Indoor Skiing-The Off-season Dream Thread

I saw the building from the interstate last August.  It might be neat to have an indoor hill nearby in the summer.  I doubt I'd go more than once or twice a year though/  For me, the outdoors and mountain air is a huge part of the experience I seek.

You might see it open by the end of the year. New investor, new money, new stadium and a sense of urgency to complete it and clean it up for the super bowl. We'll see...........

Quote:

Originally Posted by tylrwnzl 
(even if its only something like 350 vertical feet over 800 feet)...

That would be a first, an advanced indoor run with a 23+ degree average slope.  We would love it, but investors wouldn't.  Anything over 15deg would be shocking.  Now I just looked at the photos, about 1-in-4, with a long runout.  You could drop 120' if you hucked into the sewer (my kind of move).  If they just built a shed over a real hill they could save money, and _then_ lose it.

That's still bigger than some ski hills.  There was a great thread on TGR

http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=174831&highlight=Greatest+Hill

intending to name the best hill, but characteristically devolved into seeking the smallest.  The winner was a public park in Toronto

http://www.toronto.ca/parks/recreation_facilities/skiing/centennialski.htm#1

with sixty-five, count 'em, feet of vertical  I was sure the winner would be the eventual runner-up, a 150' hill in Alabama.  It would still be fun to ski in the Meadowlands.

Cheers

Looks like a bunny hill from this angle

Whatever,let's hope it will open in 2011.. It was a long time ago , when the project should've been done...

Even people in Dubai are having an indoor ski slope... It's shame.

Having done the indoor thing in Dubai. I can proclaim that it is entirely...meh. Actually now that I live Mt. Hood it's hard to get truly excited about hitting up Palmer during the summer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tylrwnzl 
I wasn't sure the exact height because they only claim its 35 stories high.

Sorry, I was pointlessly terse there.  It is cool just thinking about it, how to design it, etc.  There is one place that hopes to have a 35-story slope, but they really mean, "building."

Lots of good links here, gotta love wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indoor_skiing

Here's fun video of Ski Dubai; so smart of them to put a big turn in the middle:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSdfICM15Bk&feature=related
Here's a big one from Japan, about the size of Dubai's...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSAWS

"...the ski slope opened on July 15, 1993. With a structural height of 100 meters (translating to a skiable vertical drop of 80 m), a width of 100 m and a length of 500 m, it was the largest indoor ski slope in the world^[2] at the time. The complex had three ski courses^[3]—20.1° for skilled skiers, 15° for intermediate, and 10° for beginners — and two ski lifts.^[1]"

^{But then...}

^"...In 2003, the structure was demolished to make way for Japan's first large-format IKEA store."

120F skiing Cheers

Yawn!!! South Jersey use to have something called Pine Hill which was a capped landfill. A Jersey landfill, how cliche!

It wasn't even good from an instruction standpoint, so it passed like small areas do. This too, will pass.

Maybe they will build a halfpipe, that would pay more of the overhead. Of course a cornice lip would be novel.

Quote:

Originally Posted by snokat 
. Of course a cornice lip would be novel.

LOL, "Guido's Collier"

Rutherford Rut? a good halfpipe by any other name?

Love Guido's!

The entirety of the problem with indoor ski areas can be solved by switching to XC gear.

Heck, put a snowgun in a hangar and I'll bet you get XCers.

Other options include avalanches.  Nice wet-snow slides that bury folks over a meter deep.  This would happen at random, naturally, and mall rats would be encouraged to grab the supplied beacons and probes and go to it.  Most would continue shopping, ruining the chance for an excellent reality tv concept.

OTOH, slackers could be graded on their excuses for not helping the rescue: "OMG I found a fuschia Bogner fartbag worn by Rudi Garmisch himself!  Too spendy though."

There are quite a lot of these in the UK now: Milton Keynes, Castleford, Manchester, Hemel Hempstead, Tamworth
 all of which are about the same, 180m long @ 12 degrees. Now imagine the sh!tshow the brits cause on the slopes each year concentrated into a small freezer and you might be able to imagine what these are like to ski in...

Ski Mountain was in Pine Hill down in Gloucester County ... don't think it was on a trash heap though.

There was another in Monmouth that has some association with the Boy Scouts and that is also a candidate.

When they put the "Newark Alps" in about 1968 this is all of the "mountains" you see by the 80/95/280 area by Kearny, they sold the taxpayers on the idea that it would be a ski hill with snow making and all the kids from Newark would change their names to Lars and Hans and ski happily into the sunset.

Landfills generate a lot of heat and how the heck would you sink towers into trash?  It was a usual total Jersey (read Soprano), scam from jump.

Just saw an article where they referred to Xanadu as an abandoned site.  This has been coming for a long time.  Too many big players all trying to get the state to do this or pay for that.

Honest question .. did the state pay for the Mall of America?

Well for the sea-quarium .. the state will run a mile of pipe .... (right into the harbor sludge and pollution)  .... oh gee .. well we'll add 10 miles to the project and ....

And those Cabellas rednecks.  Man theys a PEE CEE PRO BO LEM if I ever seen.  OK, sell rods and hats but no guns.

I don't want to get into the horse racing, basketball or anything like that.  Private men make money ... let them pay.

I hope it's over and Jersey is broke.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yuki 

Landfills generate a lot of heat and how the heck would you sink towers into trash?  It was a usual total Jersey (read Soprano), scam from jump.

There have been several successful ski hills opened on reclaimed landfills.

Probably true but .. how are you going to sink the tiers for anything other than a T-Bar or rope tow and .. that won't sell.

Our last hill in PA that I'm aware of went out of business last year ... Mount Tone .. at Lake Como.

And worse, the climate of Newark is very coastal and not cold.  Jersey is not the place and I think we have wasted enough money on this white elephant ... and look .... I'm from this cesspool and know the politics ... the thing was not developed to make it, it was just a tool to milk the taxpayer and line the pockets of the consultants.

People are not stupid when it comes to this stuff.  If dumb old Yuki can figure it out in a heartbeat ..

Look at that last proposal for a salt water aquarium and they agreed to run a one mile pipe.  Now any idiot can tell you without a degree in engineering that sucking in the water from the Hudson is not going to support any significant fish life.  If ... if ... that flew ... they would then have to expand the project and run the pipe miles off shore.

BTW .. on of the engineers that I figured would benefit and be in on the action missed hard time in federal court.  I think they gave him a year probation.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by snokat 

Yawn!!! South Jersey use to have something called Pine Hill which was a capped landfill. A Jersey landfill, how cliche!

 

It wasn't even good from an instruction standpoint, so it passed like small areas do. This too, will pass.

 

Maybe they will build a halfpipe, that would pay more of the overhead. Of course a cornice lip would be novel.

Man, I remember Pine Hill, it was terrible! I've had nothing but bad experiences skiing in New Jersey in general.

There are also outdoor summer skiing options.  This was at a summer training camp I attended back in 1981.  We worked on ramps and tramps all morning then skied and tubed on Lake Minnetonka every evening.  Man this was fun. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by crgildart 

LOL, "Guido's Collier"

That's @%$%$ brilliant.  

PS I have sneak peak on the trail map for this offense.  Three trails: Green is snookie, blue is "Vinny hair n tan" and expert run is the "situation"

MTBing is much more fun and cost less if you willing to be simple abouut it.

I'm planning to try this out as soon as I have an open weekend when it's not too hot.

http://www.examiner.com/x-4364-Skiing-Examiner~y2009m8d30-Liberty-University-opens-outdoor-artificial-ski-slope-in-Lynchburg-Va

Quote:

Originally Posted by kbuzz 

 

That's @%$%$ brilliant.  

 

PS I have sneak peak on the trail map for this offense.  Three trails: Green is snookie, blue is "Vinny hair n tan" and expert run is the "situation"

Base lodge should be called "Stromboli's".  And the shop should sell Jets stickers, hats, and t-shirts, etc....

I think I pi$$34 my self reading this..

I work near this dump, and there's no way people are going to bother skiing this.

I'd try it just to say I tried it, but unless i can get a season ticket (all summer) for free, then I rather spend the money on MTBiking or Camping in the summer.

The first thought when you see this is.. "why didn't they make this bigger ?"

the second is " why did they bother with this at all ?"

Is it ski season yet ? darn it I miss skiing..

^^^ Seems like absolute truth...

I've read in yesterday's paper, that Xanadu should be ready for 2014 Superbowl hosted  at Giants/Jets stadium..

Also the indoor slope will have a" staggering" 800 feet lenght = about 10 times the lenght of my GS skis/actually a bit more-a whole 240meters... That 's just big joke.

It looks like Western NC is gettting an indoor facility.  They are putting a roof over the side of an actual mountain.  I might just take a drive out there sometime in late July.

http://www.uski365.com/ski.htm

Quote:

Originally Posted by crgildart 

It looks like Eastern NC is gettting an indoor facility.  They are putting a roof over the side of an actual mountain.  I might just take a drive out there sometime in late July.

 

http://www.uski365.com/ski.htm

I read that and thought "Eastern NC??".

Good news, but go West, young man!   ;-)