Ben Kilner At Scotland's Bag The Pipe Competition

On a real bluebird Easter Saturday, CairnGorm Mountain’s “Bag the Pipe” half-pipe competition attracted competitors including Sochi Olympic snowboarder Ben Kilner, who said: “It’s been an epic day – awesome weather with a great turn out from the local talent pool. It’s great to see such a good platform in the UK for youngsters to get involved. CairnGorm Mountain has definitely shown that it has what it takes to pull off these big events which means we can continue to slay it here in the future. I just hope that everybody at the competition today had as much fun as me.”

Current British halfpipe champion Lewis Courtier-Jones “bagged the pipe” at CairnGorm Mountain on Easter Saturday to win the Men’s Open competition.

Meanwhile, skiers and snowboarders were enjoying great sliding at all three ski resorts. Nevis Range is offering wide, well-groomed pistes and world-renowned back-country skiing in their back corries. Following even more snowfall last weekend, Glencoe Mountain has amazing snow and interesting natural features for next Saturday’s Coe Cup, part of the Scottish Freeride Series of competitions.

Chair of Ski Scotland, Heather Negus said: “the current settled weather and sunshine is finally allowing us to really enjoy the massive dumps of snow we got over the winter and even up until last weekend. The cold nights are firming up the snowpack which softens in the morning sun, giving great sliding conditions. As we expect at this time of year, it’s the ski areas in the west and central Highlands which still have good snow. Although April’s hot sun has melted snow further east and on the lower slopes, we could well be skiing into May this year.”

Ski-Scotland advises checking up-to-date conditions on the official website.

Photo: Lewis Courtier-Jones by Steve McKenna/Ski-Scotland