Dorset’s Best Rainy Day Out Is an Outdoor One
Dorset’s Best Rainy Day Out Is an Outdoor One
If you’ve booked anything outdoors in Dorset, you’ll know the ritual. You check the forecast on the Thursday, you see the little cloud with the rain coming out of it, and you start drafting the message that begins “shall we just leave it?”
Don’t send it.
Rain does not close our slope. It doesn’t even slow it down. If anything it does the opposite, and the reason why is quite satisfying once you know it.
We spray the slope with water on purpose.
Here’s the bit most people don’t know about modern dry slopes.
Our slope is surfaced with Proslope matting, and built into it is a misting system. Fine atomising nozzles, sitting flush with the surface, putting a light film of water across the mat while you ski. That is not a maintenance thing or a cleaning thing. It is there because water is what makes the surface work.
The mist hugely reduces the running resistance of the mats, which is the technical way of saying the slope gets faster and smoother. It also makes the ride noticeably more like snow. Dry matting is grippier and more draggy. Wet matting glides.
So when it rains, the sky is doing our job for us. The slope is wet, which is the condition it was designed around, and it runs beautifully.
Regulars know this. Ask anyone who skis here often what their favourite conditions are and a good number of them will say a light drizzle. It’s not bravado. The slope is genuinely quicker.
Why we can say this with more confidence than most.
Plenty of slopes will tell you their surface is good. We’re in a slightly unusual position, because we don’t just ski on Proslope. We own it.
Snowtrax acquired Proslope in 2018, after seven years of using our own slope as the test facility for it. We had been running the surface since 2011 and resurfaced the main slope with it in 2014. When we say we know how this matting behaves wet, dry, cold and warm, it’s because we’ve spent well over a decade testing it, and we now manufacture it for other slopes around the country.
That also means we have no reason to oversell it. If rain were a problem we’d have engineered the problem out years ago, or we’d tell you to come back another day.
We run whatever the weather.
Let’s put this as plainly as we can, because it’s the thing people most want to know and the thing they least expect to hear.
The slope goes ahead whatever the weather. Drizzle, showers, proper Dorset downpours, grey skies, cold snaps. We are not sitting here waiting for a nice day, and neither should you be. Book the session, come to the session, ski the session.
This is a real difference between us and most days out. Half the outdoor things you might book in Dorset genuinely are weather dependent, so people have learned to treat any outdoor booking as provisional. We’re not asking you to gamble. There’s no forecast-watching to do here.
The only thing weather really changes is what you put on before you leave the house.
So what do you actually wear?
This is the real question behind “does it run in the rain”, and the answer is less than people expect.
You do not need ski kit. You need clothes you don’t mind getting damp.
- A waterproof with a hood if you’ve got one. A decent raincoat is perfect. You’re not going to be standing still.
- Trousers rather than shorts, and long sleeves. This applies rain or shine, because the matting will scuff bare skin if you come down on it.
- Gloves. Recommended for our slopes and sold at reception.
- Closed-toe shoes you can change out of afterwards.
- A spare pair of socks in the car. The single most underrated piece of advice on this page.
Helmets are provided, and on Ringos they’re compulsory. You don’t need to bring anything technical.
Rain is actually our case for being on your list.
Here’s the thing we’d quite like Dorset to know.
Every “what to do when it’s raining near Bournemouth” list is the same six places. The aquarium, the soft play, the cinema, the shopping centre, the museum, the trampoline park. All good. All absolutely heaving by 11am on a wet Saturday in half term, because everyone read the same list.
Snowtrax gets left off those lists because we read as an outdoor activity, and people assume outdoors plus rain equals cancelled. That assumption costs families a genuinely good wet-weather day out.
Ringos is the clearest example. You climb into a giant inflatable ring and go down a dedicated tubing slope, over and over, using the travellator to get back to the top. It runs in 30 minute sessions, it’s open to anyone from age 5 to adult who’s over a metre tall, and it requires precisely no skill or experience. It runs rain or shine. Being slightly wet and slightly out of breath is arguably the correct state to be in while doing it.
If the weather is properly filthy, a Ringos session followed by lunch in the Alpine Pub is about as good as a wet Sunday in Dorset gets. Fireside seating, local Dorset beef in the burgers, a loaded hot chocolate, and a Kids Corner for the under fives. No need to book a table if it’s just your family.
Booking on a rainy day.
Sessions need booking in advance, online or on 01202 499155. We’re open seven days a week, and rainy days are often quieter than sunny ones, which means better availability at short notice. If you’ve woken up to grey skies and a house full of bored children, that works in your favour.
Worth saying plainly one more time: don’t cancel because of the forecast. There’s nothing to check and nothing to wait for. Put a coat on and come skiing.
When it rains at snowtrax FAQs.
No. The slope goes ahead whatever the weather, and the wet surface is actually faster and smoother than a dry one, because the Proslope matting is designed to be used with water. There’s no need to watch the forecast before your session.
For most people, yes. Our matting has a built-in misting system that sprays a fine film of water onto the surface while you ski, because water reduces the running resistance of the mat. Rain does the same job. The slope is quicker and the ride feels closer to snow.
It’s faster, not unpredictable. The matting is designed with variable-height bristles that give a gradual grip and release rather than an abrupt one, so the extra speed is smooth rather than surprising. Beginners are on gentle terrain with an instructor regardless of the weather.
Yes. Ringos runs rain or shine. Find out more about Ringos here: Ringos
A waterproof coat, long trousers, long sleeves, gloves and closed-toe shoes. You don’t need ski clothing. Bring a change of socks. Helmets are provided.
Snowtrax at Hurn, just outside Christchurch, is an option most rainy-day lists miss because people assume an outdoor slope closes in the wet. Skiing, snowboarding and Ringos all run in the rain, and there’s a pub on site for when you’ve had enough of being damp.
