# Fake Snow Resorts



## a4h Saint (Jan 24, 2013)

I think my area needs a summer training area, something similar to liberty university's snowflex park. I know there are 100 different materials that have been put together for this, but I hear snowflex is the best of the best. Most places that have snowflex or similar materials are in Europe, and are just making their way the US since our biggest camps have snow mid-summer. My area barely gets snow in the winter, much less summer, so I have an idea to maybe try and get something built around here. For design ideas, sizing requirements, and a rough draft on cost I would like to see how some of the European groups have their places set up. If you live near or know of some places that use synthetic material to simulate snow for summer park setups, please post names or link the sites below! 

A side question to anyone who may know: these synthetic materials use water for lubrication, how do they hold up in the winter? Don't they turn into sheets of ice? Do places like this just shut down in the winter, or just turn of the water and pull out the blowers?


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## ksup3erb (Jan 25, 2013)

a4h Saint said:


> I think my area needs a summer training area, something similar to liberty university's snowflex park. I know there are 100 different materials that have been put together for this, but I hear snowflex is the best of the best. Most places that have snowflex or similar materials are in Europe, and are just making their way the US since our biggest camps have snow mid-summer. My area barely gets snow in the winter, much less summer, so I have an idea to maybe try and get something built around here. For design ideas, sizing requirements, and a rough draft on cost I would like to see how some of the European groups have their places set up. If you live near or know of some places that use synthetic material to simulate snow for summer park setups, please post names or link the sites below!
> 
> A side question to anyone who may know: these synthetic materials use water for lubrication, how do they hold up in the winter? Don't they turn into sheets of ice? Do places like this just shut down in the winter, or just turn of the water and pull out the blowers?


Look at Sochi if you want an example.


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## a4h Saint (Jan 24, 2013)

ksup3erb said:


> Look at Sochi if you want an example.


LOL! As bad as people say sochi is I would gladly have that around here!


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## kev711 (Feb 7, 2013)

Woodward at Copper Mountain has an indoor training facility called "The Barn". Try to get in touch with someone over there, maybe then can help you out. Where are you planning on building?


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## a4h Saint (Jan 24, 2013)

kev711 said:


> Woodward at Copper Mountain has an indoor training facility called "The Barn". Try to get in touch with someone over there, maybe then can help you out. Where are you planning on building?


Right now its an idea, and very dependent upon cost. Mainly just an outdoor freestyle area for the local kids to ride in the summer. Our parks are getting better, but have been somewhat inconsistent and sketchy in the past. Plus there is nothing to do around here in the summer other than hike or swim in the lakes (which are not bad). Overall a jump line with maybe 1-2 hits and a rail section beside it with maybe 2 sections, 2 rails wide? Kinda why I am looking for other designs. 

Side note: I am very surprised that resorts that have mtn. biking in the summer do not have snowflex park areas as well... anyone know why? Is it because the stuff is just now getting popular?


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## Tarzanman (Dec 20, 2008)

a4h Saint said:


> Right now its an idea, and very dependent upon cost. Mainly just an outdoor freestyle area for the local kids to ride in the summer. Our parks are getting better, but have been somewhat inconsistent and sketchy in the past. Plus there is nothing to do around here in the summer other than hike or swim in the lakes (which are not bad). Overall a jump line with maybe 1-2 hits and a rail section beside it with maybe 2 sections, 2 rails wide? Kinda why I am looking for other designs.
> 
> Side note: I am very surprised that resorts that have mtn. biking in the summer do not have snowflex park areas as well... anyone know why? Is it because the stuff is just now getting popular?



Economics? Why drop a couple of million on snowflex terrain when almost no one is thinking about riding a snowboard during the summer? Its not like people can't fly down to Chile or Argentina during the summer anyway.


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## a4h Saint (Jan 24, 2013)

Tarzanman said:


> Economics? Why drop a couple of million on snowflex terrain when almost no one is thinking about riding a snowboard during the summer? Its not like people can't fly down to Chile or Argentina during the summer anyway.


1. I *ALWAYS *think about snowboarding, summer included. Closing day for the resorts is when the countdown begins. 
2. Opening ~10,000sqft of snowflex would not be millions, and it would be chump change for some of the big resorts.

This is entirely off topic anyway.


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## a4h Saint (Jan 24, 2013)

kev711 said:


> Woodward at Copper Mountain has an indoor training facility called "The Barn". Try to get in touch with someone over there, maybe then can help you out. Where are you planning on building?


I am sorry, you asked where not what. I live in NE TN, but I would look into specifics before going that far. It would be somewhere within about an hour or so of the North Carolina and TN border.


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## kev711 (Feb 7, 2013)

i really hope your plans go well and the idea catches on and some places open up. Camelback in Tannersville, PA has a waterpark and had a summer setup with rails and boxes on some kind of dryslope. I think they might have used mSNOW. After one or 2 summers, they got rid of it.

Keep us posted! I'd love to see how it turns out


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