How to run a BC Lodge next winter??

[DougW]

BC lodge where you heli in and stay for the week and tour. Have clients isolate before? Increase cleaning with every one in private room? Can that every work. Limit guests to one that have already had covid? As you can see alI I got are questions and vague approaches. But if they can open cruises back up who knows.

oh would you spend double the amount to go for a week of touring with covid policies in place?

[m2711c]

i like bacon.

[nickinbc]

I doubt restricting to one per bedroom make any significant difference to the chances of contagion if you are sharing communal rooms all week.

Impossible (or extremely expensive) to maintain physical spacing in a chopper. Wonder what plans the helicopter companies are forming after most of their pilots had to self-isolate after this season's last fly outs?

[weibo]

I know in the fire world they were talking about running a plexiglass shield between the pilot and the crew taxi style. That loses you one seat in the front and ups your cost per person (and increases your trips or heli size). This was an option that was thrown out as a mitigation to protect pilots.

[nortonwhis]

Agree that one person per room won’t make much difference. Let’s be honest those places don’t generally have running water, and if one sick person shows up mos people catch it. I can’t really see these things operating successfully now until the virus isn’t even on our radar. As for the touring lodges, I think a lot of people choose these as the my are somewhat affordable. Even 4 days guided catered was pushing the budget for me so definitely couldn’t afford double price or even an increase. Particularly if my bartending job doesn’t start up again.

[XXX-er]

all the skiers will be traveling from yurp or America which are places with the highest # of covid19 cases not sure how you deal with that ?

what is your water situation, IME running water is less likley to give you problems than walking water ?

[nickinbc]

I know in the fire world they were talking about running a plexiglass shield between the pilot and the crew taxi style. That loses you one seat in the front and ups your cost per person (and increases your trips or heli size). This was an option that was thrown out as a mitigation to protect pilots.

Wonder if Transport Canada would approve of something that impedes exit via the pilot's door (or for the pilot exit via the passenger doors)?

[weibo]

I don't know the specifics of the partitions or if it was just a spit ball dea but blocking exits would probably not go over well.

[skifishbum]

last trip to the mnt Carlyle the group before was ravenged like 12 outta 15 with a gi influenza bug
our crew bleached it into burning nose cant stay inside cleanliness went for a afternoon tour and aired it out
I person got sick
from eating his 3 day old pack sammies
and the smell of bleach is permenately mentally emblazed for that hut
and the bomber has my cash for 2023
that hut has improved every time we returned in a manner that makes it easier to clean and disinfect almost all wood kitchen surfaces have been upgraded to stainless from wood
theres now a flash hotwater heater
the trip sink got expanded and improved and having a good cook who rides you about good hygiene habits in a small closed environments is great
if you've ever done a hut trip or multi dayriver trip it not that hard to attempt to keep everyone healthy

[Hammer-Down]

for some reason I feel a little more comfortable about taking the hut trip option over riding a tram somewhere or pounding tallboys at the bar on a Saturday. The hope would be the hut crew/visitors have some common sense (which they use) and everyone puts in a solid effort for the greater good. Probably can't hope for much more. On the heli, just wear masks and don't spit on each other or pick each others nose? The thing i am going to miss the most is giving my buddys hot wife a "friendly" kiss on the lips when I see her....for some reason I don't think that is going to be socially acceptable for a little while.

[DougW]

all the skiers will be traveling from yurp or America which are places with the highest # of covid19 cases not sure how you deal with that ?

what is your water situation, IME running water is less likley to give you problems than walking water ?

assume water from lake via buckets

yes where people are coming from makes a difference but in the lodge of times they are a group or several groups

The number being floated around is ~ 2.5 times a normal trip , less people (about 1/2) and more staff to clean so fixed cost being covered by fewer with additional labour costs , so if also heli isn't as packed with people that cost is the same divided between fewer people.

[glademaster]

I would pay significantly more for a trip if it meant having a private room, a better client:guide ratio and generally more elbow room around the lodge. I would have to think long and hard if 2.5X the current going rate would work for me, but I would contemplate it seriously even at that price.

I would rather spend my hard earned skiing $ supporting those smaller operations, guides, staff, etc., than pay a similar amount of money for a generic resort experience.

[AK47bp]

for some reason I feel a little more comfortable about taking the hut trip option over riding a tram somewhere or pounding tallboys at the bar on a Saturday. The hope would be the hut crew/visitors have some common sense (which they use) and everyone puts in a solid effort for the greater good. Probably can't hope for much more. On the heli, just wear masks and don't spit on each other or pick each others nose? The thing i am going to miss the most is giving my buddys hot wife a "friendly" kiss on the lips when I see her....for some reason I don't think that is going to be socially acceptable for a little while.

You kiss your buddy’s wife on the lips??

You European?

Ant see that flying in US.


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[Angle Parking]

3 of the first cases of Coivid in Northwest BC all had direct connections to Heli Skiing and Backcountry Lodges. Not to mention that this thing ran rampant through several lodges and heli outfits all throughout British Columbia. In the pandemic narrative thus far, the heli ski outfits and backcountry don’t come out looking too good. Not casting stones at them or anything, it’s just the nature of that business. But those outfits are doing some serious head scratching right now I would think.

[XXX-er]

assume water from lake via buckets.

Sunrise/GAH ? its the only one i've been to down thar

i think it was the cook who told me when the local hut got running water all the issues with people getting sick went away, no contamination issues with dippers and it was easier for people to wash hands

any body I ever met on a hut trip, I would assume even more so at a heli op had money/ did air travel for business and unless they were local ... traveled by air to git there which is how Covid got here from China

[DougW]

I would pay significantly more for a trip if it meant having a private room, a better client:guide ratio and generally more elbow room around the lodge. I would have to think long and hard if 2.5X the current going rate would work for me, but I would contemplate it seriously even at that price.

I would rather spend my hard earned skiing $ supporting those smaller operations, guides, staff, etc., than pay a similar amount of money for a generic resort experience.

Wouldn't be more guides total, though more per person do to fewer guests in lodge . Even fewer clients would not a private room for every body. So might be significant discount for couples?? Extra staff would be for cleaning , so extra would be there to clean the shitters before everyone else is up and after the morning rush, maybe cleaning constantly in the morning?

[DougW]

3 of the first cases of Coivid in Northwest BC all had direct connections to Heli Skiing and Backcountry Lodges. Not to mention that this thing ran rampant through several lodges and heli outfits all throughout British Columbia. In the pandemic narrative thus far, the heli ski outfits and backcountry don’t come out looking too good. Not casting stones at them or anything, it’s just the nature of that business. But those outfits are doing some serious head scratching right now I would think.

Yes around here all the cases other than that Van dental conf were linked to Cat /heli or BC lodge. Lots of sheepish guides /operators.

[DougW]

Sunrise/GAH ? its the only one i've been to down thar

i think it was the cook who told me when the local hut got running water all the issues with people getting sick went away, no contamination issues with dippers and it was easier for people to wash hands

Sorcerer and blanket still do the bucket brigade, maybe it won't be with clients but just guides and custodians ?

[glademaster]

Wouldn't be more guides total though more per person if still two guides over maybe 8 people rather than 16? Even that not a private room so might be significant discount for couples?? Extra staff would be for cleaning , so a Johnny like me might be there to clean the shitters before everyone else is up and after the morning rush, maybe cleaning constantly in the morning?

Can you proofread that and try again? Holy word salad, Batman.

[XXX-er]

Sorcerer and blanket still do the bucket brigade, maybe it won't be with clients but just guides and custodians ?

well I would pay extra just for that ^^ I hate walking water !

but seriously yeah no more clients schleping the water

as for sheepish operators I don't see why, I very much doubt they got the Covid from the operation itself, IMO its cuz all their customers fly there , they can all afford the week because they all have really good jobs that pay really well, the jobs require that they fly places to meet with other people who fly places

you could hire a guy to just walk around all day wiping things but IMO the real problem is the 6 ft distancing

its a perfect way to get around if you are an aspiring virus

[DougW]

^^ really I heard some of the measures one operator was thinking off and started thinking what would work and I was kinda stuck. i couldn't think of anything that would really work. When a lodge gets a bug usually poop related they go into supper clean down mode. Isolate sick person and clean clean clean. But this isn't the same. Its really contagious.

The cases I heard about was caused by one guy going to a Cat place. When asked did lie about previous travel and ended up infecting everyone in his Cat plus some other people.

[XXX-er]

I very much doubt its a cleanliness issue, most likley Covid flys in/on some affluent upwardly mobile client or on a guide who has upwardly mobile clients or maybe the guide picked it up guiding really affluent people on a couple weeks of heli ski, or maybe one of the doctors brought it in (2 on every trip) but Covid is not " getting the shits" it is many orders of magnitude more serious and more deadly, also consider a lot of the hut clientele is older/getting to the age where Covid could be a way more serious thing

So imagine the scenario where someone suddenly gets sick, because there are 2 MD's on every trip they diagnose Covid, its nuking out so no way the chopper can get in ... things are way fucked

[sillybunt2]

Even a working class schmuck can fly in to go on a hut trip with Covid, no need for affluent docs or clients for Covid to wreak havoc in a small group of people living in close quarters.

[XXX-er]

well sure but there was Covid in 3 heli ops by mid march, it flew in airplanes with people who can afford to fly and have 10k for a week of skiing

[DougW]

When referring to bug I was thinking previous lodge issues which do happen every once and a while. So while BC lodges have some experience they don't have experience with something like this.

As far as a BC lodge I don't see an easy answer. Esp if not local and coming in from states.