Kronplatz Big Spender

Italy's Kronplatz ski area has announced yet another big summer spend on upgrades for the ski season. The latest in a long line of investments which has transformed the ski region, part of the Dolomiti Superski, in to one of the most technically advanced on the planet at present.

The South Tyrol resort already operates more gondola lifts than almost any other ski area on the planet – 22 at the last count, matched only by Saalbach in Austria.

This summer it has spent €7m upgrading the key Belvedere gondola with a new state of the art lift with cabins each containing 15 seats and offering free onboard wifi. The lift can carry up to 3,300 people per hour on its 1,061 m length.

Kronplatz has also added new terrain in recent seasons and 15-16 will be no different with a new blue grade run created by the lower section of the existing Ried run, and named Variante Ried.

There's also been a €2m spend to enlarge the Alpen run on the hillside of Valdaora with a new snowmaking system installed too.
Finally, a new Mountain Museum has opened at Kronplatz following another €3m investment.

Kronplatz? In Italy? Sorry for being dull, but is this part of Italy German-speaking?

dobby wrote:Kronplatz? In Italy? Sorry for being dull, but is this part of Italy German-speaking?

Indeed it is.

Wikipedia wrote:South Tyrol, also known by its Italian name Alto Adige, is an autonomous province in northern Italy. It is one of the two autonomous provinces that make up the autonomous region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. ... The majority of the population is of Austro-Bavarian heritage and speaks German. Around a quarter of the population speak Italian as their first language

Part of Austria until after WW1? If I remember correctly the Italian version is Plan de Corones. They used to make a big deal of putting both names together like Kropnplatz /Plan de Corones but that doesn't seem to be such an issue any more and they definitely seem to prefer the German version...

It was annexed by Italy after the WW1. In 1915 a deal was done to get Italy to enter the war, in return for supporting the allies it was agreed that they would get the land to the south of the alpine watershed at the end of the war. Before then South Tyrol was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Fascists under Mussolini tried to Italianise the region in the 1920's, today about 60% of the population still speak German as their first language.

There are also few other German speaking enclaves on the Italian side of the Swiss border, Gressoney in the Monterosa ski area is one of them.

Having skied in the Dolomites twice in recent years, I have been struck by the extent of the difference between the Southern end,which is very definitely Italian in flavour and the northern end which is decidedly German. It can feel a bit strange moving between the two cultures over the course of the day. Its not a bad thing and in fact adds to the level of interest in what is a vast and lovely ski area.

I didn't know about Gressoney but have never been there. Was it the same thing with a post WW1 deal or a different reason there? And the other Monterosa resorts all more 'Italian' ?

Gressoney is one of the villages in what is now Italy that were settled by the Walser people in the 13th century, they migrated over Theodul Pass from Zermatt when it was ice free, the other German speaking skiing villages are Alagna, Macugnaga and Formazza. They don't speak German as we know it, but an ancient German dialect called "Titsch" the locals here speak "Walliser Ditsch" they are still very similar even after several hundred years of separation.

http://www.walser-alps.eu/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walser

It's not really known what triggered these migrations, but they coincided with a time of glacial retreat, the way things are going the Theodul Pass will be ice free again by the middle of this century at the latest.

There are plans to link Zermatt to Gressoney, Alagna to Macugnaga and Macugnaga to Saas Fee. A feasibility study for a link between Zermatt and Gressoney via a lift from Champoluc to Cime Bianche has already been carried out, there has been some movement regarding a link between Macugnaga and Saas Fee this summer but nothing concrete as yet. After they have been linked the next step would be to link Alagna to Macugnaga and then Saas Fee to Zermatt.