Ikon Pass

[schindlerpiste]

I think that it is important to remain confident. The trend is to encourage outdoor activities. Riding a chair, with a buff should do the trick. Worse case scenario, the lodges will remain closed. While I will miss the Shepherd's Pie at the Empire Lodge, that is no reason not to open.
Otherwise, there will be a lot more folks hiking for turns.

[Ottime]

I can forgo the lodge.

I wonder what ski school would look like tho.

[Benny Profane]

A vaccine is a long, long way away.

Therefore, what's the rush?

[Gman]

Good luck with social distancing on a tram or in line on a powder day.

[paulster2626]

Good luck with social distancing on a tram or in line on a powder day.

It's gotta be people breathing, right? That's how everyone's getting it, right? What are the transmission rates when EVERYONE is wearing a mask? As you get to the bottom of the run, pull your mask up. Keep it on the whole gondola/chair ride unless you're with only your own party. This is our future. Went to grab some beers from the local brewery today - it's starting to feel almost normal wearing a mask and having plexiglass screens at all the registers. I only felt 80% weird this time.

On the plus side, I've been brushing my teeth more often - you do not want to have bad breath under that mask, lemme tell ya.

I hate this fucking virus.

[MMMSKI]

In general. Ski season is a long ways away. I do think that skiing will look very different. No or limited lodges (food and beverage), riding chairs with only your ski party (no singles jumping in), no tramways (social distancing of course), ski schools may be the biggest difference (I can't imagine how daily group lessons would look, maybe only privates - those can look like a lot of different things - one kid, 2 kids and a parent, 3 friends, etc.), etc... Skiing is a long ways off and I keep telling myself that it is going to happen (although maybe it will look different), when I think that the 20-21 season won't happen.

[Bunion 2020]

^^^ Take that a few steps further.

1. Ski areas make money from F&B and Snow Sports, reduce or eliminate that revenue and where will they make it up?
2. Many people will be tight on disposable income next winter.
3. Most ski area employees are seasonal, many are foreign workers on work permits, will they still be allowed to work in this country?
4. Most ski area locker rooms are tight spaces that are ideal breeding grounds for illness during the best of times.

Yes, ski season is a long way away, maybe a couple of years.

[paulster2626]

^^^ Take that a few steps further.

1. Ski areas make money from F&B and Snow Sports, reduce or eliminate that revenue and where will they make it up?
2. Many people will be tight on disposable income next winter.
3. Most ski area employees are seasonal, many are foreign workers on work permits, will they still be allowed to work in this country?
4. Most ski area locker rooms are tight spaces that are ideal breeding grounds for illness during the best of times.

Yes, ski season is a long way away, maybe a couple of years.

1. They'll figure something out. Maybe set up a "ski through" window or something and sell expensive foods to-go. Sell food at the top/bottom of the gondola and that's your new lunch lodge? I'm sure they already have a ton of ideas about how to generate revenue.
2. Dentistry visits are down, yes, but many people have vacation money socked away that they've been unable to spend this year and are ITCHING to go somewhere.
3. Yes, in Canada at least.
4. Locker rooms are closed.

And this is just based on what we know and have today. If a treatment of some sort is figured out by the fall, or if we figure out how to reduce transmission enough (everyone just wear masks around other people?), or if this thing somehow fixes itself (mutation to something benign, or disappears "like a miracle"), we're laughing.

Is it going to be easy? Of course not - but an entire industry just giving up completely for an entire season is to me, less believable than humans being able to figure out a way to work around/with this problem.

Just trying to stay positive...

[Benny Profane]

Parking alone will be a big problem, and parking has been an issue for some time. Most mountains will have to eliminate half to two thirds of spots to accommodate distance. Then there's the bus/shuttle issue, which can only exist as open air properly spaced trailers. So, all those people that had to park way out, walk.

But, no way more than 25% of tourists are coming. Who wants to sleep on used mattresses in hotels and, uh, god knows where they're going to eat? Maybe an Airbnb with a kitchen. And, sure, you all hate the tourists, but tourists pay for the deal. Dirtbag Ikon passers are not going to fund the business. The mountains need dentist families to make money.

[Name Redacted]

Gapers gonna gape. People don't give a fuck man. They will ski next season. Shit won't be anywhere near normal, but it'll be like a bad snow year, except ski areas will be able to cut overhead because they know it is coming. You might not have all the luxuries of the past but the lifts will spin, and people will jump at the chance for $20 tacos from a food truck at the base.

All this doom and gloom is hilarious to me. This shit is short term in the grand scheme of things. A minor inconvenience if you will.

[Benny Profane]

Well, somebody still has a job, it seems.

[Bunion 2020]

What you see as Doom & Gloom I see as being realistic.

Yeah, some lifts will certainly turn and probably some ski areas or corps may go under and be consolidated. May see less grooming or terrain available or maybe revert to hike to. Not necessarily a bad thing.

The effects of Pandemic(tm) will be with all of us for quite a while, if you put it in geologic timelines, a mere blink of an eye.

[Name Redacted]

Well, somebody still has a job, it seems.

Alternative view:
Most of the people up here in service jobs are making more money now on "Funemployment" than they were before. It is mud season, and many of our locals usually spend this time on the river, in the desert, or traveling overseas, not working. If they were working, they'd be making far less than what they are getting from the gov't right now.

It is a shitty time to be a business owner right now though. Unless it is a liquor store or weed dispensary.

[The SnowShow]

Honestly and selfishly, I’d love a “locals” only season with more hike-to and less BS. Just ski. I know economically that would be sketchy though.

[Core Shot]

Powder days with no singles line. Great.

[schindlerpiste]

Honestly and selfishly, I’d love a “locals” only season with more hike-to and less BS. Just ski. I know economically that would be sketchy though.

Keep dreaming. It's going to be more like only 3 people on a six pack, 2 people on a high speed quad, 6-10' between groups in line. Collins lines back to the parking lot. Tram lines to the bridge. Peruvian lines to the bridge. Reservations necessary with limited people skiing (certain number of season pass holders) on 1st come, first served. It will be like skiing in the '70s. Millennials will get a glimpse of how it was.

[snowaddict91]

Keep dreaming. It's going to be more like only 3 people on a six pack, 2 people on a high speed quad, 6-10' between groups in line. Collins lines back to the parking lot. Tram lines to the bridge. Peruvian lines to the bridge. Reservations necessary with limited people skiing (certain number of season pass holders) on 1st come, first served. It will be like skiing in the '70s. Millennials will get a glimpse of how it was.

I'm just gonna buy my new touring setup now.

[Kinnikinnick]

Keep dreaming. It's going to be more like only 3 people on a six pack, 2 people on a high speed quad, 6-10' between groups in line. Collins lines back to the parking lot. Tram lines to the bridge. Peruvian lines to the bridge. Reservations necessary with limited people skiing (certain number of season pass holders) on 1st come, first served. It will be like skiing in the '70s. Millennials will get a glimpse of how it was.

Reserved lift times every X minutes? Schindler 10:15 - “here they are welcome aboard” Your next is in 10 minutes? Time buy a bar and espresso rather than waiting around in line.


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[PNWbrit]

The midi opened today.

[pfluffenmeister]

Powder days with no singles line. Great.

My thoughts as well.
I'm almost always lone wolf.

[Bunion 2020]

Not 100% applicable but NZ and Aus will giver er a go and have a ski season.

Be a good test for how resorts in the US/CA/EU may try to mitigate the Covid.

[TahoeJ]

Not 100% applicable but NZ and Aus will giver er a go and have a ski season.

Be a good test for how resorts in the US/CA/EU may try to mitigate the Covid.

Before all of this I was already planning to go to NZ in late August / early September... but it sounds like they aren't going to allow travel from other countries this season, except maybe Australia. We'll see how it plays out.

Being on an island (well, two islands) it's a lot easier for them to contain it and therefore run ski operations like usual compared to anywhere in the US or Europe.

[Benny Profane]

A big reason ski areas may not open soon:

"ISCHGL, Austria — Barely an hour to the south in Italy, a nationwide lockdown had been imposed as coronavirus patients clogged hospitals and morgues overflowed. But the après-ski bars of the Austrian Alps were still packed with patrons.

Drawn by the famed ski runs that surround the resorts of St. Anton and Ischgl, the late-winter crowds included American, German, British, Dutch, Danish and French tourists.

More than 5,000 of them — including 28 from the United States — now are seeking to join a class action that will accuse Austrian authorities of intentionally staying silent about the outbreak in the resort villages. By withholding information, they believe, authorities decided that the euros being spent in local bars and hotels were more important than visitors’ health.

“It’s an absolute gold mine, so keeping it open even one extra day is going to generate a lot of money,” said 61-year-old Paul Wright of Derby, England, who arrived in Ischgl in early March and started feeling ill several days later. “This was about greed.”

Questions about what officials knew and when they knew it are also central to a criminal proceeding prompted by complaints from a Viennese law firm and the Austrian Consumer Protection Association, the VSV. The latter named high-ranking politicians, mayors, hotel owners and powerful representatives of the ski industry, alleging they put economic interests first despite the escalating health risks. According to the prosecutor leading the investigation, more than 330 tourists have asked to be part of the complaints."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...636_story.html

[m2711c]

that place was not the norm..... their bad decisions will be taken as a lesson on how not to behave going forward, not as an excuse to shut the whole industry down.

[LesterSmoove]

Reserved lift times every X minutes? Schindler 10:15 - “here they are welcome aboard” Your next is in 10 minutes? Time buy a bar and espresso rather than waiting around in line.

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you cant afford to ski, little man