European snow drought fuels bumper Scottish ski season

Gruelling airport transfers and extortionate hotel prices, combined with the collapse of the pound and the cost of living crisis, means skiers are ditching the £360 lift passes and choosing the slopes much closer to home.

Just a few hours’ drive from Scotland’s main cities lies rugged scenery to rival any Alpine chocolate box picture and some old school charm that’s been lost in the age of huge, purpose-built ski resorts.

Glencoe is Scotland’s oldest commercial ski resort and the drive is worth it alone. Wild and empty mountains tower over the glen, before the magnificent peak of Buachaille Etive Mor suddenly appears. You’d be mistaken for thinking you’re on Tolkienesque adventure rather than a ski trip.

Glencoe ski resort’s best asset is the main basin and its crowning glory, the Flypaper. The most dramatic and trickiest run in Scotland, steep doesn’t really do it justice. Experts wanting a slightly less precarious but still challenging run can cut some powder on the next-door red run, the Spring Run.

The views are exceptional and the one-man wooden “cliffy” taking you to the top of Mugs Ally rather sums up the eccentric, olde world feel. Glencoe’s plateau has also options for beginner with plenty of gentle runs for skiers still with their L plates.

One of the main criticisms levelled at Scottish skiing is lack of infrastructure, resulting in long queues and sub-standard lifts.

However, in recent years Glencoe has seen new investment, upgrading lifts such as the Corie Pollach Poma in 2013 and a new café built in 2021. But the headline grabber is the new Rannoch chair.

Opened in 2022, this three-man chair cost £1.1 million and was bought second-hand from Austria, then assembled on site.

Andy Meldrum has owned Glencoe since 2009 and has spear-headed the recent improvement of the ski centre.

Meldrum said: “Rannoch Chairlift has been a complete gamechanger for the resort, it’s removed the bottleneck that used to exist on the plateau and opened up a whole new area of the mountain for beginners and early intermediates.

“Feedback from customers has been great and even on our busiest day this year queues were absolutely minimal thanks to the new chair which almost doubles capacity on the mountain.”

The owner continued: “The replacement cafe for the one destroyed by fire on Christmas day 2019 has stunning views of the area and is proving really popular with customers.”

When asked about how things at Glencoe are going at the moment, the winter sports enthusiast said: “So far, the 2022/23 season has been great with amazing conditions for most of January, we’re currently going through a bit of a lean spell for snow but it looks like more snow is in the forecast for the end of February.”

Scotland’s highest ski resort, Cairngorm, was left severely limited by the closure of its funicular railway in 2018. The railway, which was the main way for skiers to access the mountain, was closed due to safety reasons.

THE cost of the railway to the taxpayer has reached nearly £52m, according to The Herald, with the repair works running £9m over budget.

This has called into question the effectiveness of the money spent when Glencoe has been transformed for a fraction of the budget.

Doug Bryce, coach and member of Glencoe ski club, said: “Cairngorm obviously has taken the lion’s share of the public money available.

“It is a real scandal that the funicular train set has absorbed more than £30m in public funding while the other resorts [which seem to be more interested in skiing] have to work much harder for investment.

“Cairngorm has turned into a trainset and cafe – for cake hunters – while Glencoe and Glenshee seem more tuned into what skiers and snowboarders actually want.”

Scots have headed abroad for so many years due to the unreliability of Scottish skiing. One day can be perfect snow and clear blue skies, the next can be blizzard conditions or rain that test both your gear and your love of the slopes.

Climate change has left snow conditions in early January the worst on record in some Alpine resorts. Unseasonably warm weather and low snowfall have left low-altitude ski resorts in France, Switzerland and Italy decimated, leaving slopes bare.

It looks like – grimly – the snow-sure days of European skiing are dying, in turn, opening the door for Scottish skiing.

Due to this historical trend to ski abroad, Scottish slopes can sometimes feel undeveloped compared to the heated Gondolas and perfectly groomed piste of places like Zermatt or the Three Valleys. However, if you’re willing to embrace the rough edges of Scottish skiing, there is nothing quite like it.

Scotland has five excellent ski areas to discover: Glencoe: https://www.glencoemountain.co.uk/ Nevis Range: https://www.nevisrange.co.uk/ Glenshee: https://www.ski-glenshee.co.uk/ Cairngorm Mountain: https://www.cairngormmountain.co.uk/ The Lecht: https://www.lecht.co.uk/