Resorts on the East and West sides of the Scottish Highlands have begun re-opening today after four days of storm closures, during which hurricane force winds reached as high as 113mph.
The storms have also brought snow though, with resulting road closures over the past few days at Glenshee, Tomintoul near The Lecht and the Cairngorm access road. Glencoe reported 30cm of fresh snow today (the picture above was taken on the new dry slope at the base).
Nevis Range was able to open the lower mountain today, saying it was still too windy on upper runs. In the east The Lecht, which had been forced to close due to lack of snow last week, was able to re-open thanks to widespread new snow coverage.
The other Eastern ski area, Glenshee, which had also closed due to lack of snow, said it was close to re-opening.
The access road to Cairngorm was blocked by snow earlier today but it too is reporting lots of fresh snow.
Glencoe also hopes to open soon, the centre reports lots of new snow but also storm damage needing repairs and the situation is still being assessed.
More stormy weather is expected over the next 24 hours but also more snow so the five centres are optimistic of better conditions once the weather settles down – hopefully towards the end of this week.