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Ski Down and Mask Up — Resorts Try To Stay Safe In Pandemic Skiing Boom


dinneR

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It's been a big ski season here. Nordic gear is virtually sold out locally. You can't find a fatbike at the local shops. Alpine gear seems to be available, probably limited sizes.

Uphill travel is busy.

3” 24 HRS

237” SEASON

https://www.npr.org/2021/01/18/957221195/ski-down-and-mask-up-resorts-try-to-stay-safe-in-pandemic-skiing-boom

 

Eager to get out of the house and enjoy the outdoors, more people than ever are hitting the slopes on skis and snowboards.

"Oh, yeah. I mean, we sold probably a thousand more season passes this year than we ever had," says John DeVivo, the General Manager of Cannon Mountain in New Hampshire. "We were up about 20% in pass sales."

Those passes let skiers or snowboarders ski all season and can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars depending on the resort. DeVivo says there's also strong demand for single-day lift tickets too. "Every lift ticket that we put out there does sell."

DeVivo says he'd love to sell more — but to keep things COVID-safe, he's cut off additional season pass sales and is limiting the number of daily lift tickets.

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1 minute ago, Airehead said:

Are there limits on numbers of skiers that can be out on the hills?  Around here it is 50% of capacity

In theory yes. In practice, I don't think so. They limit the number of season passes sold and daily lift tix, but you can't limit how many season pass holders show up. The bus has limits too. I skipped buying a pass to Jackson Hole this year because of the bus issue and I figured lift lines would be longer than normal. I bought a pass to Snow King. It's never busy and it allows uphill as well as lift access. If the lifts are busy I can skin up.

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3 minutes ago, Prophet Zacharia said:

I forget, does Jackson Hole have a tram, or just lift chairs? I don’t know if I’d ride a tram for a few minutes, to be honest. I bet mask fidelity isn’t near 100% while on the ride.

Yes, a tram and two gondolas as well as about a dozen lifts. The tram is limited to 25 instead of 100 riders. I think gondolas are families or groups only. They created an uphill route if you want to bootpack or skin to the top.

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Covid is a big concern at Whistler, BC. since they found enough people from all over Canada comin' over now.

Outbreak of over 10 people at ski resort, Kelowna, BC.

In Banff..they are tryin'...to limit.  I'm not sure if there are exceptions. Right now, restaurants across Alberta can't having dining areas indoors.  We haven't gone to any mountain resort since covid.  Maybe after we both get vaccinations...

The thing is...we would have to stay in hotel, plus get food from restaurant where there are others around, even if sparse.. And eating outdoors when it's too cold doesn't work..after being outdoors for several hrs. doing stuff...you want to go inside a building to become warm, eat, etc.

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