ALMOST written off as a snowsports disaster area, Scotland's ski resorts are reporting the best season for a decade.
Heavy snowfalls at Easter at each of the five resorts, with more last week, mean that the season is expected to extend until the end of this month and possibly into mid-May.
Marian Austin, chairwoman of the Scottish Snowsports Marketing Group, sai
d: "Traditionally, the snowsports areas in the west get snow later in the winter and hold it for longer.
"However, this winter, all five areas got a good dump of snow early in January, which was an excellent month. Although February wasn't as good as we'd hoped, the snow which came in early March and over Easter has given us some superb powder snow, rarely seen in Scotland."
Scottish skiing has been in decline for at least a decade, with statistics gathered by the Ski Club of Great Britain saying the number of Scottish skier days has fallen from 366,000 in the 2000-1 season to just 78,700 in 2006-7.
Disappointing long-term snow trends were revealed by a scientific study by climatologists at East Anglia University, which found that north and east Scotland experienced a reduction from a typical 35 days of snow cover a year in the 1960s to an average of 26 days per year now.
But the resorts hope this season will bring a reversal in the downward spiral of visitor numbers. The Cairngorm area near Aviemore exceeded its annual target of 51,000 skiers on Friday.
A spokeswoman said: "Easter was early and the season runs on until the end of April. There's great snow, and it's still falling."
Nevis Range, the most westerly ski resort, near Fort William, has experienced its best March since 1999 with a good base of snow that will last well into next month.
Glencoe still has "absolutely fantastic snow conditions" and expects April to be its best month this year.
Glenshee, between Blairgowrie and Braemar, says its figures "are around nine times better than last year, and similar to 2004-5, when we had a similar number of operational days".
The smallest resort, Lecht, near Tomintoul, says skier numbers are 15% to 20% up on last year even though it has had only 50 operational days so far, less than normal.
Operations director James McIntosh said: "We have so much snow, you can ski anywhere, and we're now planning to stay open over the next couple of weeks. Our snow fences are covered again, we've had eight inches of new snow over the last few days, and the warm April sun means it's so much easier to open the road quickly after a snowfall."
Today, Scotland is forecast to have bright or sunny spells and showers, heavy in the north and wintry over the mountains.
