Detour #298: Motoring to the Matterhorn, Breuil-Cervinia, Italy
The climb to the ski resort at Breuil-Cervinia is every bit as exhilarating as the winter sports on offer.
Around 100km north of Turin on the A5 Autostrada, Monte Cervinia – or The Matterhorn to many of us - looms ahead in the distance. Soaring 4,478m into the blue sky its snow-capped peak may not be the highest in Europe, but its shape is certainly the most distinctive.
My destination is the village of Breuil-Cervinia, famous for being one of the world’s first purpose-built high-altitude ski resorts. It was constructed by Mussolini in the village of Breuil in the 1930s and renamed Cervinia in homage to the mountain at whose foot the village sits.
Each winter the village’s 900-strong population swells as thousands of skiers and snowboarders come to take advantage of one of the best snow records in Italy. Linked with neighbours Valtournenche and Zermatt in Switzerland, there are over 300km of pistes with single ski trails of up to 22km in length and one of the biggest vertical drops in the world from Klein Matterhorn to the Valtournenche – a huge drop of 1,430m.
But first comes the ascent to the resort. It sits at 2,050m and, although it is only 25km from the autostrada on the SR46, the road climbs steeply in spots as it snakes it way up the mountainside.
The first looping hairpin arrives just north of Chippin. You pass a small hydro-electric plant fed by the floodwaters from the mountain and perform a rising 180-degree turn. A second follows soon after and then the route continues through more gentle turns all the way to the bright blue mass of Lago Maen.
Climbing ever higher through tighter and tighter turns, the first cable cars finally come into sight. To access Cervinia’s 42 pistes there are no less than 51 lifts, capable of moving people straight up the mountain at speed, but hurrying through the hairpins to the village is definitely more fun.
Words Nik Berg Twitter/X | Instagram
Photography Shutterstock
ROADBOOK
CLASS: MOuntain Pass
NAME: Motoring to the Matterhorn
ROUTE: Châtillon to Breuil-Cervinia
COUNTRY: Italy
Distance: 17 Miles
The climb to the ski resort at Breuil-Cervinia is every bit as exhilarating as the winter sports on offer.