World Indoor Snow News

The ultimate success or failure of the giant Xanadu complex in New Jersey, which incorporates North America’s only constructed (if not open) indoor snow centre, continues to rumble on.

On the one hand media reports that the State of New Jersey may be considering seizing the land on which the ‘ultimate mall’, previously considered, “too big to fail” is located. This seems unlikely however as owners Colony capital have paid $160 million in advance rent through to about 2020.

On the other hand, the billionaire Steve Ross, owner of the Miami Dolphins football team, is reported to be in negotiations to invest in the project, bridging a £500m gap left by the collapse of investment bank Lehman brothers, potentially enabling it to be completed and opened.

Whatever happens, New Jersey’s new governor Chris Christie, who took office in January, seems keen to deal with Xanadu one way or another.

Meanwhile the NorthJersey media group (www.northjersey.com) has announced that Select Contracts, the company behind several indoor snow developments in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. In 2001, an affiliate of Select Contracts secured the rights to produce chemical-free, natural snow in the Middle East. A Xanadu spokesperson declined to comment on whether Select Contracts would manage the Xanadu SnowPark — formerly called a "snow dome." The application was published in The Record on Monday.

The project was first envisaged at least 10 years ago and was given the formal go ahead in 2003. So far $2 billion has been invested in the development, much of which is structurally completed, but an estimated $500m more is needed for completion and that is expected to take at least another year, meaning the opening would not now be until at least 2011.

Plans for a gigantic indoor snowsports centre could put Sunderland on a slippery slope towards parking chaos, councillors have warned.

Regeneration chiefs are pressing ahead with plans to build a real-snow ski slope near the Sunderland Aquatic Centre and the Stadium of Light.

www.skiinfo.co.uk has reported one unusual twist on the cold weather that is affecting much of the northern hemisphere.

A new 2km long ski run opened on January 9th in the southern Netherlands in northern Europe. The temporary trail winds down around the 90m high Wilhelmina mountain.

The ‘mountain’ – which is in fact a spoil heap from a former mine – is already home to the world’s largest year round indoor snow centre, Snow World Landgraaf, with its 550m slope.

In a remarkable twist the centre allowed its indoor six-seater chairlift to be used by skiers and other snowsports fans to reach the top of Wilhelmina indoors, exiting the building through an emergency exit. Hot chocolate with whipped cream and mulled wine were served up to visitors.

It is not clear how long the snow and thus the ski run will last, but temperatures have remained around freezing, dropping to minus 5°C at night, the same as the indoor temperature at SnowWorld.

Wilhelmina is also accessed by the longest staircase in The Netherlands, a 555 step climb, at the side of which is a steeper descent for skiers.

www.snowworld.com

Representatives from the emirate of Dubai announced with disappointment this week that its recent debt crisis has forced developers to halt construction on the city's long-planned 22-mile-long indoor mountain range.

The culmination of a decade's worth of ambitious and expensive building projects, Dubai's estimated $100 billion debt officially brought work on the artificial mountain range to a stop on Tuesday.

"This is a very sad day for the emirate of Dubai," Crown Prince Hamdan bin Mohammed al-Maktoum told reporters at a press conference held inside the gold-plated anti-gravity chamber in his palace. "Although I believe it is the basic right of all who visit us to be able to scale to the top of a 15,000-foot-tall manmade snowcap, these tough economic times have made it an impossibility. Never before has our proud municipality faced such a grave crisis."

Added Sheikh Hamdan, "The time, I'm afraid, has finally come for us to tighten our jewel-studded belts."

China’s famous 2008 Olympics Bird's Nest stadium is currently full of snow, for a snow festival which will continue through to the start of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Snowmaking guns have covered 10,000 square meters of the venue with snow up to a metre deep and created from 25,000 tons of ‘reclaimed water.’

The snow has been shaped in to an artificial snow hill inside the stadium some 20m (70 feet) high, complete with multiple sliding paths downs.

500 snowboards are available for rental and there’s also a warm up area. The snow slope is open from 9am to 6pm on weeks days and to 9:30 pm at weekends. Admission for adults is 120 yuan per person on weekdays and 180 yuan at weekends, children under 1.2m (four feet) high are free.

The recycled and purified waste water being used to make the snow is reported to have no risk to human health following a three stay filtration process. In a city constantly fighting drought, once the snow melts it is collected by the centre’s drainage system and will be reused again in stadium toilets.

The snowy attraction is scheduled to remain open to February 20, 2010.

An ambitious proposal to build a e100 million indoor skiing resort in Dublin 15, which could have created over 1,000 jobs, has been refused permission by the planning board.

Developers Twinlite claimed that the Snowtopia project earmarked for Tyrrelstown would have injected e30 million directly into the Irish economy each year and would have attracted 1.5 million visitors annually.

Rick Larkin of Twinlite said he was “shocked and disappointed” following An Bord Pleanala’s decision to refuse permission on December 2.

“Snowtopia was all set to provide a much needed leisure amenity to the local area while also drawing a large amount of visitors into West Dublin,” he stated.

“This was effectively a stimulus package for Dublin.

“This sort of development has been hugely successful throughout the world. Chill Factore in Manchester attracts two and a half million visitors a year while SNOzone in Milton Keynes pulls in six million visitors.

“We were planning on providing a free shuttle bus linking visitors with rail and bus services, ensuring full access to the two ski slopes, the rock and ice climbing area, the paint-ball adventure centre, three restaurants, retail outlets and family play and activity centre.”
The developers now look likely to relocate the project elsewhere as a result of the planning rejection.

[More at Dublin People]

Acer Snowmec, the company that has put the snow in to Ski Dubai, half a dozen British indoor snow slopes, Xanadu's in Madris on both sides of the Atlantic in Madrid and New Jersey and many more venues worldwide has reported a surge in new interest in the past few months.

"From our perspective the last month has seen our biggest number of contracts signed," said Manaing Director Malcolm Clulow, "Our enquiry rate is back up to pre-recession levels and the future looks all white."

Acer Snowmec recently unveiled plans for a major new indoor snow centre in Blackpool (see other news) and has also had enquiries for three Snow Play Centres in India, two in the US, a second centre in Istanbul, a Central Government backed 60,000 sq m National Winter Sport Academy Centre in The North of England and a 35,000 sq m centre in Seoul Korea.

"These are all projects we have had to let go to sleep for 12 months but have now restarted with a vengeance." said Mr Clulow.

In another positive sign, Mr Clulow revealed that their latest UK installation at the Hemel Hempstead Snow Centre north of London has reported far better business in its first six months than projected in its business plan, despite the pressures of the strong recession in the UK.

www.acersnowmec.com

The developers of Xanadu, the long-stalled $2 billion retail, sports and entertainment complex alongside the New Jersey Turnpike, have lost a legal battle against a key lender that backed out of the massive project earlier this year.

The official decision on proposals for Ireland's first indoor slope has been deferred again. Their blog says:

Snowtopia the decision has been deferred again! This time indefinitely! An Bord Pleanala told us by phone this means we should get a decision by November, but that they can't put a date on it. It's incredibly frustrating!

Liverpool City Council has a plan on the drawing board re-develop the Beaufort Street site as a snowdome and leisure centre but it has low priority.

Nicky Broos, the first ever indoor snow slope built in Holland back in 1995, has announced plans to create a new slope which will open next year.

Indoor snow centre specialists Snow Business Holland is working on the designs for the new facility at Rucphen in Holland.

The new slope will be designed especially to house a snowboard funpark, a toboggan slope and a children’s snow play ground.

It is scheduled to open in October 2010.

www.snowbusinessholland.nl

Belgium’s largest indoor snow centre, Ice Mountain, is celebrating its tenth anniversary.
To help its customers enjoy the anniversary, the centre is offering a host of free offers during the first week of September (August 31st – September 6th). The centre will also launch a new Paintballing operation on 1st September.

Ice Mountain opened in 1999 with its snow slope 210m long and 30m wide. It was so successful that three years ago a second piste was added. Both slopes are covered in real snow 40cm thick.
Located on the border of Flanders, Walloon and France, Ice Mountain’s 10,000 square metre real snow surface provides year round skiing and boarding for the large local population.

The centre also has two restaurants, the largest of which looks out over the largest piste. In the afternoon there’s a real fire and Savoyard mountain cuisine including fondues and raclettes available.

www.ice-mountain.com

Helsinki’s first-ever year-round indoor ski facility, Yllas Hall, has opened in the Kivikko district to the north of the Finnish capital.

The new 10 million Euro centre is the latest Finnish indoor ski tunnel for cross-country skiers, but also has a downhill slope for tubing and offers other facilities like ice skating, curling, an ice climbing wall and biathlon. It attracted about 100 people to its low key opening on Monday, August 10th, as it has started offering snow sports while the centre is not quite complete.

In order to conserve power usage, the snow used in the 1.2km long cross country ski track inside the facility was manufactured outdoors in the winter using snow making equipment, before being moved to the refrigerated interior where it is maintained at -5 Celcius.

Plans to make the centre partly self-power-generating are not yet fully realised as ground souce heat facilities, energy exchange, solar panels and wind turbines planned to cover nearly 50% of power generation are not yet operational.

The new centre is run by one of Finland’s leading ski areas, Yllas, hence the name.

www.yllas-halli.fi

The official re-opening of the world’s largest fun park, built at SnowWorld Landgraaf in Holland, took place on August 28th and 29th. Contestants from several European countries were present at the two-day re-opening of the facility.

The re-opening of the funpark, a spectacular annual event, was organised in conjunction with the English organisation For Boarders By Boarders (FBBB).

For slopestyle fans, park users can choose their own route through the park, where they can tackle several obstacles. There are a number of jumps, rails and gaps, which have to be faced by the contestants by making a jump, slide or back flip.

The re-opening began on Friday evening (28 August) with a Solo Jam Session. During this contest every contestant collected their own points, trying to gain as many points as they can by performing their tricks. Prizes were awarded for ‘ Rider of the night,’ ‘Rookie of the night’ and ‘Trick of the night’ in both male and female categories.

On Saturday there was a Team Jam Battle in between 7 and 11pm. Randomly selected team members (two male, two female) meant beginners were teamed with pros. Warming up to 9pm, battle then began with every team getting the chance to make two descents through the funpark. All contestants of each team, however, have to start their descents at the same time. Three teams made it to the finals, where one team will eventually won the prizes.

Contestants paid 20 Euros per day (of 17.5 Euros with a SnowWorld season pass) to enter the competition. The cost included a day ticket to the slopes and the starting fee.

www.snowworld.com

The Duth have seven indoor slopes, all within 2 hours of their homes. Check out themustachio.com's report of their indoor slope Tour of Duty on Onboard.

The world's best specialist ski site for indoor snow skiing and artificial surface ski slopes notches up its fifth birthday this month, and to celebrate the Anglo-US team behind www.snow365.com have completely revamped the site, with a host of great new features.

"I've been crazy about snow all my life and was fascinated by the idea of indoor snow centres when I learned about the first ones more than 20 years ago," said full-time ski journalist Patrick Thorne, one of www.snow365.com's owners, who is based in Inverness, Scotland and first learned to ski on an artificial surface slope 30 years ago, aged 15.

"So when Rachel got in touch five years ago to suggest we set up www.snow365.com together as a totally independent resource, I thought it was a great idea."

Over the past five years www.snow365.com has become the central information resources for the fragmented artificial ski surface and indoor snow industries. Tens of thousands of regular skiers have found the information they needed, as well as journalists, students and would-be dry slope or indoor snow slope builders.

"A lot of people have heard of artificial surface ski slopes, sometimes called dry or dry land slopes and they've maybe heard of Ski Dubai, but few people know there are hundreds of dry ski slopes from Brazil and Mexico to China, with a lot of different manufacturers too." says www.snow365.com's co-owner Rachel Gunnels. "There are now more than 50 indoor snow centres too, in 25 countries around the world from Finland to New Zealand. Chances are in most major country you visit today there'll be a year round ski facility of one sort or the other."

www.Snow365.com has become the leading and indeed only serious source for comprehensive information on indoor snow centres and artificial surface slopes and has been featured by CNN and the financial Times amongst many others. Indeed most other material written about these facilities is either inaccurate, repeating common mistakes like the claim that SkI Dubai is the largest indoor snow centre in the world, or if correct it has been cut and pasted from www.snow365.com!

"A lot of the technology is pretty awe-inspiring," continues Patrick, "www.snow365.com covers everything from tiny little dry slopes to giant indoor snow field the size of several football fields with indoor six seater chairlifts to carry people up the slopes. Some of these host World Cup level competition now and they have dozens of other functions besides recreational snow sports - product testing in extreme environments, military training and
national ski teams train in them too. Future concepts look even more
amazing, we've got giant revolving indoor mountains and indoor slopes over a mile long."

So what's new on the www.snow365.com fifth anniversary revamped site?

• Profile pages of leading companies that make snow indoors or manufacturer artificial surface slopes.
  
• A photo library of images from indoor snow centres around the world.
  
• Leading news stories from the 150 stories on indoor snow centres and artificial surface sites that www.snow365.com publishes each year. Subscribers receive at least ten stories each month direct to their in-box.
  
• A video library of video from indoor snow centres around the world.
  
• A time line tracing the evolution of artificial surface slopes and indoor snow centres over the past 50 years.
  
• Q & A sections for both ski and board experiences to help people understand what skiing indoor snow in July or on an outdoor, artificial surface, really feels like.
  
• Opportunity to purchase and download the 10,000 word, 250 page World Indoor Snow Centre Guide, which lists every snow centre ever built, those too be built and the companies that build them.
  
• Locations and web addresses of more than 200 indoor snow and artificial surface slopes in 30 countries worldwide.

Central Malaysia Properties have announced that they will start developing Lido Boulevard, its multi-billion dollar waterfront development project, this year.

Managing director Datuk Chan Tien Ghee told local media land reclamation work would start soon and would take two years to complete.

The retail and residential complex will include an international-sized ice skating rink and 32-lane bowling alley as well as a 4,645.15 sq m indoor snow park.

Located on just under 50 hectares of land, about 6.8 million cubic metres of sand sourced from the east coast of Johor is required for the reclamation works.

“The project is expected to take shape by 2016 and it will completely rehabilitate Lido Beach and give Johor Baru a facelift,’’ said a company spokesman.

Malaysia has three small indoor snow facilities that were built in the 1990s, their current operational status is not known.

Plans for a huge theme park, 20 times the size of Disneyland, including an indoor snow slope, in the Utah town of Hurricane, have been unanimously rejected by the Hurricane City Council.

The plans by an organisation called Our World Family LLC to build the theme park and educational resort were reported to have been rejected because councillors thought it would be too expensive for taxpayers. They also thought projected visitor numbers of 6 million per annum were unrealistic.

"We would have to staff up and bring in professional help [consultants] from the outside," Councilman Dean McNeil told local media, before joining four other council members in voting down the plan for the 2,000-acre development. "We'll either have to modify ordinances, grant waivers, which I don't favour, or create new ordinances."

Our World Family President Bill Boulter, a St. George resident, told local media that his company was "very distraught" by the vote. "We're still 100 percent convinced it's a great opportunity for the children of this community. The biggest issue we're running into is misinformation," he said.

There may still be no confirmed opening date for the ‘virtually complete’ complex that is home to the first indoor snow slope in North America, but the latest part of the $2.2 billion jigsaw that will make it all work has been finished.

A 2.3-mile long rail spur now connects the complex in the Meadowlands area to the existing Pascack Valley line in Secaucus, New Jersey and a new station has been completed ready to ease the road congestion that might otherwise be caused at peak periods by the estimated six million visitors a year the complex is expected to attract, when open.

Journey time from Secaucus will be about ten minutes and train tickets will cost less than parking for major sports events. Secaucus is a major hub that can be reached quickly and easily accessible from New Jersey, New York City and even Long Island amongst other major population centres.

Train service will begin this summer and serve pre-existing sports facilities on the site prior to the opening of Xanadu, the latest projected date for which is, “some time in 2010.” The rail link has cost $182 million to complete.

Construction contracts have been awarded to companies from Turkey, Germany, Britain, United Arab Emirates and Russia for work on Turkmenistan’s Avaza tourist resort, which President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov is reported to hope can become a "Las Vegas-style destination.”

The Russian CARE-Holding group will build an indoor ski centre at the resort, which has reportedly received a $157 million boost on top of existing investment by the Turkmenistan government, although the ski centre will be self-funded by CARE and built on an 18 hectare parcel of land at "Avaza" recently acquired by the company.

The project was presented to the Turkmenistan president by a Russian governmental delegation headed by Prime Minister Rustam Minnikhanov.

The ski slope will reportedly be able to take up to 120 people at a time, stage competitions, be used for athlete training and regular ski lessons and for entertainment shows like other indoor snow centres.

The project will also incorporate an ice skating rink, children's snow slide, fitness centre and ski rental facilities.

Along with the ski slope, the third phase of the project provides for the creation of numerous casinos, other entertainment centres following the Vegas model.

The first of the giant Ski Trac indoor snow centres will begin construction within the next 12 months, but will it be in China or Korea? And now the Australian company behind the concept, which is essentially a huge, revolving, indoor mountain, has announced that larger versions still are now on the drawing boards, with the Middle east the likely location for the first ‘Mega Ski-Trac’.

In Korea a memorandum of understanding has been signed between Ski Trac International and the Korean company Dong Seung-Lions County for a Ski Trac and Space Dome at a location just over one hour from Seoul in the Eastern mountains ski area of Gangwon Province.

The 750 acre complex will include three 18 hole golf courses, a country club, hotels, condominiums and 10-lift ski field. The twin domes will add year-round skiing, a 40,000m2 indoor water park and numerous other attractions. The very attractive feature of this site is that full funding is already locked in for the whole project including the two domes, though a percentage of funding will be sought from overseas.

The previously announced Ski Trac project for Meishan in China, may yet be built first. However unscheduled delays in funding have set this project back by more than twelve months. An announcement is expected shortly concerning the acquisition of funding for this two-dome project.

Construction on the domes is expected to commence later this year and a later second stage will see the development of the whole of the thousand acre Dongpo Island site into a major tourist attraction combining commercial and residential development.

The island is named after the famous literary giant of China, Su Dongpo, and the development plans will capitalise on this fact and feature the name, history, and works of the figure as a primary attraction.

Ski Trac have also announced that their rotating deck will no longer be confined only to its depicted 240 metre diameter dome (although that will be the standard product).

The "Ski Ring," a 300 metre diameter deck comprising a cold room plus a roof cover over the deck area only, can be built on the side of slope at a much cheaper cost than inside a dome. The Ski Ring will accommodate up to 2000 skiers at any one time on a specially profiled rotating snow field.

One such ring (400 metres in diameter) will be located in a huge Mega Dome being planned for a site in the Middle East. Also, in cities with a large population such as Seoul, Korea, the standard deck size within a Ski Trac dome will be extended to 200 metres diameter rather than the normal 175 metres, thus allowing for many more skiers.

www.skitrac.com

Basingstoke Council say that by becoming bold and ambitious, the borough could, in 20 years, have thriving and safe communities, affordable homes of the right type for everyone who wants one, a country park, a snow dome or karting track and an international electronic games festival.

The latest plan for an indoor snow centre on the West coast of north America has been announced by Steve Rodrigues, owner of the historic Kalakala ship, the first streamlined ferry in the world when it was launched in 1935 and now in retirement.

Mr Rodrigues envisages the ship restored and placed alongside a mixed-use facility that would include indoor ski slopes and a spend of $80 million and $100 million on the project.

The 11-story structure that would house ski runs, waterslides, skydiving, restaurants, hotel rooms and a health club.

Kalakala would be in the centre of it all, restored to an extent that people could take tours of it. The ship would either sit in a trench on the land, or inside a special structure that would keep it out of the nearby water. Part of it would be a museum, while other areas could be rented for private parties.

Rodrigues believes the Kalakala could be promoted in the same way as the Queen Mary, a luxury liner that was purchased by the city of Long Beach, California, and is now a popular tourist attraction.
Rodrigues said the hotel can turn a profit, but the indoor ski area will be the major revenue generator of the project and that one partner he has lined up for the project had worked on Ski Dubai.

If he cannot work a deal in Tacoma, Rodrigues said he has an alternate site on Puget Sound for Kalakala, as well as a different, undisclosed site for the ski attraction.

“If you do not want our snow, if you do not want our hotel, we can take it somewhere else.” He told a local enquiry.

The long awaited opening of the huge Meadowlands Xanadu development in New jersey, USA has been delayed to 2010 and will probably take place in phases. It is currently unclear in which phase the indoor snow slope, believed to be largely complete and the first in North America, would be.

Xanadu, which has been proposed and the under construction for nearly a decade and has been given an estimated price tag of $2.3 billion, had most recently expected to open in August this year, the latest of several proposed dates, however the severe US recession has made the operational viability of the complex at this time too uncertain for its owners to open it this year.

A new indoor snow centre for Holland may be built at Zuidlaren in the north east of the country.
The new facility would have three slopes, each 40 meters high, and 250-300m long with artificial snow at the location ´Prins Bernardhoeve´ in the town of Zuidlaren. The slopes would be build next to already existing halls.

The plan is the brainchild of John Franke, a former ice skater and cyclist, who now runs the sports event company Easy Sport & Events.

To break even the facility would need 165.000 visitors in the first year, but Mr Franke expects 300.000.

There are two competing plans for the proposed location and the government will decide which goes forward in May.

Click here for a short movie on the project.