Industry News
A startup based in San Francisco has launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring an indoor ski center and fitness facility to the Bay Area.
The Kickstarter page describes Urban Snow as:
…an indoor ski and snowboard center and fitness facility coming to the Bay Area. We will make it possible for skiers and snowboarders to spend more time doing the sports they love. At Urban Snow you will be able to:
• Ski and ride affordably, close to where you live and work
• Take a clinic or a lesson to build new skills
• Spend time on the slopes or at the gym with friends and family
• Meet new skiers and riders
The center will be perfect for busy people who find it increasingly hard to get up to the mountains but love to ski and ride or want to introduce their kids to the sport. Or people who are interested in learning but don’t want to spend the time sitting in traffic and spend the money on a day pass.
On the technology they plan to offer this year-round skiing on, the page explains:
Our friends across the pond have been riding on and improving synthetic snow technology for more than forty years. When properly lubricated with water, the latest surfaces ride like natural snow they are completely safe for equipment. And unlike man-made snow-ice, they don’t require energy-intensive snowmaking and refrigeration equipment.
And to combat the fact that a small, manmade ski area could quickly become boring, Urban Snow has developed a patent-pending technology that enables them to quickly switch out the topography of the slope. So one week you might have a big roller on a run, the next week it might have two banks. Then maybe a cornice feature or even moguls. You can have new and exciting terrain on a regular basis to keep it interesting and challenging.
To read more, or back the campaign, check out their Kickstarter page.
