Sarah Lewis, the only woman presidential candidate for the upcoming election to become the new leader of the International Ski Federation (FIS), has credited the creation of dry slopes in areas without conventional snow slopes as a driver of China’s meteoric rise as a ski nation. In an interview with Chinese state media agency Xinhua, Lewis said, “By growing its

Artificial ski slope manufacturer Skitrax has reported a mini-boom in sales of mini-ski slopes for home use during the pandemic lockdown. “Many young people in Germany have decided to build a small fun park themselves. Dozens of kids have bought between 15-30 sqm of our Slopetrax mats and added their own obstacles to further increase the fun!” said Wolfgang Schmidt

A new indoor ski centre has opened in the Swiss town of Saillon. Locoski features a SkiWorld Pro machine from Dutch-company Alpine Engineering which can be adjusted in terms of speed and steepness according to skier need. The slope also features a recent additional innovation, with routes to follow projected on to the slope.  Again these can change according to

China is seeing a large number of dry ski slopes opening as well as indoor snow centre as skiing and snowboarding continue to gain in popularity as the country moves towards its target of 300 million people engaged in snow or ice sports ahead of the 2022 Olympics. These year-round ski centres address an issue China faces in that although

The Bilingual European School of Milan (BES) in Italy now offers skiing in the schoolyard with the installation of a new dry slope, 30 metres long and 10 metres wide with a safe gradient of 10%, by the Bergamo-based company Neveplast. The new slope was declared open by former Alpine skiing champion Giorgio Rocca while the Alpine skiing World Championships

The long awaited redevelopment of Sheffield Ski Village, one of Europe and the UK’s former leading dry ski centres, is still due to go ahead according to its developer. Alastair Gosling, of Extreme, told the Sheffield Star newspaper that the company now hoped to open the £25m project on the former Ski Village site in two years’ time in 2023.

A new centre which allows visitors to try skiing and surfing at the same location, side by side, is set to open this May in Oklahoma City. The existing Riversport complex which already offers Olympic and Paralympic standard white water rafting and rowing as well as an artificial wave pool for surfers is to install a SkiMachine from Alpine Engineering

Austria’s Schladming ski area is set to unveil a new ‘startpark’ this spring at the resort’s Reiteralm ski area, already a favoured destination among ski and snowboard cross specialists who come from all over the world to train at the existing Cross Park there. The new startpark will have an added dimension that other training facilities do not however –

A dry ski slope has been announced as one of the attractions at a proposed £60m multi-sports centre planned for Preston. Christened ‘Phoenix Park’ the centre would be a development of the existing Trax education and sporting facility, which was established 20 years ago on the banks of the city’s Ribble Estuary near Preston Docks. Local media reports that a

The Pine Needles Slope was set up near Universal City by Sepp Benedickter, an Austrian ski racer who, among many claims to skiing fame, was also closely involved in the development of Sun Valley resort and also reputedly employed as a ski teacher by Hollywood stars including Henry Fonda and Gary Cooper on the dry slope.  He also appeared as