View from the Ski-centre in summer
Following two days of snow and strong winds, the Cairngorm ski-centre has been forced to close. Operations manager Colin Matthew said that the access roads were blocked by fifteen foot snow drifts. He told the BBC that “further up the mountain the drifting has buried our funicular railway track in about 10 places, and the tunnel mouth, and some of our ski-tow towers are just sticking out of the snow.”
A major operation was under way to clear the snow, with 17-tonne caterpillar earth movers which have already spent two days working 18 hours a day to dry to clear the road. “We have got a single-track road up to our car park and we have to get snow-blowers in to widen the roads and make it two-way traffic before we get the public up.”
The Scottish ski-resorts have been having a bumper winter so far, with the heaviest snow for many years.