http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=3&article_id=20477Ski season officially starts in Dubai
By Agence France Presse (AFP)
Saturday, December 03, 2005
DUBAI: Skiing officially started on Friday at Dubai's new indoor Alpine ski resort, offering the world's first indoor black-run just minutes away from the desert emirate's beaches. The lower level slopes started welcoming skiers, while the upper ones were due to be open on December 14, Ski Dubai chief executive Phil Taylor said.
Snowboarders can also test their skills on a 90-meter-long quarter pipe, as well as jumps and rails at the ski dome nestled inside the brand-new, gigantic Mall of the Emirates.
"I am now rushing to take a skiing lesson before heading back to a business meeting," said one Emirati national, who will have to swap his Arab traditional robe for warm ski gear before hitting the slopes.
Snowboarder Johnny Yammine, who usually spends his free time on motocross and mountain climbing expeditions in the Emirati desert, is "ecstatic about the good quality of snow and the varied terrain which is far better than indoor skiing I have tried in Europe."
The $272-million resort is but the latest extravagant project in the Gulf emirate seeking to become a tourism hub, following on from the world's tallest tower and only undersea hotel.
Ski Dubai, a man-made mountain scene as big as three football fields that can hold up to 1,500 visitors, will have five slopes of different degrees of difficulty, the longest being 400 meters with a fall of 62 meters.
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