Livigno, Italy — In response to Italy hosting the 2026 Winter Olympics, a modestly sized ski resort is modernizing its lift infrastructure.
Neveitalia reports that Mottolino is adding two new lifts for the 2024-25 season. The €30 million Euro investment will add a new gondola and bubble chairlift to the Italian ski resort.
The first new lift will be a Doppelmayr ten-person gondola. This will have a capacity of 3200 people per hour and travel 6 meters (roughly 20 feet) per second. The new lift will have a much quicker ride time than the currently operating Motolino Gondola (five minutes and twenty seconds compared to nine).
It will be able to load three cabins at a time, a drastic increase from one loadable cabin in the base station of the other gondola. This state-of-the-art lift will replace the old Motolino Gondola, although it is still operating while the new one is under construction.
The other new lift is also a beauty. A Doppelmayr high-speed detachable eight-pack bubble chairlift is replacing the Monte Sponda chairlift. The new Monte Sponda chairlift will have heated seats and reduced wait times, with a capacity increase from 2400 to 3200 people per hour. The old Monte Sponda chairlift was a high-speed detachable quad chairlift.
Over the summer, Mottolino has been providing construction updates with a witty band of characters. Sorry, I don’t speak Italian, so I have no clue what’s going on.
The move is partially to prepare for hosting events for the 2026 Olympics. Marco Rocca, who’s the CEO of Mottolino, described the importance of the project to Neveitalia:
“The Games represent a unique opportunity to align ourselves, in terms of facilities, with high international standards. We have therefore chosen to bring forward the programming of our industrial plan to be ready for the appointment of Milan Cortina 2026 not only mentally but also with a sustainable and cutting-edge facilities park that is up to the event and a prestigious location like Livigno wants to be. This is a significant investment of over 30 million euros to rebuild the Mottolino cable car and to build the new Sponda chairlift from scratch. Two projects that will remain as a legacy to the Livigno area obviously also after the Olympics. But we are not stopping there. In fact, this week we have decided to invest approximately another million euros for a new ski lift. A ski lift with a greater hourly capacity than the current one, now obsolete, which will also improve the offer of our school camp.”
Mottolino will be one of the venues for the 2026 Olympics. The Italian ski area will host the snowboarding events at their Livigno Snowpark.
Image/Video Credits: Mottolino
