A Melbourne, Australia, startup thinks it has found a cheaper way to build indoor skiing, and more than 300 investors have already committed over AUD 1.3 million (USD 775,000) to find out if it’s right. The funding round for Snowtunnel remains open for another nine hours on June 11, with the company raising capital to build the first real-world version of its rotating indoor ski system in Melbourne’s western suburbs.
If successful, Snowtunnel could help solve one of skiing’s biggest problems: attracting a new generation of participants. Unless you are one of the lucky few who live in the mountains, skiing and snowboarding require long drives, expensive equipment, and increasingly costly lift tickets. Millennials and Generation Alpha are entering the sport at lower rates than previous generations, raising concerns about skiing’s long-term future. Industry experts, such as Laurent Vanat, author of the International Report on Snow & Mountain Tourism, believe that indoor ski centers are the way forward. But traditional indoor ski centers are enormous, expensive projects that require vast amounts of land, making them difficult to build close to major population centers.
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Vanat argues that if skiing wants to grow, it must become accessible in cities rather than relying solely on mountain resorts. China has become one of the fastest-growing ski markets in the world, with roughly half of all participants first learning indoors. Yet Australia — despite having millions of potential skiers living in Melbourne and Sydney — still has no indoor snow center. Bringing the snow experience to the people is the way forward, Vanat believes, “If you expect people will just come to the mountains to learn, you need to make them learn skiing in the cities,” he said. “You need simulators, dry slopes, revolving carpet facilities. Something accessible to young, urban people who were not brought to the mountains by their parents.”
During a visit to the company’s Melbourne headquarters on June 5, I observed early-stage demonstrations of the technology and spoke with CEO Scott Kessler, COO Daniel Portelli, and lead engineer Sam Lodge about the project.
I’ll admit it: at first glance, the concept sounds ridiculous. A rotating indoor ski slope covered with real snow that continuously cycles beneath riders sounds more like a dangerous human washing machine than an enjoyable ski experience. But while no indoor facility can replicate a mountain, the demonstration was far more convincing than I had expected. Inside a freezer container next to the meeting room, a small-scale working model slowly rotated beneath a layer of real snow. The snow felt exactly as snow should — chalky, grippy, and instantly familiar. The underlying surface was covered in a synthetic bristle structure designed to hold the snow in place as the system rotates. “We knew it had to be real snow,” Kessler admits. Earlier versions had experimented with an ice surface but he admits it did not come close to the real experience — and Kessler, a former mogul skier, would know.
I watched the wheel turn and marveled as the snow remained firmly attached to the surface and was groomed on every rotation, producing miniature strips of corduroy. “Does it ever fall?” I enquired, envisioning people knocked out cold by lumps of snow. But Kessler assures me that while some snow may fall, it would never be chunks and excess snow is captured above the skier and fed back to the grooming system which compacts it back onto the rotating surface. I poke and prod the snow to test, but it sits firmly on the plastic bristles. The plastic bristle surface in itself would be sufficient to ski or snowboard on, as Lodge is keen to demonstrate on another station inside their headquarters. It is like an insurance that even if the impossible happened, there is a functioning surface for users.
Outside the demonstration unit, the scale of the planned Melbourne installation was sketched directly onto the factory wall. The dimensions immediately put the project into perspective. At 12.6 meters (41 feet) in diameter, only a quarter of the proposed tunnel fit across the wall. On a small mini-model inside the meeting room Kessler demonstrated what happened if a rider falls. The wheel spins and the rider simply stays on the bottom of the rotating wheel — away from other users higher up on the curvature of the tunnel. No human skittles like I had envisioned. Suddenly it all makes a lot more sense and I for one cannot wait to test the full-scale model when it is complete — it genuinely looks like a fun experience.
The Melbourne facility will not be a full indoor ski center but rather a proof-of-concept designed to validate the engineering, snowmaking, and operational systems before broader commercial expansion. Construction is expected to be completed by December 2026, with testing to follow and a public opening targeted for 2027. Whether Snowtunnel ultimately becomes a global indoor skiing platform remains to be seen. But after seeing the prototype in action, one thing became clear: this is far more than a sketch on a whiteboard. For the first time, Australia’s long-discussed indoor skiing dream looks genuinely achievable.
