Three of Scotland's five ski areas have opened this weekend following snowfalls through the past week (very like the Alps, but slightly less extensive!).
All five ski areas were going to open but two were thwarted by storm damage during the gales on Thursday. Surprisingly perhaps, Cairngorm, where gusts peaked at a widely reported 165mph – a little less than the official British gale force wind record, wasn't one of them and more than 400 skiers and snowboarders took advantage of clear skies and pisted powdery snow conditions to get CairnGorm Mountain's 50th season off to a great start with, the centre reports, excellent conditions in the Coire Ciste and Ptarmigan areas of the mountain.
"After the stormy days of the last week it was great to be able to open for our first day of this special season with some excellent skiing albeit in a limited area of the mountain. On 23rd December we will be celebrating 50 years since the first mechanized uplift – the White Lady chairlift – first ran and also the 10th anniversary of the opening of the funicular railway," said Cairngorm's Marketing Manager Colin Kirkwood.
The two centres that could not opened as planned were Nevis Range, where the gondola lift cable was derailed by the gales and Glencoe where two mountain huts disappeared from the mountain during the gales.
Glencoe had still hoped to open today (Sunday 11 December) but report they still have no electricity four days after the storm. Nevis Range has decided to delay until next weekend as this is its usual closed period for annual maintenance anyway.
The two other areas to open were The Lecht and Glenshee, both reported partial opening with a few hundred metres of vertical and good conditions on the runs available.