Piedmont's First 8-Seat Chairlift Takes Shape at Prato Nevoso as Construction Enters Final Stretch

High in Italy's Cuneo province, steelwork for a chairlift unlike any other in northwestern Italy is now visibly rising from the slopes of Prato Nevoso, as construction crews push to complete what will be the first eight-seat chairlift ever built in Piedmont — and, more broadly, anywhere across the entire Alpi Occidentali (Western Alps) region spanning Piedmont, Valle d'Aosta and Lombardy.

Replacing an aging quad

The new lift will take over from the resort's current four-seat Blu chairlift, which serves the ski runs in the Conca basin at the heart of Prato Nevoso. Rather than simply refurbish the existing quad, resort operators opted for a generational leap: an automatic-grip eight-seater built by Leitner, mounted on nine towers, and designed to move significantly more skiers per hour than the lift it replaces.

According to Prato Nevoso service manager Luca Tirone, the switch delivers two headline benefits for skiers. Travelling at a line speed of 5 meters per second, the new lift is expected to roughly halve current uphill travel times. Hourly capacity, meanwhile, will jump from 2,400 to 3,000 people — a meaningful increase for a resort that relies on quick uphill turnaround, particularly during its Tuesday, Friday and Saturday night-skiing sessions.

Built-in safety features

Beyond raw speed and capacity, the new lift incorporates a suite of automated safety technology unusual for the region. An alignment carpet at the loading gate will rise and lower automatically depending on rider height, with sensors capable of detecting a child's smaller stature and adjusting accordingly — a feature aimed at reducing loading mishaps for younger or shorter skiers. The lift will also run on a direct-drive motor without reduction gears, a configuration engineers say delivers higher energy efficiency alongside a notably smooth, low-vibration ride, with an embarkation speed of roughly 0.8 meters per second to further ease the loading process.

A first for the Western Alps, verified by national regulators

The project's regional significance was underscored well before construction began. In May 2024, engineers from Leitner and officials from Ansfisa — Italy's national agency for railway and road infrastructure safety, created in the wake of the Genoa Morandi bridge collapse and tasked with overseeing fixed transport installations such as cable cars and chairlifts — carried out a preliminary site inspection at Prato Nevoso as part of the formal approval process for the new lift. That inspection confirmed what resort officials had been saying since the project's earliest announcement: no eight-seat chairlift existed anywhere in Piedmont, Valle d'Aosta or Lombardy at the time, making Prato Nevoso's installation a genuine regional first.

Part of a much larger investment push

The chairlift is the centerpiece of a considerably larger regional investment drive. Regional Piedmont funding under the 2025 "Bando Neve" (Snow Call) scheme allocated €48 million to ski infrastructure across the region, with €26 million of that directed specifically to resorts in Cuneo province — and €12 million of the overall package earmarked for the joint Prato Nevoso–Artesina–Frabosa Ski development plan, of which the new eight-seater forms the anchor project.

The broader vision extends well beyond the lift itself. Alongside the chairlift, plans for the area include a heliport, a spa hotel, and a dedicated sports village in the Conca basin, according to regional planning documents. Prato Nevoso is also investing heavily in expanded programmed snowmaking, with a stated goal of making its runs fully skiable within roughly 36 hours of a snowfall event to guarantee operational continuity through the season. Additional investment is flowing into the expansion of Prato Nevoso Village, one of the more prominent family entertainment parks in northwestern Italy, along with the renovation of the Chalet Il Verde and a new service center at the base of the Rossa Panoramica gondola. A new beginner's training area is also planned adjacent to the main lift, specifically for children and first-time skiers.

Local officials frame it as a competitive necessity

Regional Piedmont Councillor for Mountain Affairs Marco Gallo has personally inspected progress on the site alongside Gian Luca Oliva, the resort's owner, underlining the political weight being placed behind the project. Regional officials have framed Piedmont's ski resorts more broadly as a strategic resource — not just for tourism, but for the wider regional economy, employment and the ongoing viability of mountain communities — arguing that coordinated investment between operators and public institutions has become essential if Piedmont's resorts are to compete on equal footing with larger, internationally recognized Alpine destinations, foreign demand for which has been rising steadily in recent years.

Financing and outlook

While regional public funding has flowed into the broader Monregalese-area package, reporting on the chairlift project itself has indicated the lift portion was originally conceived to be financed largely through private capital, with resort operators hoping to attract additional public contributions to improve the project's overall financial sustainability. Construction is proceeding on schedule, according to the most recent site visits, with resort officials targeting completion in time for the start of the 2025/26 winter season.

If it opens as planned, the new eight-seater will place Prato Nevoso in rare company among Italian resorts and mark a further step in a broader competitive push by Piedmont's ski industry — one aimed squarely at closing the technological gap with the Alps' bigger-name destinations in Valle d'Aosta, Trentino-Alto Adige and beyond.