Roger Cox: After all the hope and anticipation, Scotland’s winter is finally delivering the lovely white stuff

True, my predictions were based on roughly two per cent scientific knowledge and 98 per cent blind optimism, but still: when it comes to trying to second-guess the weather, I just can’t help myself. I know fine that not even triple-blackbelt synoptic chart analysts can see more than a few days into the future with any degree of certainty, but that doesn’t stop me turning into a sort of meteorological Mystic Meg whenever autumn starts slipping into winter. It’s as if there’s a little part of me that thinks it can simply will 3ft of fresh snow into existence.

Anyway, now it’s looking as if the weather gods have read the script after all, so I can relax. As I write this, in the first week of December, the mercury is mid-plummet, there’s a thin dusting of white on the top of Arthur’s Seat and, more importantly, the ski resorts in the north are starting to build up decent accumulations of snow. In the west, Glencoe and Nevis Range have born the brunt of the blizzards and are planning to open in the next couple of days, although strong winds might cause them problems. Over in the east meanwhile, CairnGorm, Glenshee and the Lecht are all reporting upper runs filling in nicely - they’re not ready to open for business just yet, but by the time you read this the lifts could well be whirring into life at some, if not all.

It seems like a good time, then, to have a quick look ahead to what the new season has in store, both on the piste and off it. (And if it turns out I’ve tempted fate with that last sentence and it’s 20 degrees C when this edition of the magazine comes out: I’m sorry. I accept full responsibility for the thaw. But guess what? Everything’s going to work out fine because our winters have settled into a pattern...)

The thing that’s got me most excited is the prospect of the Coe Cup, a new freeride competition at Glencoe, scheduled for 3-4 March. For the uninitiated, freeride contests have expert skiers and snowboarders scored by a panel of judges for the style and poise with which they tackle an unpisted and usually very cliffy bit of terrain. The rules are more complicated than a broken marriage, but generally speaking the winner is the nutjob who most narrowly avoids limb- snapping disaster.

Not only do the steep, rugged slopes in and around the Glencoe ski area lend themselves perfectly to this kind of event, the comp will be judged by two of the biggest names in the sport: American Olympic downhiller-turned-extreme skier extraordinaire Jeremy Nobis and Norway’s Fred Syversen, who holds the record for the biggest cliff drop ever recorded – a knee-buckling 107 metres (that’s 351ft or almost two Scott monuments). Think you’ve got the big mountain skills to impress these fellas? Then you should probably consider entering. If not, you can join me in the safety of the spectators’ area.

At the opposite end of the skills spectrum, Glencoe is making life easier for beginners this season by running a rope tow across the plateau, thereby doing away with the long trek learners used to have to make. They are also in the process of installing ten “microlodges”, ten camper van hookups and 20 camping spots in the area around the car park. The hobbit hole-like microlodges look particularly cool (see picture), and the resort’s owner, Andy Meldrum, assures me that there is absolutely no chance of them rolling away in a stiff north-westerly.

There are changes afoot in terms of artificial snowmaking, too. Glencoe and CairnGorm both have snow cannons on trial from TechnoAlpin this season, in both cases to ensure the beginner areas on their lower slopes are kept as snow-sure as possible. And finally, over at Nevis Range, they are preparing to open a new cafe bar called the Pinemarten for weekends and holidays. Let the skiing (and the apres-skiing) commence!