10 Indoor Slopes Worth Skiing

Keeping with the theme of outdoor stuff moving indoors for year round enjoyment (these indoor waterparks will wet you up), we decided to check out indoor ski slopes. These things are feats of engineering magic and usually result in some pretty unique architecture. It's a relatively recent trend, and as its popularity increases, bigger and better ones pop up. The image above is a proposed indoor slope in Sweden, which would be around 450 feet tall. It's nothing new for ski resorts to produce extra snow and powder, but moving the entire thing inside for year-round snow and winter-related things is ballsy. Salute.

By Marc Yearsley

Location: Dubai, UAE
Website: skidxb.com

Big-ass malls are ripe territory for putting outside shit inside. Ski Dubai, the Middle East's first indoor ski slope, is a part of the Mall of the Emirates (our No. 3 pick for coolest mall in the world). The slope first welcomed snow bunnies in 2005, initially opening with five different slopes and a large general snow-related fun area. This is arguably the most famous indoor ski slope, partially because it's located in Dubai, which is known as a hot-bed of architectural ridiculousness. Now, we know what everyone is thinking—do they expect me to bring appropriate clothing? No! Any necessary gear, even appropriate winter clothing, is included the price of admission. Swagger.

Location: Manchester, UK
Website: chillfactore.com

Goofy spelling aside, this is the longest indoor ski slope in the UK, with the main slope beginning at a height of 40 meters (appx. 131 feet), thus it deserves your respect. The building is home to a national organization that provides adapted skiing for the disabled, which is also respectable. According to their website, a total of 1,632 tons of snow cover the 10,200-square-meter area. For all of us out there that don't fuck the metric system, 10,200-square-meters is about 109,791 square feet. In all languages this is understood to equal "large."

Location: Arroyomolinos, Spain
Website: madridsnowzone.com

Madrid Xanadú is another massive mall complex (the No. 17 coolest mall in the world, if anyone is wondering). This one has over 250 shops and restaurants, but the main attraction is the SnowZone. The whole complex is about 15 miles outside of Madrid and easily accessible. In addition to day-long passes, you can get a pass for just one hour of ski time. Perfect for taking a break from shopping at 250 different stores. Nothing says relaxation like cutting powder under the bright lights.

Note: The name sounds like the earthly palace of Xenu, evil intergalactic dictator of Scientologist lore, but it's just a mall...right?

Tom Cruise has not commented on this.

Location: Moscow, Russia
Website: snej.com

Ah, Snej.com! If only more real places used their domain name as their official title. One of the more interesting designs, this facility has a slope about four football fields long with a pretty steep drop (65 meters). The un-translated name— Snezh.kom—is more badass (because it's more Russian). In Cyrillic, it appears as: СНЕЖ.КОМ. You can take a virtual tour of the facilities via their website, which we don't need to tell you about. You already know what it is.

Location: East Rutherford, New Jersey
Website: americandream.com

New Jersey has its own extension of the mall in Madrid—the American Dream Meadowlands (formerly the Meadowlands Xanadu, but crafty Xenu could not risk exposing his plans of establishing a North American stronghold so easily). This project has a long and tumultuous history and still won't be open until 2013, if ever. But it has opened the door of possibility for other indoor ski slopes around the U.S. (Las Vegas, North Carolina). Still, constant vigilance! Xenu's influence cannot be underestimated.

Note: It could be that Olivia Newton-John, with help from '70s pop-prog rock outfit Electric Light Orchestra, is actually behind these malls. It may be prudent to re-read this piece, inserting "ONJ and ELO" anytime "Xenu" appears.

Location: Amnéville, France
Website: snowhall.fr

This slope is a destination for many international teams from alpine skiing countries like Germany, Austria, Italy, and Switzerland. The facility's combination of length, steepness, and width, where it either leads or ranks high in each of those categories, make it ideal for serious competitive skiers. And yeah, it's not too far from the Alps, which are actual mountains, but if it's good enough for real skiers, it should be good enough for you.

Location: Bispengen, Germany
Website: snow-dome.de

Uniquely, the Snow Dome has no internal supports, and the ski lifts are attached to the ceiling. As for indoor ski slopes, it's pretty standard, though it does feature a toboggan run (in case you just watched Cool Runnings, which is nearly always the case for Complex staff—we like to remind ourselves how racist Disney flicks can get every day). None of that matters, however, because the building looks like a Cylon Resurrection ship, another facet of Scientology. There may be a connection between indoor ski slopes and L. Ron Hubbard's organization, but we're afraid to make any real claims. They'll come take us away for sure.

Location: Bottrop, Germany
Website: alpincenter.com

The AlpinCenter has a conveyor belt (think of the moving walkways in airports) that transports skiers 400 meters from the bottom of the slopes to the top in about five minutes. And it is impressively large and impressively green. Also, rumor has it that the AlpinCenter's missing "e" was stolen by none other than the Chill Factorein Manchester. Bastards.

Though it could be a result of the German language being different from English. Conspiracies abound.

Location: Landgraaf, Netherlands
Website: snowworld.com

SnowWorld in the Netherlands has what they advertise as the only International Ski Federation-approved slope. As a result, they can organize World Cup skiing events. The sheer number of YouTube videos capturing runs at Snow World are a testament to this. They have five slopes and eight different lifts. And if Dutch television is any indication, listening to and watching Dutch people ski has to be entertaining.

Location: Druskininkai, Lithuania
Website: snowarena.lt

One of the most recently constructed (and one of the largest), the Snow Arena opened in August 2011. It features a seasonal, 640-meter outdoor route that complements the indoor slopes. One of the greatest features is the Air Bag, an enormous air-filled pad (remember the Blob in Heavyweights?) positioned right behind a jump that allows you to practice doing stoopid tricks in mid-air without having to worry about stupid things like broken legs.