2012 Montana Conditions, Stoke and Whatev Thread

[yeahman]

So Whitefish's covid plan is to get rid of the singles line and require masks in loading and unloading areas. Which is pretty much the "plan" for Snowbowl, Discovery, Big Sky, Great Divide, and the rest of our Montana ski areas. Maybe Bridger needs to just say fuck it, do what they can to promote masks and distancing, and let the chips fall where they may. I mean if they really want to do something that will make an actual difference, just close the lodges. Eat at your car.

I dunno. I understand their concern for the community but they are setting themselves up for a lot of grief, with questionable benefit, if they are the only ski area in the state requiring reservations.

[Bunion 2020]

Its not going to be just the parking lot crew hanging out at Checkpoint Charlie.

I fully expect you will see Bob P. there along with other Dept. Heads.

"Got a problem, this is Bob, he is the GM, take it up with him."

I dunno. I understand their concern for the community but they are setting themselves up for a lot of grief, with questionable benefit, if they are the only ski area in the state requiring reservations.

Or, they are far ahead of everyone else and we (the royal we) are downplaying the hazard.

No one knows how any of this will play out.

Big Sky could be closed by Christmas.

[I Skied Bandini Mountain]

Ski when you can, where you can and call it good.

Trying to get a day in at BB or BS might be the least of our worries in a few months.

[t-the-east]

I too carry chains.

Oh the ironing

[idahospud]

Or, they are far ahead of everyone else and we (the royal we) are downplaying the hazard.

No one knows how any of this will play out.

Big Sky could be closed by Christmas.

Two chances. Is there an information asymmetry here? My guess is a very solid no, they're working with the same information that the rest of us jokers have.

Bridger could be closed by Christmas.

[Bunion 2020]

Yep, everything could be shuttered again.

Montana case numbers are starting to become worrisome.

[yeahman]

Montana case numbers are starting to become worrisome.

No doubt. Rumor has it if you think case numbers are scary, you should see the results of the fecal testing they are doing. Waaaay more virus in the community than people realize.

Went on the BS website a couple days ago to look into the refund/rollover process. I guess I was the first person to do this because the form you need to fill out did not work. I emailed them and they made some adjustments and now it works. December 10 is the decision deadline. Can't see how anything will improve in the meantime, but I guess we'll see.

[MontuckyFried]

For those worried about being able to get some lift served skiing in this winter, this may be your answer:
https://www.showdownmontana.com/

Knowing that place, crowds will be nil to minimal, reservations and all that nonsense likely won't be necessary, lift tix are still cheap, and above all, the snow should be plentiful. Couldn't find any COVID related announcements from them though, so not sure what's going on over there.

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

It is what it is. I bought a midweek BB pass for the days I only have a couple hours around work. Depending on how far in advance reservations need to be made this pass could end up somewhat unusable. There are many Bozeman people with the same predicament. It's definitely about as "1st world" as problems go. I assume they will detail the reservation system before pass cancellation deadline?

[Hodgge]

I have no data to back this up - but I feel like outside of the +20" epic days and weekends with really good snow, BB's crowds are pretty manageable and getting a reservation shouldn't be too hard.

[CountryFunk]

Yikes!! Wonder why they aren't making the fecal testing results public ... ? Earlier in the thread you mentioned Disco's operating plan - Where did you see it? I don't see anything on their website.

[idahospud]

Yikes!! Wonder why they aren't making the fecal testing results public ... ? Earlier in the thread you mentioned Disco's operating plan - Where did you see it? I don't see anything on their website.

I had the same thought re: publicly releasing those results. I'd love to get a better sense of how widespread it is throughout Bozeman right now.

[total_immortal]

For those worried about being able to get some lift served skiing in this winter, this may be your answer:
https://www.showdownmontana.com/

Knowing that place, crowds will be nil to minimal, reservations and all that nonsense likely won't be necessary, lift tix are still cheap, and above all, the snow should be plentiful. Couldn't find any COVID related announcements from them though, so not sure what's going on over there.

I'm seriously considering it, I just don't want to have to drive 2+ hours each way to ski. Like many folks, I can sneak out from work on weekdays and depending on how the reservations are set-up that may not fly this season.

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

Yeah, if its some system where reservations need to be made 24-48 hrs ahead of time the sneak out before a noon work meeting thing won't work so well depending on the type of work you do.

[Hodgge]

I don't see why they couldn't have a system where you could make a reservation day of, assuming space is available. If they're allocating percentages for pass holders and day tickets, you just take reservations for each group until there's no more spots left, no?

I feel like a 24-48 hour out system would not work well. People would just be reserving every day on the off chance they can go skiing and then not always showing up.

[yeahman]

Yikes!! Wonder why they aren't making the fecal testing results public ... ? Earlier in the thread you mentioned Disco's operating plan - Where did you see it? I don't see anything on their website.

I think it's something they have started testing recently and probably the information is for their own monitoring. I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise since the CDC has always estimated that 10X as many people are infected with the virus than show up in the case counts. We're probably better off not knowing lol.

As for Disco's plan or any of the other areas, I'm just assuming that any ski area that has made zero announcements about reservations, etc., by this time isn't going to implement such a system but will just follow social distancing guidelines and hope for the best. If the counties crack down, then they may be forced to come up with a plan or cap numbers. Disco is a ghost town on weekdays, so really the only issue is weekends. They will probably have to do something about the lodge because it gets packed. But yeah, I'm just making assumptions and don't have any concrete info about Disco's plan. Whitefish and Snowbowl do have some info up which basically amounts to what I said. Great Divide is building a new mid-mountain lodge to spread out the cheese fry crowds, but when I asked them about limiting skier numbers they said they have no intention of doing that as of now.

[CountryFunk]

Three comments;

1.) The frustration of dealing with a reservation system run by any of the M&P ski hills would likely limit skier #'s without any cap - no way are they set up to handle that.
B.) Disco was having record mid-week days last spring during that short window when they were still open and BB and BS were shut down. Sssshhhh!
iii.) Kevin's potential buyer who backed-out pre-covid should be counting his lucky stars.

[yeahman]

Heh, Disco isn't exactly a secret, obviously. Bottom line is any ski area that limits numbers or shuts down is just going to push skier traffic off onto other areas, as happened last spring. Too bad the Montana areas can't band together into some sort of "all or nothing" approach to prevent that. Never happen though.

[jeremiahyawnson]

Yikes!! Wonder why they aren't making the fecal testing results public ... ?

They do report these on the Healthy Gallatin Website, though it looks like the posted data is a week out.
https://www.healthygallatin.org/coro...stewater-data/

[jeremiahyawnson]

I generally agree with most of your post except these two lines. Bridger *should* know their operating capacity during a normal season, so they could say that they plan to open at 25% capacity and ramp up to 75% if things go smoothly. A little insight into how hard it will be to get a reservation would help a lot of people with their decision.

I don't think toilet capacity is going to be the bottleneck (most everyone already pees on the mountain), I think managing the lift lines will be the bottleneck. The Bridger lift line doesn't have a ton of space to expand and Schlasman's will be hard to manage on busier days once the line extends out of the mazes (maybe a thing of the past?) . Schlasman's unloading area is pretty tight as well and is already a junk show on busy days.

Another interesting aspect will be enforcement for the entitled assholes who show up without a reservation and try and sneak/demand a lift ride. I'm not sure the lifties will want to deal with some of the shenanigans that will inevitably happen.

ETA: Whitefish sold a record number of season passes this year so I'm not sure we can count on fewer pass holders this season...https://www.kbzk.com/news/local-news...son-pass-sales

You're probably right that bathrooms are not the worst of it. And cold days will make capacity numbers that worked smoothly on *normal temp days seem dangerous so I could see them waiting to set the bar until they've experienced a cold/snowy day.

I'll be keeping my ass warm in the bootpack; but I wonder... hiking with a mask (oh god, the sweat)?

[S_jenks]

Heh, Disco isn't exactly a secret, obviously. Bottom line is any ski area that limits numbers or shuts down is just going to push skier traffic off onto other areas, as happened last spring. Too bad the Montana areas can't band together into some sort of "all or nothing" approach to prevent that. Never happen though.

The Montana day pass discounts for holding a season pass anywhere has always been nice. A statewide pass with a couple days at each resort would be hella awesome, especially if you already ski at several resorts during the season.

Disco’s biggest secret is that it is too far away from any ‘destination’ resort to be considered one itself. Always entertaining to see anaconda and butte skiers get pissed whenever the Missoula/Bozeman shows up on a dump day.

[CountryFunk]

They do report these on the Healthy Gallatin Website, though it looks like the posted data is a week out.
https://www.healthygallatin.org/coro...stewater-data/

Good tip - somewhat similar page here https://www.lccountymt.gov/health/co...dashboard.html for Lewis and Clark county.

[Micol]

one of u guys should buy that $1000 suby legacy wagon in gear swap for a Bozo to BS runner and leave your main whip at home...jus sayin,,,carry on with the pass discussion...stil wondering if i made the right call on sellin out of the Hill mansion...

[Bunion 2020]

^^^ Hill is in the midst of a major renovation including sheathing and siding.

[Micol]

^^^ Hill is in the midst of a major renovation including sheathing and siding.

^yep WRG got me out (and did a fine job i might add ) before the last $8k assessment or whatever is coming....they look great and b better when all complete, no question...however, i can say this now that im out, (and i know i could be dead wrong) but if boynz closes (mandate or whatever), limits access, something else odd, combined with less flying of tourists inbound....hill condo assessements+regular & BS hoa(s)+water+taxes+insurance+mortgages= hudge monthly nut..., could cause a selloff for those that need the rental income... i mean a lot of owners still have a very low cost basis and could sell at even $130k and make money...not for someone like me that was late to the party....

if 25+ of these were to hit the market with owners just wanting out, i could see prices drop and or possible sales stagnation...lets face it , not many people can or want to live in 7,300', $200K+ ,440sf box, heated by electric strips, in less than tropical conditions year round....even sno lovers could be hard pressed to handle it w no lift access. studios too small for most modern family wants imo,... it was fine for me and i enjoyed my time there immensely,... w exception of an open ended final assessment, crackdown on trailers/sleds/rv's in the upper lot and uneasiness of resort ski policy...upper lot policy being enforced now sux. and top tier gold passgoing from like 1300 to bout 2000 is beyond reasonable...last season i had already moved off silver or whatever to the $400 bronz....

but 25 or 40 of these 440sf condos that absolutely must be sold with ski hill closed or with reservations required or reduced rental customers...not where i want to park money... i will be coming back w my camper (truck)