ARROYOMOLINOS (AFP) – They take off their flip flops and put on ski suits and gloves. Outside this Madrid mall, it’s scorching, but at Snozone, customers are happy to ignore the heat – and environmental issues.
An icy breeze in the lobby and a polar bear at the entrance plunge these summer visitors into another world at the Xanadu shopping centre 20 kilometres south of Madrid.
Opened in 2003, Snozone has a 250-metre long ski slope covered in artificial snow, open 365 days a year.
Outside it is 34 degrees Celsius (Co), but inside it is -3Co, and between a chairlift and a ski drag, about 30 skiers race down the slope watched by spectators.
Two hours of skiing costs about EUR40 (USD44).
Members of the Carcassonne ski club in southern France have been coming here for seven years, said instructor at Les Angles ski resort in the eastern Pyrenees Thomas Barataud.
“We used to ski on the glaciers, but the climate has complicated that. Here you’ve got hard snow and cold weather, so the kids can keep skiing, which is good,” he said.
About 10 students who compete in skiing events are spending a week here doing slaloms on the section reserved for clubs, which has a hard and more technical surface.
“It’s not very environmentally friendly,” admitted Barataud, 43.
“But it’s what we’re looking for. We make do with what we have and this is a good alternative. When we leave at 4pm, it’s a bit weird, because we are wearing shorts and flip flops,” he chuckled.
Student Cyrila Pena talks about the “heat shock when the sun beats down on you”.
The 18-year-old said being here is “fantastic”, but added that some of her friends are surprised, asking her, “Aren’t you embarrassed to be skiing indoors? If older generations had looked after the environment, we could have skied on the glaciers,” she retorted.
Every year, 200,000 people come here – on a good day, they can have 1,800 customers.
On the ramp, snowboarder Izan Romano tries a trick. This 20-year-old bricklayer has a EUR600 annual pass and comes four or five times a week. “Summer, winter, it’s all the same – there is always snow. It is my escape, I forget what is outside,” said Romano, who lives in Madrid. “I came today because I was dying of heat at home. Some go to the pool, I take the car and drive to the snow.”
And what about the environment? “What are you talking about? It doesn’t bear
thinking about.”
