Posted on 12/03/2005 10:44:03 AM PST by presidio9
Skiing has officially started at Dubai's new indoor Alpine ski resort, offering the world's first indoor black-run just minutes away from the Arabian desert emirate's sun-baked beaches.
The lower level slopes started welcoming skiers on Friday, while the upper ones were due to be open on December 14, Ski Dubai chief executive Phil Taylor told AFP.
Snowboarders can also test their skills on a 90-meter-long (300 feet) quarter pipe, as well as jumps and rails at the ski dome nestled inside the brand-new, gigantic Mall of the Emirates.
"I am now rushing to take a skiing lesson before heading back to a business meeting," said one Emirati national, who will have to swap his Arab traditional robe for warm ski gear before hitting the slopes.
Snowboarder Johnny Yammine, who usually spends his free time on motocross and mountain climbing expeditions in the Emirati desert, is "ecstatic about the good quality of snow and the varied terrain which is far better than indoor skiing I have tried in Europe."
The 272-million-dollar resort is but the latest extravagant project in the Gulf emirate seeking to become a major tourism hub, following on from the world's tallest tower and only undersea hotel.
Ski Dubai, a man-made mountain scene as big as three football fields that can hold up to 1,500 visitors, will have five slopes of different degrees of difficulty, the longest being 400 meters (yards) with a fall of 62 meters.
The powdery snow slopes have been intentionally laid in terraces to avoid the risk of avalanches at the Ski Dubai dome due to hold 6,000 tonnes of real snow when fully operational later this month.
In the insulated dome, jets continue to pulverize real snow onto the slopes, much to the pleasure of the first visitors, many of whom are Gulf Arabs touching snow for the first time.
Snow here is made the same way as in nature, with water atomized to create a cloud of tiny ice particles that allow snow crystals to form and fall on the slopes, lodges and plastic trees.
The resort includes a snow park of ice caverns complete with howling wind where the young and less young can daub graffiti with their fingers on a frosted wall or play on a wall of acrylic icicles.
Apres-ski pleasures are also catered for, whether it be drinking a hot chocolate or savoring a fondue by a crackling fireplace at either the Avalanche or St Moritz cafes, perched on the slopes.
Money to burn
My money!
Let me guess, this project was completely government funded? This reporter didn't care to mention it.
Mommy, that snowman is TICKING...!
Underwater hotel?
rotflmao
Please, Bay, don't give them any ideas....THAT is a SCARY thought.....thinking of a crazy having access to the sky, AND nuclear weapons they could drop, oh, anywhere they wanted.....
Simple. They can't fit an astronaut's helmet over a turban...
I saw a special on this on discovery one day, it uses an explosive gas that contains a lot of chlorine to cool the snow. Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.
Beware the yellow snow.
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