• Women skiers, this is the place for you -- an online community without the male-orientation you'll find in conventional ski magazines and internet ski forums. At TheSkiDiva.com, you can connect with other women to talk about skiing in a way that you can relate to, about things that you find of interest. Be sure to join our community to participate (women only, please!). Registration is fast and simple. Just be sure to add [email protected] to your address book so your registration activation emails won't be routed as spam. And please give careful consideration to your user name -- it will not be changed once your registration is confirmed.

COVID closes Hunter Mountain for the day

ski diva

Administrator
Staff member
Well, this was disturbing news: Hunter Mountain (NY) didn't open today because a number of ski patrollers "excluded out of work relating to COVID-19." Hunter says it didn't have enough safety personnel available for mountain operations prior to opening. They offered complementary lift ticket coupons to anyone who showed up to ski for use on another day, and will re-assess whether or not they can open tomorrow.

So yeah, something else COVID-related that could happen at any ski area.

Sheesh.
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
Sure stinks for those who showed up none the wiser.. There were people there who had no idea what was happening, seems they did a really poor job of communicating with guests this morning. Of course we all need to expect the unexpected this season and go with the flow. Curious what happened exactly in relation to Covid.
 

newboots

Angel Diva
From their website:

Hunter Weather Forecast

Updated January 05, 2021 at 11:23 AM EST

Hunter Mountain will not be opening today, Jan. 5. The safety of our employees and guests is our top priority and we will always ensure that we have sufficient safety personnel available for mountain operations prior to opening. Unfortunately, this morning at Hunter Mountain, a number of ski patrollers excluded out of work relating to COVID-19 and as such we will not be opening the mountain. Guests who arrived to the resort but were unable to ski or ride are being provided with a complementary lift ticket coupon for use on another day. We will be assessing our ability to operate tomorrow, Jan. 6, and will share that information as soon as possible later today. We sincerely apologize to our guests for the inconvenience.
 

Jilly

Moderator
Staff member
That doesn't really say what's what with Covid-19. Are the patrollers sick or exposed, or do they not like the protocol practices...ie not being adhered too? Mask, social distancing? Sort of a protest?
 

ski diva

Administrator
Staff member
That doesn't really say what's what with Covid-19. Are the patrollers sick or exposed, or do they not like the protocol practices...ie not being adhered too? Mask, social distancing? Sort of a protest?

Good question.

I assumed that it was either infection or exposure, but that's just an assumption. Still, cagey language.
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
That doesn't really say what's what with Covid-19. Are the patrollers sick or exposed, or do they not like the protocol practices...ie not being adhered too? Mask, social distancing? Sort of a protest?

Right, some people on social media are speculating a patroller strike. I doubt they have any real knowledge of the situation though.
 

contesstant

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
This is one reason I have about zero patience for anti-maskers on the mountain (well, in general, too.) If patrol goes down with COVID, the mountain can't open. Since they all work together and in close quarters at times, if one goes down with it, there could be a lot of them quarantining at one time.
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
This is one reason I have about zero patience for anti-maskers on the mountain (well, in general, too.) If patrol goes down with COVID, the mountain can't open. Since they all work together and in close quarters at times, if one goes down with it, there could be a lot of them quarantining at one time.

I would hope Patrollers are following masking and distancing on the mountain as much as possible..
 

Susan L

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
This is one reason I have about zero patience for anti-maskers on the mountain (well, in general, too.) If patrol goes down with COVID, the mountain can't open. Since they all work together and in close quarters at times, if one goes down with it, there could be a lot of them quarantining at one time.
And of course the anti-maskers cannot think of the consequences of their decisions on others . It’s always me, me and me with them...
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
I'm hearing from someone who says they have an inside scoop (take that for whatever it's worth..) that the patrollers at Hunter didn't receive their normal bonus and walked out. That the Covid connection is that their bonus is tied to skier visits which is down because of Covid. Again, not from an official channel, so I'm not sure how true it is or not yet. However, given that I've seen multiple places people speculating that they walked out/are protesting something, perhaps it's heading in the right direction.. Where there's smoke there's fire and the rumor mill is doing a lot of talking right now :noidea:
 

newboots

Angel Diva
The rumor mill seems to have some connection with folks who want to believe that Covid is a hoax.

Just sayin'.

My vote is on the virus. And I might stay away for awhile. Saratoga, where the UK mutation (highly contagious) was discovered yesterday, is about a 90-mile drive from Hunter. And Albany, a little closer, is having a surge that they suspect may be related to the high-contagion mutation.
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
I'm curious why that correlation is being made? The person I'm hearing from isn't a hoax person at all.. :noidea: Not to say their source is accurate, and it surely is all a game of telephone at this point. I have no idea what the real story is, so I have no way to have an opinion on any of it either way.
 

newboots

Angel Diva
They’ve announced that they’ll be closed tomorrow, too.

@MissySki - I was looking at a discussion on another website and there was an accusation that Vail would publish a hoax about Covid as a coverup for a strike.

This assertion was countered by someone who lives in Hunter and said it wasn’t true.

Indeed, who knows? I think, though, that a quarantine of too many patrol seems quite likely, given the locker rooms and little huts they share, and the necessity for a number of people to quarantine if only one among them is positive. It’s just the language on the website that seems oddly phrased and vague, that may have set people off.
 

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
26,235
Messages
497,610
Members
8,503
Latest member
MermaidKelly
Top