Bumper ski weekend for CairnGorm

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Almost 3,000 skiers and snowboarders headed for CairnGorm Mountain over the weekend as Scottish skiing continued its best seasonal start for years.

About 1,400 winter sports enthusiasts took to the slopes on Saturday despite high winds preventing some of the upper lifts at CairnGorm from opening.

A further 1,600 took advantage of improved weather conditions on Sunday that allowed all of the lifts to run.

The resort also attracted about 1,000 non-skiing visitors over the weekend.

A spokesman for CairnGorm Mountain said: "We already have a good cover of snow and with more forecast for later in the week we are confident that next weekend could create further demand with even more customers."

He added: "It has certainly been a very encouraging January so far and, hopefully, this will continue into February when, traditionally, lots of people head for the hills during the schools' half-term break."

Ski centres across the Highlands suffered one of their worst ever seasons last year.