Arera
Four lifts on the south face of Pizzo Arera inside the Orobie Bergamasche park, finished by a landslide in 2003 and since dismantled pole by pole; walkers now park under the old lift lines.
- Region
- Lombardy
- Country
- Italy
- Status
- closed
- Year closed
- 2003
- Reason for closure
- A landslide in 2003 ended operations, against a background of declining snowfall, the death of the owner, and lifts that had reached the end of their useful age. One of the installations had already been closed since 1988.
History
The ski area at Plassa Arera lay on the south face of Pizzo Arera in the comune of Oltre il Colle, Val Brembana, between about 1,400 m and 2,000 m, inside the Parco delle Orobie Bergamasche on ground the surveyors singled out for the quality of its alpine flora. Four lifts served it, two chairlifts and two skilifts, with a house and a bar at the base and the Rifugio Capanna 2000 at 1,969 m above. A landslide in 2003 ended operations, and the Mountain Wilderness survey of 2006-07 listed the contributing causes as declining snowfall, the death of the owner and the age of the installations; it also noted that the comune intended to bring the upper chairlift section back into use, served by a new road. That is not how it went. One of the lifts had already been shut since 1988, and the structures have since been taken down rather than restored - the last three poles of a lift that had run until the 1990s were removed, together with six poles of the installation closed in 1988. The frames of the old line are now described as a distant memory on the slope. What was eventually drawn up was a summer chairlift rather than a winter one, under the local headline 'addio allo sci'. The Capanna 2000 refuge remains open and walkers park in the broad area beneath where the lifts used to run. The opening year is not recorded in accessible sources; the coordinates mark the refuge, the site lying on the slope below it.
Lifts
| Name | Type | Manufacturer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unnamed lift | Chairlift | One of two chairlifts. The comune intended to restore the upper section, to be reached by a new road; what was eventually designed was a summer chairlift | |
| Unnamed lift | Chairlift | The second of the two chairlifts | |
| Unnamed lift | Surface lift | One of two skilifts. A lift that had run until the 1990s later had its last three poles taken down | |
| Unnamed lift | Surface lift | The second skilift. Six poles of an installation closed since 1988 were removed in the same operation |
Sources and further reading
More in Italy
Location
45.9264, 9.8044