Sunday, May 29, 2016

Bruxelles Ski de Plastique


Brussels has run out. They do not have enough for themselves, let alone for Greece. The Eurocrisis is getting worse. We're out of snow.

Well, there's really no snow in Brusseles, but fortunately they have come up with ways to deal with this difficult situation. Some years ago I found indoor ski slopes from Peer and Comines villages.

I am proud of my ability to find potential ski places. But I was blissfully unaware of a great slope not too far from the centre of Brussels. My friend and avid skier Catharina (CC) moved to Brussels some time ago, and found Yeti Ski. Interestingly, none of the locals that I asked about this had ever heard of the place. Yeti Ski resides in Anderlecht, near other sports venues and ten kilometres from the centre.

A networking conference took me to Brussels for a couple of days in April. This allowed us to go explore this plastic hill on one of the evenings, after the conference.

The hill is kept wet by sprinklers placed every few meters across the whole slope. Skiing wet plastic is surprisingly challenging. Both of us were recovering, I was trying to heal my broken ribs and CC was dealing with a flu. We skied only a couple of runs, but it was clear that practicing on this hill would improve anyone's skiing skills.

One difference to real snow is that it is much more difficult for your skis to get a grip on the plastic. Braking and turning needs to be done much more aggressively.

I can recommend a visit here, if you are in Brussels! You should take some protective clothing with you, i.e., long pants, long sleeves, and gloves. Falling on the plastic can hurt you otherwise.






Photos and videos (c) 2016 by Jari Arkko. This blog is also available at TGR. Tämä blogi löytyy myös suomeksi Relaasta.

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