Cairngorm Mountain above Aviemore in Scotland has finally decided to call it a day on their 2009-10 ski season after opening in June for the first time in 18 years.

Although final figures are yet to be published, it appears winter 2009-10 will have been one of the area’s most successful for 20 years, with the lifts operating on around 150 days during the past eight months.

The only days the ski area was due to extreme weather, including too much snow in mid-winter, which took staff working flat out more than a week to dig out roads, lifts, restaurant and the funicular railways tracks. A local whisky distillery was so impressed by their efforts it rewarded each of them with a specially commissioned whisky.

Around 150,000 people have taken advantage of the great conditions and got out on the slopes.