£400k machine guarantees the snow will go on
Boost for skiers as resort opens in November for first time
SKI centre bosses hope being able to make their own snow will spark a winter sports boom.
Recent snowfall means Scotland’s oldest resort Glencoe has, for the first time, opened before the end of November.
But if the weather warms up over the coming months, they have a plan B in the form of a £400,000 snow-making factory.
Glencoe Mountain Resort owner Andy Meldrum is delighted at the early start to the season.
He said: “We’ve got all the lower slopes open, which is incredible for this time of year. The earliest we’ve opened before is December 5.”
Andy hopes the snow-making factory will mean more people will book ski breaks in advance, rather that wait to see what happens with the weather.
He added: “This factory will make snow in temperatures up to 25C. The plan is to make sure we can always guarantee at least one run on the mountain has good snow cover.”
Lack of snow last winter hit the ski resorts at Glencoe, Nevis Range, Glenshee, Cairngorm and The Lecht.
Andy said: “We had about nine good days last year. We opened for 32 days in total. Normally we open for about 110 days in the season.”
Most of the ski resorts have invested in snowmaking factories.
But in the meantime, the weather looks good for winter sports and all the other ski centres hope to have their first runs open within days if there are further snow showers.
A Glenshee spokesman said: “Conditions have been very good so far. We’ve had a lot of light snow in the past few days.
“If it keeps up, we are hoping to be able to open by early next month.”