Snow business: The Cairngorm mountains in Scotland boast some of the best ski runs in the UK


The big freeze has caused mayhem for motorists and closed airports across the country but there is a silver-lining to the coldest November in 25 years.

Skiers are making the most of the icy Siberian blast as a thick blanket of snow covers the north of the country and the ski season comes early to Scotland.

The UK is experiencing some of the heaviest widespread early snow for 17 years and up to 2ft of snow has fallen in Northumberland and northern and eastern Scotland.

In Allenheads, Northumberland, skiers were today hoping for more snow to fall on the village's 100m ski slope. People were able to ski there for the first time this year on Sunday after six inches of snow fell in the village.

In Scotland, hundreds of skiers enjoyed a day on the slopes on Saturday before snow blizzards descended on Sunday.


Staff at Cairngorms ski resort are battling to get the funicular railway at the resort up and running


In Aviemore, workers at the Cairngorm ski resort were battling to clear the funicular tunnel mouth this morning, which had become blocked by snow drifts.

Colin Kirkwood, a spokesman for the resort, told TravelMail: 'We've had a lot of snow over the last couple of days - in places it's as deep as 40 inches - it's early to have this amount of snow. The official starting date of the ski season is normally 1st December but we had 1000 people skiing here on Saturday.'

Temperatures had dropped to -9C at the resort today and more snow blizzards were expected. The cold weather is of course good for business and the resort has seen a big jump in season ticket sales.

'It looks like the snow is going to stay right through Christmas and New Year - so we're expecting a bumper Christmas holiday period,' Kirkwood said.

'We had 145,000 skiers last year compared to an average of 55,000 for previous years. It's all thanks to the amount of snow we're getting - although last year we were skiing from 29th November right up to 21st June!'

At Glenshee ski resort, the temperature had dropped to -6C and access to the resort had been blocked by overnight snow drifts. Stewart Davidson, a spokesman for the resort, said: 'We've had lots of fresh powder snow with most runs now complete - we're all ready to go but the problem will be trying to access roads - if these can be cleared we hope to have an operation in progress later on today.'


Cold snap: A worker clears snow at Glenshee Ski Centre in Scotland


The resort is expected to open once the A93 has been cleared. Just six lifts will be in operation due to lack of staff.

Davidson told TravelMail: 'It is quite early in the year to get this amount of snow - we opened a week before Christmas last year so we don't have the staff in place at the moment to operate all the ski lifts.

'The forecast is for 25cm more snow tonight. It's very rare to get that much snow this early but it's definitely a positive thing for the resort!'

Lecht ski resort is also battling with snow drifts and is expected to open tomorrow once access roads have been cleared.

Over in the west of Scotland, Glencoe ski resort hasn't been so lucky with the weather and is currently closed due to lack of snow but further snow falls are expected at the resort this week.



source: dailymail