A new indoor snow centre which looks set to be the world’s longest is due to open this winter in the Baltic nation of Lithuania.

The SNORAS Snow Arena is due to open this winter following an investment of 98 Million Litas (about €28.5 m) of which two-fifths is coming from European Government structural funding.

The main indoor slope will be 460m long and 50 metres wide and there will be a 70m wide, 150m long beginner trail. Indoor snowmaking will be made by the German-based company Innovag (www.innovag.de) with 15 of their PowderStar S6 units.

There will also be an indoor terrain park. A 640m long outdoor piste will be operational as soon as temperatures drop below 5°C each winter when snowmaking can operate.

The centre is being built on an eight acre site, within a far larger wilderness area.

The centre’s capacity at any one time will be 1,000 people and the project team hope that they will attract 400,000 visitors annually from the wider Baltic region. There is already a summer holiday centre adjacent to the site.

The centre will be one of very few in the world that offers both indoor year-round and outdoor seasonal skiing on adjacent sites. The construction company in charge of the overall facility is Stamita.

There will also be an ice skating rink , snowboard area , a 25 metre high climbing wall and a children's entertainment area . Catering facilities will include the Eskimo ice bar for cocktails and the main restaurant with a wall of glass windows 47m high.

The Snow Arena is being built in forest land 500 metres from the village of Druskininkai, in the spectacular Mizar spectacular mountain forest.

Lithuania is a rather flat country with some gently rolling hills and is believed to currently only have one downhill slope, at Anykščiai, Kalita hill. Complete with snowmaking and two lifts it has pistes up to 250m long with a 40m vertical – so the new indoor snow centre alone will be bigger than that.

www.snowarena.lt

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