It's summer, it's June, but the Scottish snow season goes on

• Skiiers enjoy the sun on Cairn Gorm moutain over the weekend. Picture: Getty

This is a scene not witnessed in Scotland at this time for 16 years, and a season of superlatives may be about to get even better. After six months of near continuous snowsports, the resort had expected to close yesterday, but is now going to continue into June as long as conditions and demand allow. The last time that happened was in 1994, and for many on the mountain yesterday it was a new experience. Those who could remember the last time doubted whether they would see it happen again.

CairnGorm Mountain, the company that operates the ski centre, began its season on 28 November and has opened on 143 days since. In that time one of the main problems has not been too little snow but too much. In the past six months the centre has been forced to close on just 19 days, usually to clear the tons of snow from roads, car parks and the funicular train track.

At times the mountain has been buried under ten metres of snow, with two metres falling in one day at the peak of the blizzards. And it kept coming. Showers at the end of March and even 2 inches of fresh snow this weekend have topped up stocks from the height of the winter and helped stretch out a season beyond normal expectations.

Yesterday the combination of sun and snow meant every 15 minutes a packed funicular railway took more and more visitors up the mountain. Father and son Ronnie and Iain Carr, from Bearsden, who are Cairn Gorm season-ticket holders, were among the first on the hill yesterday. Iain, 18, said: "Skiing this late has never happened in my lifetime. It's fantastic. If this is what climate change brings, keep driving Hummers." His father added: "We started on 28 November and have had six months of skiing. I did that in the 1980s but not since. Usually it's fizzled out by Easter."

David Brand, from Paisley, had a similar tale: "I started skiing in 1980-81 at the height of the good snow, so I was spoiled early on and expected to ski well into May every year. So I was always disappointed when it started to go away. It's been a marvellous year for skiers and snowboarders with superb conditions. It's not just the quantity of snow, but also the quality."

Making the most of the bank holiday, the Wilkinson family from Durham were on the slopes yesterday morning and planned to walk and cycle near Aviemore, then swim in Loch Morlich and have a barbecue at night. Mother Michelle Wilkinson said: "Normally I finish skiing at the end of April. It's 31 May and I'm still skiing in superb Alpine like conditions. It's brilliant and didn't expect to see it."

It is all far removed from the gloom of 2009 when just 159,000 skier days were recorded across Scotland. Cairn Gorm alone has had 144,000 skier days this year before the bumper bank holiday weekend figures are counted. On the back of last year's poor season, CairnGorm Mountain even forked out 5,000 to hire a snow canon to produce artificial coverage for the slopes. The machine can produce up to 96 cubic metres of snow per hour, but not one centimetre of its fake output was needed and the canon has spent its time buried under several metres of the real stuff.

The other Scottish centres – at Glencoe, Glenshee, the Lecht and Aonach Mor – have also enjoyed spectacular seasons, opening in December and maintaining business well into April.

The last season of any comparison was in 2000-1 when 366,008 skier days were racked up across the five resorts. This year's total stood at 373,782 before this weekends figures were added. That season was worth about 4 million to the resorts and at least 12m to the Scottish economy overall. This year the bumper season adds up to a 37.5m economic windfall for the country, of which more than 28m has been spent off the hill and in the villages around the resorts – more than double that of 2008-9.

"It's been amazing, just excellent," said Heather Negus, marketing manager at Nevis Range and chair of the national body SkiScotland. "All the resorts have had good seasons and everyone has worked really hard in terms of getting roads open and things like that in extreme conditions. Everything really came together for us. We had lots and lots of superb snow, which kept on coming, some truly amazing overhead weather giving bluebird conditions, and, because there was also snow elsewhere in the UK, people realised that the Scottish Highlands did have skiing and snowboarding to rival the best and they came here to enjoy it."

As well as the good conditions, the recession has played a part in the success, with all areas reporting a high number of first-time visitors. "Anecdotal evidence suggests that a lot of people who would normally go abroad to ski or snowboard have been coming to Scotland or staying home", said Negus. "We have had a lot of positive feedback from people saying they have never skied here before but visited two to three times and will be back next year. We took over a party of journalists from Europe who were looking at extreme sports. They visited most of the resorts here and couldn't believe their eyes. They had no idea Scotland was like this. It's like this with some people at home, which is quite frustrating. We can have great conditions here, but people are walking about in shorts and T-shirts in Glasgow or Edinburgh and don't realise they could be skiing."

The feel-good factor has extended off the hills and into local businesses. Brian Muirhead, who with wife Caroline runs Aviemore Ski Hire, said: "I have been involved in the business in the Cairngorms for 42 years and have never seen as much snow." The Muirheads shut up shop earlier this month when skiing and snowboarding on the hill was restricted to weekends only. "Up until then it had been absolutely fantastic, probably about three to five weeks longer than a usual season. We had a very elongated year and we still have snow, but numbers dropped off after CairnGorm started operating only on Saturdays and Sundays. The whole of the Badenoch and Strathspey valley gets a boost from this. I'll stick my neck out and say that anyone who is related to tourism and didn't make money wasn't awake."

The welcome income from this year allows the centres to re-invest in year-round facilities to attract visitors when the snow is not there in such abundance. Despite this year's severe and prolonged winter, the generally held opinion is that climate change will mean milder winters. The gloomier predictions have it that it that ski centres may head downhill faster than an Olympic competitor.

In 2008 a report from consumer analysts Mintel warned that climate change could spell a meltdown for the industry. A study showed a near five-fold decline in the number of skier days in Scotland in the space of six years from 366,008 in 2000-1 season to a mere 78,700 in 2006-7. It warned the number of Scottish skier days in the long term was likely to disappear altogether, with home skiers opting to head to indoor ski slopes or abroad.

Weather forecasters also say this year is unlikely to be repeated. John Hammond, a Met Office forecaster, said: "Long term, winters will be generally less severe, this is a one-off. There will be colder winters in the future, but the overall indication is they will become less frequent." Colin Kirkwood, marketing executive at CairnGorm Mountain, agrees that 2010 has been "pretty exceptional. Our average over the last four years was about 55,000 skier days. This year it's 144,000. But you also have to remember that within the last three years we also had our worst ever year when it was 38,000. So we have to sober ourselves with the thought that we could go back to that. If you take this exceptional year out of it, the overall pattern is of decline in numbers which is partly attributable to climate change. We are enjoying it, but, as a business, we cannot rely on years like this and we have to be less reliant on skiing."

Heather Negus says it just makes good business sense to look at year-round facilities: "For all of us it just makes us more sustainable. Even if we had fantastic snow every single year it wouldn't stop any of the resorts looking at making themselves more robust businesses with year round facilities."

CairnGorm Mountain

The season in numbers for Scotland's ski centres:

* SKIER DAYS:

SEASON: 28 November to 31 May

DAYS OPEN: 143

DAYS CLOSED: 19

The Lecht

SKIER DAYS

SEASON: 18 December to 14 April

DAYS OPEN: 110

DAYS CLOSED: 5

Glencoe

SKIER DAYS:

SEASON: 28 December to 18 April and opened weekend 24-25 April

DAYS OPEN: 113

DAYS CLOSED: 13

Nevis Range

SKIER DAYS

SEASON: 22 December to 18 April

DAYS OPEN: 117

DAYS CLOSED: 11

Glenshee

SKIER DAYS

SEASON: 23 December to 11 April

DAYS OPEN: 110

DAYS CLOSED: 6

*A day of skiing purchased in a ski area