 Poster: A snowHead
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Scotland's five ski areas - Cairngorm, Nevis Range, Glenshee, Glencoe and The Lecht - are facing further difficulties, with little snow so far this winter. One month into the conventional ski season (at least as it was prior to climate change) no ski lifts are running. Break-even targets have been slashed as lift operators cut costs and plan for the new pattern of short seasons with reduced skier numbers...
Two ski centres which recently changed hands - Glencoe and Glenshee - are diversifying from skiing to ensure that other sports and activities can generate income. Nevis Range has already built its summer business and Cairngorm is winning non-ski income from its new £20 million funicular railway...
In the short term, there is some sign of snow for this weekend, but very little base currently exists and everything depends on the new snow beating any ensuing thaws.
This report on the situation from today's Financial Times.
Snow updates on Ski Scotland. Information and discussion on the Scottish ski scene on www.winterhighland.com
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Fri 7-01-05 16:28; edited 1 time in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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My first winters on Cairngorm (1974 onwards) were characterised by snow from the first week of December. Businesses up there could plan on the basis of it with reasonable reliability. The economy of Aviemore - the only village which was developed on the back of wintersports (in the 1960s) - is now radically different to what it was in the boom years 30 years ago. A friend up there tells me it's now primarily a commuter village for Inverness.
The pattern of the past 15 years certainly suggests that climate change has occurred. The prevailing W and SW winds, which often carried snow in January when I used to go, now seem to be depressingly rainy.
This isn't supposed to be a gloom and doom thread, but Scottish skiers are increasingly talking of touring equipment in preparation for mountains which may not be served by lifts but will still offer great skiing for those who can access it under their own steam. Maybe better to go with the flow and erratic snow than argue that nothing's changed. I know that some people on the Scottish ski scene hate the press saying there's no snow, but the same press did a lot to publicise the ski scene in the first place when the snow used to fall, winter in winter out.
This is certainly a make-or-break winter for Scotland, so let's hope that a dramatic snowstorm blows in pretty soon.
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There could be plenty of snow there over the weekend.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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But gone by next week 
.... There maybe hope thou... fingers crossed for the TWO forecast to turn into reality.
BTW I'm not arguing that nothings changed WRT climate change.. but we need to look at the bigger picture. 15 years is not a big enough window. If the UK government's Energy Saving Trust have got it right maybe Scotland is not the only country that should be worried.
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This isn't supposed to be a gloom and doom thread
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but when the numbers of skier days are a quarter what they were, it's pretty hard to take any other view.
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The number of skier days recorded across Scotland has plunged from a peak of 654,674 in the 1987-88 season to just 150,739 in the 2002-03 season, according to Visit Scotland, the tourism organisation.
However, Fiona Milligan, marketing executive with Cairngorm Mountain, said this decline was not just because of the weather.
She said: "Demographics are also changing - there are not as many young people as there used to be and access the Alps and North America have become so much cheaper. People used to travel here from the south of England - now they can get an air fare to Europe for £20. |
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