Cairngorm ski area above Aviemore in Scotland is one of less than 30 ski areas still open for winter 2011-12 and is possibly reporting the best visitor number levels of any of them as pent up demand for Scottish skiing continues to bring thousands of skiers to Scottish slopes each weekend.
With all ski areas in France closing for the season last week, only one glacier centre currently open in Italy and a handful more in Switzerland and Austria, the best skiing to be had at present is in northern areas including Scotland and Scandinavia. Norway's Folgefonn summer ski area opened last weekend with 80cm of fresh snow and staff having to clear access roads of deep snow.
In North America only Whistler and Sunshine at Banff will be open in Canada as of next week after Lake Louise has a final weekend. In the US a handful of ski areas remain open in the west, at weekends at least.
Cairngorm however seems to be going from strength to strength, with fresh snow pretty much every day for weeks now and temperatures hovering around freezing. Scotland has not had quite the wet April and early May of most of England and there have been some beautiful blue sky days. Last weekend saw 2500 people on the slopes, the weekend before 4000.