SCOTLAND'S snow slopes have seen drops of up to two-thirds in the number of skiers this year as new figures reveal the full extent of the mild winter on the popular sport.

The latest casualty of the conditions is the Scottish Children's Ski Championships, which were due to be held at the Cairngorm ski centre on Saturday and Sunday but have now been cancelled because of the lack of snow.

However, some operators remain optimistic and say they still hope there could be late snowfalls to boost their figures.

One of the biggest drops has been at the Glenshee Ski Centre, Aberdeenshire, where the number of skier days was less than one-third of last year.

Company director Stewart Davidson said: "Our numbers are certainly down. We haven't finalised our figures yet but it is probably about the 30,000 skier days mark.

"You never know, we might get a couple of weekends yet. We haven't reached the middle of March yet.

"But last year we had 95,000 and the year before 110,000 on the back of two very good snowy winters. We are not too downhearted, we were probably due a poor season.

"The average over the last 10 years would be about 50,000. That would be nearer the mark.

"I think our all-time record was 178,000 but that was in the early 1990s when we still got coach-loads of skiers coming. We don't get them any more."

Mark Jordan, office manager at Nevis Range said: "We are still going on our artificial slope and we haven't given up hope of more snow, but we are well down.

"The year before last we had 35,000 skier days, last year 18,000, however this year we are only about 9000 so far. But we have had about 10,000 non-skiers."

Meanwhile, according to Cairngorm Mountain Ltd, which had been due to host the children's national competitions this coming weekend, it is shaping up to be one of the worst seasons since the Cairngorm Funicular Railway opened in 2001 and among the worst on record.

Chief executive Ian Whitaker said that to date there had been 44,783 skier days compared to 96,431 during the same period last year and a budgeted number for this year to date of 60,083.

However, 26,438 non-skiing funicular passengers had made the journey up the mountain during the snowsports season this year compared with 19,600 during the same period last season.

He said not to be skiing in March was something the operators had never experienced before.

At Scotland's oldest ski centre, Glencoe, it was a similar tale, according to resort manager Angela Dingwall.

She said: "We actually were up on last year, but it has finished far earlier so we are down.

"We haven't really added up yet but we will have had around 8500 skier days this year compared to 14,000 last year.

"A late fall of snow would certainly be welcome but I think it will need a miracle. It is pretty mild just now."

However with a view to non-skiing visitors, she said they were putting in another mountain bike track and were constructing micro lodge accommodation on site.

The Lecht in Aberdeenshire was also reporting a big drop, but did not have figures yet.