If skiing indoors sounds unbelievable, we can assure you, it’s real.
Big SNOW American Dream opened its doors Thursday letting media inside the 16-story, 180,000 square-foot indoor ski and snowboard park for a first look before the public can slide down the slopes in the afternoon.
This is the first real snow indoor ski and snowboard venue in North America and it’s a blustery 28 degrees year-round —the perfect temperature to keep the slopes covered in 5,500 tons of snow, with an average depth of 2 feet.
Big SNOW has a ski chalet-themed retail store, three slopes of varying difficulties, four lifts, a freestyle terrain park for snowboarders and a Terrain Based Learning area for beginners, the trademarked teaching tool of SNOW Operating, which runs Big SNOW and Mountain Creek.
Novices can rent equipment, ski jackets and pants for $69.99 for a two-hour session or more for a three-day session, and experienced skiers and snowboarders can bring their own and just buy an access pass for $34.99. There’s pricing for kids, too, and even child care for parents who want to ski without kids in tow.
The media kick-off event featured appearances by New Jersey native and Olympic gold medalist mogul skier Donna Weinbrecht, World Champion and Olympic Gold Medal ski racer Lindsey Vonn, Burton Snowboards Global Team Rider and US Olympic Gold Medalist Red Gerard and Global Team Rider Ben Ferguson.
SNOW Operating’s owner, Joe Hession said the indoor ski facility continues his mission to get more people sliding on snow.
“I truly believe that sliding on snow … as a lifestyle and culture is a life-changing thing,” he said. “And it’s super cool to invite people in to get to do it here.”
Building the indoor slopes presented unique challenges, he said.
“There’s some people here who have never skied before, so we have to give them an experience that’s absolutely amazing with instructors. At the same time we have the best Olympic athletes are gonna hit the terrain park so we had to build a park for them,” he said. “It’s getting the right mix at the right time of the right features for everybody.”
Most of the invited guests who took to the slopes after a short ceremony used the Switchback and Northern Lights trails and the terrain park between the two trails.
The moment @lindseyvonn was the first to hit the slopes at BIG SNOW @americandream — @News12NJ 🎿 #lindseyvonn pic.twitter.com/I40GbaDou4
— Alex Butler (@AlexButlertv) December 5, 2019
