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A week ago the webcam pointing to the Plan Maison, in the Cervinia area, showed the images of the lift’s exit and, to tell the truth, also large groups of people waiting to get on the chair lift. No longer. The square where the skiers crowded – “all athletes”, specifies the Cervino spa – is no longer visible, only that area was “pixelated” in the video camera image. The company that manages the plants already once, at the opening of the season, in November, had to defend itself against the accusation of having created gatherings at the ticket offices. The images of those queues, in Valtournenche, had gone around the world, fueling the discussion about the safety of ski resorts during the pandemic. Then came the government’s decision to close them all, although Cervinia had always dismissed the accusation of having been the cause of this decision.
Skiing, Cervinia opens the season with two thousand skiers, controversy due to overcrowding
The ski season on the Breuil Cervinia slopes started with a long queue at the ticket offices. Everyone wears a mask and whoever has forgotten it receives one from the company that manages the plants. But on the cable car that goes up to Plan Maison and then to Plateau Rosa, storage is guaranteed, just as there is no distance on the line that goes up to the ski lifts. You can see it in the photographs published by users on social networks: in the cable car that takes the skiers to Plan Maison there was no personal distancing: the cabins started with maximum capacity. The images have caused a lot of controversy. The current regulations in Val d’Aosta also foresee the total capacity in cable cars, cable cars and chair lifts. On the first day on the snow, more than two thousand ski passes were sold in the Cervino Ski Paradise area. “The protocol has been respected by all skiers, who have shown that they know the rules disclosed for several days – explains the company that published the images of the start of the station on social networks – the queue at the ticket office was managed in a safe in the ‘outdoors thanks also to the collaboration of the police forces’. The eleven ticket offices and automatic payment stations of the Cervino Turismo consortium have been opened to get rid of the large number of people waiting. “We recommend buying the daily pass preferably online, remembering that it is always possible to do it from the day before,” explains the company. The beautiful sunny day favored fans who were not held back by anti-contagion rules. “There were no queues at the ski lifts, as well as on the slopes, where the distance is natural – the company comments. Only the elevators further down the valley have experienced more crowding, resolved in a few minutes without major hiccups. “
The government has allowed them to be kept open only for athletes, which is why Cervino Spa says it has. But on the webcam, those also disappeared. The Plan Maison video camera captures the departure of the chairlift every day from 07:30 to 17:00 with a 360-degree view of the chairlift. Now, however, that webcam no longer shows the parking lot, while the rest of the system is clearly visible: looking at the footage of the tracks it appears that the parking area has been darkened: in fact, that is the only area that does not is clearly seen in the shot.
“The heavy snowfalls of last week damaged the camera,” they explain from Cervino spa, thus rejecting the accusation of having darkened them so as not to show the groups of skiers waiting to get on the chairlift. The one at the plant at an altitude of 2,500 meters would be the only chamber damaged by the heavy snowfall in recent days. In the early afternoon the company, with a lengthy press release, provided another explanation:
“The camera was mounted in the autumn in the position seen in the newspapers (on a pylon of the La Vieille ski lift), since its previous positioning exposed it to a high risk of lightning that entailed constant and costly maintenance.
However, since mid-November it became known that even the new positioning was not final, as vibrations from the moving ski lift caused the camera to malfunction.
For this reason, after a new analysis it was decided that in view of the future and expected opening of the systems, the webcam should be repositioned on the roof of the Chalet that houses the controller of the same system. However, this solution required work to obscure part of the images, since privacy on the one hand and compliance with the workers’ statute on the other require us not to make people recognizable and not to monitor those who work for Cervino SpA pursuant. of their duties.
In light of all the above, having decided that the move would take place in the current week based on the availability of the employees who were to take care of it, some obfuscation tests were carried out on December 5.
Erroneously, at the end of the test work, the system was not restored to the basic mode, also because on December 8 the move was expected in any case, as it happened then. It is certainly an internal error of society, which however is probably due in particular to the excitement of these days.
Proof of the lack of fraudulent intention of the company is the fact that Panomax records the images and the content of the “processed” day 3 December has not been altered in any way.
Also, Cervino has another webcam located in the neighboring area.
We conclude by noting that every day our offices communicate and reiterate to clients the rules to follow, even in the case of queues that may arise due to breakdowns.
All ski clubs have a behavior formulary and so do our employees, who undoubtedly must be sensitized in an even more convinced and profound way about their tasks given the current situation.
There will still be work to be done on the responsibility of individuals in the face of this moment.
Cervino SpA certainly does everything possible every day to guarantee the possibility of training for those who are permitted by law ”.
