A fire-hit ski resort was dealt a further blow yesterday as wind brought activities to a standstill.
Glencoe Ski Centre was badly damaged in a fire on Christmas Day, with the main restaurant base station and ticket office destroyed.
The team were able to reopen the slopes a few days later and created a temporary ticket office, with some food on offer at the site further up the hill.
But yesterday, heavy rainfall and strong winds added to their misery – forcing the chairlift to close.
Manager Andy Meldrum said: “It is wet, miserable and windy. Normally our cafe would be full of tourists looking for shelter on a day like today. We are losing a lot of money.”
However, the forecast for today is less windy with a hint of snow and the long-range forecast is predicting plenty of the white stuff is on its way.
The fire gutted the base station, with pictures revealing burned-out walls, scorched pool tables and destroyed furniture.
Communication with the resort as the wifi cables melted.
Half of the ski hire business, which was sited in a separate building, was safe.
Mr Meldrum said that loss adjusters and insurers had been in to assess the scale of the damage, but that everything was being held up because of the time of year.
Offers of support from throughout the snow sports community have been pouring in and the Glencoe manager said the best way to help is to come and ski when the weather allows.
Meanwhile, heavy rain is believed to have been the cause of a small landslip near Oban early yesterday morning.
Stone became dislodged from a wall during a downpour.
Two cars were collided with mud and rubble at around 2.30am on the A85 Oban to Perth road near Dunbeg.
A police spokesman said: “We received report of damage to a vehicle following a landslide on the A85 between Dunbeg and Connel around 2.30am on Thursday, January 2. Officers attended and the road was cleared shortly before 3am.”
A spokesman for Bear Scotland added: “Our local emergency team attended and cleared up a small amount of stone and an oil spill. The stone appeared to have been dislodged from a wall. Our teams are patrolling today during heavy rain and will be monitoring this location.”
