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So what's it like to ski on?
Friday May 8, 2009 - Email this article to a friend
PlanetSKI reporter, Krystyna Chauncey, is one of the first to have a ski at The Snow Centre. She was, though, rather apprehensive about skiing indoors.
I started the season watching my children train with the Kandahar Racing Club in Saas Fee last October half term.
I then skied in Tignes, Verbier and Leukerbad on some wonderful fresh powder, but I certainly didn't expect to be ending my season in Hemel Hempstead.
I must say I approached the prospect with some trepidation.
What on earth was I doing going to an indoor snow centre after having had so much fun on the real stuff up the mountains with such gorgeous views? How was it going to compare? And artificial snow too!
To be quite honest I wasn’t sure what I was letting myself in for and, having had disappointing times on some outdoor plastic UK slopes, I secretly thought the whole thing would be a damp squib.
Well, I had so much fun.
To my surprise the temperature inside was a chilly -2ºC, rather cold compared to the slushy, almost tropical conditions, experienced in Switzerland a couple of weeks ago. More to the point though the snow was extremely good.
The Snow Centre has a team of fully qualified instructorsUnlike my other attempts at skiing in the UK it was on real snow and consistently great quality. My instructor, Peter Gillespie, was brilliant and in half an hour I learnt more with him than I did in a whole morning just a few weeks ago with an instructor in Switzerland.
The length and gradient of the slope allowed for some good long turns, and it honestly didn't matter the view wasn't real and the slope wasn't very long.
You can rent out the equipment if you need it - Columbia jackets and pants, along with Head skis, comfortable boots and a helmet.
You need to bring your own socks and gloves for hygiene reasons, but if you're going to be a regular visitor you’re probably better off bringing all your own gear too.
It was just great fun to be back on skis and all in all it was well worth it. I will certainly be back with my kids over the summer.
Have you been to Hemel Hempstead, or any other indoor snow centre for that matter. Are they any good?
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I've skied at all six UK indoor slopes and at Ski Dubai and a few in Europe.
The two newest centres - Hemel and Chill Factore near Manchester (which opened 18 months ago) have been the best as they are both wide at the base giving a more open feel than the first six and the have wall murals to give a little colour. Hemel is the best there as there's bright lighting too, though I still like the big multi-storey glass windows on to the slopes at Chill factore, which is more like ski Dubai and has more space to play with.
It's a bit odd that all six British ones are about the same length when in a country like Holland or Germany they vary between 100 and 600m, but i guess it's mostly down to land available.
I liked Hemel the most of the six because of the community feel and because of the building. Hemel was a dry slope before and has been family run for decades with grass roots links to the British ski community and racing scene so it feels like it is a kind of dream come true for them, where as the others feel more like Disneyland type corporate things stuck on to vast shopping malls to get people through the doors buying stuff. Well perhaps not so much Tamworth and Chill Factore, but Hemel wins there anyway.
The building is great too, very low profile down in a dip in the landscape with a huge grass roof so you don't realise how big it is until you go in. I like some of the others like Chill Factore again or Ski Dubai for the space age design at the opposite extreme, but again Hemel is best.
Oh and Hemel also wins for not having a silly name like Chill Factore (the e at the end should be tiny) or SNO!zone (the ones at Xscape - the SNO has to be in caps, then the exclamation make).
Damien Black, Inverness
I am a big fan of artificial mountains, having learned to ski on that very dangerous bristle stuff in the early 1980s.
I still believe if you can ski on that, you can ski on anything!
The trick with the indoor centres, is to go off peak, usually weekday mornings. They are usually fairly empty then and sometimes a third of the peak time price.
I hope it works for the new centre in Hemel Hempstead, as it can only be a good thing to encourage more snow (or, any) sports in the UK.
Xavier Adam, Tarragona, Spain.
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