What happens when a mask policy is violated?

[marzNC]

Schweitzer has been posting some interesting stuff on its blog

https://www.schweitzer.com/blog/schweitzer-life/covid-protocols-and-reopening-on-november-27/


https://www.schweitzer.com/blog/schweitzer-life/being-proactive---help-us-continue-to-shred/

Very interesting reading. Thanks for posting!

Clearly the pent up demand took Schweitzer by surprise over Thanksgiving weekend (first link).

Having no support for mask usage by the local government is a new wrinkle that I hadn't come across before, as noted in the second link from Dec. 3 (second link).



Part of Dec. 3 blog entry

 

[Jilly]

Tremblant was very good this weekend. I only observed staff asking one person to cover their nose too. He did it immediately. I was concerned about physical distancing in the lines. Side to side was good as the corral is larger, but when some guy runs up the back of you skis...you're a little too close!! I did have to ride 4/gondola, but everyone was masked up. Conversation was interesting though. Guesses on how long we'll be open.

I do feel sorry for some guys in particular that have quite the beaks...it's hard to keep the tube type coverings up.

 

[geargrrl]

Wow yikes, they need to nip that in the bud for sure!

Day 2 was much better, only because there were less people. DH talked to the new GM.... "we don't want to make people mad". I live in the land of deniers so folks get really belligerent at times about the mask thing. I will poke them with my ski pole if they get to close. I will say staff and ski school were masked up, just not all the patrons.

 

[santacruz skier]

I live in the land of deniers

That's really a shame. The only anti maskers here in my beach county are people who don't live here. Which makes me mad. Valley go home.

 

[geargrrl]

Very interesting reading. Thanks for posting!

Clearly the pent up demand took Schweitzer by surprise over Thanksgiving weekend (first link).

Having no support for mask usage by the local government is a new wrinkle that I hadn't come across before, as noted in the second link from Dec. 3 (second link).

View attachment 14289

Part of Dec. 3 blog entry
View attachment 14290

Oh it's a #### show around here. E WA isn't so bad. We have a statewide mandate but no enforcement element. It's up to staff and managers who then get abused by whomever they ask to mask up. In N Idaho, 30 miles away.... one city has a mandate, but county board of health votes it down. Sherriff says they will not enforce. Idaho has really high numbers and unfortunately there is a lot of cross border pollination. I do not regret my choice to socially isolate but it's getting old.

 

[sibhusky]

Oh it's a #### show around here. E WA isn't so bad. We have a statewide mandate but no enforcement element. It's up to staff and managers who then get abused by whomever they ask to mask up. In N Idaho, 30 miles away.... one city has a mandate, but county board of health votes it down. Sherriff says they will not enforce. Idaho has really high numbers and unfortunately there is a lot of cross border pollination. I do not regret my choice to socially isolate but it's getting old.

Ditto situation. County Commissioners will not support enforcement, same with the county attorney. Interim head of the Health Department quit, following the departure of the official one, due to the lack of support. Whitefish itself is pissed at the lack of support by the county, but even then they don't seem to have the balls to get their own police force to do enforcement, either. The mountain is not limiting ticket sales and their description of the chairlift situation sounds pretty "soft", so I'm not expecting much in the way of enforcement. When I saw the Schweitzer article I posted it here hoping they'd see that a neighbor was being pretty firm. I'm waiting to hear how it's going before I go. We're not open until the 10th. In the course of things in recent years, I wouldn't go until the 14th anyway, that lets the opening day and weekend excitement dissipate while everyone realizes Christmas is coming and they need to shop (I'm done).

Note. Kalispell is "redder" than Whitefish, and that's affecting mask usage. Their active cases per 1000 is therefore 31.2, while Whitefish is at 9.8. Unfortunately, the skiers statistically will be from outside Whitefish just due to higher populations.

 

[just jane]

I routinely have the same problem with people coming up the back of my skis... I’ve taken to just swinging my poles back and forth behind me to discourage crowding. It’s a little P/A but I don’t care. I just want them to back off, ideally without me having to snap at them. I’ll start with P/A and escalate to aggressive if I feel the need.

(Heh - our first day of the season, at Breck, our first time in line, I was watching how they were managing the lifts super closely. The default on a 6-seater if you were in a group of 2 seemed to be 2 people on one end, and a single on the other end. Which felt pretty good to me. At the very last minute just as the chair was coming around, me and DH were waiting on our end with a single guy at the opposite end and another single rushed the line and hopped on with us. I was so surprised and caught off guard I yelled, “WTF dude!” as the chair took off. He mumbled sorry but that was an awkward chair ride. I bet it felt more awkward for him than me though.)

 

[marzNC]

(Heh - our first day of the season, at Breck, our first time in line, I was watching how they were managing the lifts super closely. The default on a 6-seater if you were in a group of 2 seemed to be 2 people on one end, and a single on the other end. Which felt pretty good to me. At the very last minute just as the chair was coming around, me and DH were waiting on our end with a single guy at the opposite end and another single rushed the line and hopped on with us. I was so surprised and caught off guard I yelled, “WTF dude!” as the chair took off. He mumbled sorry but that was an awkward chair ride. I bet it felt more awkward for him than me though.)

I'd be inclined to stick a pole out sideways while loading to make it that much more obvious that no one is supposed to sit in the space in the middle.

Takes a little while to develop new habits. A solo skier trying to get in as many laps as possible in a few hours is likely to be the type to try to squeeze in at the last minute. Bet he'll think twice the next time.

Funny totally off-topic story . . . when Alta added conveyor loading to the old Supreme triple (since replaced), it was the advanced/expert skiers who had lots of trouble the first season. They were timing sliding thru the access gate without stopping. (Separate from the RFID gate.) Those gates were timed to the chairs, not based on the touch of someone's knee on the gate itself. But doing that with the moving belt meant they would go too fast and end up almost off the loading zone before the chair picked them up. It was a relatively short conveyor belt. Intermediates who stopped at the gate and then simply dropped onto the belt when the gate opened did just fine.

 

[diymom]

Just a joke, but it would take the guessing out of the loading game if ski areas had color coded vests to borrow with loading preferences on them— one for only solo and pod, one for ok with distanced sharing but only if masked, and one for I don’t care.

 

[marzNC]

Just a joke, but it would take the guessing out of the loading game if ski areas had color coded vests to borrow with loading preferences on them— one for only solo and pod, one for ok with distanced sharing but only if masked, and one for I don’t care.

I saw a comment on another forum joking about preferring that people who don't care NOT wear a mask. The idea being that then you can see them coming and easily stay far away.

 

[StayWarm]

I was back up at Loveland yesterday and it was a much better experience than the week prior in terms of mask enforcement but my read continues to be that enforcement depends SO MUCH on whether the specific liftie who's on shift is on top of it or not. We happened to be there when a massively energetic and jokey guy was working (and working the crowd), and he had no hesitation in yelling at folks in line (including my favorite, "You are right next to the sign that says MASKS REQUIRED.").

The most helpful thing, really, was just that they've opened an additional lift, so it was possible to spread out more across the mountain and after the first base lift, we didn't stand in line at all. They're still only 9% open.

 

[TNtoTaos]

I was back up at Loveland yesterday and it was a much better experience than the week prior in terms of mask enforcement but my read continues to be that enforcement depends SO MUCH on whether the specific liftie who's on shift is on top of it or not. We happened to be there when a massively energetic and jokey guy was working (and working the crowd), and he had no hesitation in yelling at folks in line (including my favorite, "You are right next to the sign that says MASKS REQUIRED.").

The most helpful thing, really, was just that they've opened an additional lift, so it was possible to spread out more across the mountain and after the first base lift, we didn't stand in line at all. They're still only 9% open.

So what that tells me is that guests have to notify the mgmt if the particular liftie on duty needs a refresher course on how to enforce mask safety. It takes a village...

 

[marzNC]

So what that tells me is that guests have to notify the mgmt if the particular liftie on duty needs a refresher course on how to enforce mask safety. It takes a village...

Should also tell mgmt about lifties that are doing a great job.

 

[marzNC]

Apparently at Snowshoe the chant on some lift lines was "Cover Your Nose So We Don't Close." There were staff walking along the lines to remind people to mask up.

 

[TNtoTaos]

Should also tell mgmt about lifties that are doing a great job.

Absolutely! Good point!

 

[DeannaInTheWest]

I was getting on lift 2 (normally a 3 person lift) at Loveland last week. My partner & I slid up to the red line. Just as I started looking back for the chair, the lift attendant started yelling. Some kid had jumped on the chair, and I ended up sitting on his lap as the chair moved forward!!!! The lift was stopped & the the kid was pulled off seat (after I got disentangled) while being berated. The liftie was yelling at him about "social distancing" In my head in thinking, when would this EVER be ok? Pandemic or no, how rude to slide in someone's seat while they are waiting in appropriate spot! After the lift got going, we looked back & the seat stealer was not in the next chair.

 

[MissySki]

I was getting on lift 2 (normally a 3 person lift) at Loveland last week. My partner & I slid up to the red line. Just as I started looking back for the chair, the lift attendant started yelling. Some kid had jumped on the chair, and I ended up sitting on his lap as the chair moved forward!!!! The lift was stopped & the the kid was pulled off seat (after I got disentangled) while being berated. The liftie was yelling at him about "social distancing" In my head in thinking, when would this EVER be ok? Pandemic or no, how rude to slide in someone's seat while they are waiting in appropriate spot! After the lift got going, we looked back & the seat stealer was not in the next chair.

Wow, yeah I’d be pretty upset about this pandemic or not!

 

[Jilly]

That's not OK no matter when.

 

[just jane]

WAT?? That’s ridiculous! Wow.

 

[StayWarm]

I was getting on lift 2 (normally a 3 person lift) at Loveland last week. My partner & I slid up to the red line. Just as I started looking back for the chair, the lift attendant started yelling. Some kid had jumped on the chair, and I ended up sitting on his lap as the chair moved forward!!!! The lift was stopped & the the kid was pulled off seat (after I got disentangled) while being berated. The liftie was yelling at him about "social distancing" In my head in thinking, when would this EVER be ok? Pandemic or no, how rude to slide in someone's seat while they are waiting in appropriate spot! After the lift got going, we looked back & the seat stealer was not in the next chair.

Super not okay! I'm glad no one was injured. My read on Lift 2 so far this season is that it's getting a lot more beginners than usual -- maybe this kid lost control and couldn't stop at the gate? Regardless, not okay. Now that they've opened more of the lifts over in the Valley (focused beginner terrain, for those not familiar with Loveland), my hope is that more of the folks who are still getting used to lifts will stick over there. The last time I took Lift 2 it was an obstacle course getting down -- learners flopped over left and right.