The snow is starting to fall now but in 2009 most people won't care about it anymore. Except maybe Al Gore. The Bearfire Resort will offer a year-round ski resort—complete with ski tracks, snowboard park, snowball caverns, ice rafts, climbing walls and bobsleds—in the middle of Texas, next to Bearfire Mountain. And the best part is not the stunning 250-foot tall, 35-acre artificial Glacier Peak mountain, but the fact that it all looks straight out from World of Warcraft.
The Bearfire Resort won't use artificial snow but a special synthetic material called Snowflex:
Snowflex is a polymer composite consisting of a monofilament fibre and impregnated carrier layer. This sits on top of a unique shock layer, giving a responsive and reactive feel. Manufactured in tile form, Snowflex forms an homogeneous surface that can be made into complex features and shapes.
Sounds good to me. According to the people behind it, this giganormous complex will be "environmentally friendly." How an artificial 650,000 square feet mountain could be environmentally friendly is yet to be seen. Until then, Brian will have to keep going to Tahoe for his snowboard fix and I'll have to keep going to the Montblanc for my jacuzzi and drinks. [Bearfire Resort via Gadling]
