Patrick Thorne The Snow Hunter

Dry Ski Slopes

Patrick first learned to ski on a dry slope in Nottinghamshire in the mid-1970s. That experience was a major contributor to his life long love of snow sports and his career as a ski travel writer.

Dry ski slopes allow people who don’t live near snow and don’t want to invest large sums on a ski holiday without knowing whether they’ll enjoy it or not to give skiing a try, very affordably. Those who can ski can keep practicing year round, often locally, again very affordably.

Patrick has written about dry ski slopes for years. There are over 500 centres around the world, with different types of surface and operating in different ways – for example besides fixed slopes, there are hundreds of indoor conveyor machines located all over the world.

Patrick established DrySlopeNews.com in 2018 which lists most of the world’s slopes and also records the many slopes that have come and gone over the years including the different types of slope material, the largest slopes and the different types of dry skiing. The site also carries news of new projects with a newsletter every few months. It won the Cyber Award from The International Skiing History Association in 2020.