SCOTLAND’S ski resorts have suffered a “frustrating” start to the season after snow failed to fall.

The country’s five mountain resorts were waiting for the weather to turn yesterday as dry conditions continue to prevent the annual winter sports season from beginning. No lifts or runs were open at Glenshee, near Ballater, yesterday, while “insufficient snow” kept The Lecht at Strathdon closed. Workers there said the facility would remain shut “till further snowfall”.

Staff at the Nevis Range, Fort William, said “we need more snow” to allow skiers and snowboarders onto the slopes and at Glencoe Mountain there was just enough to provide “large patches” for sledging.

Meanwhile, general snowsports and uplift were also off at Cairngorm Mountain, Aviemore. Duty manager Dougie Somerville told The National every day without enough snow is harming the industry.

He said: “It is a disappointing and frustrating start to the season. We had hooped to have been underway by now, with the ski tows open. We have only had four days maximum so far — two in November and two in December.

“It has a massive impact on us. We operate for snowsports for maybe four months of the year so we need to maximise every day we can. It’s not like we can get it back some time else, when it’s gone, it’s gone.”

Most of the country’s resorts offer non-snow activities year round, including popular chair lifts to the top of the peaks.

Numbers were steady at Glencoe Mountain this week, with families taking in the views, while visitor numbers to the country’s only funicular railway at Cairngorm Mountain are also said to be “very healthy”.

However, snowsports remain a “very big part” of the resorts’ business and Somerville said: “We do need to be getting people skiing. But all is not lost yet.

“We don’t see anything in the next five or ten says but it has been the case before that the first skiing has not started even until February. Once it starts it can go on until April, maybe even May. The season is not a write-off but it is disappointing.”

However, the Mountain Weather Information Service predicts conditions are set to improve. In a forecast beginning today, the service said: “Over the coming ten days or so, winds will oscillate between west and north. The result will be periods, mostly brief, of cold, bringing low freezing levels and particularly to western and northern mountains snow. The periods of westerly winds are likely to predominate, although there may be two or three days of near northerly winds later next week.

“On the Scottish Munros, even in the westerly phases, temperatures will frequently be below freezing point, leading to an overall accumulation of snow. More permanent snow will probably be confined to some higher leeward slopes in England and Wales.”