The busy quad chairlift at the Nevis Range centre. Photo: Charné Hawkes

While the floods in southern England have been grabbing the news headlines, the Scottish Highlands have had a bumper year of snow.

Ian Sykes, who established the Nevis Range ski centre on the slopes of Aonach Mòr in Lochaber, said the resort had had the most snow in its history.

Snow has fallen on the ski slopes for 59 consecutive days and at the weekend Nevis Range enjoyed its busiest day for 10 years.

Almost 1,700 skiers and snowboarders took to the mountain on Sunday.

Average snow depths were thought to be 1.6m on the lower slopes, 4.5m on the upper slopes, with some deep gully areas estimated as being more than 18m deep.

The record numbers were recorded despite some of the lifts being buried by deep deposits of snow. A Nevis Range spokesperson said: “The hard-working hill team continued to dig throughout the day and the Goose T-bar which allows access to one of the main skiing areas finally opened late afternoon.

“The resort was then able to stay open late on Sunday because of the lovely overhead weather conditions.
Managing director Marian Austin said: “We knew Sunday was going to be an incredible day on the slopes as we already had unprecedented levels of snow and the forecast was for sunny spells and favourable winds.

“Despite not being able to open all of our lifts on such a busy day, we’ve had great feedback from our customers. This is due to the strong team of staff we have here at Nevis Range.

“All of our staff have been working very hard in difficult conditions and the hill team have been digging out the lifts on the upper mountain almost on a daily basis.

“Our records show that it has snowed in each 24-hour period since we opened for this winter season on 20 December 2013, so we’ve almost forgotten what it’s like not to have snow falling each day.

“Operations so far this season have been hampered by the strong winds, however, with the amount of snow we already have, once the weather becomes more settled, the skiing will be amazing and as long as we still have customers we’re planning to ski right into spring or maybe even summer.”

However, an overnight thaw tonight, with forecast heavy rain, will be followed by heavy snow showers tomorrow in Lochaber, leading to a high risk of avalanche on aspects between the North and South-East.

The sportscotland Avalanche Information Service said large avalanches are likely overnight. Tomorrow, areas of fresh, poorly bonded windslab will be deposited above 800m where avalanches are likely. Cornices will be prone to collapse, it added.

Avalanche risk is also high for tomorrow in Glencoe, Creag Meagaidh and the southern Cairngorms.