Ski Dubai, Oct 7, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

While snow, skiing, and the Middle East do not really seem to fit together, it almost makes sense to have an indoor ski area in Dubai amidst all of the other unlikely structures and other absurd wealth outlets that abound in Dubai. Ski Dubai area is an unmistakably giant external tube-like tumor that wraps around what is arguably one of the poshest of all malls, The Mall of the Emirates in Dubia, UAE. The ski area features over 80m of vertical slopes, with one "expert" run and one intermediate slope that congregate in a beginners' area at the bottom of the slope. The snow is the consistent, sometimes grabby, hardpack of man made snow. There is no wind or sun affected snow; and the ski area is kept at a constant -2degC temperature. The ski lift is a fixed quad with a few lift towers but with most cable support coming from roof-mounted ski towers. The lift crawls up maybe 30m over the flatter beginner slopes before bending sharply to the left and climbing the remaining 50m to the top.

Apparently, the ski conditions from 7-9pm on Oct 7th were little changed from every other day of Ski Dubai's operation, man made hard pack verging on icy in the middle channel and carveable on the outside of the slopes. The rental skis were mediocre and not well waxed to deal with the grabby snow. The expert run is steep enough to be a blue square, but not traveled enough to be mogully, and not too steep to ski a run without even turning.

Despite this mediocrity of environment, slope, snow, and equipment, it is was blast to be able to walk through a mall, see a slope of snow, throw on some rental clothes and equipment, and step out onto the cold slopes to ski some runs. Thinking about the novelty of skiing indoors in the middle of the desert only added to the grin on my face. Riding the lifts and chatting with experts from Germany or beginning skiers from Albania or Emiratees from Dubai crystallized the thoughts running through my head: skiing is fun no matter where you are from and no matter where it is taking place. Not a bad way to start month 168 on a month where we're sure to find some real snow.

--Bill f

Awesome! I hope you smuggled out some pix?

One of the snowboardseattle regulars posted this report on Ski Dubai; it's pretty funny read as many snowboardseattle reports are, and with funny pix. Eg stuff with titles like: "Poma passes right by a TGI Fridays - OMFG!"

Way to get month 168, and what an interesting place to get it.