World Indoor Snow News

The Dutch Snowworld indoor snow centre operators have announced a series of expansion plans that will see one of the company’s two existing centres in The Netherlands expand and two entirely new facilities be built in France and Spain.

The company’s Snowworld Zoetermeer is to receive a fourth indoor s now slop, some 300m long by the end of the year at a cost of €15m while Landgraaf, which has one of the world’s longest indoor slopes and the biggest indoor snow slope area there is, will add a curling hall, ice climbing wall and additional outdoor attractions including a downhill Alpine coaster and zip wire.

However the company’s plans to open major new indoor snow centres in Paris and Barcelona, the latter entirely energy self-sufficient in keeping with the groups green power credentials, have attracted the most international attention.

Both facilities would involve a spend of 40-50 million Euros and be developed through 2012/13 to open in 2014.

Barcelona is particularly interesting as Snowworld plan to make use of liquefied natural gas which is transported to the city at present for industrial use at a temperature of -238°F. when it arrives on site it is warmed in seawater to return it to its gaseous state, cooling the water involved which currently is just released back in to the sea. The idea now is to use it to cool buildings in the city and keep the proposed indoor snow centre refrigerated. Solar panels would meet other energy requirements making use of Barcelona’s usually sunny skies.

American Dream Meadowlands, the decade old project to build a multi billion dollar entertainment complex in New Jersey, USA that will house the continent’s first indoor snow centre has delivered a website, www.americandream.com and a time frame. The facility is expected to open in autumn next year.

Data on the first indoor snow skiing facility in North America, which was already completed several years ago, are that it covers 165,000sq ft, is 800 feet long; 16 stories high and has 200 feet of roofline.

It will house a professional ski school and extreme snowboarding parks, organise corporate incentive programs and consumer promotions and has a projected attendance figure of 1.6 million visitors annually.

Dutch company SnowWorld are proposing to take the cold released when pipeline LPG is turned back in to gas to cool a new indoor slope in Madrid, Spain. Cunning.

Full article at NY Times.

The world’s biggest indoor snow centre yet, fully powered by renewable energy, is due to open by 2016 near Stockholm in Sweden.



Skipark 360° designed by architects Berg Arkitektkontor will incorporate a 700m long indoor ski slope over a 160m vertical, the world’s longest to date and capable of staging World Cup events, as part of a stylish 70,000m² structure, which will also include a terrain park, a 3.5km cross-country skiing tunnel with biathlon area as well as ice hockey and skating rinks. The building will also incorporate restaurants, shops, a spa, hotel and conference facilities.

Green powered, the building will self generate all of its energy requirements using solar, wind and hydro electricity as well as geothermal heating.

At a cost of 1.5-2bn Swedish Kroner construction work is due to commence by the town of Bålsta, 45 minutes from the Swedish capital, in 2013 or 2014 for completion before 2016.

The Bahamas may be known as a tropical paradise, but the country which came within a whisker of sending its first half pipe competitor to the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in 2010 was created, American and European scientists have recently reported, that a mega flood or series of mega floods, from beneath the Ice Age Laurentide Ice Sheet is responsible for shaping what are today, the Islands of The Bahamas.

Now and company founded in Canada by Canadians and Bahamians hopes that snow and ice will be returning to the country with the creation of an entirely green energy powered indoor snow centre.

The SIXi Group is engaged in the development of projects that focus on clean energy, leisure and entertainment, and tourism primarily in The Bahamas.

“The Grand Bahama Ice Age Resort, will be a place where climate change is fun and embraced as the order of the day. This will be accomplished by building a resort that blends the traditional warm pristine beach activities and general Bahamian fun, with the experiences of a specially themed indoor winter wonderland. The central plans is to have restaurants, shopping, a hotel with an indoor and outdoor water park, and a outdoor skate park. Indoor snow fun at the resort will include skiing, tobogganing, tubing, snowboarding, etc and will be developed with real indoor snow on an area that is between five to twenty thousand square metres. The centre will coin the phrase "dual-climate resort offering" because of the manner in which indoor and outdoor fun will blend.” said a statement from The SIXi Group.

The group has decided to focus on Grand Bahama Island in particular due to its strategic geographic location for global commerce and it is a critical free trade zone in the Americas. It is conveniently located at the crossroads of routes between Europe, North and South American trade links, and international shipping transiting through the Panama Canal.

“All of our projects must pass a rigorous in-house test of “sustainability and value” before we invest any resources into them. Additionally, through our non profit efforts, we will promote sustainable communities by developing and supporting art, sport, educational, technical, and cultural initiatives within the relevant communities.” the statement from The SIXi Group continues.

“We are confident that our Ice Age resort will appeal to a new kind of visitor experience and will be a medium to inspire guests into participating in new sporting and leisure activities. SIXi wants guests to experience the best of both worlds (Island Resort & Winter Resort) all in one beautiful and convenient location. We expect to be open for business in early 2014.”

Work has begun on a new super resort in Thailand which eventually hopes to be home to one of the world’s largest indoor snow centres – although there are no details behind that part of the plan as yet.

The $400m(US) Club Koh Samui Resort (http://clubkohsamui.com) aims to be, “...a comprehensive, world-class Stadium and Sports Academy including football and tennis academies.” with its own high-speed gondola that rises from Chaweng Noi to the CKS Project and continues to the summit of Samui’s second highest mountain.

Other facilities will include a theme park, water park and man-made lake as well as a luxury marina and 18-hole championship golf course. Accommodation will be provided in a four star hotel and five star suites complex.

“Ski Samui will be one of the largest indoor ski slopes in the world.”

"Club Koh Samui will change the face of Koh Samui tourism and enable the island to reach its full potential,” said Finn Hyttel, Club Koh Samui’s Group Managing Director. “Koh Samui desperately needs a landmark tourist attraction, and Club Koh Samui will satisfy this need and be a signature amenity and demand generator for the entire island.

While Thailand and Koh Samui are successful destinations in their own right, Club Koh Samui will have the needed range of tourism drivers and attractions to become a global tourist destination all on its own the company say.

“The overall concept combines fantasy, luxury, and numerous entertainment possibilities and has already proven to be hugely successful in other venues around the world like Club La Santa on Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. As a destination resort, it will generate significant economic benefits for Koh Samui and Thailand and create substantial jobs and economic spin-offs, attract more regional and international visitors, increase tourism receipts and boost the country’s tourism industry as a whole.”

The world’s first indoor-outdoor ski area is scheduled to open in the Baltic state of Lithuania on August 26th.



Unlike most of the world’s 60 indoor snow centres currently operating, the new €14.5 million SNORAS Snow Arena, which will have one of the world’s five longest indoor slopes to date at 460m, is in a rural location that’s cold enough for an outdoor ski run to operate in winter too, so a 600m long run loops out from the indoor slope.

It is also the only indoor snow centre within 1,000kms.

www.snowarena.lt/en/home

There's a heap of construction photos here for those that like that sort of thing.

Italy, now one of the few major Western European nations not to have at least one indoor snow centre – although it does have around 400 regular ski areas – has announced plans to open just such a facility in the Lombardy region in the north of the country by 2015.



The proposal, for a site at Selvino, in the heart of Val Seriana, near Bergamo envisages construction beginning in 2012, with the centre opening in 2015.

The proposed centre would probably be the world’s largest to date with two 30m wide pistes, 600m long over a 120m vertical. The main run would be served by a chairlift, the others by conveyor and drag lifts.

There would also be a nursery slope, a 180m long freestyle course and other sports facilities including an ice climbing wall and cross country ski tracks. There would also be the usual facilities such as bars, restaurants and ski shops.

Selvino is an established centre of competitive wintersports in Italy and the centre would be used for team training and international competition. Annual attendance is expected to be around 180,000.

American snowboarding pro and twice Olympic medallist, Danny Kass, has credited indoor ski areas as having the potential to develop international standard snow sports athletes to world class.

Interviewed by The National newspaper in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kass, who won silver medals at two Winter Olympics, said that areas like Ski Dubai are the perfect training ground for young hopefuls. He said there was no reason why young UAE based athletes could not begin their international careers there.

"The snow is a lot better than I expected and it's the same park set-up here as most resorts in the US," Kass told the paper. "These are the same features you'd find anywhere... it's actually quite mind blowing."

Kass originates from New Jersey in the US where the country’s first indoor snow centre has been built as part of a multi-million pound development. However, ironically, there has been wide spread public and media scepticism in North America as to the viability of indoor snow centres.

The New Jersey centre was largely completed several years ago and snow made in it in 2009, but it has been unable to open due to financial issues facing the wider mall around it, largely due to global economic conditions. It is currently scheduled to open in 2013.

“It's really similar to some of the conditions I grew up snowboarding on in the US," said Kass. "There are a lot of small hills with just a few features and it’s just a similar feel in size."

Kass’s comments follow several notable successes for skiers and snowboarders who began their careers and/or carried out much of their training on indoor snow. These include Ghana’s first downhill ski racer Kwame ‘The Snow Leopard’ Nkrumah-Acheampong who first skied on the slopes of the Milton Keynes SNO!zone and competed for his country at the Vancouver Olympics and Dutch boarder Nicolien Sauerbreij who won gold at the Games after training in her country’s SnowWorld centres.

The Majid Al Futtaim group, the company behind Ski Dubai, the iconic indoor snow centre, have announced plans to open a new indoor snow centre, ‘Ski Egypt,’ within three years. It would be Egypt’s first indoor snow centre.

The indoor ski slope will be part of Majid Al Futtaim's 4.4 billion Egyptian pound Mall of Egypt project, which is scheduled to open in 2014.

"It's going to be more of a snow park, but there's going to be a slope element," Arnaud Palu, the chief executive officer of Majid Al Futtaim Leisure, told local media, “It is provisionally called Ski Egypt.”

The design for Ski Egypt’s slopes have not yet been finalised, according to Mr Palu, who previously ran SNO!zone in the UK, which operates three indoor snow centres in England and Scotland.

However it will not be as large as Ski Dubai, one of the world’s 10 biggest indoor snow slopes with a 400m long snow surface including a black run, which was designed by Acer Snowmec.

www.skiinfo.nl has reported that one of the eight indoor snow centres in the Netherlands will close after August.

The Snowvillage Biddinghuizen, part of the Rivièra Recreation Centre, lies directly on the beautiful Veluwemeer and is surrounded by woods. Opened in 1999 the facility was one of the shortest in the world at only 40m long with an eight metre vertical and had been used largely for winter fun sports like tubing and tobogganing. It is part of a leisure park and resort complex with a vast array of alternative leisure activities on offer.

The owners say the facility will be used now for activities like laser gaming.

The closure of Snowvillage Biddinghuizen will leave The Netherlands with seven indoor slopes, still second in the world after Japan.

Plans for a spectacular Twin Domes tourist attraction in the Southern African kingdom of Lesotho have moved to the feasibility stage says Kevin Ferris of Ski Trac International Pty Lt. The news follows the project receiving final clearance from the Lesotho government to commence.

The Twin Domes would see a Ski Trac with its patented indoor revolving snow mountain creating the world’s longest ski run in one of the domes, the other, the Space Dome, would house the world’s largest cinema screen covering seven acres. The site for the Twin Domes at Maseru is very central to Southern African with 14 million people living within a 300km radius.

The Space Dome would also feature the world's biggest indoor water park, an 800 metres long sandy beach, water slides and tropical lagoons, never-ending surf waves, a submarine tropical reef tour and the chance to ride to Space in a four-man "space craft" to visit a full size replica of the International Space Station and do a space walk in a space suit.

“The uniqueness of this project is that it is designed more for boosting the economy of Lesotho than for commercial opportunity, given its location. Thus the project will be largely funded by government and other grants.” said Mr Ferris, “We have already determined that the project will one day ride high on the tourist and local visitor trail. Though not actually up in the Lesotho mountains - the only snowfield in Southern Africa, the Ski Dome will nevertheless redefine skiing in that country.”

Lesotho currently has one small commercial ski field – Afri-Ski (www.sfriski.com) where the season runs from early June to early September.

www.skitrac.com

The Casablanca Indoor Snow Centre west of Antwerp in Belgium is campaigning to be allowed to complete renovations of the slope, which is one of the oldest in the world.

Work on the new slope began last year after all permits were obtained, but ground to a halt following public objections to the new slope. Currently the centre is running an online petition to try to gather support for work to resume.

Casablanca began as a dry slope in the mid-1960s but was one of the first centres to be converted to an indoor snow slope in the ‘modern era’ in 1987.

The new centre will have a longer and wider slope than the original at 200m long and 40m wide. It will also have a bigger vertical and steeper slopes at up to a 30% pitch.

www.skicasablanca.be

SnowWorld Zoetemeer in the Netherlands has received the go-ahead from the local Zoetermeer council to move ahead with its planned fourth indoor snow slope.

The new slope was presented to the full council by the new slope’s architects to a reportedly enthusiastic response. The slope will be 300 meters long and 40 meters wide, meaning one of the world’s original indoor snow centres will now have one of the world’s 10 longest indoor slopes.
The design of the new structure, slim and elegant, was much admired by the council.

A public meeting for local residents was also held last month at the SnowWorld site.

The centre will now move forward to finalise the design details and secure the full permission required with a target completion and opening date of the new slope of Christmas 2012.

The long-planned and actually built first indoor snow centre in North America looks set to finally move towards opening following the reaching of an agreement that allows the stalled complex to be taken over by Canadian mall developer Triple Five, which runs several of the continent’s biggest shopping complexes.

The indoor snow slope is part of a giant mall and entertainment centre, plans for which began in 2004 under the name Xanadu. This name has finally been dropped in favour of new name "American Dream@Meadowlands."

The complex was first conceived and built by the Mills Corporation, a successful shopping mall construction company that had built an indoor snow centre, also called Xanadu, in Madrid, Spain. The company collapsed with the ‘world economic slowdown’ and companies that subsequently tried to pick up the pieces of the $2 billion unopened project failed to do so.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's administration has now resurrected the project with a "financing package of $180 million to $200 million" that is intended to allow Triple Five to use the sales tax they collect to repay the loan.

The other good news is that the indoor snow centre part of the development, which some commentators thought might be dropped along with the Xanadu name, currently appears to still be part of the development, with an indoor water park and ice skating rink new additions to the plan.

The overall development will be the largest shopping centre in the US and will open in 2013 said a spokesperson for Triple Five.

New pictures published on the website of the SNORAS Snow Arena’s website - www.snowarena.lt - in the past week show the complex nearing completion.



The Lithuanian ski centre is due to open this spring and as well as one of the world’s largest indoor snow slopes will feature a raised outdoor piste open in winter too, the recent pictures show this to be snow covered.

Located in Druskininkai area, the SNORAS Snow Arena will feature a 460m long, 50m wide main slope, placing it among the world’s top four longest indoor snow slopes a little behind existing slopes in France, Germany and The Netherlands.

The unique curving outdoor slope which begins and ends next to the top and bottom of the indoor slope, sharing the 66m vertical, is 640m long and there will be an additional 150m long indoor beginner slope and an indoor terrain park. Slope pitch will be up to 25%. The full complex will also feature other leisure facilities including a 25m high climbing wall.

Shanghai’s indoor ski centre, one of the world’s largest and one of China’s longest established, is reported to have closed for six months of renovations before re-opening in the Spring.

The SSS complex is the only indoor ski centre at China’s second city and with a slope 380m long and 80m wide it is one of the world’s longest and biggest by slope area.

However recent reports on user chat rooms had indicated the complex, now more than 10 years old, was becoming increasingly in need of renovation.

An exact re-opening date has not been confirmed and the centre’s main website was not functioning when checked recently.

Ironically, the indoor snow centre at the moth balled Xanadu Complex in New Jersey, USA was damaged by snow and ice during extreme weather last week.

The indoor snow centre structure was largely completed two years ago and snow making has successfully been carried out within the facility, but it is yet to open along with the rest of the Xanadu complex. Doubts have also been expressed as to whether a new owner of the facility would choose to operate the indoor snow facility, the first to be built in North America.

The snow and ice build up was reported to have caused around a 20 metre long ‘crease’ in the structure according to local media reports which quoted the ‘lender group’ currently responsible for the structure as saying they’d filed an insurance claim for the damage.

The local business mood currently appears to be optimistic that a buyer will be found for Xanadu and that it might finally open in early 2013.

The future of the Casablanca indoor snow centre in Antwerp, Belgium, is uncertain at the present.

The centre closed last year and was undergoing a complete re-build but the latest news from the complex was that the renovations had stopped as the centre became embroiled in legal cases.

The original centre was created in 1987 on the site of a former artificial surface slope and claims to be the world’s oldest, although a different type of indoor snow structure did exist in Japan from the 1950s.

The centre’s operators planned to build a new complex with a longer, 200m slope (also wider at 40m) that was scheduled to open this year, but is now battling legal objections.

The company had partnered with French-based Wyss, which specialises in the production of snow systems that work at all temperature levels, to produce snow for the new centre, which is also due.

The new complex is due to have a main slope with gradients varying between 30% and at the flattest part 20% with a separate beginners’ slope located over the lowest part of the main slope and meeting it at the bottom. There will be three conveyor lifts, rentals, kindergarten, ski shops, a restaurant, two bars and meeting rooms.

An online petition for supporters of Casablanca has been launched at www.ipetitions.com/petition/red_skibaan_casablanca/

The entrance to a new indoor winter sports centre in Lithuania that will boast both outdoor ski runs and one of the world’s five biggest indoor runs has been decorated with a huge snowflake formed from more than four hundred mountain pine trees.



The idea of decorating the downhill, which will divide the skiing slopes from the busy road, with a snowflake of mountain pines came to Andrius Stasiukynas, the General Director of the construction company Stamita employed in the construction of the complex, which is due to open in April.

More than 400 pines were needed to form the snowflake with a diameter of almost four hundred meters.
“We decided that the downhill, well seen to those passing it, should be given some winter accent which would remain there even during the hottest summer.” Said Mr Stasiukynas.

Later, on its other side, facing Druskininkai, we will create the logo of the centre – a skier using the same trees. We didn’t want to use any environment unfriendly materials.” He added.

Curious travellers now stop to see not only the rapidly emerging ski hall but the massive green snowflake as well.

www.snowarena.lt

The Austrian bank Hypo Alpe Adria, which has been nationalised, has sold the Alpincenter Hamburg-Wittenburg in northern Germany to the Dutch tourism group Van der Valk who have in any case been operating it since 2008.

Hypo bought the centre out of a bankruptcy in 2008. The slope is one of the world’s largest with a 330m long main slope.

The slope was closed in the summer and autumn for renovations and had hoped to re-open in November, but a statement posted on the centre’s site in late October said that it would be unable to re-open in November as planned due to construction delays but hoped to re-open in December in time for Christmas. However the statement was still on display on December 31st.

www.alpincenter.com

The long sought new owner of the troubled $2.3 billion shopping complex in New Jersey that was for most of the past decade known as Xanadu and incorporates North America’s first indoor snow slope may have been found.

Triple Five Corp, the owners of some of America’s biggest retail malls including the famous Mall of America in Minnesota and the West Edmonton Mall in Canada, announced Thursday that it has signed a letter of intent with the lenders of the vast largely-complete complex.

The complex was due to open in 2007 and is largely complete. Triple five said they had been following the project through its near ten-year development and believe they are well placed to complete it and make a success of its operation. They’ll announce their plans for it next year.

SkiTrac has signed an investment agreement with the Beijing/Badaling and Yanqing County governments to purchase land allocated to them for the building of our proposed one mile diameter Megadome.
Using the expertise of ASATI of Rye Brook, New York - the leading authorities in the field - a column-free air-supported canopy will be used that can literally cover a city. The roof will give a feeling of being inside-outside, providing ideal temperatures throughout the bitter winter months and hot summer days.

Inside will be a wonder-destination including the world's largest indoor beach, longest surf wave, European-style shopping streets, hotels, resorts, 18-hole golf course, a 300m diameter open-slope Ski Trac and much, much more. The government, for which the project will be "the biggest landmark development since the Olympics," have granted land just 3000 metres from the Great Wall tourist entrance and allocated a railway station inside the dome on the planned Beijing-Badaling rail line.
This city-under-a-roof will also boast a 10,000 student University of Performing Arts providing most modern classrooms, numerous small, medium and large amphitheatres for shows and a 45,000 stadium with folding, movable partitions.

Having a university associated with, and funded by the promoters of the dome provides a unique commercial and Educational relationship of mutual benefit to both parties. Amongst the advantages will be a constant supply of blossoming artists for the many concert venues and street performances within the dome.

Mr Georges Emmerson Caza of Canada, now resident in Beijing has been appointed CEO of the Megadome operating company. Mr Caza, a former licensed financial advisor with one of Canada's top three brokerage companies and an international financial advisor on numerous mandates world-wide, has been foremost in raising funds for the Megadome project.

www.skitrac.com

The BBC has reported that Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong, better known as “the Snow Leopard,” who represented Ghana as a ski racer at the Vancouver Olympics, finishing in the top 50, is moving ahead with plans to build Ghana’s first artificial surface snow slope on a 13 acre site in the east of the tropical West African country.

Launching the plans in the country’s capital, Accra, with plans to spend $400,000 (US) on the dry slope with sprinkler system, Mr Nkrumah-Acheampong is currently seeking financial backers for the slope which he hopes will be an Olympic training ground for the team he has already established and provide free skiing for under 16.

“I think I've proven myself enough times now that when I say we're going to do X,Y,Z we deliver X,Y,Z” he said.

Scottish born Mr Nkrumah-Acheampong first learned to ski less than 10 years ago when working in administration at the SNO!zone indoor snow facility at Milton Keynes.

Turkey is the latest, and 26th country to develop an indoor snow centre since the first opened in Australia, Belgium and Japan more than 20 years ago.

The new $3m facility in the Deepo Shopping Centre in the Avcilar Beylikduzu area of Istanbul has attracted massive publicity across the country according to Malcolm Clulow, boss of British company Acer Snowmec, which is responsible for the indoor snow in the complex, as his company has been at many of the world’s other leading centres, including iconic Ski Dubai, over the past few decades.

The $200 Million Deepo Mall is located on the Avcilar - Beylikdüzü highway in the Turkish Capital and contains 180 stores. It has been developed by the Torunlar Company whose chairman Aziz Torun told local media that competition in the Turkish retail sector had switched to the shopping malls,

"Deepo is one of the best shopping centres in Turkey with its snow ski run, sports complex and Garden Centre, which resembles Babylonian Gardens. Themed entertainment centre, sports, spa facilities and visual arts centre with indoor and outdoor swimming pools and Marmara sea view will offer a unique experience to the visitors.”

Torun said that they will invest 3 million dollars in the construction of the 'snow park'. Torun also added that there will be sections such as terraces, the famous street, the bowling alley and garden centre where botanic products will be sold.

There are now around 60 indoor snow centre operating worldwide. Turkey has an expanding interest in Winter sports opening more than 50 rudimentary ski areas in the past few years, hosting the University Winter Olympic games, opening a cable car linking the beaches to the snow slopes and installing several indoor artificial surface slopes too.

www.acersnowmec.com