TL;DR
A brand new Doppelmayr cable car has opened at the Latemar Dolomites ski area in Italy's Val di Fiemme region, replacing a chairlift that had been running since 1988. The €15.5 million upgrade carries 2,700 people per hour and marks 50 years of cross-border ski cooperation in the region.
The Latemar Dolomites Gets a New €15.5 Million Cable Car
The Latemar ski area in Italy's Val di Fiemme has officially inaugurated a brand new cable car, replacing an ageing four-person chairlift that had been in operation since 1988. The €15.5 million upgrade has been running since the start of the 2025-26 season and was formally opened at a ceremony attended by provincial authorities, industry representatives, and local residents.
What's New With the Latemar Cable Car
Built by Doppelmayr — one of the most well-regarded lift manufacturers in the industry — the new cable car connects the valley station at 1,760 metres with the mountain station at 2,015 metres. The numbers are straightforward: 42 cabins, a route length of 1,085 metres, a vertical rise of 255 metres, and a travel time of around four minutes from bottom to top.
The headline figure, though, is the transport capacity — 2,700 people per hour. That's a significant step up from the old four-person chairlift it replaces, and for a lift that connects Pampeago with the upper mountain practice areas and mountain huts, that throughput matters. Long queues on a beginner or mid-mountain connector lift have a way of killing the rhythm of a ski day, so this kind of infrastructure investment has practical benefits beyond just the optics.
The new lift is also fully barrier-free, which is worth noting. Accessibility on the mountain is an area the industry has been slow to address in many resorts, so a properly accessible gondola in a busy sector is a genuine improvement.
