What is the Future of Skiing in Scotland?

13th August 2024

Last modified on December 11th, 2024

Last winter was poor. Snow was in scant supply and new figures reveal skier numbers were sharply down, but there is some cause for hope.

Some called last winter “challenging”, others said it was “dire”.

There are five Scotish ski areas:

Cairngorm
The Lecht
Glenshee
Glencoe
The Nevis Range

Last winter’s recently released statistics do not make happy reading.

There were just 55,000 skier days last season across all five resorts.

The worst season of all time in 2016-17 saw 54,000 skier days.

It was therefore the second-worst winter on record.

PlanetSKI was in Scotland last February, but with mixed results.

The Lecht, Scotland. Image c/o Simon Wilson.

Rod Frazer on Glencoe 14 Feb 2024. Image c/o Rod Frazer

Rod Frazer at Glencoe. Image c/o Rod Frazer

February skiing in Scotland

The total number of skier days across the Scottish resort for the previous season of 2022/23 was 86,100.

For the Covid-compromised 2021-22 season it was 84,140.

The years in the last couple of decades saw 374,789 skier days in 2009/10 and 290,996 skier days in 2012-13.

Some question whether Scotland will still have five fully functioning ski centres in the years to come.

The Lecht warned it may be forced to close as last winter was “dire”and it launched a Crowdfunder page to raise money to stay open.

We reported on it on PlanetSKI as it reached its target, with room to spare.

Scottish ski resort hits funding target

The Lecht, Scotland. Image © PlanetSKI

Speaking to The Scotsman, Andy Meldrum, who runs the Glencoe Mountain resort, remains relatively upbeat.

“We did alright, it wasn’t a bad season in the end,” he said.

“We skied most of the winter, from January right through to the first week in April.

“Most of that time we only had the upper mountain open, but some of that time we had the upper and the lower mountain open, although at no point in the season did we have the mid-mountain open, because that requires the most snow.

“The upper mountain was actually in pretty good nick for most of the time, but when you’ve not got a middle or a lower mountain then your skier numbers tend to be pretty poor.

“I think we skied 62 days in the end, and got around 10,000 skier days in total, so for a lean snow year it wasn’t too bad.”

Here at PlanetSKI we love skiing in Scotland – when conditions allow.

Roz Frazer, Nevis Range, Scotland. Image c/o Rod Frazer.

Glencoe, Scotland. Image c/o Dianne Frazer

Glenshee, Scotland. Image c/o Dianne Frazer

Update:

There has been some reaction over on the PlanetSKI Facebook page:

Scott Fraser – In my late teens (late 80’s early 90’s), I used to help run weekend trips to the ski centres with the Scottish Youth Hostels from Edinburgh. So many great memories of snow filled weekends at all the centres seems like a distant memory. Even day trips mid week when the snow was good, leave early AM get changed in the car park, have a great ski day then fish and chips on the way home. Great memories.

Fran Mercer – Living in Aberdeen in the 70s I went to Glenshee every weekend of the ski season. Went to CairnGorm too. Great times

Simon Barrett – Skier numbers were only down because it was a shit Winter.

Iain Manzies – The hills are so open to wind and sun with no trees to help hold the snow , I have skied Glenshee since early 70s , been good times and bad .

Ian Findlater: Sorry to say it’s looking very bleak indeed. We had the best days in the 80s/90s.

It’s a hit or a miss these days and I would not give them the money for passes. Take up mountain biking. safer bet

Hopefully the snow will fall in plentiful supply next winter.

We’ll keep you posted…