In Italy, a first marked ski touring resort A ski resort without ski lifts? Behind this oxymoronic expression lies a skillfully marketed project to revitalize a village in the Italian Alps through marked ski touring. Homeland isn't quite the first of its kind, but those that came before it weren't as successful as expected.
A project to revitalize an Alpine village
Based in Montespluga (Lombardy), at an altitude of 1,900 m, and surrounded by 3,000 m peaks, the Homeland area is quite simply a ski touring sector with eleven marked routes (the descent is off-road). slope) where it is possible to rent ski and safety equipment (65 euros), to be supervised by a professional and to stay in the village, located two and a half hours from Milan.
A good way to get started in the practice or to go out without having to worry about the track, certainly not very different from some of our passes in the Alps which provide the same type of services with sufficient attendance for the routes to be in fact already all mapped out.
Thus, Homeland is part of a hybridization between the model of alpine ski resorts and the free practice of ski touring. If the marked ski touring routes or the resort hiker packages already represented bridges between the two practices at the initiative of the ski areas, this “resort without lifts” forms another, this time coming from the practice of hiking on skis.
Precedents to the complicated economic equation
In the United States, the Bluebird Backcountry station (Colorado) was based on a similar model. Opened in 2020, it has however announced that it will close permanently this year due to lack of funding.
Closer to home, the SKIALP project in the Valle d'Aosta valleys of Great Saint-Bernard offered, beyond the few lifts of Saint-Rhémy-en-Bosses, 45 marked routes, bivouacs, webcams, buses, restaurants, hotels and a site bringing together all the information for ski hikers. Once supported by European funding, Covid got the better of this new type of mountain skiing destination, popular with both Italian and French guides. According to our information, the project could, however, rise from its ashes in another form.
In France, the Puigmal resort (1,835 m, Pyrénées-Orientales), a ghost since 2013, saw its ski lifts resurrected in 2021-2022, with the buyers trying to offer a diversification of sporting practices according to the seasons (ski touring and marked snowshoes, trail, mountain biking), also with a gourmet restaurant. Unfortunately, the project which attempted to integrate alpine skiing into a “reasoned” mountain resort design (without artificial snow, the top of the area culminating at 2,900 m) also had to stop last October, in due to an economic equation that has become “impossible” due in particular to rising energy costs.
Based in Montespluga (Lombardy), at an altitude of 1,900 m, and surrounded by 3,000 m peaks, the Homeland area is quite simply a ski touring sector with eleven marked routes (the descent is off-road). slope) where it is possible to rent ski and safety equipment (65 euros), to be supervised by a professional and to stay in the village, located two and a half hours from Milan.
A good way to get started in the practice or to go out without having to worry about the track, certainly not very different from some of our passes in the Alps which provide the same type of services with sufficient attendance for the routes to be in fact already all mapped out.
Thus, Homeland is part of a hybridization between the model of alpine ski resorts and the free practice of ski touring. If the marked ski touring routes or the resort hiker packages already represented bridges between the two practices at the initiative of the ski areas, this “resort without lifts” forms another, this time coming from the practice of hiking on skis.
Precedents to the complicated economic equation
In the United States, the Bluebird Backcountry station (Colorado) was based on a similar model. Opened in 2020, it has however announced that it will close permanently this year due to lack of funding.
Closer to home, the SKIALP project in the Valle d'Aosta valleys of Great Saint-Bernard offered, beyond the few lifts of Saint-Rhémy-en-Bosses, 45 marked routes, bivouacs, webcams, buses, restaurants, hotels and a site bringing together all the information for ski hikers. Once supported by European funding, Covid got the better of this new type of mountain skiing destination, popular with both Italian and French guides. According to our information, the project could, however, rise from its ashes in another form.
In France, the Puigmal resort (1,835 m, Pyrénées-Orientales), a ghost since 2013, saw its ski lifts resurrected in 2021-2022, with the buyers trying to offer a diversification of sporting practices according to the seasons (ski touring and marked snowshoes, trail, mountain biking), also with a gourmet restaurant. Unfortunately, the project which attempted to integrate alpine skiing into a “reasoned” mountain resort design (without artificial snow, the top of the area culminating at 2,900 m) also had to stop last October, in due to an economic equation that has become “impossible” due in particular to rising energy costs.