Leading leisure attraction, Chill Factore, is this month celebrating its 10th anniversary with a spectacular ski down on its real snow slope, led by the nation’s favourite ski jump personality, Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards.
The longest real snow slope in the UK at 180m, Chill Factore has welcomed over 14 million visitors since opening in November 2007 and is home to the only Christmas Grotto on real snow in the country, which sees in excess of 20,000 visitors each year.
Since the destination opened in 2007, the piste basher which grooms the slopes at Chill Factore has travelled 4,071 miles – the distance from Manchester to the North Pole! In the last ten years, Chill Factore has taught over half a million lessons, sold 1.5 million lift passes and employed over 3,000 people. During that time, 36,400 tonnes of snow has fallen on the real snow slope at Chill Factore, an average of 10 tonnes every night!
Over the past decade, Chill Factore has welcomed an array of well-known faces, from snow sports stars and Team GB athletes to musicians and soap stars. Amongst those who have graced the slope at Chill Factore are Justin Bieber, Colleen Rooney, Ryan Giggs, the Hairy Bikers, Eddie The Eagle, Aimee Fuller, Dave Ryding, Ben Kilner, Katie Ormerod, James Woods and Katie Summerhayes.
But the real heroes; long standing employees who have worked for Chill Factore since day one and loyal guests who visited Chill Factore on it’s opening day, will join Eddie The Eagle to lead a spectacular ski down on 16th November. It will comprise of the snow crew, sponsored athletes and instructors from Chill Factore, followed by a birthday celebration.
Over the years, Chill Factore has achieved World Record breaking status, including achieving the longest chain of skiers in 2011, the greatest number of people to perform the same trick at a single venue in 2013 and the Greatest Distance Snowboarded Indoor in 24 hours by Richard Millington in 2014, who boarded a total of 46,200 metres – equivalent to skiing down the full height of Mount Everest over five times!
Chill Factore’s 10th year marks the greatest milestone for the destination to date, investing a significant £600,000 in the complete renovation of the Changing Village facilities, installing 900 tonnes of fresh snow on the 180m real snow slope at and offering a completely free calendar of events throughout the summer and half term.
Morwenna Angove, Chief Executive at Chill Factore, explains; “As we celebrate our 10th anniversary, we’d like to thank the wonderful employees and long-standing guests who have enjoyed the journey with us.
“We’re proud to have taught millions of people to ski and snowboard over the last ten years, helping develop the nation’s love of snow sports and making the sport fun and accessible to both beginners and experienced athletes. During our 10-year heritage, we’ve been passionate about nurturing the talent of aspiring young athletes, some of whom have gone on to represent the country.
“It’s our vision to be the leading visitor attraction in the north and we’ve already come a long way in achieving that. We enter our 10th year following a significant half a million-pound investment and are committed to continuing to deliver a fun filled, memorable day out for families across the UK.”
Amongst the most notable occasions in Chill Factore’s heritage was the launch of a Pets’ Grotto which saw visitors bringing their furry companions to meet Santa, the introduction of dog snowboarding lessons and two world’s firsts, a snow zorbing experience and indoor summit challenge corporate offering.
As well as world records and firsts, Chill Factore has been involved in the Sportivate programme with Sport England in which it delivered ski and snowboard lessons to 920 children over four years. It also hosted the inter-school games in Manchester, encouraging schools from across the region to compete against each other in snowsports and partnered with the Department of Education programme, Commando Joe’s, to help children realise their full potential.
Chill Factore has played host to important snowsports events including the British Indoor SlopeStyle Championship, the first ever FIS European indoor Mogul Championship and British Mogul Championship, the Anglo Welsh British Indoor, the GBR One and Two, as well as the English Ski and Boarder Cross Championship. The leisure destination has also hosted most of the GB Alpine Series, a number of Snowsports England events and held around 18 seeded competitions in the UK every year.
Chill Factore is the North of England Headquarters for Disability Snowsport UK (DSUK), a nationwide charity providing adaptive skiing for individuals with any disability. DSUK have delivered over 8,000 hours of lessons to disabled clients at Chill Factore over the last 10 years.
