Ah, the time is flying.
Yesterday was my Ski Dubai day. It is an amazing experience to ski/snowboard in the middle of the desert. I almost forgot that it was actually hot outside. The Ski Dubai slope is located in the Mall of the Emirates, which is a 40 dirham taxi ride from Allan’s apartment. (Can we say incentive to rent/buy a car??).
To ensure that I had the freedom to ski as long as I want, I bought a day pass and then signed up for Discovery snowboarding lessons (pre-beginner). With the day pass I was able to switch to snowboarding after a few hours of skiing. Now, the two-hour pass is 180AED. If you are a pretty good skiier, this is more than enough time. I skied for about 2.5 hours and made close to 30 – 40 runs. They claim to have 5 runs, but from what I could tell there were about three and short still, though challenging and long enough to work on form or race down the slope. Since I haven’t skied in a year or so, it was really nice to be back on the snow again and I like just practicing form and style more than racing down, so it was worth it to pay for the day pass at 300AED (or $30US more).
After about 90 minutes, I took a 45-minute lunch break at the Avanlanche Cafe where they serve a mean hot chocolate, though I skipped the whip cream, M&Ms and marshmallow topping.
It was time to switch to the snowboard after that. So, I did a couple of runs on the shorter slope, but got tired since my last ski run had me biting it hard and my leg got sore…. Once I finished the second run on the board, I took a wee break and then went to meet up for the lesson. The lesson was 160AED for an hour. There were 4 others in my group and we did basic moves to get down the training slope. It wasn’t so hard for me since I had boarded before, but it was good to remind myself of the basic skills required. If I were here a bit longer, I would go regularly and take the different lessons and I think I could actually board down the main slope after a couple more lessons. Still, it is hard, but I didn’t fall hard on the board, which is amazing!
I could have gone again to keep boarding, but by then I had been on the slope for 4 hours and my ankles were sore from the boots, so I called it a day. Financially, it probably would have been cheaper to just have done the 2-hour pass and lesson, but hey now I know and I did have the freedom to go back if I had been up for it. I am getting old as I felt very sore and unable to move much once I got home. Then, I was out for the count before 10pm!
Until next time,
-T
