Scottish ski resorts snowed under
Saturday February 27, 2010 - Email this article to a friend

A massive storm has dumped large amounts of snow across the Highlands. 

Cairngorm now has over 2m of snow on its slopes, but the resort is closed because of the heavy snowfall. Yesterday the decision was taken to close the mountain as there were fears for the safety of staff and others on the mountain.

"We evacuated the mountain as it was unsafe for staff to continue to work in the conditions that prevailed, the team are used to working in poor conditions but staff safety is a priority - most of the highlands was cut off yesterday and  emails wondering why we are not open should not expect a response," says a statement on the resort's web site.

"The team will continue to work flat out in order to open uplift as soon as it is both safe and feasible to do so."

One of our readers in the resort, Mike Shepherd, who runs the local ski school says the snow level is huge.

"There are 2m drifts on the road up to Glenmore Lodge and the ploughs had still not got to the carpark by 2pm today and they are battling massive drifts! The snow is forecast to die off so hopefully we’ll get up there at some point tomorrow," Shepherd says. Glenmore Lodge is well below the base of the ski area.

"Apparently there is 1.5m – 2m of fresh snow on the lower slopes and who knows what on the upper ones," he continues. "It will take quite a while to get the area open as it seems inevitable that there will be a lot of digging that needs to be done to free up the train, buildings and tow."

It's a similar situation in other Scottish resorts.

Glencoe clams to have some of the best snow in the world with up to a metre and a half on the upper slopes. It has received 80cm of fresh snow in the past few days alone.

A message on the resort's web site seems to sum it up.

"Lots of fresh snow, currently digging out so AIMING FOR A 10AM START TODAY!!! Further report will follow as ski patrol assess. Access chair, plateau poma and cliffhanger are running, very little is pisted as yet but the team are all working hard on the mountain and lifts and runs will open throughout the morning."

NEWS UPDATE*** 18.00, Saturday 27th: The BBC report that 2 men were caught in an avalanche at Glencoe and swept 2,000ft down the mountain.  Both survived and rescue services say they were extremely fortunate. For further details see here.

The Lecht and Nevis Range have had 70cm and there's half a metre of fresh snow at Glenshee.

PlanetSKI reader, Rory Ross-Russell, was skiing in Glenshee last week over half-term and says it was excellent then. 

"Last year we went to Verbier in Switzerland but this year with all the good snow we decided to stay closer to home.  It turned out to be a pretty good decision!"

Below is in image taken earlier in the week looking across Loch Morlich to Cairngorm.  It was taken by The Ski School.

Picture postcard stuff

"Conditions are the best for years and we are riding runs that don't usually exist," says a spokesman from The Ski School.

"We have just come out of the busiest half term period any of us remember. We had around 60 instructors working each day and we had been fully booked for weeks. The weather and snow conditions were excellent which helped everyone have a great time. There were a few glitches with the train breaking down but despite this the week went very well.'

We reported on the huge snowfalls in Scotland earlier in the week that sadly claimed the lives of 2 climbers and caused widespread problems too, with transport disrupted, schools closed and power lines down.

For an updated report on the problems the snow has caused take a look at this report from the BBC.

See this related PlanetSKI story with a short video of skiing conditions on Cairngorm.

We'll bring you news of the skiing and snowboarding in Scotland over the weekend.

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