Ski Scotland? Aye!

My favorite places for snowboarding are in the Rockies. But how about … Scotland? Yes, there’s a trade association called Ski Scotland that will tell you all about skiing in the land of kilts, bagpipes and haggis.

Not that I’d expect a Yank traveling across the ocean to hit the slopes go to Scotland rather than the Alps. But if your business needs send you to Glasgow or Aberdeen or if you’re fascinated by all things Scottish, why not.

You’ll immediately notice some differences from the U.S. For one thing, the trails or slopes are called “pistes,” which are colored in terms of easier to more difficult, go in this progression: green, blue, red and black. The bunny slope, as far as I can tell, is called the nursery. Ouch! Talk about wounding your pride!

You may be surprised to learn that the vertical drop is respectable, though not spectacular: 1,900 feet for the Nevis Range, for example.

But there’s one fact of these resorts that problem won’t appeal to U.S. riders: surface lifts dominate in Scotland.