Monday 06 April 2009
British Ski Club of Great Britain writes:
Three of Scotland’s five snowsports areas will be offering Easter skiing, making this one of the longest snowsports seasons in recent years.
Cairngorm webcam-Monday
"Scotland was amongst the first snowsports country in Europe to start operations this season, with the Lecht opening on 31st October 2008”, says Marian Austin, Chair of ski-scotland. "Scotland’s normal winter weather pattern means that, while the east usually gets good early snow, the west and centre often benefit from late snow, which is what we’re seeing now.”
According to our snow reports, Cairngorm still has a 23cm on its upper slopes and is offering good spring skiing thanks to overnight grooming. The pistes will be hard at first, but will soften as the day warms up. The Nevis Range has 28cm on it supper slopes thanks to some recent fresh snow, and similarly to Cairngorm the snow cover is firmly packed in the morning but this quickly softens as the day heats up. Off-piste skiing is still available in the Back Corrie if you're prepared to make the 25 minute walk to access the terrain! And finally, Glencoe is currently closed but will be re-opening for snowsports over the Easter weekend.
RECORD NUMBERS OF SKIERS THIS SEASON
Winter 2008/9 attracted record numbers of skiers to the Scottish resorts thanks to heavy snowfalls in February. All the areas reported high numbers of first-time visitors who normally ski or snowboard abroad, possibly linked to the attraction of saving money by skiing more locally.
“What we find at this time of year”, adds Marian, “is that when people don’t have snow in their back gardens, they think there’s no snow in the mountains. That means a good, crowd-free experience for those who do come to ski or snowboard at this time of year, with some really great good-value offers and the chance of fair weather overhead to go with it.”
The three ski areas of Nevis Range, CairnGorm Mountain and Glencoe Mountain all have some special offers and events planned for Easter. On Good Friday, Nevis Range is offering a day’s skiing or snowboarding for the price of a gondola ticket (£9.50 adult, £5.50 child), whilst CairnGorm Mountain will be celebrating the 90s from Saturday until Monday, with free skiing for those who can produce a CairnGorm season ticket from the 90s.
Glencoe Mountain is also offering limited-availability Saturday or Sunday tickets at £20 (adult) and megadeals including full day ticket, ski, board or blade hire and 2 hours instruction for £50 (junior). Both Nevis Range and CairnGorm report their terrain parks are open and CairnGorm will be hosting Freestyle coaching sessions from 9th to 11th April (pre-registration necessary) and the Highland Freestyle Event on 11th April.
The forecast is for predominantly cloudy weather this week across the Scottish resorts which could deliver some fresh snow. Fingers crossed!
Related websites
* > www.ski.visitscotland.com
