Scottish resorts close as too much snow
Monday January 18, 2010 - Email this article to a friend

3 out of the 5 resorts were shut over the weekend and the others had limited skiing as a major storm hit the area. In places the snow is 5m deep with winds gusting up to 100mph. The resorts are now open though.

Cairngorm, near Aviemore, was the worst affected with the resort firmly closed on Saturday and Sunday. The access road was shut and many of the lifts are simply buried under all the snow. Volunteers were out trying to help with the clear up operation.

It is though now open on Monday with some limited skiing and snowboarding.

"We expect to run the Car Park,Ridge, Shieling and Cas with hopefully the Day Lodge and M1 coming on later. After a fantastic effort we have now got most of the Train Track and Tunnel Mouth dug out, however there is a lot of digging still to do around the top building and we hope to have that and the Funicular operational for Tuesday," says a statement on the resort's web site.

It was the third Sunday in a row the resort was closed due to the weather.

As soon as the authorities clear the road then the snow covers it again. They have been using snowploughs, large diggers and the piste machines.

They have even hired in a 17 tonne earth mover to help.

On Friday they had managed to get a single track open but then overnight snow simply filled it in again.

"We've had a lot of snow fallen this week in a big storm and it has been really windy as well. This has meant that there are huge drifts across the mountain," says PlanetSKI reader, Mike Shepherd who runs the local ski and snowboard school on the mountain.

"We haven't managed to get to the mountain since last Monday and haven't run lessons since last Sunday, and we have just been forced to make the decision to cancel all lessons this weekend too as it is unlikely it will open."

A group of ski instructors were due to do some exams this weekend and because of all the snow they had to do it on local artificial slope. It is ironic as often courses are cancelled because there is not enough of the white stuff.

Here on PlanetSKI we reported on the closure of Cairngorm earlier in the week and for latest information and photos of the snow see www.cairngormmountain.co.uk

Hard at workElsewhere in Soctland Glenshee and Glencoe also remained closed at times.

The Nevis range and The Lecht have managed to open some lifts and for news of all the skiing conditions in Scotland see www.winterhighland.info

So far it has been a bumper winter for the Scottish ski industry that is more used to news stories about a lack of snow than too much.

The Christmas and New Year produced record numbers of visitors and once the resorts open fully they are expecting large number of skiers and snowboarders out enjoying the conditions.

People are asked to check that the roads and resorts are open before setting of and to be aware that there many shops will have run out of equipment to rent.

The queues will also be pretty long, but for most that will be a price worth paying to enjoy some of the best snow Scotland has seen in recent years.

Cairngorm in the storm