Let’s not forget Scotland
Thursday February 12, 2009 - Email this article to a friend

It is currently having the best conditions for years with resorts turning away people as they are full. We have a report from the Scottish slopes.

Last weekend the Glenshee car park was full by 10.30 while over at the Nevis range 800 people were already on the slope by mid-morning. That went up to 1,000 by lunchtime.

In all 12,000 people were skiing in the country’s 5 ski areas that day.

“After the snowfall last week, temperatures dropped very low, down to a low point of –18c at Aviemore, which has meant the snow has been maintained and in a light, powdery condition that is very rare on the Scottish mountains, more used to a heavier, wetter snow,” says Patrick Thorne who lives near Aviemore. “I was out skiing on Tuesday and the conditions were superb as there were less people on the slopes mid-week".

Today, Thursday, the access roads to Cairngorm and possibly other centres (Glenshee and Lecht) are closed as more snow is dumping down, so it should be a great weekend again.

The view from Cairngorm this weekPeople have told PlanetSKI that it’s been the best conditions for decades with more snow than many people can remember.

It’s the second good season in a row for Scotland, where some ski areas were open for nearly six months last winter.

It follows five years of patchy openings that led to two ski areas going in to receivership a few years ago.

However, it would be a brave person to bet on the long term future of skiing in Scotland.

Alex Hill, the chief government advisor with the Met office has recently pointed out that the snow levels in Scotland are in decline and there was no reason for this decline to stop.

“Put it this way I will not be investing in the skiing industry. Will there be a ski industry in Scotland in 50 years’ time? I doubt it,” says Hill.

The Scottish ski industry begs to differ and is confident that skiing will continue. It admits that the consistent snowy days of the 1970’s and 1980’s, when more than half a million people went skiing in Scotland, are gone.

However it is confident about the future.

So, here at PlanetSKI we say get out there and enjoy it now. It may last or it may not.

Patrick Thorne works for www.skiinfo.com that supply some of the snow reports to us and is writing a guide to skiing in Scotland that will be up on PlanetSKI shortly. In the meantime check out some of the pictures that he took for us this week.