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I hate to bring this up......

nopoleskier

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I'm an optimist so I will say they will open. Actually I'm hoping I'm skiing Mammoth or ABasin or ?? this summer! I'm wondering if next season they'll have daily limits like deer valley? I would think they'll set up better lines with more distancing. Seems could be Impossible in some lift line areas at some mts.

I'm going to wait til nearly the last day to buy Passes; Ikon/Gore will do payment plan and hope for the best. I'm not over not being able to ski yet so planning next years trips using my banked air miles is always fun. Stay safe and well.
 

skibum4ever

Angel Diva
@nopoleskier I too am hoping to ski Mammoth or A-Basin this season. That would certainly be a good omen for having a ski season in 2020/21.

I will feel really silly if I can't ski my new skis next winter. I too am typically an optimist, but Covid-19 is playing havoc with my head. I no longer have any expectations of anything.
 

mustski

Angel Diva
Wonder about resorts with large cable car/trams (think Squaw, Heavenly) or even smaller gondolas jamming all those skiers together?
What will be the new normal?

If there are still concerns, I would guess the new normal will be masks and social distancing on the lifts.

I’m hopeful the whole season won’t be impacted, but I do have concern on whether the season will be shortened on one end or the other or in the middle if there is some resurgence.. This is making it especially difficult for me to determine what to do about passes, as well as finding a seasonal rental which I have yet to secure. I sure don’t want to pay thousands of dollars for a rental I can’t use, but I want a rental if the mountain is open. Certainly is a dilemma all around.. and I’m in complete indecision about what to do except to wait as long as possible on anything that requires a downpayment right now.
I’m buying my pass. The reality is that the economy has to open again. Real Estate is taking a huge hit. If anything, seasonal rentals will be cheaper than usual so hold off for now - or consider purchasing. I predict that property values will drop way down - particularly vacation properties.

I think it hinges on whether or not we have a widely deployed functional vaccine. The threat of a second wave once restrictions ease is of great concern.
We will not have a vaccine by then. However, the global economy cannot remain in pause forever. Ski resorts will open with some degree of health awareness in place. Me? I plan to ski.
 

newboots

Angel Diva
Our governor was asked if we have to remain in "Stay home - Stay safe" mode until there's an effective, widely-available vaccine. He said probably not. Assuming testing can be brought up to speed, he said it should be possible to identify clusters, trace contacts, and quarantine, and keep the rest of the community reasonably safe. It won't be possible to stop the spread of the disease, but to gain some control over it.

I haven't read that there's convincing evidence that this virus is seasonal. Does anyone know? Brazil, other South American countries, and Australia have been hit pretty hard, as well as Southeast Asia.

map:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive...&region=TOP_BANNER&context=storyline_menu#map
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
I haven't read that there's convincing evidence that this virus is seasonal. Does anyone know? Brazil, other South American countries, and Australia have been hit pretty hard, as well as Southeast Asia.
The reality is that COVID-19 has spread in all sorts of climates worldwide in the last few months. China is a big country. The initial spread covered a wide range of climates. COVID-19 reached S. America and Africa a bit later, but the numbers are growing there at the same alarming rates as happened in southern Europe, then northern Europe, and the U.S.

I can post links to relevant articles in the COVID-19 Forward thread if you like.
 

ilovepugs

Angel Diva
Haven’t read the entire thread, but I’m chiming in to say that I, too, haven’t purchased my main pass yet because of my concern over next season. It’s hard to imagine how the bigger resorts would be able to operate profitably while maintaining sufficient social distancing measures.

That said, I did pick up an uphill pass for Bolton Valley and hope that social distancing measures will be relaxed enough to use it.

Dr Pugs thinks that the VT Health Department will have to develop some sort of classification system to allow for periodic limited reopening. I don’t think this opinion is based on any inside info. But given how tourism dependent VT’s economy is, the next 18 months will be devastating for our state :(
 

SarahXC

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I appreciate hearing all of your responses. Helps to know other Divas are having the same decision challenges as I am. It will be very hard not to have ski season to look forward to should that come. Here are two articles that *might* be relevant... but in the end who knows what forecasts will be right and which restrictions will actually occur?

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/upshot/coronavirus-four-benchmarks-reopening.html

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/08/coronavirus-when-normal-expert-health-care-172005
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
I’m not a huge optimist in everyday life as is, I’m more of a realist bordering on pessimist.. but I think the idea of being able to ski in a couple of months from now (especially having to travel across the country to do so) at resorts who have let all of their staff go and haven’t been doing anything at the areas to maintain.. seems wildly unrealistic to me. Especially because if only one or two resorts were to open, they’d be completely overrun, and I’m not sure the powers that be could allow that?? Who knows though, crazier things have happened, like the way we are quarantined right now!

I’m saying this also because yesterday it started being discussed by RI’s governor that there is a chance that weddings will not be able to happen all summer due to large gatherings still being discouraged at that time. You should see the local wedding Facebook groups, the brides are going off the deep end.. but it’s a potential reality they need to prepare themselves for. I can’t see ski areas being different in that regard, but who knows, no guarantees either way at this point.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
I've been reading recently that lifting the lock-down procedures too early could lead to a re-emergence, or "second wave," of the virus. That's what's happening in Singapore now.
In general, there will be ongoing "waves" in the coming years as long as there aren't significant numbers of people who are vaccinated. That's essentially what happens with regular flu that didn't originate outside humans. There are fatalities for the flu annually all around the world. But the number of people hospitalized for the flu don't come close to overwhelming a region's hospitals.

Japan is also starting a second wave. The concern there is whether or not community spread is already out of control in a Japanese few cities. For Singapore and Hong Kong, the thinking is that people who returned home from other countries brought COVID-19 back. In particular from the U.S. or Europe some time in March. However, they still have a chance for "containment" that involves 14-day quarantine for people who test positive and contact tracing.

April 6, WIRED
The Asian Countries That Beat Covid-19 Have to Do It Again
Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan had flattened the curve. Then travelers from the US and Europe began reimporting the virus
https://www.wired.com/story/the-asian-countries-that-beat-covid-19-have-to-do-it-again/
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Especially because if only one or two resorts were to open, they’d be completely overrun, and I’m not sure the powers that be could allow that??
For COVID-19, there is an added factor when it comes to re-opening ski resorts. It's become pretty clear that ski resorts in more than one country were sources of community spread by people who were infected while on a ski vacation. The countries that come to mind are Iceland, Austria, Scandinavian countries, Mexico, and Australia. Ski resorts in Italy, Austria (Ischgl), Colorado (Vail, Aspen) have been mentioned in news reports.

Large stores like major supermarket chains or Walmart are limiting the number of people who can be in the building. Hopefully that means more people are learning what's safe behavior. Perhaps the smaller independent ski resorts/areas could limit the number of season tickets and/or day tickets like Powder Mountain does and have a season for 2020-21? Or at least re-open in December and see how it goes.
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
For COVID-19, there is an added factor when it comes to re-opening ski resorts. It's become pretty clear that ski resorts in more than one country were sources of community spread by people who were infected while on a ski vacation. The countries that come to mind are Iceland, Austria, Scandinavian countries, Mexico, and Australia. Ski resorts in Italy, Austria (Ischgl), Colorado (Vail, Aspen) have been mentioned in news reports.

Large stores like major supermarket chains or Walmart are limiting the number of people who can be in the building. Hopefully that means more people are learning what's safe behavior. Perhaps the smaller independent ski resorts/areas could limit the number of season tickets and/or day tickets like Powder Mountain does and have a season for 2020-21? Or at least re-open in December and see how it goes.

Oh I am hopeful for resorts managing for next season, my response was more from a couple of posts up discussing the potential for A Basin and/or Mammoth to reopen this summer.. I can’t imagine they’d want to be beacons for travel after, as you said, we know what hot spots that caused ski resorts to be in this whole thing.

I’m also not so sure how much some people are treating this seriously still in grocery stores. I had to go to one yesterday, hadn’t been to any store in over 3 weeks.. I had my mask on and gloves, well I was in the super minority even though there are official advisories to wear masks in public at all times here right now. There were a good amount of people in the store, and most were not even following social distancing or the fact that the store has arrows on the floor to mark one way access to each aisle so you are not passing each other so closely. The employees had no PPE at all, and were congregated in little groups chatting both in the store and at registers. They did have the plexi glass partitions directly in front of the cashiers, but then the credit card pay station is diagonal to them and you are still within 6 feet for sure. I didn’t feel like the workers were very protected. I’d think they should at least have gloves since they have to touch everyone’s merchandise etc. I definitely don’t plan on going back to a store anytime in the near future.
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
Here’s some speaking to social gatherings “hopefully” being more normal by the fall from Fauci. He thinks school will be able to resume in the fall, but summer camps more likely to be impacted. So I’d also take that as, hopefully ski resorts can open in the late fall/winter..! Of course even he doesn’t know as he says, I’ll take his educated guess though

https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/dr-fauci-says-us-should-be-able-to-reopen-schools-in-fall
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
There were a good amount of people in the store, and most were not even following social distancing or the fact that the store has arrows on the floor to mark one way access to each aisle so you are not passing each other so closely. The employees had no PPE at all, and were congregated in little groups chatting both in the store and at registers. They did have the plexi glass partitions directly in front of the cashiers, but then the credit card pay station is diagonal to them and you are still within 6 feet for sure. I didn’t feel like the workers were very protected. I’d think they should at least have gloves since they have to touch everyone’s merchandise etc. I definitely don’t plan on going back to a store anytime in the near future.
Agree that there are still plenty of people who don't understand how COVID-19 can be spread by people with no symptoms. However, I've found that even supermarkets in the same chain vary in terms of both how customers act and what percentage of staff are being careful. Timing makes a difference too.

As with snow conditions, there isn't really a substitute for checking out a location in person at varying times. Seeing a TV news report showing a line outside a supermarket is really unhelpful in terms of predicting what is going on inside the supermarkets a couple miles from my house, or a Trader Joe's that is a 20-min drive.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Here’s some speaking to social gatherings “hopefully” being more normal by the fall from Fauci. He thinks school will be able to resume in the fall, but summer camps more likely to be impacted. So I’d also take that as, hopefully ski resorts can open in the late fall/winter..! Of course even he doesn’t know as he says, I’ll take his educated guess though

https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/dr-fauci-says-us-should-be-able-to-reopen-schools-in-fall
What most destination resorts, and many independent resorts, are hoping for is not just opening for ski season but also to get in a few "green season" months. For my home mountain, Massanutten (northern VA, timeshare resort), the summer season is usually when all the units are fully booked. Losing the entire summer would be much more of a business disaster than losing a couple weeks of ski season in March. Mountain towns in the Rockies depend a lot on summer revenue from festivals and tourism in general in June-August.
 

Abbi

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
A friend is an environmental engineer and deals with DHS on a daily basis. And not loving it of course. The following comment started from a rant about her husband wanting to go mountain biking and ended with people who won’t stay out of groups. "Sometimes being an adult means that you have to delay gratification and do something for the greater good."
 

Abbi

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Oh I am hopeful for resorts managing for next season, my response was more from a couple of posts up discussing the potential for A Basin and/or Mammoth to reopen this summer.. I can’t imagine they’d want to be beacons for travel after, as you said, we know what hot spots that caused ski resorts to be in this whole thing.

I’m also not so sure how much some people are treating this seriously still in grocery stores. I had to go to one yesterday, hadn’t been to any store in over 3 weeks.. I had my mask on and gloves, well I was in the super minority even though there are official advisories to wear masks in public at all times here right now. There were a good amount of people in the store, and most were not even following social distancing or the fact that the store has arrows on the floor to mark one way access to each aisle so you are not passing each other so closely. The employees had no PPE at all, and were congregated in little groups chatting both in the store and at registers. They did have the plexi glass partitions directly in front of the cashiers, but then the credit card pay station is diagonal to them and you are still within 6 feet for sure. I didn’t feel like the workers were very protected. I’d think they should at least have gloves since they have to touch everyone’s merchandise etc. I definitely don’t plan on going back to a store anytime in the near future.

Were you at least able to get Zoey squared away?
 

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