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

[MissySki]

Were you at least able to get Zoey squared away?

Yes! Thank you for asking! Had to call a bunch of different places to find a pharmacy that had her medicine in stock though. That’s how I ended up in a town 40 minutes away, and at a grocery store I don’t usually frequent. It worked well though as I was able to shop during the time it took them to fill the prescription. I at least didn’t have to go into the pharmacy either since they had a drive through. She is now set on her drugs for around 2 months.

We also have more dog food and treats coming from Chewy.com today, so she’ll be set for around 4 months on that. I originally ordered extra food when this all started, but decided to order more because their delivery times are greatly increased from normal now so I started thinking it’d be good to stock up more just in case this goes on longer than we think and delivery gets further affected. Normally they deliver in 2 days, this time it’s taken almost 2 weeks. I sure am realizing how much I took fast delivery of everything for granted before this.. Since I didn’t go to Walmart I couldn’t get my bird food either, so I just ordered it from Amazon instead as I’m not going to do an extra trip for that. The current delivery window is 1.5-2 weeks as well.

 

[NewEnglandSkier]

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.

This is interesting--in my town the majority of patrons in grocery stores are wearing masks. Some people are using gloves, but not a majority. For the employees it is about 50/50--some are wearing masks but not all. In my town I have the impression that most people are playing by the rules. Many people are taking care to stand far apart from one another in line too. There have been times when a clerk has had to intervene and ask people to spread out, but not often. It helps that our stores have not been crowded though.
On the other end of the spectrum we have a neighbor who keeps having company over though--but they are in the minority in my observation in the neighborhood.

 

[Tvan]

Even if resorts are open, my personal risk assessment will look at multiple factors like: Social Distancing practices at the resort (lodge, lift lines, bathrooms) and the chances of getting hurt and needing medical attention (doctor’s office, emergency room, hospital), As balanced with my desire to ski and the number of active cases at the time.

This will be complicated calculus.

 

[marzNC]

Even if resorts are open, my personal risk assessment will look at multiple factors like: Social Distancing practices at the resort (lodge, lift lines, bathrooms) and the chances of getting hurt and needing medical attention (doctor’s office, emergency room, hospital), As balanced with my desire to ski and the number of active cases at the time.

This will be complicated calculus.

It will clearly be harder for working Divas who cannot get to the slopes midweek that easily. Perhaps driving to a regional ski resort for a ski vacation Sun-Fri will be worth considering.

 

[VickiK]

@marzNC as if I needed more justification to retire soon!
@Tvan I expect to be way more conscious in the ski lodges--like avoid them or take my own mask.
But I do like @mustski 's position, that is, if they're open, I will ski.

 

[Abbi]

I figure this is probably one thing I should remove from my 'OMG, I'm worried' list for now!

 

[mustski]

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!
.

This right here is the primary reason not to go even if they do open in spring. I think the warm weather of spring skiing is too risky. Everyone will be celebrating après on the "beach" at A Basin and in the parking lot at the Mill at Mammoth.

The spread from the European ski resorts was via bartenders who were infected. In my case, if they open next season, I will ski but I won't eat or drink at the resort.

 

[MissySki]

Sunday River sent out an email today saying that in the next few weeks they'd be announcing information regarding new plans for season pass renewals, including another extension of the spring deadline and a new payment plan. Glad to hear our current deadline of April 30'th is going to be pushed out again, and I'm curious to see how the payment plan will differ. Usually you can put $50 down and they take 3 or 4 payments monthly over the summer, so I wonder if they'll push those further out.

 

[snoWYmonkey]

I suspect that barring lawsuit risks, resorts will be open for those who dare. If my antibody testing comes back negative I will likely continue to self isolate until either very effective treatments and/or safe vaccines are available. That is, if I do not deplete my entire savings first.

 

[WaterGirl]

I dont see Mammoth Mountain opening any time soon. Mono county has the most cases per capita than any other county in California.

They are petitioning the govenor to have road blocks set up on the 203 to stop anyone who is not a local resident. They are pleading on social media to not visit. Most people are out of work and they have an extensive food bank system set up. They only have 2 ICU beds.

The Festival of Beers and Bluesapalooza Is Postponed to August 5–8, 2021.
Thats NEXT year.

I do see hopefully in a few months less restrictions and hopefully the parks and forests opening again to non group activities.

 

[marzNC]

The likelihood of ski resorts opening in Australia and New Zealand is very slim. Normally would be happening in June.

I was a bit surprised to read that Mt. Ruapehu in NZ hasn't given up on the 2020 season yet. New Zealand cut off access to travelers relatively early. They have been in a minimum 4-week lock down, called Level 4.

Here's what was sent via email to Ruapehu regulars recently.

"Tēnā koutou katoa,

As New Zealand continues to adjust to life under the COVID-19 alert level 4 and as we head into week three of lockdown, we want to update you on what our teams have been working through and the potential impact this could have on our business.

We have been busy modelling the potential impact COVID-19 may have on the coming winter using various scenarios based on the government's Alert Levels. The worst-case scenario of not being able to open for winter would mean a loss, and an increase in debt for RAL that is unacceptably high for both us and our Bank. The current uncertainty around lockdown levels means that we are currently working on whether it is possible to commit to the pre-winter costs of contracting labour and preparing the mountain, to at least keep the option open of skiing when we can. This is a month by month judgement that we will make in tandem with our Bank.

With the current lockdown and uncertainty around the reduction in alert levels we have paused as much expenditure as is practical whilst keeping the business operating. Our team has made sacrifices themselves to set RAL up for success in the future; a number of our team are on discretionary leave, are working reduced hours from home and have on average taken a 40% reduction in pay as we navigate through this period of uncertainty.

We have also been able to apply for, and have been granted, the wage subsidy. This has allowed us to keep all our current staff engaged with the business during this lockdown period.

One thing that is certain, if we do manage to open for winter 2020, our operations will be significantly different to what our guests have experienced in the past. This lockdown period puts us behind in our scheduled maintenance and, with the closure of borders and some of the skill sets we were going to engage from overseas, it is likely that not all facilities will be operational for winter 2020.

We have made the decision to defer our AGM until later this year with an update to be provided once we have certainty around a date.

We want to thank you all for your patience. We acknowledge that this is a difficult and uncertain time for our employees and all those in our region exposed to our uncertain outlook. When we have relevant new information, we will update as soon as we are able.

Stay safe and take care!

Nāku iti noa, nā
Murray Gribben & the RAL Board of Directors"

 

[Sheena]

I am still holding off on buying passes for next year. And haven’t yet paid for the kids ski program. If they announce the early bird pricing is going up, I may just go ahead. But right now it all seems so much up in the air.

 

[Christy]

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/

Travel is sure going to be tricky. Currently Seattle has only banned cruise ships until July 1. The cruise lines are actively booking Sea-AK trips for the summer. THIS summer!! They are offering great deals and people are biting. Guess how excited I'd be, as someone that lives in a place where we all have been doing an awesome job flattening the curve, at huge expense to kids, business owners, etc, to have these giant petri dishes disgorging 5000 people at a time from across the country into my city? I have to question the judgement of anyone that would get on a cruise ship in 2020, so I'm guessing this might not be the group that has been taking social distancing/etc seriously in the first place.

 

[MissySki]

I was just talking about this with my realtor sister. It will be interesting to see what happens. She is seeing some of what you could call irrational economic behavior at the moment. She listed a house in a Seattle suburb for $910k; within a day she had an offer for $920k from a couple, both with Amazon director level jobs, who'd been looking for a year and a half. Their best friends lived across the street. The house ticked all their boxes. Their high paying Amazon jobs aren't going anywhere. But after they placed the offer, family and friends with no particular expertise said, "are you crazy? Buying right now?" They were swayed and withdrew the offer. So now they are still in their rental house which of course means their fate (in terms of housing) is tied to their landlord's economic situation.

So my sister relists the house and the EXACT same thing happens. Amazon couple, parents live in the neighborhood, perfect house for them. They place the offer and family and friends descend with the "are you crazy" advice. Couple withdraws offer.

These can't be the only 2 examples out there. While certainly many people have been hit hard, an awful lot of people are doing just fine. How much of what happens in the market will come from emotion/fear rather than good economic decisions? Though it's hard to imagine places where there is a housing crunch and a lot of good jobs (Seattle, lots of places in CA) staying down for long.

I know vacation property is much more subject to economic vagaries and, probably, emotion and feelings about the future. Maybe this would be a good time for us to finally get something, but not with the hit our 401ks/investments just took we're not.

I just read that my county is the #1 place in the US where people own vacation homes. Almost 10% of people do.

I mean, I’d love if pricing fell off for Sunday River’s real estate market.. I want to buy in the next couple of years, but right now also doesn’t seem like the time to do it. Priced had been going up regularly due to limited inventory, so I definitely wouldn’t be too upset if it all fell back down. If things went significantly down, I might be tempted to buy sooner than I’d planned.

It will be interesting to see what happens with the seasonal rental market. I’m so darn indecisive about what to do and there aren’t a lot of options out there at the moment which makes it worse. If I don’t get a rental it’s not an option for me to ski at Sunday River regularly, it’s too far away for day trips and I need pet friendly accommodations. If I don’t get a rental, or decide to jump into buying early, I’m not sure where I would ski next season.. First world problems, but it makes me really anxious because I very much want to be there if things are open as usual and don’t want to miss out on opportunities.

 

[ilovepugs]

I mean, I’d love if pricing fell off for Sunday River’s real estate market.. I want to buy in the next couple of years, but right now also doesn’t seem like the time to do it. Priced had been going up regularly due to limited inventory, so I definitely wouldn’t be too upset if it all fell back down. If things went significantly down, I might be tempted to buy sooner than I’d planned.

It will be interesting to see what happens with the seasonal rental market. I’m so darn indecisive about what to do and there aren’t a lot of options out there at the moment which makes it worse. If I don’t get a rental it’s not an option for me to ski at Sunday River regularly, it’s too far away for day trips and I need pet friendly accommodations. If I don’t get a rental, or decide to jump into buying early, I’m not sure where I would ski next season.. First world problems, but it makes me really anxious because I very much want to be there if things are open as usual and don’t want to miss out on opportunities.

The MRG option is an open invite but no pressure! Haha! Though not sure how social distancing will affect everything...

Honestly Dr Pugs and I are truly reluctant to pull the trigger on buying a resort pass next year, we just don’t know how ski resorts can offer an enjoyable experience with appropriate social distancing. We will likely stick to uphilling and snowshoeing.

 

[MissySki]

The MRG option is an open invite but no pressure! Haha! Though not sure how social distancing will affect everything...

Honestly Dr Pugs and I are truly reluctant to pull the trigger on buying a resort pass next year, we just don’t know how ski resorts can offer an enjoyable experience with appropriate social distancing. We will likely stick to uphilling and snowshoeing.

The MRG option is an awesome one as well!! Definitely something I still have in mind, and appreciate very much on the offer. I mean, I could definitely use a seasonal program somewhere like that to get my skiing into better shape off piste too. Assuming a better snow year than this one.. But yeah this would also depend on the social distancing part and yet another pass decision. I hate all of the uncertainty! Lol MRG does have a single chair, I wonder if that will help for social distancing measures. The time I was there though, that line got LONG.

 

[ilovepugs]

MRG does have a single chair, I wonder if that will help for social distancing measures. The time I was there though, that line got LONG.

That’s why I’m skeptical about the resorts offering a good experience - it’s unlikely they’ll limit pass and ticket sales for social distancing and so lines could be very long.

I dunno though, with the economy in the toilet $1000-2000 in season passes plus all accompanying expenses might be a lot for some families and young people to swallow. Hard to know what will happen and I guess I will have to just wait it out.

 

[MissySki]

https://unofficialnetworks.com/2020/04/13/ski-resorts-reopen-covid/

Looks like some ski resorts in other countries, including China, are starting to reopen with new ways of operating due to Covid-19. Perhaps some hope to be gleaned from this though that resorts will reopen in some capacity next season.

 

[ski diva]

As we contemplate what's going to happen with skiing next season in the northern hemisphere, here's what's going on in the resorts in the southern hemisphere. An interesting read.

 

[ski diva]

Mod Note: I moved all the talk about grocery shopping, masks, real estate, and education to the COVID-19 GOING FORWARD thread, so we could reserve this one for discussing whether or not resorts will open.