Via Lattea (ski area)
The Via Lattea, or Vialattea, is the ski area of the upper Susa Valley linking Sestriere, Sauze d'Oulx, Sansicario, Cesana, Claviere and the French resort of Montgenèvre; in 2012 it had 400 kilometres of slopes and 72 lifts.[1]
Origins
The Sestriere pass, at 2,035 metres, has been crossed by a carriage road since 1814.[2] The Agnelli family turned it into a modern ski resort starting in 1931, the year of the first cable car, with further lifts added in 1932 and 1937.[1] The Kandahar run at Sestriere, 3,299 metres long, hosted the first World Cup race in 1967, the 1997 Alpine Skiing World Championships, and events at the 2006 Winter Olympics.[1]
Investments
On 3 April 2015 the Region, the lift operating company, the Fondazione XX Marzo and the municipalities signed a twenty-million-euro plan over five years, half of it public money from Olympic funds, for new snow generators, slopes and chairlifts.[3] The Italian lifts are run by Sestrieres S.p.A., owned by the British fund iCON Infrastructure, which in July 2024 also reached an agreement for the lifts of Bardonecchia; on the Italian side, the Vialattea has 47 lifts across seven resorts and about 1.2 million skiers per season.[4]
For the 2024–2025 season, 26.6 million euros were invested, mainly in snowmaking at Sestriere, which on 22 and 23 February 2025 hosted a women's World Cup event.[5]
Related articles: Sestriere
Pages linking here
Sources
- ANSA — 10 February 2012
- Treccani
- ValsusaOggi — 4 April 2015
- ValsusaOggi — 24 July 2024
- Torino Oggi — 18 October 2024