Indoor skiing: Domes sweet domes

Britain's fifth indoor snow centre, Chill Factore, has opened this month next to the Trafford Centre on the M60 west of Manchester. This latest temple of snow sports puts the UK on a par with Germany in the number of facilities operational, although we still lag behind the Netherlands (seven), which operates the world's longest to date, and Japan (nine).

For many skiers, the idea of indoor snow is unappealing, with short straight slopes inside giant freezers not their idea of fun. So it may come as a shock to learn just how popular they are. The Xscape complex at Castleford in West Yorkshire, which incorporates one of the country's three SNO!zone indoor slopes, has matched the London Eye as the top paid destination in Britain, with more than three million visits annually. Chill Factore expects to attract 2.5 million people in its first year.

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Perhaps most telling is the news that the Middle East's Ski Dubai recently had its busiest ever day, with 7,800 people taking to the slopes. Amazingly, the Scottish ski area Glencoe recorded only 7,300 skiers through the entire winter last season – down from 37,000 six years earlier. But rather than taking people away from conventional ski resorts, suburban indoor centres are credited with growing business for destination areas in an era of consolidation. So much so that resorts are sponsoring the centres, sending over their ski schools and incoming travel planners, and in the case of Solden in the Austrian Tirolean, actually paying for construction of a new centre in its core German market.

Chill Factore has done a lot to make indoor skiing more appealing to regular skiers. On entering the winding Alpine-themed street of cafés and ski shops, visitors will first be impressed by a vast glass window on to the slope which makes you feel as if you're standing in a real snow IMAX. Equally impressive is the effort that has gone in to decor, with use of natural stone, wood shingles and other authentic materials all aimed at recreating that Alpine feel. New technology has also allowed for the creation of a mountainscape montage up the sides of the slope.

"We've focused on creating a total year-round, weather-reliable destination," says Peter Moore, Chill Factore chairman. He says his vision is to be "as appealing to the non-snowsports enthusiast, where the sports facilities, retail and dining all complement one another". At 180m long, the slope is marginally the UK's longest yet indoors. It also has a slightly steeper and wider feel, with separate nursery slope and kids snow fun area incorporating a tubing toboggan section and a luge run. On-slope ski testing is also offered by Salomon.

Chill Factore has also built links with Britain's competitive snow sports teams, already benefitting from year round snow slope access at the UK's existing centres. Snowsport GB, the country's governing body, is establishing its UK national training centre here ahead of the 2010 Winter Olympics. This follows a trend that has seen the International Ski Federation hold World Cup races indoors in Holland; the Canadian and US national teams train indoors; and the construction of year-round ski tunnels in Finland and Sweden for cross-country and biathlon team training.

So, in a warming world, is the future of snow sports indoors? It sounds far-fetched. Even indoor-snow enthusiasts would be depressed at the thought that indoor snow was the only option, but there are the beginnings of a trend, albeit a very gradual one. Five years ago there were about 50 glacier ski areas for summer skiing and about 30 indoor snow centres; today those numbers are reversed. While melting glaciers are getting smaller (most notably the world's highest ski slope at Chacaltaya in Bolivia, expected to be gone for good in the next decade), indoor snow centres are getting bigger.

"The designs are becoming more and more complex and reflecting full mountain resorts rather than simple straight down slopes like the ones in Europe," says Malcolm Clulow, boss of Acer Snowmec. This British company has pioneered indoor snow making from a small test facility in Telford nearly 20 years ago to become the world's leading player in the industry, supplying indoor snow centres worldwide, including Ski Dubai. Clulow envisages "turning slopes, valleys, gullies and big snowboard parks", as well as "bridges, tunnels and extreme snowsport areas: kickers, big air ramps and superpipes all figure in our latest designs".

His company is now working on more spectacular centres, including what will be the world's longest slope in Moscow and a proposed 800m-long slope in Reykjavik. Selling ice to Iceland is quite an achievement.

There are also plans for ever more remarkable construction projects. Another British concept, SnowVolution, proposes a huge 300m-wide dome containing between four and six concentric, revolving, snow covered rings on which skiers and boarders can ride forever in the snowy equivalent of the runner's treadmill. Arnaud Palu, head of SNO!zone, which runs indoor snow centres at Braehead in Glasgow, Milton Keynes and Castleford, says there's another dimension beyond recreating the outdoor experience,

"Indoor snow centres are at the forefront of a new trend in leisure, bringing niche sports to the masses thanks to its controlled environment," says Palu. He adds: "New 'sports domes' will soon emerge with, for example, 'Surf domes' incorporating perfect surf waves and 'Dive domes' equipped with a tank for scuba divers."

With the huge construction costs requiring large population bases nearby, 6.5 million people within a 45-minute drive in the case of Chill Factore, how many centres are we likely to see? Many more, according to Palu: " The more there are, the greater will be people's awareness, meaning more people discover snow sports. This will change people's perception that skiing or snowboarding are leisure activities like swimming or going to the cinema and not sports."

But are these massive structures with huge refrigeration requirements actually adding to the climate change that could ultimately prove the death knell of regular ski areas? It's one of those, "Yes, but..." answers. The 'buts' include arguments that having access to local snow means people don't need to travel so far to ski and that the refrigeration heat, as well as water for snow, is recycled.

Three of the latest UK snow centre proposals – Hemel Hempstead, High Wycombe and Swansea – include initiatives for vast grass-covered roofs and micro-production of renewable energy on site.

Twenty years after the first rudimentary indoor snow facilities opened in Australia and Belgium, long before there was much debate on climate change, the structures and the technology are continuing to get bigger and better. Clulow of Acer Snowmec concludes "The British ski racer Konrad Bartelski was right 20 years ago when he told me that we were only scratching the surface of this great idea."

Chill Factore: 0161 749 2222; www.chillfactore.com

Snow365: www.snow365.com

Snowvolution: 0870 444 1977; www.snowvolution.com

SNO!zone Brehead, Glasgow: 0871 222 5672; SNO!zone Castleford: 0871 222 5671; SNO!zone Milton Keynes: 0871 222 5672; www.snozone.co.uk

Tamworth SnowDome: 0870 500 0011; www. snowdome.co.uk