The first snow of the season was sighted on Scotland's highest hills today with snow spotted at Cairngorm (above) and Nevis Range (below) ski areas.
The five Highland Scottish ski areas will be hoping for a repeat this winter of the last one, 17-18 which was the best for five years in terms of skier business with 249,848 skier and boarder visits recorded, more than four times the 53,669 total the previous winter, which had been the worst this century.
The figures were also the fourth best of the past 15 seasons with the best season 2009-10 with 374,582 skiers and boarders, then 290,996 in 2012-13 and 289,575 in 2010-11.
However the autumn snows pan out Glencoe Mountain Resort on the West Coast is sure of opening on schedule having confirmed that it has purchased a Snowfactory all-weather snowmaking system ensuring that it can open for snowsports regardless of the vagaries of mother nature.
Glencoe was the first Scottish centre to express an interest in the all-weather snowmaking system in spring 2017 after the very poor 16-17 season for snow in Scotland. It launched a crowd-funding campaign and other initiatives last autumn before receiving a unit on trial last winter, whilst Cairngorm and The Lecht also took it in turn to trial a second unit.
In the event the past winter 17-18 was in any case, as mentioned above, one of the best for several years with the units hardly needed and Glencoe one of the last non-glacier ski areas in the northern hemisphere to close after the MayDay Bank Holiday on May 7th.