In the early 1960s, Edoardo Allemand, a ski instructor and profound connoisseur of the Sommeiller area, and Piero Bosticco, director of the ski lift company, conceived a crazy idea for those times: to create a summer ski centre on the Sommeiller glacier. The idea took shape and Va.Ro. was created, an organisation for the development of the Rochemolles Valley, in which ski instructors, hoteliers, shopkeepers and holidaymakers all joined forces. One of the first problems Va.Ro. had to face was the construction of a carriageway to reach the 3,009-metre Colle del Sommeiller. Immediately afterwards, the ski-lifts were built: initially two were positioned, the Niblè (starting at an altitude of 3,000 metres and arriving at 3,150 metres) and the Ambin (from an altitude of 2,800 metres to 2,950 metres). In 1976, a third ski lift was added, the Sommeiller, starting at an altitude of 2,850 metres and arriving at 3,200 metres.
The “Rifugio Ambin” was also built, consisting of a masonry base topped by two metal prefabs connected by a covered tunnel. On the ground floor of the first building were a shop, staff rooms, toilets, boiler and cellar, and on the first floor a kitchen, an 80-seat restaurant, a bar with jukebox and a panoramic sun terrace. The second building, on the other hand, initially contained 20 rooms with 50 beds and was later expanded with four more rooms for a further 12 beds. The hut had all the comforts: electricity was supplied by a generator with a diesel engine and water was initially provided by a reservoir located at the foot of the Rognosa d’Etiache and later also by a water pump that drew from the bottom of the glacial lake.
The Sommeiller Glacier summer ski centre was opened in the summer of 1965. A regular shuttle service was also activated to take tourists and staff from Bardonecchia to the Sommeiller Pass. This was the beginning of a period of growth: the ski school grew to have nine instructors with as many minibuses to transport clients from Bardonecchia. However, in the late winter of 1969, an avalanche broke off from the slopes of the Rognosa d’Etiache, behind the hut, and hit it, seriously damaging it; at the beginning of the summer season it was partially rebuilt and protective works were carried out at the same time. Difficult years followed… the heavy snowfall increased the running costs: every year, at the beginning of the season, metres of snow had to be cleared from the carriage road leading to the pass, and excavation work had to be carried out around the departure and arrival stations of the lifts to make them emerge from the snow. The VA.RO. managed to keep the ski lifts open until the summer of 1984, and the refuge until the following summer, but from that point on, everything was abandoned and the glacier began to retreat drastically until it almost completely disappeared.
