Gulf Construction Online - Ski Dubai gets ready to open

UAE Focus

Snow in Dubai ... a near real experience.

Ski Dubai gets ready to open

01 November 2005

Opening in time for the UAE National Day at the beginning of December will be the Middle East’s first indoor ski slope, Ski Dubai, at the Mall of the Emirates in Dubai.

The snow is already being made, replicating the natural process with the technology from Acer Snowmec system. It looks, feels and tastes exactly like “wild snow”.
“Right now, we’re running the snow-making system all day and are making around 120 tonnes of fresh snow every 24 hours,” said Phil Taylor, chief executive of Ski Dubai. “Shortly, there will be enough snow to accommodate the most advanced skier as well as children playing in the snow park.”
When operational, Ski Dubai will hold over 6,000 tonnes of snow at any given time and will take its place in the history books as the third largest indoor snow dome in the world, boasting such features as a ski lift, a 400 m ski run, a permanent 3.5- m-radius quarter pipe for stunts, a snowboarding park, five multi-directional slopes with varying slope gradients and including a black run, the world’s largest indoor snow play area.
“Ski Dubai's indoor slope is by far the best one because of the technology that allows us to maintain and/or change the quality of snow if we wish,” says Francois de Montaudouin, CEO MAF Holdings, which owns and operates the mall.
Basically water is atomised to create a cloud inside the building. This cloud is then “sprinkled” with minuscule hard ice particles which allow snow crystals to form and fall out of the cloud. This is normally only done at night as it creates a “white out” in the centre.
During the normal operating hours, the temperature inside the building will be kept between -1 and -2 deg C but this will be dropped to -8 deg C at night to facilitate the making of fresh snow.
Special design features, such as the way the structure of the building is used to create an insulated box around the slope and how the snow on the slope is cooled from within all help make this feat of snow in the desert possible.
Environmentally-concerned con-sumers might appreciate the slope’s energy-efficient system, where power costs make up a mere 10 per cent of total operational costs. The snow that is removed from the slopes is used to cool the mall’s air-conditioning units and to irrigate its gardens.