Just about an hour south of Charlottesville sits Lynchburg, Virginia, home to 20,000 evangelical students and now, a YEAR ROUND SNOWLESS SKI SLOPE.
I am not making this up. Part of Liberty University’s 5,000 acre mountain range will morph into a God-less creation of fake snow. That’s right, the Liberty Mountain Snowflex Center will be a year-round ski center. It uses a synthetic material which is supposedly a lot like snow. Invented in 1993 by Brian Thomas of Briton Engineering, Snowflex originated in the UK and has been installed in several facilities throughout Europe.
Liberty doesn’t have co-ed dorms and it’s a dry campus, but now, it does have an artificial year-round ski slope. I’ll be egging my kids to apply for early admission. Liberty officials expect the slope to be completed in early 2009.
Here is a video of Snowflex technology:
Popularity: 37% [?]
Tagged as: evangelical, liberty, ski, snowboard, snowflex, university, Virginia
This seems pretty similar to the indoor ski slope they have in Dubai. Will it be open to the public?
You got keep them occupied when they can’t drink, do drugs, or get busy!
Will it be right beside the giant LU monstrosity they already have on the mountain? I am pretty sure Jesus loves nature more than potentially cancer-causing false snow…
Very cool! And if you fall, fall well.
/and in a manner consistent with the teachings of Leviticus.
Dubai is machine made snow and is indoors. This stuff will be like articial turf. I hope Lynchburg has a good, well staffed, local burn center.
I can’t wait to see B’Yo’s photoshopping of this whole thing.
this is the stem cell research of the winter sports industry. i’m going to go get an abortion.
7: it’s not those kind of stems, parlie, but you still shouldn’t smoke ‘em.
“Monster jumps, killer quarter pipes, slick rails and a high-speed tube chute are just some of the highlights…”
Whoa, that’s like totally awesome, rad, and mondo all at the same time. These Liberty University marketers really know how to make evangelicalism sound totally young and hip!!!
/sensing a lot of jealousy hostility from my left-wing, smelly hippy brethren.
Personally, I’m holding out for Liberty’s ice-less ice-skating rink.
/Jesus saves; Gretsky scores
Cool. Maybe they’ll be too busy skiing to go hang around the River Ridge mall and tell First-year Lynchburg College, Sweetbriar, and Randolph college students that they’re going to hell.
I heard they are making ice-less, alcohol free vodka luges, too
Sermon on the mogul?
As a graduate of Liberty University, I would just like to say that I am offended by none of these comments. But I guess it’s still early, and maybe my hopes were a little too high.
careful what you wish for….
can’t we push ourselves into an induced state of mental inebriation with cold weather? who needs beer?
don’t forget adrenaline!
@14: I really was accosted by LU students at the mall one time.That said, I am wary of current and alumni of LU. Except for the Pamer boys. They’re just adorable.
@14 How would you know what “a little too high” was, being a LU grad and all.
@18: Oh I don’t doubt that at all, and I’m wary of most of them myself.
@19: Nice, I knew someone would make that connection.
I put Liberty University just one step below Hampden-Sydney as the WORST place in Virginia to go to college. The only reason LU doesn’t top the list is that they have girls (ugly and celibate, albeit). Of course, I am only referring to sex, drugs, rock & roll, and other fun reasons that people go to college. If we are talking academics, then Radford has got to take the cake as the shittiest college to attend in Virginia.
@21 LU isn’t a bad college.
It’s clearly better than Ferrum College, Longwood University, Virginia Intermont College, Eastern Mennonite University, Roanoke College, and Shenandoah University. That’s just off the top of my head. There are many more that LU is on par with.
@21 regardless, still a bunch of shitty places to go to college. to each his own for sure, and no offense to alumni of those aforementioned places, but I never understood not going to one of the Big Three (I might consider throwing Mason in there and making it the Big Four, but that’s still pretty much a commuter school). Now if you are going out-of-state, then all bets are off.
should be @22
Odie, really, you just put JMU on par with VT and UVA? I don’t think so.
Top three would depend on subject, no? I would put W&M as 3rd in the top 3.
@25: William & Mary?
I kinda thought William and Mary rounded out the big three. At least academically.
what Lulu said
Are we referring to party schools, academic institutions, or all around best?
Wow my bad, how the hell did I forget W&M? I guess I’m not representing JMU’s academic standing too well anymore.
But echo, JMU is just as exclusive as VT. That is a fact.
What kind of exclusive? I always thought UVA was the exclusive school. VT is pretty inclusive. We like everyone.
Here’s my academic exclusivity list:
1. UVA
2. W&M
3. JMU
4. VT
5. Mason
I know, the positions of 3 & 4 are debatable. I have obvious bias. Echo, I was referring to how hard it is to get in, not the school climate.
Someone in the restaurant biz that we all know and love went to LU and turned out just fine. Even the better for it, imo.
@23 Not sure if you’ve been up that way, but GMU built a ton of on-campus housing in the past few years. I’m sure they still have a lot of commuters, but it seems to be an image they are trying to get away from.
/mason 96-98
//mason 00-02
///mason 03-04
@33: Interesting. I obviously disagree, but I will research it.
I think that the freshy pow pow and cherry slopes may look a little something like this.
/Then Taylor and Ashlee went up to God, and the Lord called to them from the mountain and said, “This is what you are to do after linear algebra 205, go to the summit of the peak and dress thine body entirely in North Face. And, as you yourselves have seen what I did in the Nagano Olympics, I want you to thrash the slopes as if you were on eagles’ wings.
Does it go against God to make artificial nature? Hey LU, *whisper* conflict of interests*whisper*
@33: I found two pages. JMU and VT
Not really comparing apples to apples but it gives a good idea. For some reason, JMU doesn’t list average GPA of the incoming freshman class.
Mid-50% SAT score for VT: 1150-1320
Mid-50% SAT score JMU: 1080-1240
VT offered acceptance to 64% their applicants
JMU offered acceptance to 62.6% their applicants
Obviously you *can* bring the mountain to Mohammed.
God is my snow-pilot?
@39 So JMU lets less of our applicants in, but VT requires higher test scores. Sounds like a tie to me. Let’s be real though, the Engineering school at VT totally throws those math scores out of whack. Our writing and critical reading scores are essentially the same. I used this College Board site to compare them and found similar results to yours.
Well if exclusivity is a valid statistic to measure the quality of a school, I’ll go ahead and throw out that LU only accepts 27% of applicants.
But I believe we’re losing sight of the point of this article.
molar bear, that is false. According to the College Board site I linked to above, Liberty University accepts 94% of its applicants. sounds…tough to get in.
I thought this was the “fake snow” that has been made elsewhere, but it’s really like a carpet that you can ski on. So I figured that would be fine. But then did you see how much water it takes to use even the ski-carpet?
“A 7500sqm slope will typically use 200 litres of water per minute. In dry, windy conditions 70% of the water used can typically be re-cycled.”
So even at half that size, factoring in the recycling, it’s going to use (and not recycle) about 30 litres of water a minute. 1800 litres an hour. If it’s going 24/7, that’s 302,400 litres a week (just under 80,000 gallons a week). Does that seem like a lot of water to anyone else?
@44 b-b-but I read it on the internet. The internet doesn’t lie does it?
@43 is that a picture of jesus on acid?
@42: As long as the engineering school continues to be highly ranked and my department stays in the top 10 nationally, you can say whatever you want about the rest of the school’s academics.
@45 Slip-n-Slides™ are cheaper, use less water, and are fun for the whole family. What’s more fun, a carpet you can ski on or a piece of plastic you can drunk-fall down and not get (that) hurt?
@46 dammit, I hate when the Internet contradicts itself.
I heard they’re going to use greywater.
@48 that’s awesome! too bad VT is a total sausage fest.
@48 that’s Grad school and I think we are talk about undergraduate here
@53: Nice catch. Hmm…I swear our undergrad department is ranked pretty highly as well.
I heard they’re going to use greywater.
I hope they do. Otherwise they’ll be turning water into whine.
/from me
Come the rapture, when we shuffle off this mortal coil, your worldly degrees will be as worthless as sand.
/wahoowa, motherfucker
@55
Yeah, that info is fully reputable per the completely unsubstantiated source in my head.
/maybe the resulting chemical burns could be chalked up to Stigmata?
@45: That number may seem high, and for a solely recreational use, I guess it could be viewed as wasteful, but compared to how much water some businesses, even some local ones, use that is a drop in the bucket.
That is a lot of water. For fake skiing. Just proof that Christians hate the earth.
@56 It’s already here.
/just ask my MFA
@42 and @48 rankings are all well and good, except if those schools don’t have the program you’re intersted in and other “lesser” schools do.
As an adult, i see how important it is for people socially and as an important “labeling” or “marketing tool” the rankings and exclusivity are, but for someone who has been in the real world, you leave virginia and people don’t give a shit about UVA. They care about their own selective state school. Now if youre talking Ivy League etc then people are universally impressed, but I think more people have caught on that not every one who goes to those exclusive schools is actually smart, just rich and have good connections.
From a management perspective, schools and degrees don’t mean shit.
not every one who goes to those exclusive schools is actually smart, just rich and have good connections
“Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple.”
—Barry Switzer
Sorry Rose but what do you have against UVA? In another thread you called UVA students “UVA brats” and now you say people don’t give a shit about UVA…
@61 while I agree with most of what you say. UVa is very well thought of most of the county, esp. the Northeast. Some even find it better than some lower tier Ivy schools. I’ve been told after you get past Harvard, Yale, and Princeton the drop is quite large. Brown, Cornell and Columbia are not viewed by many I’ve spoken to as a good value for what you get. Hell, UVa’s older than Cornell. Even on the west coast, UVa’s well thought off but on par with many other eastern schools like U Penn, Vandy, UNC, and Duke.
@61 I concur with Dieter. UVA has a great reputation that attracts students not only from across the country, but across the globe. I think it’s kind of foolish to say that “no one gives a shit about UVA outside of Virginia.” Ask someone who got into UVA from out-of-state (nearly impossible from what I hear) if they agree with that statement.
Blah blah blah all your colleges suck. So LU apparently gets to be on the Discovery Channel for this “historic event”….
sigh…the things people think are exciting when they’re not getting laid/drunk…
@63 I think her point was that, in the real world, the vast majority of employers don’t care about what college you went to.
Chad, you’re ruining our sense of superiority.
@66 don’t be hatin’ cause you’re not gettin’ dogged tonight
More like 5 (up and back)
Nope: two, roundtrip. Shen was going to borrow Thor’s supersonic chariot (IYKWIM, AITYD), but it’s in the shop after hitting all those manholes on Ridge St. yesterday.
Sheeeit, I could get dogged tonight if I really wanted.
Snoop Dogged?
Yeah, but I don’t wanna drive two hours.
More like 5 (up and back)
How did 70 end up prior to 74? WAS I COMMENTING FROM THE FUTURE?!?!?!
@66 you got it all wrong ya’ll, the LU students party the most in Lynchburg, they are getting laid and drunkie all the time. They just lie about it.
Shhhh.
@75.. god’s wrath?
@75 you propose distorting time and then it happens. Don’t mess with Thor’s chariot- you have been warned!
79: Science friction up in this jam. Watch out for the sparks!
Are comments still open for this article?
OK, cool (I’m an old fart), dam its been fun reading all the comments. I came across this site when searching for information on SNOWFLEX. I am interrested in the “infrastructure” investments required for an installation such as that proposed by Jr. LuLu gave interesting figures on water usage.
Maybe there are some engineering students, architects and just plain smart people on here who can give more information about the PUBLIC investment needed to install and support it. Also, what about environmental impact? Water runoff? I know from having grown up not too far from Chandler’s Mountain that flooding problems go way back in that area. I’m serious about wanting to hear from you.
On a lighter side, would it make more sense for LU to set up an AG Farm, raise swine and pump pig shit up on the mountain? If that’s too low life, maybe pump some of that conservation Christian shit up there. I hear its pretty slick.
About which schools are better: I went to school in Lynchburg. Except for the weekends, spring break and the summers, I have been compensating for the lack of social life in Lynchburg ever since. Its a horrible place socially although I found the academic level superior to any other place in the country!