We all whizz down to the Alps or further afield each winter, but there are ski areas much closer to home, in Belgium in fact. For many Brits living in southern England, that’s even closer than Scotland.
In Belgium there is in fact a very similar selection of ski areas to England – indoor snow centres, dry slopes and half-a-dozen small ‘real’ ski hills. They’re all easy to reach by ferry and road or by jumping on the Eurostar then taking a local connecting train.
Belgium’s real ski areas are located in the Ardenne region down in the south of the country – the verticals aren’t big and the peaks are actually half those of Scotland – mostly nearer the 500–600m mark, but when the snow is good it’s great to be able to say you’ve skied Belgium.
Timing is likely to be everything, as – again like Britain – weather conditions can be problematic and quite often Belgian ski areas may only be open a total of 20 days each season.
Mont des Brumes (montdesbrumes.be/en), located near the town of Francorchamps, is one of the larger centres – although still very small compared to a big resort in the Alps. The ski slopes sit between 350m and 530m in altitude, the longest run an 850m red. There’s also a 150m beginner slope you can continue on to for a full kilometre run. There’s also terrain with gradients as steep as 64% if you’re after a bit of a challenge.
Baraque de Fraiture (ski-baraquedefraiture.be) has some of the highest slopes in Belgium with runs up to 625m above sea level. It has three ski runs (350m, 700m and 1,000m long respectively), and has had a 60-day season recently.
A third choice is Ovifat (skialpin-ovifat.com) located in the east of the country near the highest peak in Belgium. There are three ski runs served by three drag lifts with something for all ability levels.
If you want to be certain of ticking off Belgium as a ski destination you need to head to one of the country’s three indoor snow centres.
Ice Mountain is Belgium’s largest indoor snow centre; the main run is 210m long (so a little longer than the UK’s longest) and 30m wide.
A new indoor snow centre is currently under construction on the site of one of Belgium’s longest established dry slopes, the optimistically named Aspen Ski. The new 12,000m2 indoor snow slope is scheduled to open in November.
