Indoor skiing

The first recorded indoor “snow” slope was created at Berlin’s Automobilhalle in April 1927[1] gaining worldwide attention.

[2] The "snow" substitute used was invented and later patented[3] by a British diplomat, L. C. Ayscough, and involved a mixture of powdered mica, soda crystals and sawdust spread on a brush matting surface.

[citation needed] A second indoor centre using "Ayscough snow", planned to be a more permanent facility, opened in Austria in November 1927.

[7] The second attempt at indoor snow centres came three decades later with the first centre that used real snow or crushed ice which was transported inside to a slope covered by a roof and open to urban skiers during cold months of the year in the city of Sayama, Japan.

[7] This centre opened in 1959 and continues to operate, although now with on-site snowmaking rather than bringing in snow by lorry.

Thirdly came the first generation of refrigerated indoor centres which used either a chemical mixture to simulate snow or scraped ice.

These were Mt Thebarton in Adelaide, Australia, Casablanca in Belgium,[8] and Ski in Tsudanuma in Japan.

[11] Most offer skiing and snowboarding but some, primarily in sub-tropical areas in southeast Asia that do not normally see natural snowfall, exist as snow experience centres offering activities like sledging, snowman building and snowball fights.