Indoor skiing

Since the early 20th century, there have been four major stages in the evolution of indoor snow centres.

Firstly, centres that had no refrigeration and used an artificial mixture of materials to create a surface substance something like snow, the first of these opened in Austria and Germany in the 1920s. The first recorded indoor “snow” slope was created at Berlin’s Automobilhalle in April 1927[1] gaining worldwide attention. According to contemporary reports a wooden slope was created about 720 feet long and sixty feet wide.[2]

The "snow" substitute used was invented and later patented[3] by a British diplomat, L. C. Ayscough, and involved a mixture of powdered mica, soda crystals and sawdust spread on a brush matting surface. The Berlin government were concerned about health risks from the mixture and commissioned the then head of its Municipal Health Bureau, Dr. Wilhelm von Drigalkski, to check it was safe for public use. He confirmed that it was and an order for 200 tons of the material to be delivered by train was placed.

The slope was initially popular and a company was founded to build more slopes in Dresden, Munich, and Frankfurt. It is not known if these were ever created.

A second indoor centre using "Ayscough snow", planned to be a more permanent facility, opened in Austria in November 1927. Known as Schneepalast (German: Snow Palace), it was opened in the Austrian capital Vienna in the abandoned Vienna Northwest Railway Station established by the Norwegian ski jumper Dagfinn Carlsen.[4][5] The track in the 3,000-square-metre (32,000 sq ft) ski area was built on a wooden ramp. A ski jump made it possible to jump up to 20 metres (66 ft). Skiers had to walk up the artificial mountain, because there was no ski lift.[6] However, sledges could be pulled up with an electrically-operated system. The artificial snow had been made by the English experimenter James Ayscough from soda.

After the initial excitement enthusiasm for "Ayscough snow" rapidly waned however as users decided it was not particularly slippery and the initial whiteness rapidly discoloured. The Vienna facility closed in May 1928.[7]

The second attempt at indoor snow centres came three decades later with the first centre that used real snow or crushed ice which was transported inside to a slope covered by a roof and open to urban skiers during cold months of the year in the city of Sayama, Japan.[7] This centre opened in 1959 and continues to operate, although now with on-site snowmaking rather than bringing in snow by lorry.

Thirdly came the first generation of refrigerated indoor centres which used either a chemical mixture to simulate snow or scraped ice. The first three of these opened in 1988, each claiming to be the first in the world. These were Mt Thebarton in Adelaide, Australia, Casablanca in Belgium,[8] and Ski in Tsudanuma in Japan.[9]

Some ski halls form parts of larger wintersports centres - above is the ice hockey rink at MtTheBarton (now Ice Arena), Adelaide

The fourth and current stage of indoor snow centre development came when centres which used ‘real snow’, made by snow-making machines, with no chemical additives, began to appear. These are now the norm for most of the 140 centres that have been built since the first, which was The Snowdome at Tamworth in the UK which opened in May 1994.[10]

Australia

• Mt Thebarton Snow and Ice, Adelaide. Operated 1987 - 2005. Built in a state without any ski resorts, it was probably the world's first indoor ski slope on artificial snow.[13]
• Swiss Pavilion at World Expo 88, Brisbane. Two lifts operated for six months. Included a ski slope on artificial snow serviced by a handle tow and a double chairlift operating on a rectangular route.[14][15]

Belgium

• Aspen, Antwerp
• Ice Mountain, Comines
• Snow Valley, Peer

China

• Harbin Wanda Indoor Ski and Winter Sports Resort located in Harbin, Heilongjiang, world's largest indoor ski resort with 72,600 m² (17.9 acres; 781,000 sq ft) of indoor snow.[16]
• Yinqixing indoor skiing, Shanghai
• Sunac Snow Park, Guangzhou
• Sunac Snow Park, Wuxi
• Sunac Snow Park, Kunming
• Sunac Snow Park, Chengdu
• Sunac Snow Park, Chongqing

France

• SnowWorld Amnéville, SnowHall Amnéville, France

Germany

• alpinCenter Bottrop in the SnowFunPark in Wittenburg with a 640-metre (2,100 ft) slope and a 31 percent grade.
• SnowDome Bispingen, Bispingen.
• Alpenpark Neuss (SnowWorld), 300m slope.

Indonesia

• Trans Snow World in Bekasi, first of a series of snow parks that are opening across Indonesia, which includes also a ski slope and ski lifts. It is possible to ski and learn skiing by Ski Club Indonesia, first Ski operator and association in Indonesia

Japan

• Sayama ski resort, Tokorozawa

Lithuania

• Snow Arena, Druskininkai

Netherlands

• SnowWorld, Landgraaf with a total of 35,000 square metres (8.6 acres; 380,000 sq ft) of snow. In 2003, the first indoor snowboard FIS WorldCup contest was held here.
• SnowWorld, Zoetermeer
• SnowWorld, Rucphen
• SnowWorld, Terneuzen
• De Uithof, The Hague
• SnowWorld, Amsterdam
• Montana Snowcenter, Westerhoven

New Zealand

• Snowplanet, Auckland

Norway

• SNØ, Lørenskog with a total of 50,000 square metres (12 acres; 540,000 sq ft). Has a 505-metre-long (1,657 ft) alpine ski track and a one-kilometre-long (0.62 mi) cross-country skiing track suspended from the roof. One-of-a-kind combination of these winter sports. Opened January 2020. https://snooslo.no

Russia

• Snejcom, Moscow. http://www.snej.com

Spain

• SnowZone, in Madrid, has 18,000 square metres (4.4 acres; 190,000 sq ft) of snow areas, including a 250-by-50-metre (820 ft × 160 ft) slope (over 25% grade), a 100-by-40-metre (330 ft × 130 ft) slope, chairlifts, and other winter sports facilities.[17]

United Arab Emirates

• Ski Dubai, Mall of the Emirates, Dubai. A 22,500 sq. meter area covered with real snow throughout the year. The temperature is maintained at -1 to -2 degree with capacity of 1,500 visitors.

Egypt

• Ski Egypt, Mall of Egypt, 6th of October. It has the only indoor ski slope in Africa with the main slope being 210 metres (690 ft) long.

United Kingdom

• Chill Factore, 6.4 kilometres (4 mi) outside Manchester,[18] with a 180-metre-long (590 ft) main slope.
• Snowzone Castleford, near Leeds with a 170-metre-long (560 ft) main slope.[19]
• Xscape Milton Keynes, in Central Milton Keynes with a 170-metre-long (560 ft) main slope.[20]
• Snowdome at Tamworth, near Birmingham with a 170-metre-long (560 ft) slope and two smaller beginner areas 25 and 30 metres (82 and 98 ft) long.[21]
• Snow Centre at Hemel Hempstead[22]
• Snow Factor at Braehead Soar[23] (permanently closed)

United States of America

• Big SNOW American Dream, American Dream Meadowlands, (Meadowlands Sports Complex), East Rutherford, New Jersey (Opened on 5 December 2019)[24]

• Indoor Snow News