The summer of 2022 will be remembered, sadly, as the first when almost all summer ski glaciers in the Alps were forced to close for at least month in August-September, as the freezing point moved above 4,000 metres following a winter with below average snowfall.

As a result, competitive skiers and snowboarders at all levels from World Cup teams to  youngsters in ski clubs had to rethink their summer glacier training plans. Some resorted to indoor snow centres, some invested in expensive trips to South America or New Zealand, but some chose dry slope training on a Neveplast synthetic track, which allows, skis on feet, with normal equipment, to train on a surface that is very similar to natural snow.

The ski clubs that trained during the summer on Neveplast’s home slope in Selvino came from all over Italy and some even from Europe. 

There is a lot of technical and preparatory work that can be done during the summer on the Neveplast slope in order to be prepared for when the competition season begins.

The slope has been one of the jewels in the crown of Selvino’s tourist offer for 20 years, and after the complete restyling a year ago with the installation of the new Neveplast Freeski  product, it is increasingly being seen as a valid alternative to glacier training, even when there’s snow.

Among the ski clubs that have chosen Selvino as a destination for their summer training, in addition to the clubs from the Bergamo area that are at home in Selvino and the Magoni ski team, which has brought athletes from the World Cup Circus to the Neveplast slope, are the Valtournenche ski club, the Lecco ski club, the Courmayeur Monte Bianco ski club and the Romand ski club.

The youngsters from Ski Club Romand, which brings together the ski clubs of the Swiss cantons of Vaud, Geneva and Fribourg, stayed in Selvino for a week and enjoyed the work done on the slope so much that they have already booked themselves in for next year.

“For us it was the first time on the Neveplast,” said Theophile Cuche, coach and president of Ski Romand, adding, “The feedback from the trip to Selvino is definitely positive. The advantage of training on this type of material is that the sensations are really very similar to those you experience on snow. No dry training is worth the comparison. Here you use the same equipment that you use on snow and you can work on many technical aspects such as cornering and also conduction. It’s a shame that the piste is a bit short. If it were a few hundred metres longer it would be perfect and I am sure that even World Cup athletes would come here to train.”

Marco Ghilardi, Manager of Selvino Sport, agrees,

“As a coach and a person who has dedicated his life to skiing, seeing how many ski clubs from all over Italy and abroad have been able to hold summer training sessions on our slope has made me really happy. None of us are happy, in fact we are all very concerned about the problems of global warming, which is bringing glaciers and our sport to its knees. But I have always been convinced that the Neveplast slope can be a very good alternative for the training of ski athletes, as an alternative or alternative to the glaciers, and last summer we have had confirmation of this.”