2024 marks the 50th year of skiing in Kidsgrove, Staffordshire. The North Staffs Ski Club, originally boasting just 27 Members was formed on 3rd June 1974 shortly after the local council opened the ski lodge.
Within three years the club race team won the West Midlands Regional Trophy in the ‘Sport for All’ series of events but by March, 1979, less than five years after opening, the club was thrown into crisis by the Council’s decision to close the slope because the matting was badly worn.
The ski club continued without a home slope with dedicated members organising regular coach trips to another dry ski centre at Telford. Then during the summer of 1980, dedicated members of the ski club spent many hours salvaging the good ski matting to piece together a small beginner’s slope, reopening two years after the closure, in March 1981.
From then onwards the club grew and grants and various donations helped towards the purchase of the Dendix matting and equipment, enabling the club to extend the slope each season and by 1984 the Telford ski trips ended. Finally, in 1987 the matting reached the steepened top of the slope to create an 83 metre run and a home-made ski lift became operational in March 1988 (with a lot of TLC it lasted more than 25 years).
The club’s activities were not limited to the dry slope as it employed a portable lift to operate on nearby hillsides when there was adequate winter snowfalls locally.
The slope was redesigned in the early 2000s with the help of Mike Keating of MK Enterprises to fulfil a vision from its senior instructors to make it better suited to teaching whilst still providing a challenge for more advanced skiers. The new slope, complete with a teaching area that and a consistent gradient from top to bottom reopened in November 2004, with a safer Playgrass surface and a full misting system.
In 2011 the Club applied for extra land from the council and effectively doubled the size of the slope adding a snowpark with jumps and rails for freestyle skiers and a variety of terrain for those who do not wish to be so adventurous but would benefit from interesting features. The freestyle slope was opened in 2014 along with a new lift.
For most of its existence the club has been staffed by volunteer members who give up their time in order to operate the centre for the benefit of all other club members. All revenue generated by the club is used to further improve the slope, facilities, and equipment. The aim was, and still is to promote the sport of skiing and provide affordable skiing for all.
