To be clear though -- none of these are in any state or local public health orders yet. They are potential hypotheticals that ski areas expect some variation of.
50% restaurant is in place at the state level. What I mean by “we’ve heard” is some ski areas have already published. Loveland for example has published their chair guidelines.
I’m just drawing a natural conclusion that the problem statement is:
“Maintain social distancing in lift lines”.
If that isn’t the problem statement, then all bets all off, although the CO public health orders all built on social distancing. That article about France being “business as usual except masks and social distancing” has zero differentiation to “masks and social distancing here”. There is nothing normal about social distancing, it is the master actor.
So if lift lines are going to be socially distanced, then you have to have single file lanes, and if you have to have lanes then you have to have ropes, and if you have to have ropes then you can’t have lift lines outside of lift line corrals.
In which case it looks exactly like A-Basin where Lenawee can handle about 30-40 skiers max in that tight space. Since the Lenawee corral is the bottleneck at A-Basin, that single point has to, by definition, drive max capacity.
Or you have to change the problem statement. And if you change the problem statement to:
“People have to sit socially distanced on chairs unless they know each other.”
Then there is no reason to set daily max capacity, because you just let it back up in the lift line and let people lie about knowing each other, and in effect the only change is indoor space.
I don’t hear anybody talking line this since everybody is talking about limiting capacity, so I’m pretty sure they my problem statement and the math that follows is on point.
I’m not saying that I agree with this, I am just rejecting the idea that things can be “normal” if lift lines cannot. Those two things are mutually exclusive, even in France. Unless you ski someplace without lift lines, because we can, and we should, anyway.
I bought an A-Basin pass precisely because, in the absence of effective COVID therapeutics by spring, the abnormal lift lines are going to be shorter than they will ever be again.
If I am wrong, good things are afoot and I’ll happily stand in a crowd under the East Wall.