Scottish tourism video is over-optimistic
earthtimes.org
EDINBURGH - Critics say a tourism commercial that shows Scotland as a winter sports paradise includes footage that is a decade old and predates recent warm winters.
VisitScotland's film shows snowboarders and skiers on well-packed slopes while ice climbers make their way up a frozen waterfall, The Scotsman reports. Those conditions have been hard to find recently, with no really cold winters in the country in seven years.
Alan Crichton, a professional guide, canceled ice-climbing courses in the Cairngorm mountains last winter. He said one reason an indoor ice-climbing center opened was that conditions in the mountains have been so poor.
"You can still go ice-climbing in Scotland, but it won't be of the quality that was shown in the video," he said. "We haven't had conditions like that for a while now, with the last decent winter being in 2001."
Alan Halewood, who manages the Ice Factor center in Glencoe, said total snowfall has not changed much. The big difference is that recent winters have had major thaws so snow and ice do not build up.
