The famous Ski Dubai indoor slope will get greener.

The Mall of the Emirates, one of the world’s largest shopping malls and the home of the Ski Dubai indoor slope has announced plans to cut its energy use by 25 per cent over the next year.

SkiRebel.com has learned that Dubai-based Green Technologies will retrofit the Mall of the Emirates to create what the company describes as an “energy-intensive building,” using a quarter less power and a fifth less water.

Continue reading ‘Ski Dubai turns down the volts’

Ski Dubai on a slow day.

Skiers visiting Dubai’s famous indoor ski slope can now get there by metro.

The new Dubai metro has a stop at the Mall of the Emirates, home of Ski Dubai, making it possible for people to reach the ski slopes directly from the airport. The mall is famous for being a stopover destination for international travelers, and ski stopovers may eventually become a reality.

Continue reading ‘Ski Dubai now metro-accessible’

Why were these idiots digging in the snow at Ski Dubai?

After ‘The Amazing Race’ visited Dubai’s famous indoor ski slope last month, the centre is continuing to draw events as Oakley is sponsoring ‘freestyle nights’ this month.

The Oakley Freestyle Nights at Ski Dubai will pit the skills of the region’s finest amateur winter sports enthusiasts against each other in a bid to win top prizes.The first Oakley event was on November 16th, and the second will be on the 30th.

Continue reading ‘Ski Dubai hosts freestyle nights, desert snowmen’

The Renault team completed a successful Roadshow in Dubai last month as race driver Nelson Piquet led the demonstrations along with third driver Romain Grosjean and demo driver Adam Khan.
Entering its seventh year, the Renault Roadshow kicked off its 2009 campaign with a unique format which saw last year’s Renault F1 car, the R28, demonstrated at various venues across Dubai, including the desert and Dubai Autodrome. However, the main venue for the spectator events was Downtown Barj Dubai in front of the world’s tallest building with the demonstrations staged on a giant floating platform built on the Dubai Mall lagoon.
The climax of the Roadshow on Sunday saw Piquet demonstrate the R28 at Ski Dubai. Fitted with specially-adapted Bridgestone studded snow tires, Piquet completed a series of donuts in the snow at the bottom of the slope. It took the Bridgestone engineers 16 hours to manually insert all 2,016 studs, but the end result was well worth the effort.
Speaking at the end of the weekend, Piquet said,

Coming to Dubai has been a great experience and a real success for Renault. We packed a lot into this event and did some unusual things that I hope the fans enjoyed. Driving on the snow in an F1 car is something I never thought I would have the chance to do and it was a lot of fun.”

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The future of Dubai’s second significant indoor snow centre remains uncertain as media reports question the viability of Dubailand and the status of the Emirate’s entire development program in the face of the global economic slowdown.

Dubailand had aimed to attract 15 million visitors by 2015. The $64 bn development Dubailand is billed as the world’s most ambitious leisure and entertainment project, designed to boost the position of Dubai as an international hub of family tourism. It will cover an area of three billion square feet on the outskirts of Dubai and contain around 45 mega projects and 200 sub-projects.

Continue reading ‘Planned Dubailand’s gigantic snow centre nixed’

American ski racer Daron Rahlves is at Ski Dubai this week sharing his expertise with local ski enthusiasts at an exclusive ski race camp organised by the famous indoor ski centre.

Sponsored by skiwear brand Spyder, the five-day camp is being held from 24th-28th August and enables skiers to learn race techniques of races from Ski Dubai’s multi-national instructors. The sessions will be reinforced with tips from Spyder sponsored rider, Rahlves.

Mike Mahoney, General Manager at Ski Dubai, said,

We are delighted to have Rahlves at Ski Dubai for this exciting skiers’ camp. This camp is an incredible opportunity for avid skiers to learn from a true professional and we are confident that the skills and new tricks taught will definitely excite the participants.”

On the final day of the camp, all participants can take part in a three-hour competition session which will include a warm-up with Rahlves and a race where participants get the chance to show their new skills and compete for prizes.

Abu Dhabi’s National newspaper has reported that a team of 114 German engineers have setting the stage and preparing to build the largest indoor snow slope in the world. When the project at Jebil Hafeet is completed by 2013, a 2.6 km (1.7 mile) long slope capable of hosting International Ski Federation sanctioned events.

That is five times longer than the existing longest indoor slopes in Holland and Germany and six and a half times longer than neighbour Ski Dubai. The full area of the slope will be 337,000 square metres, about ten times the largest indoor slope area at present and is expected to leave a minimal impact on the environment.
Reports say that sections of the slope, although possibly not all, will be indoors, with movable sections to allow different slope configurations. Parts of the slope will also be supported by stilts and there will be an indoor ski jump.
The development, called Jebel Hafeet Glacier, will also include a theme park, golf courses, two hotels and a retail area at the base of the mountain called.
Full construction work on what is reported to be “A massive green community” is scheduled to begin in October at Jebel Hafeet, the best known of Abu Dhabi’s mountains. A solar energy farm at one corner of the mountain will provide an as yet undisclosed proportion of the energy requirements.
The is still waiting for government’s stamp of approval because the mountain has historic sites and a hot springs area set up by the late Sheikh Zayed. Jebel Hafeet rises about 1,240 metres; the highest mountain in the United Arad Emirates is Jabal Yibir, which is 1,527 metres.
The development is being implemented by Tamouh, part of the Royal Group, a holding company owned by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al Nahyan. Mr Joe Ong, chief executive of Tamouh Investments , described it as the eighth wonder of the world. Temperatures at the base of the mountain are currently around 45°C at midday.

Czech Company plans 2km indoor slope in Abu Dhabi