Skiing in Edinburgh !
Scotland isn?t surely known for its ski resorts and skiers. Even if you would expect it to have a lot of high mountains due to its geographical position, this unfortunately isn?t true. Scotland has just three wee resorts that have several problems, they are far away from Edinburgh/Glasgow (2,5 ? 3 hours) and they are open for a very limited amount of time (4 months) and subject to strange conditions (rain, fog etc.).
For this reason the local council (Midlothian) decided to develop this sport in a different way. Artificial ski slopes ?.. : what you need is a slope (possibly with grass , no stones) then you have to install a couple of chairlifts and last but not least cover the grass with an artificial plastic layer that allows skies to slide(see photo). In order to make it more convenient for the inhabitants of Edinburgh this resort has been placed, just outside the bypass (10 min from city centre)
Last weekend the Midlothian Ski Centre had its open day, so me and Manu decided to have a try. In the beginning I was pretty sceptical about the all think ?Ski on plastic !!? but the day was perfect, sun and no wind and get to the centre is just a 15min ride by bus. So there we went, with 8 quid I hired boots and ski + the use of the lifts for three hours. The place is nice, there are two main slopes, one that starts from the very top of the hill quite narrow and challenging and another, wider and flatter. Additionally there are two nursery slope (for the beginners? classes) one ramp for jumping and plenty of café ˇnd space for children.
Skiing on plastic in not like skiing on snow! The main drawback is that at a certain speed the skies pulls you back, limiting your speed and stability. There is also to say that when the sprinkles were working the surface was smoother and more enjoyable, but sometime they were switched off. On the positive site, this resort is very close, cheap and is the best place to start for beginners that are planning a ski holiday (with snow!). Additionally it was a very useful experience for me too, category : rusty skier, simply because the muscles involved and the physical exercise is just the same as skiing on snow.
