A helping hand for Mother Nature could be just what our ski resorts need to thrive

There should at least be guaranteed skiing at three of Scotland’s five resorts well into the spring

In the parallel universes of surf and snow sports, Mother Nature has always been in charge of deciding who gets to have fun and who doesn’t, but in Scotland in 2017 some of her interventions were particularly noticeable.

In January, February and March she was unusually stingy with the snow, and as a result the ski season was a nightmare: the total number of skier days recorded at Scotland’s ski resorts in 2016/17 was the lowest since Nevis Range opened in 1989. The final figure of 54,156 days was roughly one third of the 159,888 total recorded in the disappointing 2008-9 season (a year which caused many to question whether snowsports in Scotland had a viable future) and about one seventh of the stellar 374,789 days recorded in the “endless winter” of 2009-10 (a year which very comprehensively proved that yes, they did).

Still, rather than simply devising ever more elaborate snow dances, the people running Scotland’s ski centres applied themselves to the problem and came up with what certainly seems like a sensible solution in theory, even though it still remains to be seen whether it will work in practice. Glencoe Mountain head honcho Andy Meldrum first revealed his plans to purchase a Snowfactory for his resort in the summer, and following a partially-successful crowdfunding campaign a unit has now been installed on a lease-to-buy basis. Made by the Italian company Technoalpin, these devices can create enormous piles of snow in temperatures well above freezing (as opposed to snow canons, which require sub-zero temperatures in order to be effective). These selfinsulating snow mounds can then be pisted flat whenever more snow is required, so the potential benefits to Scottish ski centres, where the snow cover can get a bit patchy in the lulls between snowstorms, are obvious.

Cairngorm Mountain and the Lecht have followed Glencoe’s lead – Cairngorm already has a Snowfactory in place while the Lecht is scheduled to get one in February – so even if the winter of 2017-18 doesn’t turn out to be quite as impressive as the last couple of weeks have suggested it might be, there should at least be guaranteed skiing at three of Scotland’s five resorts well into the spring.

If Mother Nature was mostly in the mood to taketh away this year as far as skiing and snowboarding were concerned, when it came to waveriding she seemed more than happy to giveth, giveth and giveth again, particularly in the traditionally windy and wavy month of October. The waves for the UK Pro Surf Tour event on the north coast were impressive enough, but it was the Tiree Wave Classic windsurfing contest in the middle of the month that really stood out, thanks to the winning combination of large waves and gale force winds served up by Hurricane Ophelia. With competitors regularly hanging around in mid-air for long enough to eat a peanut butter sandwich, spectators at Crossapol on Day Two of the competition were treated to some jaw-dropping entertainment, and with the wind speed peaking at around 60 knots, seasoned pros like Andy Chambers and Adam Lewis were heard describing conditions as the windiest they’d ever sailed in.

2017 also saw a couple of notable competitive breakthroughs for Scotland’s sail-less surfers, both of them in Norway. In February, 19-yearold Megan Mackay from Mcduff became the first Scottish surfer to win an international event when she placed first in the women’s open division at the Nordic Surf Games in Jaeren. Then at the 2017 European Surfing Games in October, also held in Jaeren, Dunbar bodyboarder Josh Christopherson became the first Scot ever to make a Eurosurf final, finishing fourth.

Mirroring the hi-tech attempts to manufacture snow at Scotland’s ski centres, in May the folks at Wavegarden Scotland gave the surfing public a glimpse into the future of waveriding when they unveiled the so-called “Cove” technology they hope to use at their proposed wavepool at Ratho near Edinburgh. Belting out perfectly peeling waves at eight second intervals in a variety of shapes and sizes, the Cove could prove an invaluable training tool for Scotland’s elite surfers, and it would also be a bonus for the rest of the Scottish surfing population, particularly during long summer flat spells.

But let’s not get too carried away with the possibilities of futuristic gizmos. As I type these words I see there are solid, long-interval swells tickling all three of Scotland’s coasts, and the ski centres are reporting good on-piste conditions with more snow in the forecast. Only the real, as they say, is unreal.