Africa & Middle East > United Arab Emirates > Dubai > Dubai City > Articles > There Ain't Nuthin' Like a Dome

Snow in the desert. It does happen in places like Arizona and Morocco. But the Persian Gulf - can they be serious? It could only happen in a dome. (Dirty word in the UK, but in Dubai, who knows?)

Yes, snow could be the new sand for skiers and skiing wannabes in this United Arab Emirates sheikhdom. It’s coming this winter - man-made, and not the bizarre result of some freak reversal of climate change. And it could spell the wane of sand-skiing in Dubai, where temperatures average around 80o F.

The Persian Gulf’s first snowdome, ‘Ski Dubai’, an indoor ski-slope where state-of-the-art snowmaking systems will carpet an area the size of three football fields (22,500 square metres) in one of the more bizarre developments in the winter sports industry. It is due to open later this year.

The remarkable building will be 85 metres high, and clad with curved sheeting “to represent an aircraft wing shape virtually floating in mid air”.

The temperature inside the dome will be “maintained at a comfortable -1º to -2º” (the cooling available is equivalent to 10,000 to 15,000 domestic refrigerators). Ski Dubai will have five slopes - ‘Diamond’, (with slopes as steep as 45 degrees in places) Black, and Red, along with a beginner’s slope which might have an appropriate colour for cold beginners as they attempt their first turns: Purple. A permanent ski patrol will be on hand ‘on piste’ to help beginners.

The longest run will be 400 metres, with a vertical drop of more than 60 metres. One novelty will be that the runs will have a major 60 degree curve on the way down to make them more interesting. For snowboarders there will be a 90-metre long quarterpipe and what is claimed to be ‘the largest indoor snow park in the world.’

The slopes will be served by a four-person chair and a tow-lift. As Dubai does not have much of a skiing tradition (except for the eccentric notion of sliding down sand-dunes) everything, including warm ski clothing, will be rentable.

When skiers want to take a break, they can get a warm drink or snack at the St Moritz Café and the Avalanche Café

Snowdomes are springing up all over the world, particularly in countries with little or no natural snowfall or mountains of their own. England currently has three, and there are plans for many more. China’s fourth opened recently in Beijing.

There are now more than 50 snowdomes operational in 20 countries world-wide. The company involved in Dubai, Acer Snowmec have already provided the technology for nine “snow facilities” world-wide including Indonesia, Taiwan, and Malaysia. Snow dome operators in tropical countries have found that many people have little interest in skiing or boarding - they just want to see, touch and taste snow for the first time in their lives. Or even just swarm in out of the desert or the steaming jungle to chill out.

The Dubai snowdome, which took a workforce of 1300 to build in the Hall of the Emirates, was designed with the help of Konrad Bartelski, Britain’s most successful World Cup skier. Bartelski is the first to see the funny side. ”This is a wonderful and rather surreal story about the British” he says. (In spite of his Polish name, Bartelski, born in Holland, is fiercely patriotic about the country he once came close to dying for in a horrific accident during a World Cup race in Megève in 1975. His website is lettered with Union Jacks, and he is the only male British skier ever to get the British flag onto a World Cup podium.)

“The British, who virtually invented downhill skiing, are now leading the way in providing the perfect environment to learn to ski – in the middle of the desert. In some ways it’s almost as though history is repeating itself.

“The new dome will provide the complete learning progression for beginners in an entirely unthreatening and controlled environment. No wind, no whiteouts, and no-one is going to die of cold. Or of sunstroke, for that matter!”

The dome may well also become ‘home’ to an Austrian ski racer who has been involved in its concept. After the Austrian Ski Federation informed the 32 year slalom specialist, Kilian Albrecht, that he would not be in the World Cup squad for the coming season, he announced that he was thinking of abandoning the Austrian Alps and heading for the desert to adopt Dubai as his new nationality. But after a change of heart by the federation, Albrecht’s future is uncertain.

Ski Dubai’s future may not be cast in stone either – or at least in ice. Some snowdomes have failed to last the course. One of the world’s first, at Adelaide in South Australia, which opened in 1988 as “the world's first indoor ski, skate and toboggan centre” is up for sale. The world’s largest, built in earthquake-proof towers in Tokyo in 1992 never broke even and was demolished two years ago.

Ski Dubai seems set to survive for a good number of years on novelty value alone. As long as no-one leaves the doors open.

www.skidxb.com

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