As Scottish Season Starts, One Ski Area Says “We’ll Open When We Can”
With Scotland’s 23-24 ski season due to start this coming week, though probably reliant on using all-weather snowmaking machines to make snow for small areas initially, one of the country’s five centres has announced its going to be cautious about when it opens for skiing and not promise anything.
Nevis Range, the country’s newest resort which only opened, specifically for skiing near Britain’s highest mountain, Ben Nevis, says it has lost millions pounds trying to offer snow sports with marginal weather conditions over the last five years and will henceforth only try to open when there’s enough natural snow cover.
“It’s no secret that the weather over the last five years has made Snowsports an extraordinary challenge. We haven’t made profit on the ski season for over 15 years – we do this because we love it and because it is who we are! That said the losses for winter have increased to unmanageable levels. Last year the loss by April was over £1m and we experienced similar issues the year before, add in Covid winters and we find ourselves in a situation where the winter period has lost £5m in five years,” an online statement from the centre explains, however confirming that, “Our approach to core opening hours is simple – if the conditions are good enough to open – we will be open!”
Other Scottish centres are opening with the aid of their all-weather snowmaking machines. It’s currently very mild (-10C) and very windy (100mph gales forecast), but temperatures are due to drop and snow to fall later this week. There’s not much there at present though.
Glenshee (pictured below last week before temperatures warmed up again) says it will open for the season this coming Wednesday 20 December, then Cairngorm (pictured top last week) above Aviemore wo days later, opening with a beginners area next Friday 22nd December,
“A big thanks to our TechnoAlpin SnowFactory providing a helping hand,” a spokesperson said.
Glencoe Mountain Resort already has a sledging slope open for the season thanks to their SnowFactory and is also running its Access Chairlift for tourers wanting to gain altitude fast.
The Lecht hasn’t yet named an opening day but has said it’ll have a terrain park open after Christmas, presumably using its own SnowFactory machine.
As part of the changed procedure Nevis Range say they will no longer offer season passes as they can’t guarantee cover to justify selling them and last winter had to make refunds, as a gesture of goodwill, due to the lack of skiing. The are instead selling books of 15 day tickets.
Nevis Range will also only run ski hire at weekends and will no longer offer its own ski school, instead offering free mountain access and promote the service of independent instructors.
In terms of its lifts the Nevis Range statement continues:
“Quad chair, Summit button, Goose T bar and Alpha button. Huge efforts have gone in to ensuring these lifts can be operated safely by our engineering team, work on new hydraulic tensioning systems, control circuits, tower repair and safety systems. Our snow fences, crucial to catching the snow as it is blown across the mountain, have been improved with over 10kms of new bigger, stronger fences to catch more snow have been installed across the ski area allowing easier access to the upper mountain as well as providing more snow for our pistes. Groundworks have included the redesign of our beginner area, piste drainage, additional winch points and lift get off areas. The construction of a conveyor lift with cover servicing the new look beginner area has been successful giving us easy uplift for children and first time Snowsport users. We’ve also acquired several new vehicles for the hill, including a PB600 winch cat, PB100 and a Softrak as well as looking after our existing fleet. We are not in a position to afford the refurbishment work required on Braveheart, Warrens and Great Glen at the moment, and simply they aren’t safe to run – but we do intend to renovate or replace when we are financially capable.”
Despite the lift challenges – the skiable area remains the same, the Back Corries will be designated as an off-piste zone, our dedicated ski patrol team will continue to give safety information and advice, and we want as many people as possible to come and enjoy the mountain.
“There has also over the last few years been increasing levels of abuse and toxicity directed at the Nevis Range team, in the most serious case a death threat was received by a team member. Nevis Range has not profited from Snowsports in over 15 years – to suggest that we are not committed and passionate is so far wide of the mark. Climate change is real, Snowsports has been dramatically challenged by the reality of what is happening on our mountains,” the statement continues, concluding,
“Nevis Range is not a huge corporate entity we’re a business that struggles and willingly loses money on Snowsports every year because we love it! We are looking forward to an awesome season and can’t wait to welcome you all on the hill!”
