Dubai may well be built on the riches and investment of oil but, just as certainly as that natural resource runs abundantly under the Emirate’s terrain, is the fact that a mantra of “bigger, better and first” runs through its people’s outlook. Naysayers may comment that this is nothing original – they could well have ripped that page straight from the American textbook – but no other place on earth delights so effortlessly in achieving the seemingly unachievable. Dubai would have made a much more convincing star of Adidas’ ‘Impossible is Nothing’ series of adverts than walking global brand and occasional footballing benchwarmer, Mr Posh Spice.

You would expect that – with summer temperatures regularly exceeding 40°C and that figure only falling to around 25°C during the ‘harsh’ winter months – opening a store selling warm winter clothing would be, as a business venture, about as lucrative as installing condom machines in Vatican City, however a truckload of waterproof jackets and salopettes flying off shop rails would prove you wrong.

You see, in this balmy land, they’ve even created a place where there’s a chill in the air – Ski Dubai. It should come as snow surprise (sorry, but if you hadn’t seen that pun coming and prepared yourself for it, then you’re really more to blame than I am!) that Ski Dubai is not just the Emirates’ first indoor ski slope but “the world’s first indoor mountain resort.” Admit it – from all you’ve heard so far about Dubai, you’d be disappointed if it wasn’t.

Located in the Mall of the Emirates, the massive 22,500 square metre ski centre (the size of three football pitches) is viewable through oversize glass panels from two levels within the mall and all four levels of the neighbouring Kempinski hotel.

While it’s not difficult to be wowed by many aspects of Ski Dubai – the 6,000 tonnes of snow produced synthetically from pure water being blown into the freezing environment by snow guns on the ceiling, the genuine Alpine-style café, the 90-metre quarter-pipe and the twin bobsled track would all normally be enough to entice more gasps than an orgasming asthmatic – the undisputed highlight must be the 400-metre long slope that drops over 60 metres to produce the world’s first and only indoor black run.

“Ski Dubai is an opportunity to introduce winter activities and snow play to people who have never seen snow in its natural state before,” says the resort’s chief executive Phil Taylor who also led the team behind the London Eye.

Even if you’ve all the coordination of Bambi on ice and fear a trip down the slopes could mean a few months in a plaster caste, with the air being maintained at a constant -1°C, a visit to Ski Dubai makes for a refreshing few hours away from the desert heat.