If you are looking out your window now onto a nice bright and sunny day, it might be hard to think back to earlier in the year when we were all under several inches of snow.
But one of the worst winters we have had for many years was in fact a very good one for the skiing community up in Scotland. While Scottish areas are typically used for skiing at the right time of the year, this particular winter was undoubtedly a huge success for the region.
This was borne out at the beginning of May as well, when the Cairngorms were the venue of choice over the Bank Holiday weekend. This might seem strange but in fact the snow that has fallen in the area over recent months is still sitting there for the most part. A spokeswoman said the depth of snow was as much as three metres deep in parts of the Cairngorms. This means that you could actually enjoy continuing to ski there into next month as well.
It just goes to show that a bad winter can have good effects in some places. Although even when all that snow came down earlier in the year, no one would have imagined there would still be skiers in the Cairngorms well into May.
Other parts of Scotland which have skiing resorts have now closed for business this year. But all the while the Cairngorms can stay open and bring in enough visitors to make doing so viable, they will certainly do so. It could mean that there are some new skiers hitting the slopes for the first time this year. In addition to this it is probable that people will have been able to stay at home and ski rather than going abroad. It has certainly been a bumper year for the Scottish skiing industry.
The question though is whether it could keep this up. If the weather returns to something more approaching normal for next winter, it could be that we could expect to see a reduction in business (and snow) once again.
It does prove however that you don’t always have to go abroad to get the best out of a skiing holiday. If you are thinking of going skiing next season, perhaps Scotland could present you with a good opportunity you had previously never even thought of.