Entova - Scerscen
A summer glacier ski lift at 2,957 metres on the lower Scerscen glacier in Valmalenco, built in 1986 and finished by 1993 as the ice retreated beneath it.
- Region
- Lombardy
- Country
- Italy
- Status
- abandoned
- Year opened
- 1986
- Year closed
- 1993
- Reason for closure
- The difficulty of reaching the lifts, and the retreat of the glacier they were built on.
History
This was high-altitude summer skiing of the kind the Alps have almost entirely lost. The lift stood at 2,957 m on the accumulation basin of the Vedretta di Scerscen Inferiore, above Entova in the comune of Chiesa in Valmalenco, reached only by the private unpaved quarry road up from San Giuseppe. It was built in 1986 and dismissed in 1993 - seven seasons - and the reasons recorded for its abandonment are the two that have closed glacier skiing everywhere: the site was simply too hard to reach, and the glacier under it was in retreat. When Mountain Wilderness surveyed the site between April 2006 and December 2007 it found a half-ruined hotel, a small goods cableway, and the lift's poles stacked on the ground along the access road near San Giuseppe. The hotel had been bought by Swiss owners and then abandoned again in 2000. The lift was privately owned. The coordinates mark the lower Scerscen glacier and should be treated as approximate; the survey is the source for the altitude, the dates and the structures, and no later assessment of the site is available in accessible sources.
Lifts
| Name | Type | Manufacturer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unnamed lift | Surface lift | A skilift on the glacier at 2,957 m, north facing. Its poles were later found stacked on the ground along the access road near San Giuseppe | |
| Unnamed lift | Surface lift | A small teleferica or goods cableway also recorded at the site by the 2006-07 survey |
Sources and further reading
More in Italy
Location
46.3502, 9.8366