Alagna Valsesia

Alagna ( Walser German Lannja or in the country, in the Piedmontese dialect of the Val Sesia Lagna ) is an Italian mountain village with 427 inhabitants (as at 31 December 2012) in the province of Vercelli, Piedmont.

• 3.1 Construction of the facilities at Belvedere
• 3.2 Construction of Punta Indren cable car
• 3.3 Tourist boom and decline
• 3.4 Renaissance by Freeride
• 3.5 reorientation back to the mass-market ski area
• 3.6 Conclusion

Geography

Alagna is the top place in the Valsesia on the south side of the Monte Rosa massif at an altitude of 1205 m. The site occupies an area of 72 km ² and has a population density of 6 inhabitants / km ².

Community structure

The municipality consists of the four regions Centro, Otro (Eng. in Olter ) Oubna - order and Unna- which include, among others, the fractions Centro (German zar Chilchu ) Resiga (German zar Sogu ) Riale ( dt. the Rough ), Pedelegno ( dt z Pudelenn ) Follu ( dt in d Follu ), al Dosso (German fum Diss ), all Piane (German fum Boudma d ), al Goreto (Eng. in Garai ) al Ponte (German zam bridge), Pedemonte ( dt z Kantmud ) and al Ronco (German Rong ) belong.

Neighboring communities

Neighboring municipalities are Gressoney, Macugnaga, Rima San Giuseppe Riva Valdobbia and Zermatt. Patron saint of the place is John the Baptist.

History and Language

As Rima, Carcoforo and Rimella was colonized Alagna in the 13th and 14th century by the Walser. In it the highest local Alemannic dialect, certain traditions and the typical wooden buildings go back. A (open only in summer ) Museum of the village culture can be found in the fraction Pedemonte.

The Walser German is however largely extinct in Alagna during the 20th century. Documented, it is particularly in the following two levels:

• Giovanni Giordani: La colonia inglese di Alagna - Valsesia e il suo dialetto. Varallo Sesia 2nd edition 1927 (later reprinted ).
• Emil Balmer: The Walser in Piedmont. From life and from the language of German settlers behind the Monte Rosa. Bern 1949.

A new dialect dictionary published in 2008:

• Sergio Maria Gilardino: I Walser e la loro lingua. Dal grande north all alpi. Dizionario della lingua di walser Alagna. Centro Studi Zeisciu, Magenta 2008.

Economy and Tourism

In the past it was mined in Alagna gold, today the place is known for the many opportunities for mountaineering and winter sports. Early on, won the major tourist place importance due to its proximity to Monte Rosa and served as Valley location for excursions to the summits of the massif.

Construction of the facilities at the Belvedere

1947, a detachable single by the company Piemonte Cableway from the village center was built on a higher-lying ledge with the name Belvedere. The plant was the first detachable cable car in the world and was distinguished by an extremely steep route. The undeveloped mountain is marked by an impressive view of the Monte Rosa massif to which it owes its name ( " Beautiful View" ). In addition to the mountain station, a hotel was built, but which later burned down. At the latest with the construction of a short drag lift and a chairlift by the company Marchisio also skiing was possible since the 50s. Since a serious accident in the early 1970s, in which a gondola abrutsche over the rope from the steepest section and crashed to the following gondolas, all investments are broke at the Belvedere.

Construction of the Punta Indren cable car

In the period 1958-1965 a Ceretti e Tanfani aerial tramway was built on the 3260 m high Punta Indren with significant line of the born in the valley engineer Giorgio Rolandi into three sections. The railway opened up the village surrounded by glaciers, rocky ridge, which is part of the south face of Monte Rosa, in three sections of the middle stations Tsar Oltu (1800 m) and Bocchetta delle piss (2400 m). This system represented one of the most impressive runs in the Alps and was with its exposed, extremely long and very remote route an absolute technical masterpiece. How difficult was the construction is evident not only in the very long construction time, but also the establishment of today in some sections already very elaborate construction cableway for themselves. The massive concrete stations are evidence of an engineering mind, who wanted the extreme climatic conditions of the harsh high mountain oppose something. In order to build in the glacier area at all, had to be made specially special precautions in the form of a kind of sarcophagus. Another technical feature is a very high concrete column in the middle of the third section of Punta Indren cable car, which had been built as a means of entry for skiers.

Around the late 1960s was followed by two drag lifts on the Indren and the Borsgletscher that made the summer ski operation and also represented very impressive constructions. As in the glacier area, no power cable could be laid, the drives of the systems have been integrated into the cable car station and run the tows as so-called triangle lifts. These two lifts, the rear cable runs instead of directly to the base station via extremely complex structures on the rocky ridges to a third station - the drive to the cable car station - and only from there back to the base station. Thus, the lifts of the central cable car mountain station can be driven.

The lift on the Borsgletscher was in the early 1980s finally destroyed by an avalanche and is since then only as a ruin. The lift on the Indren was completely replaced early 90s, the remnants of the old system are still to be seen next to the existing plant in the hill station. The early 1980s was followed by a second elevator on the Indren ( Rocette ) leading up to an altitude of 3550 m at the Borsscharte ( Forcella Bors ).

Additional employment facilities were built during the construction of the cable car in the sixties in the form of Balmdakorbliftes and One Chair " Mullero " in the second intermediate station Bocchetta delle piss. The Balmakorblift was also destroyed mid-1980s by an avalanche and then avalanches rebuilt, leading to the legendary bunker-like valley station and the infamous extremely long and very high first span.

Tourist boom and decline

This for that time extremely exceptional opportunities offered the ski area, Alagna soon brought an international reputation and a strong upswing in tourism. With the death of the owner of the equipment, the builder Giorgio Rolandi, but the efforts were to keep the ski in income and reduced especially times to modernize piece by piece. So the Indrengletscherschlepplift was replaced to 2000 only one of the existing plants, more, new plants also did not add. Thus, the area lost much of interest and became especially internationally into oblivion.

Renaissance by Freeride

A second flowering of tourism in Alagna resulted, ironically, for precisely this very circumstance. The fact that location and ski area had slept almost all tourism developments in the last forty years, turned the once ultra - modern ski area, a nostalgic gem, as it was almost impossible to find the mid-1990s in the Alps. There was no massive lift networks, no -consuming blasted into the mountains slopes, the valley town had preserved its authentic appearance, it lacked any signs of mass tourism and the increasingly declining slope maintenance instead opened impressive off-piste options in the secure ski room. So experienced the area with the advent of freeriders motion a renaissance. Skiers of mass tourism and monotony of many other ski areas were tired, but the authenticity, the grand -piste possibilities and the adventurous flair that the area had received, not least because of its gigantic, hopelessly outdated lifts, loved, questioned the new clientele dar. also and especially at the international level was the place then as the Pearl of freeride areas in the Alps, especially in Scandinavia, but also in the U.S., the ski area was thus highly respected. Not least, the backup of the most important deep-snow routes and the common ski pass with the large ski area Monterosa, with the since about 1991, there was a connection through deep snow routes and lifts, the area made ​​virtually unique in its versatility.

Reorientation back to the mass-market ski area

In 2000, the old operating company Monrosa SPA was dissolved and formed a new company, in which the lift company of the two neighboring valleys of Gressoney and Ayas is involved with large proportions. Even if the new company maintains the old slogan " Freeride Paradise ", the behavior is almost contrary to the previous concept.

Immediately in 2000, a massive reconstruction program was started. In the first phase, the bottom two sections of the old tramway by Leitner 8-person gondola with and one double chairlift was replaced. The new routes are slightly less favorable than the old in terms of the slopes, but at least the cable car has the capacity increased enormously. In subsequent years, several of the old ski trails have been replaced by slopes that had to be bulldozed and blasted some with considerable construction cost in the mountains. Also a direct lift and piste connection to the ski resort Monterosa was prepared. With the exception of the third section of the old tramway all the other facilities of the old area were decommissioned without replacement, so no more deep snow routes are on this side of the massif available because they were either converted into slopes or no longer be disclosed. If the aerial tramway is open, what is more rare is the case, but the variations can still be used by the Punta Indren the valley of Gressoney and the Monterosa area, with the closure of the glacier lifts many of the old routes are also accessible here no longer without touring equipment.

The shuttle train to Punta Indren will also be shut down this summer, instead, a ski lift from the valley of Gressoney is coming under construction, which is expected to go in winter 2007-2008 in operation. With the new plant, the ski resort of Gressoney is much better connected to the glacier regions of Punta Indren, Alagna, however, it has become very costly to accomplish this since it initially is no deep snow routes to Alagna back more because the necessary back charm lifts no longer operated be. The project to develop a 3700 m high ridge with the name Cresta Rossa above the Punta Indren has failed again and again in spite of various construction projects and currently appears in the implementation of its politically and financially dubious.

Conclusion

Overall, it can be stated that Freeride - if at all - currently occupies only a minor role. After the massive construction projects this is possible at least in the usual form and only in parts of the area, and then only if the necessary lifts are operated again or replaced.

The entire development is assessed very differently. According to one view, it is the long overdue necessary modernization and economic security of the site for the future that will bring the area permanently opportunities in the market. A pure focus on freeride would be according to this view, not been able. It may be regarded as certain that simply because of the far greater mass, the re-orientation away from the freeride, total in the balance sheet will be commercially successful, which also emerges that the losses in terms of guests from the freeride area to be stronger than first thought. Nevertheless, the gain is likely to compensate for this effect than more. However, it seems doubtful whether the was with the commercialization of higher efficiency will actually flow to the valley town of Alagna, in there infrastructure to neighboring villages have benefited much more from the new buildings and are compared with the already remote Alagna only become even more attractive.

In the field of freeriders the entire development is often considered very critical, because it is doubtful whether future again the entrances to the old freeride areas are opened and in particular the new unit from Gressoney to Punta Indren due to the high investment is seen as a sign that even medium new slopes are to be created in this last freeride sector. In particular regrets that. With the restructuring of the skiing area of Alagna one of the most unusual and most attractive ski areas in the Alps with an unparalleled sense of adventure and nostalgia that this unique freeride possibilities and skiing virtually in line with the mountains enabled, now finally listened to the story