San Simone
A purpose-built 1970s resort at the head of the Val Brembana, closed since the operator went bankrupt in 2017; its six lifts still stand while the commune and the private owners argue over who restarts them.
- Region
- Lombardy
- Country
- Italy
- Status
- abandoned
- Year opened
- 1972
- Year closed
- 2017
- Reason for closure
- The collapse of Brembo Super Ski, the company operating the area. The lifts stood idle through the 2016-17 winter, the management failed, and ownership of the chairlifts and drag lifts became disputed, so the station never reopened. Skiers were reportedly not even told the lifts were shutting.
History
San Simone sits above Valleve at the head of the Val Brembana, in the province of Bergamo, and was built from 1972 as a purpose-made ski station rather than a village that grew into one - a cluster of apartment blocks and hotels at 1,668 m with terrain up to 2,100 m, giving 432 m of vertical over about 10.5 km of piste graded roughly 2 km easy, 5 km intermediate and 3.5 km difficult. Six lifts served it, three chairlifts named Arale, Colla and Camoscio and three drag lifts including the Sessi, and it formed part of the Brembo Super Ski consortium. The operating company failed, the lifts stayed still through the winter of 2016-17 - locals complained they were shut without even being told - and the station has not run since. What followed has been a decade of stalemate rather than demolition: ownership of the lifts themselves became contested, a committee formed in 2017 to try to bring the place back, an agreement between the commune of Valleve and the private owners Gianfranco Quarti and Fiorenzo Algeri raised hopes of reopening for the 2022-23 season, and the owners then considered pulling out of it. Meanwhile the buildings have degraded badly, giving San Simone the particular character of an Italian ghost resort where everything is still standing and nothing works. Individual piste names are not documented in accessible sources.
Lifts
| Name | Type | Manufacturer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arale | Chairlift | One of the station's three chairlifts; idle since 2017 | |
| Colla | Chairlift | One of the station's three chairlifts; idle since 2017 | |
| Camoscio | Chairlift | One of the station's three chairlifts; idle since 2017 | |
| Sessi | Surface lift | One of the station's three drag lifts; idle since 2017 | |
| Unnamed lift | Surface lift | The station had three drag lifts in total alongside its three chairlifts; the names of the other two are not documented |
Sources and further reading
- https://www.skiresort.com/en/ski-resort/san-simone-brembo-ski/
- https://www.bergamonews.it/2016/11/25/rivolta-a-san-simone-chiudono-gli-impianti-senza-nemmeno-avvisarci/239657/
- https://www.ecodibergamo.it/stories/premium/valle-brembana/san-simone-degrado-alla-stazione-chiusa-ma-ce-chi-investe-le-potenzialita-o_1513446_11/
- https://www.dovesciare.it/news/20/08/2017/san-simone-un-comitato-per-far-rinascere-la-stazione
More in Italy
Location
46.0426, 9.7074