March 13, 2008

Ski in Asheville 365 days a year!?

Half way between Asheville, NC and the Great Smoky Mountains, the Canton Wintersports Center will be a 365 days a year upscale and luxury golf and indoor winter sports resort.
-Canton Wintersports Center, LLC

The resort will be the first of its kind in the US, though many indoor ski resorts exist elsewhere in the world, particularly in Europe. It is also expected to be the largest in the world. According to a September 2007 press release, the sports center will have "5 slopes ranging between 750 feet up to 3,600 feet on actual mountain slopes with just over 80 acres under roof. Skills range from a beginner slope to an extreme slope with a 900 feet total drop over the 3100 feet total run. With a total of 6 inside triple lifts that can move up to 16,000 people per hour, there won’t be long wait lines."

According to the same press release, in its final stage of completion, the resort will have:
-several condo communities
-an executive 9-hole golf course
-seven hotels
-60 restaurants
-over 1,200,000 square feet of retail shops
-a waterway system, including a lake
-winter sports stadium with special snowboarding and skiing features
-an ice climbing wall, to be the largest artificial wall in the world
-a submarine tunnel connecting all tourist attractions

The FAQs on the resort's Web site promise sustainable energy sources and the creation of over 6,000 jobs, among other things.

See photos here.
Read more news here.
Read the press release here.

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