Indoor Downhill Skiing

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We had frost a few mornings, but no snow; but that did not stop us from going downhill skiing on Friday! Yes, there is an INDOOR downhill ski rink here in Moscow (www.snej.com Russian only). Freddie recommended we try it out and we had tried once before but never made it so yesterday (Friday) we took a half day from work and headed to Moscow. We made a few stops along the way but go to the rink (I guess that is what you call it) around 5 PM yesterday. I really did not know what to expect and as best as I could read from the website, it looked like a huge complex; but I really did not have high expectations.

After we got there, I was pleasantly surprised by it and had a good time. I thought it would be this huge complex with all of these areas you could visit, but the way it was broke up, it was not as impressive from a complex stand point, but it did seem to have everything but very broke up. Now to the ski hill, I was very impressed and must even say WOW! And the cost was not bad - renting skiies, boots, and poles, and all the downhill time, it was $26/hour. We rented everything for two hours so I paid 1300r. No, it is not cheap, but I thought very reasonable and a lot of fun. The complex is new so everything was in good working order.

The hourly rate for skiing if you had all of your own equipment was $12/hour during the week and $36/hour on the weekend. I am not sure the weekend rates are reasonable but obviously it is to help control the crowds, but going after work during the week, was no problem. Of course all of those prices are not including equipment. The other nice thing, they rented coats, pants, helmets, etc. I am not sure about gloves and hats but nice stuff.

The rink itself was this huge angled freezer and kept around 22oF. I am not sure how deep the base of snow was, but no problems. Yes, it was a little ice (man made snow), but nothing wrong with it. The slope (angle) was steep enough for more intermediate skiiers to have some but not too much for beginners if you took your time taking wide turns. Obviously, not very good for expert skiiers. I was also surprised for a Friday evening, it really was not busy. There was always open lifts and not too many people on the slope/hill. Most of the people were younger snow boarders, but there was some skiiers as well.

Enjoy the pictures and look out Denver, here the "Russians come".

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Photos

Indoor Dowhill Skiing
Real lifts and everything. Sochi could learn from this place!

Getting Ready
Misha watching (and laughing) as Freddie and Alexander are getting ready.

Lift Discharge
You can not even tell we are indoors.

Comments

[mom]

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Does the U.S. have any of these? sure is interesting, I guess if there are indoor ice skating rinks there can be indoor ski resorts.