Scotland celebrates epic winter
Monday February 1, 2010 - Email this article to a friend

More than 100,000 tickets sold this winter and with the cold weather set to continue things are loooking up for skiing and snowboarding in Scotland

It's all a long way from the tales of doom and gloom a few years ago with predictions that skiing and snowboarding would come to an end in Scotland.

That may be the case in the long run but this winter, and last season too, have been rather good for the Scottish snowpsorts industry.

Scotland's five mountain ski areas had sold more than 107,500 tickets by the 27th January.

This total excludes all the season ticket holders who have been visiting regularly, and some school and other groups.

There was even a PR plan to offer the 100,000 skier a free ticket and other prizes but when it was mooted it was realised that the target had already been passed and the 100,000 skier had been and gone.

Digging outWe have reported on the snow here on PlanetSKI including the closure of Cairngorm because of too much snow and how it had to appeal for volunteers to come to help dig the resort out.

"We often find that, when the snow thaws elsewhere in the country, people find it hard to believe that the mountains still have good snow," said ski-scotland Chair, Heather Negus.

"But this year, with the high-profile story of CairnGorm's road, funicular and lifts having to be dug out of deep drifts, we're finding that people know we still have great snow which will last well into next month, and possibly longer."

With there rarely being a day when all the 5 areas have been shut the new, all area 5 days ski pass, has been a success. We reported on the new type of ticket earlier in the winter.

The number of people who skied or snowboarded in Scotland in winter 2008-9 was 159,885, worth around £4m to the snowsports centres and at least £12m to the Scottish economy.

The numbers of people who have already bought tickets this winter will have generated an estimated £11m for the economy, both at the ski areas and in the surrounding area.

Additional reporting by Snow24