Come Saturday, not only can Liberty University students study and pray, they also can ski year-round.

“We want to give prospective students as many reasons as possible to choose LU over secular institutions,” says a page of FAQs about the ski slope that will open this weekend featuring Snowflex, a synthetic material that simulates the effects of real snow.

And, Liberty President Jerry Falwell Jr. says the complex atop the mountain that looms over the rest of the Lynchburg, Va., campus has the blessing of his dad, who died in 2007.

“The Liberty Mountain Snowflex Centre was actually the last project that was officially announced by my father here one week before he died,” said Falwell in a letter announcing the grand opening to friends of the school. “In fact, the day before he died, I was riding over the mountain with him and I asked him if he really wanted to build that ski slope. He said, Absolutely,’ and I took his statement as a directive.”

(Photo credit: http://www.liberty.edu)