WEATHER PERMITTING

What if Scotland hosted the Winter Olympics?

At Scotland’s ski centres, the weather can change before breakfast. People turn up anyway, dressed for the Alps, and get Scotland. When the snow is good, everyone arrives at once. The pictures are about the day people imagine and the one Scotland gives them.

A bearded snowboarder in a red jacket and yellow trousers poses with arms raised beside the Sunnyside Chairlift hut.
Skiers pull on boots and gear from open car boots in a packed ski centre car park.
A man in an orange UK Coal hi-vis jacket carries skis on his shoulder through a crowd of skiers.
Skiers and snowboarders in colourful jackets queue at a ski centre, one in a Deliveroo jacket.
Two snowboarders stand beside a snowy signpost pointing to runs including Aonach Bowl, West Wall and Ryvoan.
A skier in a long tweed coat and goggles stands outside the ski hire and ticket office among other skiers.
A ski instructor in a red jacket watches young children learning on a lift in the snow.
Close-up of a skier hidden behind goggles and a Saltire-print snood, above a bright retro ski jacket.
A man in a bobble hat sits in a wood-panelled café while skiers gather outside the window.
A man with ski boots hanging from his rucksack checks his phone beside a child carrying skis.
The snow-covered Cliffhanger Chairlift hut on a bright winter hillside.
A man in a patterned jumper makes a hot drink in the back of his camper van as snow falls.
Two women, one in a long black coat and one in a blue sari, throw snow on a misty slope.
A man points at a piste map as a group of skiers gathers beside a green hut.
A road safety instructor in a hi-vis tabard stands among skiers and diggers at a busy ski centre.
Helpers prepare a young skier in a blue sit-ski beside a wheelchair as snow falls.
Two people walk past a small igloo with a child inside, below a chairlift.
Skiers and snowboarders sort their kit outside a red wooden café at Glencoe Mountain in the snow.
A man and a child sort through sledges and bags beside a fence at a busy ski area.
A family laughs as they slide down the snow together on sledges, one filming on a phone.
A child in a teal jacket and headscarf picks up a sledge beside a sign asking visitors to return their sledges.
Visitors in winter coats sit on plastic sledges in the snow, one in a pink furry hat.
A skier on the phone sits at a café table beneath a ski history display, with a Christmas garland over the window.
A skier in mirrored goggles and a red bib with Chinese lettering holds a handheld camera gimbal.
Visitors sit on old chairlift seats marked Glencoe Mountain, with snowy peaks behind.
A snowmobile stands beside a Run Broken sign as snow falls and skiers pass behind.
Two skiers sit in the snow beneath a bilingual café and equipment hire sign marked Open.
A skier in a red jacket stands beside crossed slalom poles under a blue sky.
A woman in white ski trousers rides a button lift while a man in a red jacket kicks up snow beside her.
A group of skiers, including children, set off together on a sunny slope.
Walkers gather by the Eagles Rest toilets hut on a snowy hillside.
A skier in a bright retro one-piece suit walks through falling snow with a child and a pushchair.
A man packs a board bag beside his car boot as snow falls in the car park.
A skier in a black jacket and goggles straps his skis together in a snowy car park.
Tyre tracks run through fresh snow on an empty road as snow falls.

WEATHER PERMITTING

What if Scotland hosted the Winter Olympics?

At Scotland’s ski centres, the weather can change before breakfast. People turn up anyway, dressed for the Alps, and get Scotland. When the snow is good, everyone arrives at once. The pictures are about the day people imagine and the one Scotland gives them.

WEATHER PERMITTING looks past the skiing to the people around it: families, weekend snow chasers, camper van die-hards and walkers riding the chairlift. It’s more about the car park than the piste, and more about the waiting than the run.

While the world watched the Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina, I went looking for Scotland’s version, practising van life in the ski centre car parks with my best pal Flash. He’s a dog. Each morning the weather decided the day: the odd blue sky, but mostly blizzards, sideways rain or cloud so thick you couldn’t see the chairlift. Then a sudden break, and it was a perfect afternoon.

Scotland has five ski centres: Glenshee, Glencoe, Cairngorm, Nevis Range and The Lecht. Glenshee, the Glen of the Fairies, is the biggest. When the cloud comes down, the fairies win.

Scottish skiers wear the work clothes of a country that used to dig coal and now drives delivery vans. One skier turns up in a UK Coal hi-vis jacket, an industrial relic worn as a joke. Plenty more come without skis at all, from all over the world, to stand in the snow, throw it and film it.

All events weather permitting.