Indoor Snow News endeavours to bring all the latest news from indoor snow slopes and their manufacturers around the world.

It is maintained by ski writer, researcher and author Patrick Thorne, who traces his ski writing and researching career back to the mid-1980s. Patrick reported on the first indoor snow centres as they opened in the late-1980s and early-1990s, and has followed their global development ever since.

Over his three-decade-long career as a ski journalist, Patrick has visited numerous indoor snow slopes and hundreds of ski resorts around the world, publishing thousands of news stories, articles and books on winter sports.

Patrick has covered indoor snow centre news since the late-1980s, and since 2003 has published a monthly news digest of stories from indoor snow centres and dry ski slopes (the latter covered by sister site http://www.dryslopenews.com), producing more than 1,000 indoor snow and dry slope news stories over the intervening years.

He has also compiled the 200+ page, 60,000 word digital document The World Indoor Snow Centre Guide, an illustrated directory of all the indoor snow centres ever built around the world and the companies which create them, which is available for purchase now.

WE ARE SPONSORED BY DOPPELMAYR

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WHAT IS INDOOR SNOW?

The first people to ski on a chemical mix designed to feel like snow did so way back in the 1930s. However, it wasn’t until the late-1980s that the first refrigerated indoor snow centres began to appear in Europe, Asia and Australia.

Since then, more than 100 have been built in over 30 countries on six of the seven continents, and the centres keep getting bigger and better with almost every new one that opens. While the snow-making technology has kept improving, so has the design of each facility.

Although most offer skiing and snowboarding, indoor snow centres have a myriad of other uses and in some hot countries where it never snows, they simply provide the local population with the joy of being able to play in the snow.

Over the past 30 years, indoor snow slopes have been crucial for teaching millions of people to ski or snowboard, providing the basic (and advanced) skills on similar terrain to conventional slopes. They have therefore played a major role in the success of the global ski industry. Many of the centres have strong community support, enabling children and people with special needs to learn to ski or board and from that practice regularly. They have also bred some of the world’s best skiers and snowboarders who have gone on to World Cup and Olympic glory.

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MORE ABOUT THE SITE OWNER

Patrick Thorne has been one of the world’s leading ski travel writers and researchers since 1984. Working year-round over the past 35 years he has written more than 20,000 news stories, articles, books and reports and contributed to hundreds of ski industry projects.

His outlets include:

Editor of InTheSnow in print and online – the UK’s leading snowsports magazine.
Publisher of SaveOurSnow – the source for information on the ski industry’s battle with climate change.
Editor of LoveTheMountains in print and online.
Author of Powder, The Guide to the World’s 50 Best Ski Runs, published by Nat Geo, worldwide.
Publisher of IndoorSnowNews – the world’s leading independent source for indoor snow centre news.
Publisher of DrySlopeNews – the world’s leading independent source for dry ski slope news.
News writer for J2Ski.com – one of the UK’s most visited websites.
Content writer for LoveSki.com
Author of the first guide book to snow on other worlds: Snow In Space.
News writer for the world’s most visited snowsports site SnowForecast.com
Author of more than a dozen ski and travel books, dictionaries, atlases and CD ROMs since 1985
Compiler of Reports on Making Skiing Affordable for Families for the International Ski Federation (FIS).
Writer for The Independent for 20 years (when it was in print) and for The Guardian.
Blogger: Liftopia
Writer for Numerous Other Ski Publications for Many Years in Print and Online including: Fall Line, Skier & Snowboarder (News Editor), Ski Area Management (Europe Editor), Wintersports Technology International and The World Travel Guide.
Compiler of the world’s largest ski resorts database with information on more than 6,300 in 80 countries.

Rated UK’s top ski news source.
More than 150,000 Facebook followers via multiple publishing outlets.
Video Introduction.

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