| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 01/05/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 13 |
| Copyright: Other |
The Italian ski resort of Macugnaga is a beautiful spot with clear potential but is an example of how lack of investment can be stifling
Noel Josephides
olumn§st
REGULAR
I first went skiing in Macugnaga over 30 years ago. I can’t remember whether it was with Global or Inghams. I was not in the travel business then so tour operator names were not significant.Macugnaga (Italy) lies at the end of a narrow valley and below Monterosa, at 4,638 metres, the second highest peak in Europe. It’s a traditional village set in one of the most picturesque locations in the Alps. I remember a busy resort with a good range of skiing from around 1,400 metres where the village is, up to 3,000 metres on Monte Moro.
We returned there on a regular basis for a few years and got to know a great many of the locals. Once children came we stopped and I lost interest in skiing.
I was persuaded to return two years ago and found, much to my surprise, an unchanged location. This year Easter was late, so only the slopes on Monte Moro were open. I understand that a piste of 1.6 miles is too short for modern skiers. The longest run from Monte Moro, down at 5.4 miles, was closed.
The weather was appaling for three days – they had the biggest snow falls since December – but then the conditions were excellent and we had two fabulous days of skiing with about 20 people on the slopes the first day and about 100 on the second.
However, Macugnaga is dying. About 10 to 15 years ago, one of the cable cars broke down and was never replaced. The number of beds available in the resort has halved and only two UK operators, Thomson and Nielsen, feature it and both stopped their programmes a month ago because of lack of snow.
Macugnaga has not kept up with the times. It’s cheap, but these days skiers prefer to pay more and have access to a much wider range and length of slopes. I wouldn’t dream of going anywhere else because I have so many friends there and it is such a beautiful place. There are no ugly buildings and the bowl of mountains around is stunning.
But there hasn’t been any investment and the resort has gone backwards. All the villages in the valley depend on Macugnaga and they, too, have remained as they were. Yes, this location may appeal to someone like me, now beginning to live in the past, but it holds nothing for the aggressive, go-getting, modern young skier. Everyone in the area complains of a lack of money. They see neighbouring areas like the Trentino in the Dolomite region, which are autonomous and pour money into tourist development. After all these years, a new chair-lift has just been completed but, it is a primitive affair compared to the latest models, and the £1.5m it cost will take years to pay back.
Is it possible to maintain the atmosphere of this wonderful place but attract the range of people necessary to make it live? Does sustainable development lead to decay? Macugnaga deserves better but no-one is throwing money at it. It is not the place to be seen. In the old days on a Good Friday you couldn’t get down the valley for the number of cars driving up from Milan and Turin. This year it was easy.
There is enormous potential in Macugnaga. It needs a kick-start, it needs cheap loans and it needs a government or investor with some vision.
Otherwise, it will remain a beautiful backwater appealing to older and unadventurous skiers like me.
“Does sustainable development lead to decay?”