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22,500 square metres of winter

Ski school consultant Otto Kamstra working with Ski Dubai in the united arab emirates

There's lots about the emirate of Dubai that makes westerners shake their heads. There's the Burj Khalifa, the tallest manmade structure in the world at 829 metres, or 2,723 feet — roughly the altitude of the Chic Pea from the base of Whistler Mountain. There's the "Palm Islands" created in the shape of palm trees — the world's largest man-made island where wealthy foreign bankers build their estates. There's the worlds' largest dolphin pond, the world's largest shopping mall, the world's toughest F1 tracks, one of the world's biggest waterparks, the world's highest tennis court on a helipad near the top of the Burj Dubai (it's mostly a helicopter landing pad), one of the largest aquarium tanks in the world, the first and only skating rink in the Middle East — and the list goes on.

But for people living in Whistler, one of the main points of interest has to be Ski Dubai, the world's third-largest indoor ski slope with 22,500 square metres, or 242,188 square feet, of space. While there are other indoor ski hills in the world, none are so close to the equator, or are open for skiing when the outside temperature is over 40 degrees Celsius.

For Otto Kamstra, who was recently hired to provide a thorough assessment of the Ski Dubai facility and its ski school program — as well as a Level 1 instructor's course for its multinational crew of instructors — the experience was too good to pass up.

"One thing I learned about the Middle East is that they are very savvy business people, and they want to learn the best practices of any business they get into," he said.

The owner of Ski Dubai is also the owner of the Mall of the Emirates, a high-end mall with over 520 stores that used to be the second-largest mall in the world. It caters mainly to high-end brands and every year 31 million people pass through its doors. Ski Dubai is an attraction for the mall and draws in millions of curious visitors, from sightseers to school groups to skiers working on their techniques before heading to Europe or elsewhere.

Kamstra, recently returned form Dubai, said his role is to ensure that customer service and ski school staff are as professional as they can be, while setting up the business systems to help everything run smoothly. Right away he was impressed.

"There are a lot of things that they do very well," he said, starting with a level of customer service that is higher than almost anywhere he's ever visited. They are also fanatical about learning the business.

"One thing they really want is for someone to teach them how to teach," he said. "It's not necessarily about knowing how to ride or ski. For example, they're looking for a lot of knowledge about teaching kids because they understand that's the key to building long-term skiers.

And while it's not the biggest slope in the world, he says the facility is very good at what it does.

Who's using it?

"Primarily it's a mix of locals that live there and work there (in Dubai) who come in to look around. Some of them may be interested in preparing themselves for a ski vacation elsewhere — typically Europe, but a lot of skiers will go to Lebanon or Iran, which have some pretty good mountains," he said.

"That was one of the interesting things for me, their relationship with Iran is not what we see in North America. For them, going to Iran to ski is like us going the U.S. — it's a good place to go for a vacation, the price is right and there's some great skiing."

Another user group is ex-pats — mainly from Britain — that are in Dubai working in their growing financial services industry or in other roles within the emirate. They are regular skiers, and use Ski Dubai periodically to keep their skills sharp for ski vacations elsewhere.

In addition, there's a tube/zorb park for kids, a rental shop where you can get equipment and ski clothes, a learning area with different pitches of slope for skiers and snowboarders, sightseeing for curious visitors to the mall, food and drink service, ski school programs and more. They've even created a small terrain park to capture youth, and once a week host freeride events where they make the jumps a little bigger and bring in an old car for the skiers and riders to jib.

"There are a lot of kids interested in that kind of experience, and they really look the part with the pants and goggles and helmets," said Kamstra. "They even built a halfpipe in there once. They'll try anything."

With the oil running out for Dubai and the United Arab Emirates, there's been a real focus to diversify the economy. Currently oil is about seven per cent of the Gross Domestic Product, said Kamstra, while trade is around 30 per cent. Tourism and the financial sector contribute about 20 per cent each to the economy.

In terms of tourism, Dubai was the seventh-most visited city in the world in 2010 with 7.6 million tourists per year, and expectations that will double by 2015.

The Slope

"It's 200 vertical feet with a dogleg left when you're looking uphill," said Kamstra. "It's about 150 metres to the dogleg, and another 150 metres to the top. It's about two-thirds the height of the magic chair."

They have two Piston Bullies to groom the snow, a chairlift with a mid-station and a POMA lift along the side that is the fastest way to the top.

The Snow

"It's actually quite good and firm," said Kamstra. "What they do in the daytime is let the temperature go up to minus three or minus four, and at night they'll drop it to minus eight or minus 10. They'll use spray guns to make a skiff of snow on the upper half and use the cats to spread it around a bit. The base is around 50 cm." The snow warms up a little towards the end of the day, creating pockets of corn snow at the bottom, which they'll push out and replace with better snow that evening. The result? "A good quality, consistent snow surface. They really work hard to get it just right."

Compared to the outside world, Ski Dubai is one of the coolest places to be in the city. When Kamstra was in town from Oct. 1 to Oct. 15, the nighttime temperature was 28C, and during the day the warmest temperature was 38C.

The Instructors

Most workers in Dubai are from other countries, and the mix of ski school staff includes nationals from Pakistan, India, Nepal, Morocoo, the Phillipines and other places in Africa and the Middle East.

In Dubai, there is no part-time work allowed and all instructors are paid for 40 hours a week. Their pay scale depends on their level of certification, which is one reason many were so eager to take Kamstra's Level 1 course.

It's a good job by many standards, but it's not all about the money.

"They love it," said Kamstra. "For them it's a way of life that pays well — not a huge amount of money, but far more than many could hope to earn in the third-world countries they come from.

"It's a good job, it's a fun job, and they're good people. They have a passion for skiing, but also a passion that this is going to make a better life for them and their families."

Female instructors

Three members of the ski school team are women, and women also work in other parts of the operation — including women from the emirate. While conservative by western standards, Dubai is liberal for the Middle East and men and women there are not required to wear any kind of religious garb. One member of the staff does wear the black Abaya, but it was a choice she herself made when she turned 13 and she wears a ski uniform like everyone else when she skis. Walking the streets you can see everything from women covering their faces and being escorted by male relatives to women wearing the latest western fashions.

"I know in Saudi that women can't drive, they can't leave the house without an escort and that's the view I think a lot of people have of the Middle East," said Kamstra. "But in Dubai, women can walk alone down the street, they can drive, they can wear whatever and feel totally comfortably and safe."

As for the women he saw wearing Abaya's, he said it is a different experience when you see them in person. "Usually you just see a woman in a black dress and it's very degrading and oppressive, but when you get up close you can see that there's more to it — the materials are very expensive, there's a lot of nice stitching and embroidery, and accessories. It very much seems like more of a cultural thing for some than a religious thing."

Will Ski Dubai bring skiers to Whistler? Do they follow the ski world?"There's definitely not an obsession with it like we have in Whistler, and Whistler is not on their radar screens all that much — they know of it, and all of the instructors in ski school know of it, but we're a long way away and there's a big cost," said Kamstra. "From Dubai, it's five or six hours to get to the top resorts in Europe, their currency goes further in Lebanon and Iran. There are places to go on ski vacations around there. Even Morrocco, which most people think of as a desert country, has a few 4,000 metre peaks and a couple of big ski resorts.