Vialattea and Bardonecchia Invest €28 Million in Snowmaking and Snow Reliability

Two of the Italian Alps' larger ski areas are putting €28 million into snow reliability - and they're doing it on renewable energy.

Vialattea and Bardonecchia, which together cover more than 500 kilometres of slopes in the Piedmont region near Turin, are midway through a multi-year infrastructure program targeting snowmaking capacity, water storage, and energy efficiency. The investment is being made under shared ownership - both resorts have operated under iCON Infrastructure Partners since 2024.

What's Being Built

In Vialattea, snowmaking modernisation across the Sestriere sector is now three-quarters done, with three of four phases completed. From summer 2026, the program extends to Sauze d'Oulx, Cesana-Sansicario, and Cesana-Claviere.

At Bardonecchia, more than 100 new permanently installed snow cannons were commissioned this past winter. Two additional water reservoirs are also planned. The combined goal is to achieve up to 80% snow reliability on the main slopes through artificial snowmaking - a target that would make the region meaningfully more resilient to the kind of low-snow springs that have caught out other resorts in recent years.

Running on Renewables

All electricity purchased for the snowmaking systems comes from renewable energy sources. The latest-generation equipment is also significantly more efficient than what it's replacing - the resorts report energy savings of up to 48% per air compressor. For a region that runs snowmaking at scale across hundreds of kilometres of terrain, that's not a trivial operational saving.

The combination of renewable sourcing and improved efficiency gives the investment a reasonable environmental story alongside the commercial one, though the proof will be in long-term operating data rather than the press release.

Strong Season Behind the Investment

The upgrade program follows a strong 2025/26 season. Vialattea and Bardonecchia closed on 12 April 2026 with visitor numbers up 15% on the prior year. International guests made up more than 60% of total visitors, with roughly 70% of those coming from the United Kingdom - a market that appears to be increasingly active in this part of the Alps.

A free ski shuttle between Sauze d'Oulx and Bardonecchia, introduced under the shared ownership structure, is also part of the effort to make the two areas feel like a more cohesive destination rather than two separate resorts that happen to share an owner.