The Ski Slope at Garthdee, Aberdeen, soon to be ‘Garthdee Sports & Alpine Adventure Park’, is to be radically developed into one of the UK’s leading snowsport centres this summer. The development will take place on the existing site, laid dormant for the past 8 years, under major new development plans by Aberdeen City Council.

UK based snowsport innovators Briton Engineering will carry out the work. It will consist of installation of 900m2 Snowflex onto a newly constructed nursery slope and just over 3000m2 onto a newly constructed Snowflex snowsports park. The centre, in a prime location in the city, will make exciting snowsports available 7 days a week, in all seasons.

The Slopes

The nursery slope will provide teaching to up to 48 beginners at any one time. The unique Snowflex system will allow them to learn in safety, through the padded base layer and soft falls, to build the novices’ confidence.

The main Snowflex slope of 3000m2 will provide the ultimate playground to everyone from newly departed nursery slope users through to the Baxter’s and McKenna’s of the Scottish leader boards. The completely new slope will be located adjacent to the existing mesh material, which will also be in commission.

Although the final plans are not available yet, the main Snowflex snowsports park is almost certainly to consist of an elliptical end on quarterpipe, moguls, launch platform, little air jump and what is planned to be the best big air in the UK, coupled with the longest landing area to date.

The slope is also likely to include a wall ride, rainbow rail, hips off the quarterpipe and a number of other rails, although still to be confirmed.

Background

The Kaimhill Site was originally a ski slope until it closed some 8 years ago in a deal with the nearby supermarket over the ski slopes’ land. The project, now in its final stages, is to re-establish snowsports in northeast Scotland and will provide not only the people of Aberdeen and Scotland with a first class facility, but should also draw the wider snowsports scene to the slope.

Aberdeen council resurrected the snowsports centre plans in early 2004, and has assembled the project team and turned the development round in a remarkably short time.

The Centre

The excellent lodge, housing the ski hire and changing facilities, has already been built and will also serve the football pitch which shares the site. Overall the site will consist of about 5000 m2 of snowsports area.

The facility promises to be one of the most exciting developments for UK snowsports and will only add to the UK’s fantastic snowsporting talent.

The proposed completion date is currently September 2004.

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