Ski Dubai a Winter Wonderland
August 24th 2010 -
Outside, it’s a sun-baked 90 degrees, and even the palm trees that line the parking lot aren’t moving. Inside, however, it’s a different story: People are bundled up in black parkas, skiing down a 437-yard-long slope (four football fields, plus) at Ski Dubai, the city’s monster indoor ski park.
Ski Dubai, which cost $275 million to construct, opened in 2005. It boasts five ski runs of varying steepness and a chairlift that reaches to the top, 25 stories above ground. (Developers claim that it’s the first indoor ski slope with a “black diamond” run.) There’s even a quarter-pipe for snowboarders, sledding runs for the less daring and a play area for kids with a snowball shooting gallery, ice cave and 3-D theater.
The complex covers 5½ acres and can accommodate up to 1500 visitors at a time. The temperature inside it kept at a chilly 28 degrees, but at night it’s lowered even further to allow artificial snow machines to do their work.
From the bottom, if you look up the slopes, it appears to be a paradise for night skiers, the white snow stretching up and out of sight and the lights in the huge canopied ceiling spread out like stars.
The price of admission is reasonable, at least by Dubai standards: $27 for admission to the facility ($24 for children). Access to the ski slopes is more: $49 for adults and $40 for children for a two-hour pass during peak times.
But a lot of visitors and locals, some dressed in sandals and traditional Arab robes and head coverings, choose instead to sit in one of the faux-Swiss cafes outside the ski runs where a glass partition makes the temperatures a bit more moderate. Sipping hot chocolate and looking at posters of Gstaad may not be the best way to enjoy the slopes, but it’s all part of the experience.
