Despite an unusually mild start to winter, bosses at one of Scotland’s top ski centres are still hopeful of a successful season.
While the runs at Glenshee Ski Centre have opened two weeks later than last year, director Stewart Davidson told The Courier they are still ahead of the usual schedule.
The extensive snowfall in November 2010 provided a welcome boost to snow sports operators and allowed many to open their doors almost a month early.
Although there were fears that another harsh winter could materialise from October this year, so far this has failed to happen and staff at Glenshee had to wait until December 10 to welcome skiers and snowboarders.
Mr Davidson said: ”It has been a good start and I am optimistic that we will have another good season.
”We’ve been open for a couple of weeks but we’ve only really been pretty busy since Saturday.
”We were open from November 26 last year but that was very rare. In fact, opening any time before Christmas is quite unusual but it is good to be getting ourselves ready for the real rush before it happens.”
Tuesday saw the centre open 16 out of 21 of its lifts to visitors, with temperatures dropping to as low as -2C, helping to ensure the snow remains in place for a little longer.
The majority of runs were also described as being complete with good cover, with the upper runs enjoying a fresh fall of snow.
Visitor numbers have also been helped by the fact that access roads, including the A93 Spittal of Glenshee, have been able to remain open, although a weather warning was issued on Tuesday with further wintry conditions expected.
”We should certainly see a lot more visitors over the next couple of weeks, once the schools are out and people go on holiday over the festive season,” Mr Davidson added.
”The forecast is a bit mild over the next couple of days but I hope we can look past that.
”We’re not getting the same weather as last year but, really, that was an exception. It would be great, however, if we could get good ski conditions from now to the end of March, but that is in the hands of the gods now so we just have to keep our fingers crossed.”