New snow dome in London

A

almc

New member
Thought id share this, us british kids are in for a treat!

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/giant-200m-snow-dome-for-stratford-8732116.html

"A giant snow dome to rival the largest indoor ski resort in the world is to be built next to the Olympic Park site in Stratford.

London’s first indoor ski centre will feature several runs of varying difficulty, snowboard ramps and an ice-skating rink.

It is believed the project, which will cost up to £200 million and is being funded by shopping centre developers Westfield, could be ready to open in 2015.

The longest run will be 300 metres — twice the length of the next biggest one in the UK — recreating Alpine skiing conditions. There will also be toboggan runs and snow-play zones where children and beginners can get used to the sub-zero temperatures.

The east London site is expected to provide about 20,000 square metres of piste which will be covered with thousands of tonnes of “real” snow, all year round. It will be double the size of other British snow centres at Milton Keynes and Hemel Hempstead and on a par with Ski Dubai, the world’s biggest, in the United Arab Emirates."

 
Sweet, may have to pop down for the opening.

Anybody know what gradient they plan on making it? and costs + whether they'll maintain it well? I know some are severely lacking when it comes to grooming.

 
reeeeal snow on reeeeal mountains, cool to be skiing brought to places that is never would have previously been accessible
 
idk but all the ones ive seen have been super flat

they should make a super gnarly one. make an artificial palisades chimney indoors somewhere
 
There is a limit obviously to how steep you can make them. Make it too steep and you can't keep the man made snow on the slope. Anyway why would you want it steep? It's better to have an average gradient so you can put lots of jibs on it. The slopes at cas and glas are pretty much what you want. Also think if its 300m long and you want it steep that thing is going to go crazy high up. Sounds pretty awsome to me. Would be nice if they had a section for a pipe like mk used to do. It's going to be pricey but indoor domes are so much fun it's worth it.
 
yeah it'd be sick to have one part flatter with jumps and rails then one steeper part with short, gnarly runs like the palisades

what is the steepness limit for man made snow to stick?
 
I don't know the exact gradient but look at the state of cas or mk on the steeper sections after a freestyle night. The fresher snow just gets brushed down an its just ice. Your much better going for a gentle gradient.

Domes are a bit like urban, it's not skiing but its some of the most fun you can have on skis.
 
Dry slopes are cool but domes are better. You have to think of the appeal too. In lo don a big dome like that will draw many more people then a dry slope so for te developer it's a much more appealing investment. You said it yourself that when it rains you would have te slope to yourself, well that's no good for making money. I love dry slopes I skied at Halifax all the time a few years back but I always skied at cas more.
 
Always presumed you were an american haha.

Interesting point, but the "snow" at sno-zones has the ability to be moved about whenever, it's easier to get speed, you don't ruin your skis as much, you don't get covered in mud rain and grass, it's got more variety(features different each week) and just way more advantages, each have their merits, the dryslopes price being pretty much it's only one, but indoors they get a lot more people, which might balance it out. Also indoors they have way better maintenance, more reasons but I'm too stupid to think atm, and I've already done a retard list paragraph of text.
 
batman-retarded.jpg
 
Ok, let me explain something. By environmental costs I mean energy.

People who don't live in Britain, and many who do, don't have a clue about how little energy we have (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23081695).

The left-wing government that preceded the current made it very difficult to create new power plants. Oil/coal/nat gas plants need to be fitted with a form of carbon capture that hasn't been invented yet. Nuclear power plants take ten years to build, and people have problems with nuclear waste. Also, everyone (wrongly) seems to think that nuclear fusion will be a feasible source of power in the near future. Renewable sources: wind is very unreliable and insanely expensive, solar is also unreliable, tidal is extremely expensive and not enough studies have been performed to determine efficiency.

UK power stations work 100% 24/7 through the winter, at day supplying the houses and at night transporting water up into massive lakes so that instant hydroelectric power can be provided when it's needed. Which is at least five times a day.

Now I hope you understand that when (not if) we finally exceed our power capacity in the UK and need to employ rolling cuts, I don't want oversized freezers to be in operation while houses, streetlights, railways (particularly underground), security systems etc are cut.

I'm just as against all the other fridges in the UK, but I'll still use them because they're there and I can't stop that.

Also remember that this is a minor point in my argument.
 
Really do you think that is going to happen that soon? There are plenty of other things in the uk using just as much power. And really we are not that bad off, America has been having rolling blackouts for years, we are doing ok. I get that they are not the most environmentally ft easily things but neither are huge malls like Westfield or massive cinema complexes ect ect. As good as dry slopes are there day has passed and domes are the way forward.
 
I am really looking forward to seeing your evidence to show that wind, hydro and tidal power sources are 'very unreliable'.

Wind power and hydro is what pretty much powers the whole of Scotland and parts of Northern England.

I doubt that the National Energy Commission would spend billions of ££ putting up wind turbines all over the UK if they were 'very unreliable'.

This one is 10 mins from my house:

2-image-2.jpg


Back to the topic of this thread, this looks awesome!!! Hopefully they invest some of that 200 mill in some dope rails and park features!
 
Don't you think though having a really big state if the art indoor facility will be productive though. Look at the amount of kids who have developed with domes compared to dry slope. Back before you had domes you had she'd ski village. It developed a bunch if good riders like Wakefield, Bennett, last and prob best known paddy and woodsy. But woodsy also rode a ton indoors. Look at the riders now though like Katie an Tyler who grew up indoors. The domes are creating great riders which hopefully will surpass the talent we have today. Dry slopes will always be a part of British ski culture and I hope they never die out but domes are the way forward. If we want to attract more skiers domes are much more attractive then dry slopes.
 
Point taken. I think I'm talking to much from my point of view of 'I don't care where/how I ski, I just want to ski for cheap and frequently', which favours dry slope over domes. Also I love skiing pipe, which we don't have indoors either.

 
^ we used to MK used to have a pipe on the cutest right slope. Hopefully this new dome will have room for a pipe so maybe you will change your mind. I get the cost issue but it has never really ever been that way for me. I have only had to pay to ski on dry slopes but yeah I can see how the cost could put people off.
 
I don't know if you're being sarcastic or not.

They're just regular "ramps", but writing snowboard ramps people will understand it more than ski jumps, as they might presume ski jumping.
 
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