The Nevis Range Centre refused entry to around 30 camper vans which had travelled from across the UK, intending to use the facility’s car park “as a refuge”.
It has now closed to the public, with a team of skeleton staff working from home to monitor the situation.
A statement on the centre’s website said: “We all feel absolutely devastated that we won’t be able to share our great mountain resort with our customers for a while, but as safety is our main priority for our customers and staff we feel this is the only decision we can make.”
All five of Scotland’s ski centres have now closed.
Andy Meldrum of Glencoe Mountain said that people from nearby Ballachulish were on Saturday trying to turn back skiers and boarders over fears of spreading the virus in the area.
“I have heard that something similar has also happened at one of the other resorts. They have been successful in turning away a lot of customers. We have over 300 on Saturday but we will close for the foreseeable future,” said Mr Meldrum, who is also chair of Ski Scotland.
“The irony is that we have the best conditions I can ever remember. The snow is four metres deep on the lower slopes and much more than that on the upper slopes.”
Fort William and Ardnamurchan councillor Niall McLean said: “I’ve had constituents saying they’re distressed.
“We’ve had reports of cars being in the ski centre this week with Italian registrations.
“Please start thinking about this as a pandemic, not a holiday.”
