The biggest indoor snow centre to open in Europe for at least 15 years is set to open on January 15th.
SNØ (which probably doesn't need translating…) has been five years in planning and construction and will be among the six biggest in the world and four biggest in Europe at 505 metres long and 100 metres wide at its widest point. The height difference of 90 metres will also be one of the biggest indoors yet.
More than 100 indoor snow centres have now been built on six continents around the world, but since the turn of the century most of the bigger facilities have been built in Asia.
The new centre has been built on to a hillside at Lørenskog 20 kilometres to the east of the centre of Oslo. The complex rises over six storeys and houses a snow-covered area of 36,000 square metres.
It also features a number of world firsts including more than a kilometre of five-metre wide cross country ski tracks, suspended from the roof at the lower end of the downhill slope.
Downhill skiers and boarders certainly won't miss out though, the slope is equipped with three ski lifts, including a high speed quad, with a combined capacity of 5,000 skiers and hour.
There is also an indoor terrain park as part of the massive indoor snow space. The park features rails, hops and as the building design took in to account the fact that some skiers and boarders like to get airborne, there's even a big jump.
The centre is of course the second iconic snowsports centre to open in Scandinavia in the past few months following the appearance of Copenhill, the year-round dry-slope down a waste-to-heat renewable energy power plant that finally opened in the autumn in Copenhagen.
The entrepreneurs and visionaries behind SNØ don't see the centre as just a leisure and training. They envisage the surrounding community becoming a world-leading centre for snowsports innovation. snooslo.no