Friday, December 2. 2005
Skiing in Dubai??
The 22,500sq/m of piste are covered with 6,000 metric tons of manufactured snow all year round.
Snow comes to deserts of Dubai
By Julia Wheeler
BBC News, Dubai
Built on what was previously desert sand, the slopes are to be covered with manufactured snow all year round.
The centre will have green, blue, red and black runs, chairlifts and snow patrols, like any other ski resort.
The area under snow is the equivalent of three football pitches, with runs built inside a giant, slanting metal tube around 25 floors high.
Ski Dubai, 85m high by 80m wide, has to cope with average outside winter temperatures of 25C and summer temperatures soaring above 40C.
Ski school
A snow park next door has tobogganing, icy bobsleigh runs and a ski school.
Anyone wanting to ski on the main slopes will have to prove their confidence before being allowed to do so.
All clothing and equipment is provided in the entrance price of $35, including black, knee-length padded coats for any Arabs who prefer to wear their traditional kandouras to visit the snow - but skiing in the robes will be banned.
The snow is made by shooting water at high pressure into an atmosphere maintained at around freezing point by coolers both below and above the slopes.
Until now Dubai has been a destination for warm beach holidays.
But the ski slope is likely to be most popular, especially for residents, during Dubai's harsh summer when temperatures reach well above 40C.
As seen on BBC...
More photos of the "Dubai Ski Resort".
Next, pics of my kids: first time on skis....no, not in Dubai, but in Switzerland.
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That's pretty amazing. Reminds me of the Japanese "indoor beaches", which were pretty much the same thing, except inside these big buildings that looked like department stores.
#1
Mike
(Homepage)
on
2005-12-16 07:15
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