Beaulard
A north-facing area in the Alta Valle di Susa that ran until 1992, when its operating company went bankrupt mid-way through rebuilding the chairlift; the half-finished work was never completed.
- Region
- Piedmont
- Country
- Italy
- Status
- abandoned
- Year opened
- early 1970s
- Year closed
- 1992
- Reason for closure
- The failure of the operating company. A rebuild of the chairlift begun in the early 1990s was never finished, and the installations passed to the bankruptcy trustee.
History
Beaulard is a hamlet of Oulx in the Alta Valle di Susa, on the road towards Bardonecchia, and its ski area climbed north-facing ground from the village at 1,200 m up through larch woods and meadow clearings to about 1,800 m near the Rifugio Rey. A chairlift did the work with a small skilift near the hamlet. The installations were built at the start of the 1970s and worked until 1992. What ended them was the collapse of the operating company, the Societa Seggiovie Grand Hoche, whose assets were in the hands of the bankruptcy trustee when the Piedmont census was compiled - and the detail that makes this site unusually bleak is that the failure came while the chairlift was being rebuilt. The work was never completed. The survey graded the environmental damage five out of six and the feasibility of clearing the site only two, which is the signature of a large structure nobody can afford to remove. Course names were never compiled; the coordinates mark Beaulard at the foot of the lifts.
Lifts
| Name | Type | Manufacturer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unnamed lift | Chairlift | The main chairlift from Beaulard up towards the Rifugio Rey. Its departure and arrival stations survive, with wood and sheet-metal structures near the top. A rebuild begun in the early 1990s was abandoned unfinished | |
| Unnamed lift | Surface lift | A small skilift close to the hamlet of Beaulard |
Sources and further reading
More in Italy
Location
45.0436, 6.7577