Driving up to the Den Haag Snow Dome, you can see the “slope” extending above you in a giant ramp that reaches high above the flatness that is the Netherlands. Once inside the parking lot, you can’t help but notice the hilarious company vehicle adorned with a huge hump of fake snow on the roof. You know you have come to a place where people love skiing so much, that if they can’t come by it naturally, they create it from scratch.
Once inside, you easily forget that you just drove in from Amsterdam. No, now you are in Switzerland. A little fondue, why not, the restaurant does it up Swiss style. Get in a few runs in the climate controlled ski arena and then head to the Après ski bar.
While it’s not exactly powder underfoot, and it feels a little crunchy, the man made snow is easy to ski. It’s reminiscent of spring skiing conditions and it never gets icy.
Hordes of teens getting in some jumps and kids and adults alike learning how to ski before trying out the big mountains in neighbouring countries, skiing the ski dome is for most, a gateway hill to bigger and better mountains of the future.
For ski lovers however, an opportunity to get in some runs while hanging in the Netherlands or while in the middle of summer is never a bad thing. It’s impossible to not have a good time in this perfectly and literally crafted ski playground. A night out, 20 runs in about two hours, followed by a fondue dinner. What beats that?
