Flat-out: Hirscher boosts skiing in mountainless Netherlands

This is not some Alpine ski station but a huge hangar on stilts just off the motorway in Zoetermeer, in the west of the Netherlands -- one of the flattest countries on earth with a highest peak of... 322 metres (1,056 feet). Despite outdoor temperatures of more than 20 degrees on the May day AFP visited the SnowWorld indoor ski slope, many Dutch were happy to ditch the nearby beach for ski goggles and helmets. Well-known for producing world-class speed skaters, the Dutch are also huge fans of skiing despite a cruel dearth of natural slopes.