Hopes are high that snow sports will soon get underway on Scotland’s mountain resorts if an expected cold snap sweeps the north.
Heavy snow fell at the summit of the Cairngorm Mountain Resort yesterday, with wind speeds reaching up to 105mph.
There was still insufficient snow for skiing, however bosses are looking on the bright side with temperatures expected to remain below freezing for the next 10 days.
Janette Jansson, general manager, said: “We have got a lot of snowfall at the summit, which is good.
“That means that hopefully – very hopefully – depending on the wind, we should be able to get some sort of snow sports up and running by the end of next week. As long as the weather holds up.”
At Nevis Range, office manager Mark Jordan said it was a waiting game.
“We have been open with our gondola running and lessons on our artificial slope, but we haven’t got enough snow to fully open for snow sports,” he said.
“We are still waiting, we have to see what it does.”
At Glencoe, cafe assistant Rebecca Stewart was hopeful for snow in the coming weeks.
“We have no snow at the moment, it is all melting away just now,” she said.
“I’m really not sure when it’s going to be good for skiing. We are hoping in the next few weeks.
“We have had a bit of snow but it keeps melting away.”
Glenshee was closed yesterday, while The Lecht reported online that there are “only patches of snow left”.
Last night, a spokesman for the Met Office said snow was on its way.
“The wind is 105mph at the top of Cairngorm just now and the temperature is -3C. At Glenshee it is reading -4C,” he said.
“There is snow on the hills above 900m (2,952ft), there is definitely a covering on the tops of the mountains and it is cold enough that the tops will continue to build up snow.
“We are looking at quite a big dump of snow on the hills on Thursday above 600m (1,968ft).”