quick breakfast.

He explains in detail all the technicalities of the work involved.

HE MUMBLES INCOMPREHENSIBLY

The pressure's on to get the work done in time,

but Adam needs to make sure no corners are cut.

They've got 120 skiers on here in the winter time.

If something was to go wrong...

..I dread to think what could happen.

Probably busier than the winter.

Everyone thinks we just go to sleep in some heather somewhere, but no.

No, we're up to our eyes.

There's a lot of work behind the scenes but nobody sees it.

Stop.

That's spot-on there.

The first big job is to hoist the 16-tonne carriage off the tracks,

so that old worn-out bogies can be disconnected.

One guy on each chain pull,

and then lift the train so we can take the bogies down the track.

You need to take the haul rope and the counter rope off.

It's jobs like this the team excel at.

They work well together.

In the winter time they've got each other's lives in their hands.

Out in the bad weather, they're up the towers in the wind

and blizzards and so it's got to be quite a close team

to be able to work in the conditions that they have to work in.

This holds the bogies to the train.

Keep going up.

That's it.

The carriage is raised just enough to allow the bogie to be winched clear.

A centimetre out could prove costly.

-There you go.

-HE CHUCKLES

The running gear is the most important part of the train.

It's all your mechanical, your brakes, your suspension.

It's all nuts and bolts and springs and washers.

It's quite important everything's put back the way it should be.

After a hard winter, all across the valley there are small businesses

depending on a good summer to bring in the tourists.

-How are you doing? Ross.

-Hiya.

-Nice to meet you.

At the Dell, Ross Cameron runs a small self-catering business

with his wife, Polly.

Today we've got two wedding parties and their guests are staying here,

so I'm just going to go and get some brownies for these guys.

For the past four years, they've been renovating

all the old foresters' cottages on the site.

It's where Polly spent much of her childhood.

It's been in the family since 1969.

When we were reinstating the fireplace upstairs,

when we took it apart, inside, under the grate,

placed by Polly's grandfather,

-was a note on how to reinstate the chimney.

-From him.

-From him.

-Dated 1970...

-19... Yeah.

72, something like that.

"If you want to get this chimney going again,

"you will have to do this, this, this, and this,

"and watch out cos there's a slate on top of the chimney pot."

Yes, remember and take the slate off the top.

-How are you doing, I'm Ross.

-Hi, I'm Anna.

Hello, Anna, nice to meet you.

Money's tight for the young couple

so they're doing everything they can to bring in the cash.

Summer this year is going to be very, very busy.

We've got loads of weddings, workshops,

big corporate function that's happening

alongside the general runnings of the Dell, which is fully booked.

We're essentially workaholics, both of us.

You do find yourself at 11.00pm at night still catching up with

all of the things for the business.

I can do, I can do late nights as well when the babies are sleeping.

That's usually what happens.

So...

As long as I've got enough red wine.

It's a struggle to find time for their two boys,

Harris and Woody, and also to find time for each other.

The guests, every time they come, say, "This is incredible,

"so relaxing. The surroundings are so beautiful."

They have this perception that you've got this serene,

quiet environment that is pristine and well-managed and manicured.

I try to keep that serenity.

You've got to pedal hard to make that happen.

So they take a chance to grab a moment together...

..whatever the occasion.

This actually rarely happens.

Wooo!

I'm leaving him to it.

Loch Insh Water Sports lies beneath the Cairngorm Mountains,

to the south of Aviemore.

44 knots, gusting.

We're going to get a bit of wind.

It'll be fun.

Johnny Freshwater runs this 140-bed residential training school.

It's his first year in charge.

How are you doing? Are you excited?

And his first customers of the summer are just arriving.

There's 40-odd kids, four groups.

Johnny's spent most of his adult life travelling and surfing.

Now it's time to buckle down and prove his business credentials.

So these guys are just going up to their rooms.

They have to make their beds.

That's their first challenge,

and then they'll get ready for the activities

and we'll get them on the water.

Johnny's father, Clive, set up the sailing school in 1969,

and built it into one of the biggest sail training bases in Scotland.

He bought kind of this little patch of land on the beach

and the wee boathouse down there, and just started expanding.

In those days he didn't have a penny

but he had an amazing vision for what this centre could be.

He slowly built his empire just through being frugal

and everything he earned, or every penny he saved

just got pumped into the next building project.

And so the business grew, you know?

And he kind of lucked in to have three boys, I think,

just to have three free labour.

So you'd come home from school

and just be straight down the beach to help him pack up the beach.

It was quite hard living here with my old man.

He had quite a strong belief that children,

if they were awake, should be working at some kind or other.

I always chuckle because,

as a lot of my mates at school would vouch for,

sleepovers weren't quite the same at my place.

You kind of got booted out of bed in the morning and made to go

and bale boats and pull canoes down off the rack and stuff,

and some people took to it, and some never came back!

Welcome, guys.

-How's it going?

-Hi.

-Hi.

My name's Johnny. Nice to meet you all.

Johnny's taken on the responsibility of running the school

since his father died at the beginning of the year.

Unlike him,

the funeral and everything was at the perfect time.

We actually had a couple of really quiet weeks

where we could deal with it all.

Had a fantastic ceremony here,

gave him a fond farewell.

So it's quite a transitional year, this year.

Let's go.

-Three, two, one.

-ALL:

-Heave!

All right, now wrap it round. Keep the tension.

-Pull it tight around there.

-There you go.

It is a long summer season ahead

and the new boss is well aware that he has big sailing shoes to fill.

He used to have a little quip with me,

"One year this will all be yours, son.

"One year later, it will all be the bank's!"

HE CHUCKLES

So...

Yeah, we're going to try and not make that happen.

The fit ones come with us, and all the pensioners go up in here.

OK, you'll be getting there yourself one day, old boy!

Down in the valley, Frank Law has been gamekeeper

on the Kinveachy estate for 40 years.

So, just make sure these are all charged, which I think they are.

Today he's assembling a squad for a deer count.

We count four times a year

because we're trying to regenerate the forest out there,

so it's quite important we keep a handle on deer numbers.

We've got about 15 people counting with us today

in four different squads.

Frank's son Ruairi is to lead one of the teams.

It is warm this morning, isn't it?

It's going to be quite windy at the top, you'll need your bunnet.

A ski patroller, Ruairi helps out as a ghillie on the estate

when he's not working on the mountain.

We've got a section of hill

so we're just trying to identify how many deer are on that

section of hill and there's other teams doing the same elsewhere.

Four different squads out, all in radio contact.

And we're going to be counting about 60 square kilometres,

quite a big chunk of ground, actually.

That way we can gather a good source of information -

this time of year how many numbers there are, what condition they're in

and basically just getting an idea of what else is happening out on the hill.

A lot of work.

Everyone will sleep well tonight, especially Ruairi's squad.

I'll do the top bit.

-Could you do the midsection here?

-The section all the way through.

While Ruairi and his team drive the deer from the cover of the pine forest,

Frank takes to the high ground

so he can count them as they emerge on to the moors.

OK, we are sitting up here. I can't see them yet, Ruairi.

It's quite an important job to monitor the deer all the time,

to get the level just right so that when the forest grows,

it's not one just big plantation, it's more open patches

and open moorland, so just trying to get the balance right.

INDISTINCT RADIO COMMUNICATION

Perfect, Ruairi, they are coming right towards us.

They are coming right towards us.

35, 3-5 stags have just come right along below us just now, Ruairi.

35 of them.

I went through that phase when I was like 18 or something,

"I'm not going to call him Dad on the radio," you know,

I'm not going to bother doing that. And then you're like, "Yeah, Frank?"

And he's, like, not answering and you're like, "Hi, Frank?"

And you're just like that.

"Dad!" He's like, "Yeah, go ahead!"

I started on the estate here in April 1975,

which is just over 40 years ago

and getting to know the place quite well, actually.

He does know his stuff inside out but I would never tell him that.

This is a great place to live.

And the hill changes all year round, you know, it is kind of

inhospitable up here sometimes in the winter time

and some of the summer evenings, it's just brilliant.

I mean, you just need to look around,

you've got this beautiful pine forest,

the Cairngorms over behind us,

and it's quiet and there's no-one around.

I wouldn't swap this for anything.

Ruairi, where are you just now, Ruairi?

Whoa!

INDISTINCT RADIO COMMUNICATION

Windy up here.

In the bowels of the funicular railway halfway up the mountain,

the new bogies are being assembled.

But in trying to put them together, Adam and P-Man hit a problem.

The diameter of the new axle fitting is too tight.

This part, this is your main puppy.

So, a little bit of DIY is called for.

It turns out that the new ones they've sent,

the centre hole was 2mm smaller, so having to press in another one.

Try again...

And a wee bit back.

Forward.

..and, after a bit more encouragement...

That's it.

..success.

P-Man and his podger.

We just make it look easy.

On the moor, the deer count is at an end and the final tally made.

That's it. 85 stags, 20 hinds

and, say, eight or nine calves and a couple of roe deers.

That's about 100 deer there so far, I guess.

Satisfied that the deer numbers are not out of control,

it's time for a well-earned bite of lunch.

I've got bolognese, aye,

mixed with couscous.

-What am I telling you?

-Peppers, a bit of garlic.

Oh, look...

cheese and pickle,

-that's what real men take to the hill.

-Some cherry tomatoes...

This is a modern-day packed lunch.

New hill man.

I've got olives as well.

I bet there's never been olives in this wood before.

There you have it, that's terrible.

You won't be allowed back.

All the cottages at the Dell are fully booked.

While Polly looks after the guests,

Ross is organising a big corporate event.

But there are some things you can't plan for.

The boys were both up last night for, like, three hours,

when I was trying to get some last things done.

You never prepare exactly for the unexpected

when you're putting an event on.

Polly's also preparing for a special event,

and she's doing it in some style.

This was a wedding present from my brother.

My speedometer kind of does that a lot.

"Sorry, officer, I've got no idea how fast I am travelling."

For the past six years, Polly's run the Insider music festival.

The first Insider was just a couple of hundred people on the lawn

with some really good musicians playing for next to nothing.

The original Insider began here at Inshriach.

Home to one of Britain's most original pubs.

And winner of the UK's Shed Of The Year.

Interesting bit of power steering going on here.

It's a good work out!

Polly's come to see owner

and fellow festival organiser Walter Micklethwait

to discuss her ambitious new plans for this year's event.

When they get off the steam train, they get on a bus

-and they come up to the Dell.

-Right.

-A little bar there,

-performance in the woods, you know, just next to the fire pit.

-Nice.

Back at the Dell, Ross is trying out a new venue

in preparation for the arrival of his corporate clients.

See where they are up here, that's where we're taking it.

But first he's got to build it.

Let's see if this fits.

That's the door where? Here? Oh, from here.

Yeah, no, that's perfect.

John, could you ask the boys to get their tarps out, please?

140 or 150 people coming down here.

-Is there a stage?

-What do you think?

This is what we were kind of in a quandary about.

-Could we use that trailer?

-I'd say so. We drink.

Yes. Gin...based.

-Got a licence?

-Gin-based cocktails.

-Yes, I have, I've got a licence for that weekend.

-Perfect.

There's obviously an adrenaline that pumps through the valley.

You've got a guy who will do all your joining for a back scratch,

you've got somebody who'll help pull in his pal to help with the plumbing.

I think there's a real buzz of energy

that everybody's there to help each other.

We can do this together, we can create something together, you know?

Even with everyone chipping in,

for Polly, organising a music festival is a gamble.

In the past, they've always made a loss.

It is a really tricky thing to make work...

..and more often than not, we've not made it work.

After every single one we are kind of,

how come we're still not making any money?

All right, you need to go that way.

About six inches.

Organising outdoor events in Scotland does have its challenges,

and it's not just the money Ross has to contend with.

These things are Swedish candles.

What you do is you just take the saw

down the centre, make a big star,

as you can see, and it goes right down to the bottom.

We're going to soak it in citronella, and light it to try and

deter this midgie that's apparently prolific at the moment.

It's just the one midgie, then, is it?

He's got a lot of friends!

After a lot of hard work, the yurt is up.

Yeah, it looks amazing.

It's like we've kind of been levitated

and dropped down by the yurt in the middle of the woods.

Today's clients from London and Glasgow are being well looked after.

The Swedish candles are doing their job.

It has put the midgies off, which is great.

And Ross is confident they've got another venue

that will work for the music festival.

Polly's starting to believe

they might actually make some money out of it.

Yeah, I think it will work this time.

I think so.

Work on the funicular is complete, but before it can open to the public,

the team must do a safety check on the braking systems.

They load on barrels of water to simulate the weight of 120 passengers.

We've loaded on the ballast on to the train.

We're now going to do the brake checks.

-Adam.

-'Yeah. Go ahead.'

-I'm in position.

INDISTINCT RADIO COMMUNICATION

Understood, thanks.

Under normal conditions,

the haul rope brings the trains to a gradual stop.

If that were to fail, the train has two emergency brake systems.

It's these that must work flawlessly.

These tests are crucial, when you think you've got

120 skiers on that in the winter, going full speed down the hill

and if something goes wrong, it's your last line of defence.

The first test is a controlled stop.

The brakes have to halt not just P-Man's carriage going downhill,

but also the other one coming up.

-RADIO:

-'Yeah, it's all good down here.'

So far, so good.

'We're pulling it right back up so the next one will be track brake.'

But just as the team prepares for the next run...

Stop, stop, stop, stop.

Adam has spotted a problem with the message steel cable which pulls the carriage.

I heard a grinding noise.

Problem.

A wheel off down there, a wheel off down there.

The initial track test has thrown the cable out of its pulley.

All the ropes bounced off

so Ruairi and Brian are putting the rope back on.

If this rope here touches any metal, it can't run.

Brian, go and check the bar before it moves.

The cable is put back in place

and the track checked before the final test.

The last one will be the track brake.

That's the one that would come on if the rope broke.

That would stop the carriage from heading to the bottom very fast.

Forward.

And full speed.

The brakes don't come on slowly, like, they just bang

onto the track so that initial kick is quite sharp.

P-Man checks whether the stopping distance has passed the test.

-Happy?

-We stopped in ten metres.

That's not bad going.

You try stopping 16 tonne, going down a steep hill, in ten metres.

That's it, then.

With all the safety checks completed,

the train can once again carry passengers up the mountain.

And, for Adam's team, it's on to the next job.

Next time on The Mountain -

Ruairi dives deep for his wedding feast.

Whoa-ho!

The mountain team says goodbye to a piece of skiing history.

I kinda kept it going!

And Johnny calls on big brother Andy to train up new staff.

That was your fault.

But will it be enough to keep the business afloat?