Glencoe appears to be the only ski area still open in Scotland, although not all of the other four have declared their seasons officially over.
Glencoe continues to operate for skiing on its upper slopes with Cairngorm the latest to announce its closure for the season, following Glenshee which did so several weeks ago. The Lecht and Nevis Range currently have nothing open, according to the VisitScotland snow reports page, but it is unclear if they have given up all hope.
“Due to the continuing mild weather conditions and with no sign of any significant snow fall on the horizon before our official closing date on the 18th April, we are now closing for snowsports for the 21/22 season,” Cairngorm’s statement reads.
As well as the ongoing challenges of the pandemic lockdowns Scottish ski areas went back to their more usual challenges of wild weather variations with a promising start to winter allowing most centres to open in early-December followed by a barren two months of warm and dry weather that left most closed – other than small areas maintained by all-weather snowmaking machines – until mid-February. Good snowfalls in March, particularly in the west, allowed all areas to open, Glencoe has had markedly the best winter for snow cover with all runs open for longer than the other centres.
(Glencoe on Thursday on WinterHighland webcam)
In a newspaper article recently Glencoe credited its thriving sledging business, partly maintained by an all-weather snowmaking machine, as making the difference between breaking even and making a loss, noting that sledgers now made up a sizable proportion of their business.
Cairngorm also credited their all-weather Snowfactory snowmaking machine for enabling nearly 5000 people of enjoy snowsports on their lower beginner area during the period without natural snow fall.
“We wish to thank all our customers who supported us through this long and challenging season, whether on our snow factory snow, or when the natural snow came eventually in February. The team at Cairngorm Mountain have really appreciated the many kind and supportive messages and comments over the season. We are looking forward to hopefully a better winter season next year and look forward to seeing you all again on the slopes,” the statement concludes.
