It is recent news that six municipalities from Veneto and Trentino-Alto Adige are considering the construction of a gondola to Tre Cime di Lavaredo, one of the most iconic mountains in the world, to reduce the amount of cars in the area. A place where modern alpinism was born and where hundreds of athletes run every year as part of Lavaredo Ultra Trail. A place where just in the shadows of the Tre Cime a massive parking lot has been already built to host the cars of the tourists making their way up to Rifugio Auronzo, ready to have a gentle hike around the stunning peaks. This made Tre Cime a mass tourist attraction able to gather 14 thousands cars during summer months from all over the world. This number increases every year, creating an overcrowded environment with cars waiting even hours at the toll gate before driving up to Rifugio Auronzo. From here the idea of building a gondola to decrease the number of cars and likely waiting times for tourists, easing their lives and, more importantly, maintaining or improving the current economic status. A new gondola is only the last infrastructure to keep exploiting this alpine environment, But, how far can we leave our footprint and its consequences in these areas? Do we really need to build a gondola in addition to a road? Reducing the amount of cars doesn’t make sense, after having built a road to foster tourism and attract, indeed, cars. Wasn’t the whole point to have more tourists?
Last year, in the span of 36 hours we experienced Tre Cime in two ways. First, as part of a media trip with La Sportiva, we waited for 45 minutes before paying the toll to drive to Rifugio Auronzo. We were part of a massive line of cars and buses contemplating the landscape while moving slowly toward the gate. In the meantime, cyclists and hikers passed us making us wonder about our choice. Why didn’t we take the trail and hike? Once there, we had a quick chat with a local guide about the current tourist situation at Tre Cime. He pointed out how the road is a huge source of revenue for the municipality of Auronzo di Cadore and constitutes one of the only two public roads in the Alps that require the payment of a toll - a counter sense. In addition, he pointed out how building the parking lot meant amputating part of the mountain and opening up to a horde of tourists invading the area every summer. Let alone the environmental impact of CO2 emissions from the vehicles. We could only agree with his point of view.
Not long after, we left the aid station of Misurina at 4am while running Lavaredo Ultra Trail and we started our ascent to Rifugio Auronzo. While in deep pain and slowly feeling sleep deprivation, we could admire the landscape around us under the sunrise light. Once at the top, we could already see cars parked or driving up chasing the astonishing view of Tre Cime at sunrise. How many more cars will be here in the next hour? Next day? Next month? Next year? Does it even make sense to have a car road up here? We quickly thought about this while sipping our hot tea at Rifugio Auronzo and moving on with our race.
This was our experience at the Tre Cime. We did both. We understood both. Two different ways of experiencing the mountains and nature. On one hand, mass tourism. The one you see at Lake Braies, Colosseum and San Marco square in Venice. The other, respectful tourism or, simply, how humans interacted with the mountains up till 70 years ago.
Hand in hand with capitalism growth, the second half of the past century brought the exploitation of the planet for economic purposes. Areas of outstanding beauty located in developed countries saw the advent of capitalism mainly under the form of tourism. The Alps experienced this phenomenon before other mountain ranges. Located in the heart of Europe and easily reachable from the most developed countries of the planet, they were the most obvious choice to spend winter and summer holidays. Trees were knocked down, gondolas were built, roads were paved and hotels proliferated reshaping the landscape and locals' lives. After centuries of relative isolation, the Alps started to play the capitalist game becoming the mecca of outdoor sports, from skiing to trail running.
Fast forward to 2025, there are almost no remote areas left in the Alps. You can drive pretty much anywhere. Ski slopes have been built on any suitable mountain. Long lines at the gondolas are the norm at the most popular ski resorts. Sleeping huts are sold out during the summer. New sports have been created to enhance the mountain experience. But the environment is changing rapidly, impacting the economic activities.
What were before winters with enough snow are now unreliable and unpredictable to the point of questioning the reasonableness of skiing as a sport and recreational activity. Few years ago we were lucky to read Carlo Albino Ferrari’s Assalto alle Alpi where he exposed how the Alps have been shaped to accommodate tourism until climate change came to collect his toll. Places where skiing was the norm don’t see the snow anymore resulting in dying communities. The Italian government plans to subsidize these economic ecosystems and leverage artificial snow: a practice that can only add pressure to the drought problems of the country. The costs associated with running a ski resort increased yearly due to energy used to create artificial snow. This drove higher prices for the tourists. Skiing is a sport for the wealthy, now more than ever. Many gave up on it, resulting in ski resorts closing down or struggling to survive.
If the winter economy is slowing down, the other seasons can be the solution. Many areas reinvented themselves through successful marketing campaigns targeting the summer tourist. From hiking and cycling to running and downhill, the number of activities proliferated. Towns built for skiing started to advertise as cycling paradises and pay huge fees to host stages from Tour de France or Giro d’Italia. The road to Tre Cime hosted the finish line of a Giro d’Italia stage. Livigno regularly advertises itself in all stages of the Giro. Cyclists or skiers, it doesn’t matter. They both foster the local economy and mean money. There is always a way to reinvent yourself to sustain tourism.
A booming sport like trail running offered the opportunity to convey thousands of runners, and therefore tourists in new areas generating economic wealth during the summer months. This opportunity already posed many questions from an environmental perspective, a value intrinsic to the sport. Are the races becoming too big? How can we minimize the impact of thousands of runners on the trails and populating remote areas for short periods of time? This was a recurring theme among interviews we conducted with race directors during the past 12 months. UTMB itself, the most famous trail running race hosted in Chamonix, attracts thousands of runners every year generating an obvious impact on the environment. The organizers incentivize sustainable mobility solutions, but the amount of cars around is impressive. From the long line at the Mont Blanc tunnel to aggressive parking, the environmental impact is undeniable. On the opposite side, the event brings economic wealth to the local communities.
In our eyes, building a gondola at Tre Cime di Lavaredo is just one piece of the puzzle of the economic exploitation of the Alps and, more in general, nature. It is a way to drive more tourists to the area and continue to generate economic wealth in the pursuit of a never-ending growth. Human intervention is necessary to continue this trend and represents a cost inflicted to the environment. At least in your minds, this poses a legit question: where is the line that we shouldn’t cross when exploiting the environment we live in for economic purposes? There is no way to come back after crossing that line. The abandoned ski lifts and gondolas will remain there for the archeologists of the future. It is a fine line between indelibly destroying pristine ecosystems and sustaining the local communities from an economic perspective. So, when and where should we stop? Can capitalism be more important than the environment at all costs?
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