Snow domes bad, dry slopes good?

A snowHead

Snow domes are very energy intensive with significant CO2 emissions. The current high electricity prices must be really hurting. The skiing experience is not that great, limited piste length, limited space. The artificial snow over-forgiving for poor technique. Chill Factore costs £35 to £40 for a two hour session!

Dry slopes have minimum energy use and environmental impact. Many slopes are are lot longer than at fridges with room for interesting features and slope undulations etc; time for a lot more turns. You get to enjoying exercising in the fresh air in all weathers, just like real skiing. Dendix is great for learning how to dig your edges in so those early morning icy pistes won’t be as much a shock compared those who learnt indoors. The greatly missed Sheffield dry ski slope raised a number of competitive skiers. Rossendale only costs £20 for a two hour session, half the price of being stuck in a fridge.

I learned to ski at Rossendale and loved it. I’ve only bern to a fridge once for a Snowheads Oktobertest.

So why don’t dry slopes have greater prominence? Is it just down to marketing?

A snowHead

One odd thing I noticed last month re dry slopes versus indoor slopes.

I came back from some slalom training at Peer in Belgium in October and then had another slalom session on the dry slope back home. The main difference - the dry slope was smooth compared to the lumps, bumps and ice bits of the indoor slope. It was a lot easier.

By no measure should I be called a slalom racer. I’m into my eigth decade and far too old for that but the training is excellent. The midland ski club does 90 minute sessions for £18

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@On the rocks, in my case, fear.

I’ve been skiing for nearly 40 years. I’ve regularly skied what are considered many of the most challenging black pistes in Europe, the odd off piste couloir, unplanned nightmare off piste, etc.

Even snowboarded down some, as a relative beginner, without undue concern.

Put me at the top of a 200m dry slope though and my legs turn to jelly.

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Learned on dry. Well not learned, learned how to burn holes in clothes & fall right.
Snow is much easier than the dry stuff. By the time I got on snow, the dandex experience made things much easier.
We really need longer indoor slopes though. 500-600m.
Dry slopes would not cut it at that length (ever tried an infinity slope? Boring as hell). I gave up dry slopes when I saw the older kids straight line the 100m-120m run and turned straight back on the drag lift in full control of speed with the most bored looking faces.

A 500m+ fridge in the right catchment area could actually produce some better quality snow sports stars. We have some now, but that is either due to lots of family commitment & sacrifices, or someone swapping aligences.

I would challenge your energy intense. Many French resorts farm snow & keep it under wraps during the summer for the following winter. If they can do that in 80c heat in the South of France without much more than insulation - then insulation works 2 ways. Plus the external heat could be harvesting for use in other ways & heat other leisure venues on the same complex.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

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@Gored,
Please list the 'Many French resorts' that keep snow under wraps.

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I'd prefer to ski on dendix over some of the conditions we have skied on this week in Wengen to be honest. That said, before now my 7 year old daughter has only skied on very shallow real pistes 10-15°, chill factore at about 15° but been on dendix at Gloucester twice a week for the last 9 months on a similar gradient. She skied everything in Wengen this week, 33° moguled slush or dust on ice, very slow at times but no falls. I think it has improved her sking a lot and Gloucester will seem very flat to her now. Looking forward to next summer race league for her.

After all it is free

My old man broke his thumb at Gloucester dry slope, many moons ago.

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I feel that dryslopes don't provide enough grip to let you get big enough edge angles to develop modern carving technique. Can spot dryslope skiers on snow as they try to avoid any angulation.

I learned on Dendix, but that was on straight skis.

You know it makes sense.

Also learned at Rossendale, my Dad broke his thumb there. Then I was at Sheffield when it was built and worked there for a bit. Skied lots on plastic, I'm sure it's why I ski ike I do! Haven't been on plastic for 20 plus years though. May give it another go, Swadlincote would be my nearest. Would have to dig out some old skis though.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@pam w, @Glosterwolf, Hillend Thumb was a well known condition at The Royal Edinburgh.

A snowHead

It depends how good you are, I watch people carve on it with no slippage at all every week.

A snowHead

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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

I worked as a "volunteer" at Sheffield in the early 90's.
It was an 80 mile round trip, but my first aid certificate meant that I spent most of my 6 hour shift on the slopes, plus a couple of extra hours afterwards.
Plus quite a few additional mid week free visits and other times throughout the summer.

Dry slopes may not prepare you for bumpy snow, but the regular exercise for my legs vastly improved my overall skiing.
I even got quite a bit of practice on moguls.
Fantastic practice for icy conditions when it's been drizzling rain for a few hours and everybody but the diehards have gone inside to dry off. Toofy Grin

You really do have to work to get an edge.

However, as mentioned, probably best to use straight skis.

I was offered the opportunity to take an instructor course, but sadly was unable to leave work at 5pm and make the 6pm start due to traffic. Sad

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@Timmycb5, Sad what happened to the Morfa one...

After all it is free

@Charliegolf, what did happen to it? Just left to wrack and ruin?

@Timmycb5, Exactly that.

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I only go to fridges at the end of the day when it's well chopped up or they have made moguls.

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Bit of a moot point up here now as the indoor at Braehead has gone phut. I imagine energy costs were one reason.

I learned to ski on my school dendix - it was about 5m and you could get about 2 turns Very Happy

In reality that was just a bit of fun, the ski club used Hillend just outside Edinburgh - its massive for a dry slope. Great for learning, but I am not a fan of plastic and the last time I was there was watching my son when he was in primary school.

I learnt at Hillend in the early 80’s kids learnt up there 2010.
They have done both hillend and fridge & they prefer hillend as it approx 450 metres & you can get a run in

You know it makes sense.

I spent a lot of time at Hillend but managed to break a leg circa 1994 and then an arm about 4 years later. Such fun.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

I used dry slopes quite a lot before carving skis were developed and was of the opinion that if you could ski on dendix then you really could ski (especially when very dry and at their hardest) which seems to be borne out by other comments. I took student groups in the 80's mainly to Churchill slope, South of Bristol and occasionally Gloucester. ( I didnt teach them but I thought the resident instructors were good, especially a guy called Chris).

But I've yet to try a fridge so can't comment. If they'd built the one proposed for Weston-S-Mare I'd use it. Maybe they've greater attraction because the "snow" looks real compared to plastic.

A snowHead

Quite curious to try a dryslope one day from reading this thread. Being local to Hemel (it's where I learned "properly" initially) I've never really needed to try one before. The exception being a taster session far too long ago at Chatham on the nursery slope there. Could be fun to try something new - I've never broken my thumb before either Toofy Grin

Which one would be considered the longest in the UK at the moment, and are there any of decent length (preferably noticeably longer than Hemel for a bit of excitement!) in the south I could try on a daytrip?

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Wow 12 posts before the inevitable elitist I learned on straight skis dick waving

We are doing well

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Dave Ryding learnt to ski on Pendle dryslope, and I doubt you would criticise his tecnique these days. My kids learnt to race on Cardiff & Pontypool slopes & raced against Dave. When the older one did a season out as an instructor in Switzerland, he complained that the only one of their instructors who carved properly was an ex Swiss team member, so I think those who learn to race on plastic actually learn very good tecnique which they then transfer onto snow.

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@Whitegoldsbrother, @rjs wasn't being elitist, neither was I. He's simply saying that he learned to ski before carving skis existed as did I and as did many here. It's a statement of fact, purely and simply. It doesn't mean it was better to learn that way, in fact it wasn't, it was harder and wasted a lot of time and put a lot of people off. I wish carving skis had existed in the 70s, they're so much better and have made skiing accessible to far more people I would think.

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Dry slopes are fairly low gradient, slow and without bumps so in reality they should be good to practice carving technique on. However the heavier you are and the more worn the matting is the less grip you will get even if you are pretty good at skiing. Good equipment helps a bit but those I see carving silently between gates without skidding tend to be the best u12-16. Once you get up to u18 males + it the jumping, skating and skidding comes into play even though they are fastest, I expect that it's down to weight speed advantage over loss of grip. The downside with practicing carving technique on it is that if you get it wrong is is harder to adjust than on snow and i stead of just slipping the ski slightly to compensate you need to make a step with it.

After all it is free

@Glosterwolf, the decent older ones up at Gloucester/Western Counties that are carving through courses are using ceramic on their edges.

@sparklies, Gloucester is the longest in England at 255m's, an extra 100m's or so vs The Ski Centre in Hemel. There's 2 slopes at Gloucester, the secondary slope has freestyle features on it. There's also a separate nursery slope around 30/40m's long.

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@Glosterwolf, i'm pretty useless on the dry stuff, and don't want to go down the route of ceramic, but enjoy going along.

The only way you'll get confident in the gates is to just get in them more and more. Stick some hand and shin guards on and you'll feel invincible! Laughing

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Snow domes bad, dry slopes good?

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