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Next Season's Gatherings?

TheArchitect

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Two 16 hour driving days from Boston to Aspen. Get a couple of drivers to help share the task and not too bad, of course this year it would help if they were already inside your covid bubble. A few years ago my son and I did it and had a great week: https://web.archive.org/web/20170427134706/http://www.epicski.com/a/colorado-road-trip-recap

I hadn't really considered that as an option but you have me and the wife talking about it. Seems like the most flexible plan in the days of COVID. Book a hotel that can be cancelled not too far before the trip and not worry about what the airlines are doing. If it's not as bad as expected then try for a last minute flight or just stick to the original plan.

Hmmm, where to stay at Snowmass......
 

PisteOff

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@ChunderBlunder and I will be doing the Gathering for sure. Taos will depend on the state of an ongoing project. Same project should be winding down by traditional Gathering time.

We both bought our passes a couple months ago. Unlike so many I only shutdown my projects long enough to get a few protocols in place. As a company I’ve had no issues at all. I had one Superintendent who’s sister tested positive and then her kids so he quarantined. None of them ever became symptomatic. My wife had a surgery for a blown tendon in her foot. She tested positive for antibodies. This means we both had it early January when we both exhibited flu and bronchitis systems but no doctor could give us a solid diagnosis. I beat it in a couple days and had chest congestion for about a week. My wife fought it over a couple weeks. Never stopped living a normal life. Never will.

We’d definitely love to see everyone again and hopefully we’ll move forward with plans and allow everyone to simply make their own personal decisions. If what’s going on in this country isn’t painfully obvious to everyone, well I just don’t know what to say about that that would be fitting dialogue for this forum. We send our love and best wishes to everyone. I pray you are all happy, healthy, and financially whole. I hope to see many of you again soon.
 
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David Chaus

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I'm considering make plans to go to Aspen, if only because I have the full Ikon, and my guess is there will enough skiing locally and at various destinations that I won't utilize the deferral option. But that just a guess, I suppose.
 

David Chaus

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I hadn't really considered that as an option but you have me and the wife talking about it. Seems like the most flexible plan in the days of COVID. Book a hotel that can be cancelled not too far before the trip and not worry about what the airlines are doing. If it's not as bad as expected then try for a last minute flight or just stick to the original plan.

Hmmm, where to stay at Snowmass......
I'm definitely not considering sharing a house or condo with anyone I'm not traveling with, whereas that was always part of the appeal of past Gatherings.
 

TheArchitect

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I'm definitely not considering sharing a house or condo with anyone I'm not traveling with, whereas that was always part of the appeal of past Gatherings.

Yeah, I agree with that. If I go it'll just be me and my wife in a hotel room or small condo.
 

BC.

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@ChunderBlunder and I will be doing the Gathering for sure. Taos will depend on the state of an ongoing project. Same project should be winding down by traditional Gathering time.

We both bought our passes a couple months ago. Unlike so many I only shutdown my projects long enough to get a few protocols in place. As a company I’ve had no issues at all. I had one Superintendent who’s sister tested positive and then her kids so he quarantined. None of them ever became symptomatic. My wife had a surgery for a blown tendon in her foot. She tested positive for antibodies. This means we both had it early January when we both exhibited flu and bronchitis systems but no doctor could give us a solid diagnosis. I beat it in a couple days and had chest congestion for about a week. My wife fought it over a couple weeks. Never stopped living a normal life. Never will.

We’d definitely love to see everyone again and hopefully we’ll move forward with plans and allow everyone to simply make their own personal decisions. If what’s going on in this country isn’t painfully obvious to everyone, well I just don’t know what to say about that that would be fitting dialogue for this forum. We send our love and best wishes to everyone. I pray you are all happy, healthy, and financially whole. I hope to see many of you again soon.

Now that is a good post....:thumb:
 

jimmy

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I'm considering make plans to go to Aspen, if only because I have the full Ikon, and my guess is there will enough skiing locally and at various destinations that I won't utilize the deferral option. But that just a guess, I suppose.

I only have the full Ikon pass because I was planning to go to Aspen.
 

Gary Stolt

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As usual, I will be traveling by car this year, even to the far away places where air travel is much easier. Taos was a great time last year. I would not mind going to Taos again. Haven't been to Steamboat for many years so that sounds goo too, as does Aspen.. In my view, the airplane is probably a better place to contact Covid than the ski resort. I think we can mitigate the covid danger by avoiding crowded restaurants and - heaven forbid - even crowded bars. Hopefully, the resorts will come up with some good plans and be able to open with relative safety.
 

TheArchitect

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I booked a condo at the Lichenhearth at Snowmass for 2/28-3/6. It looks a bit dated but it's got a full kitchen, ski in/ski out and the price was pretty good for slopeside, IMO. We have up to 30 days prior to check-in to cancel. My wife and I are planning to drive out unless a miracle happens and flying is safe again. She doesn't ski so I'm going to have to figure out what she can do to spend her days besides shopping and hitting the spas!

My biggest concern is the likelihood of interstate travel and quarantine issues. I can't get to CO and quarantine for 14 days.

Now I have to talk with Ikon about adding the Aspen/JH option to my already-purchased base pass. I believe I read here that they are allowing people to upgrade until early December.
 

Muleski

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Just a bit of an insider comment, re: Aspen. Our daughter lives there, right in the core, about three blocks from the base of Ajax. She works in the local ski business in a very senior role {I am sworn to provide zero details}.

She has been spending as much time as possible away from Aspen, as she can work remotely, and what she sees going on for behavior horrifies her. She told me that she went for a run the other day, and she saw mord private jets that ever before lined up on the sides of the runway.

Friends in the real estate business are having record weeks, months, seasons. One of her friends had closings on over $100Mil in a week. To.....International buyers in many cases, who had never seemthe homes. One paid something like $500K over asking.

Bars are open illegally. Caterers are working very large private parties; the caterers wear masks, nobody else. Lots of beautiful people hugging.

Her 32 year old roomate, and four of their friends have tested positive. Partying, being very social, entitled.

So.....before you plan on a visit, the REAL facts are that Aspen SkiCo wants very much to have a good season, and host many visitors....and it seems like the puzzle pieces are getting rearranged every day. So much unknown and “possibly subject to change.”

One issue is that so many well to do familes have flipped from Aspen as their vacation retreat to Aspen as “home”, often selling a $6-7Mil vacation home for a bigger $20Mil home, that there is huge pressure on the schools...both public {often the top rated in CO} and the private school, which was full up early last spring.

My observation is that it might be a different year there. Hope not too different.

Our daughtef typically skis at least an hour or two every day of the season. Not planning on that this year. Yet.

And yeah, I have driven from the MA coast to Aspen and Vail a number of times. The older we get, the more we would like to stop. Not in these times. One of our adult children and SO just did it non stop. Slept quite a bit when they “landed.”

Odd times.....we have family in Aspen, Jackson, Steamboat, Vail and in MT. Looks like we’ll be taking a year off from heading in that direction. Family advice is “Don’t bother...”

Ugh.
 

TheArchitect

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Just a bit of an insider comment, re: Aspen. Our daughter lives there, right in the core, about three blocks from the base of Ajax. She works in the local ski business in a very senior role {I am sworn to provide zero details}.

She has been spending as much time as possible away from Aspen, as she can work remotely, and what she sees going on for behavior horrifies her. She told me that she went for a run the other day, and she saw mord private jets that ever before lined up on the sides of the runway.

Friends in the real estate business are having record weeks, months, seasons. One of her friends had closings on over $100Mil in a week. To.....International buyers in many cases, who had never seemthe homes. One paid something like $500K over asking.

Bars are open illegally. Caterers are working very large private parties; the caterers wear masks, nobody else. Lots of beautiful people hugging.

Her 32 year old roomate, and four of their friends have tested positive. Partying, being very social, entitled.

So.....before you plan on a visit, the REAL facts are that Aspen SkiCo wants very much to have a good season, and host many visitors....and it seems like the puzzle pieces are getting rearranged every day. So much unknown and “possibly subject to change.”

One issue is that so many well to do familes have flipped from Aspen as their vacation retreat to Aspen as “home”, often selling a $6-7Mil vacation home for a bigger $20Mil home, that there is huge pressure on the schools...both public {often the top rated in CO} and the private school, which was full up early last spring.

My observation is that it might be a different year there. Hope not too different.

Our daughtef typically skis at least an hour or two every day of the season. Not planning on that this year. Yet.

And yeah, I have driven from the MA coast to Aspen and Vail a number of times. The older we get, the more we would like to stop. Not in these times. One of our adult children and SO just did it non stop. Slept quite a bit when they “landed.”

Odd times.....we have family in Aspen, Jackson, Steamboat, Vail and in MT. Looks like we’ll be taking a year off from heading in that direction. Family advice is “Don’t bother...”

Ugh.


Excellent info and much appreciated. I booked a condo but in my mind it's a matter of having something secured in the unlikely event that a trip is possible. Right now I see the likelihood of actually making it out there to be low. I see it far more likely that I'll book some place in northern VT for a week and make day trips to Jay, Stowe, Sugarbush and Killington.
 

Laurel Hill Crazie

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Kathy and I were not planning on attending Aspen regardless of Covid. We will wait and see on NE Gathering. No one has stepped up to host the Mid-A but Timberline Mountain is the consensus pick. Traditional dates were weekend after President's Monday but we have moved that around the last 2 or so years.
 

dbostedo

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Just a bit of an insider comment, re: Aspen. Our daughter lives there, right in the core, about three blocks from the base of Ajax. She works in the local ski business in a very senior role {I am sworn to provide zero details}.

She has been spending as much time as possible away from Aspen, as she can work remotely, and what she sees going on for behavior horrifies her. She told me that she went for a run the other day, and she saw mord private jets that ever before lined up on the sides of the runway.

Friends in the real estate business are having record weeks, months, seasons. One of her friends had closings on over $100Mil in a week. To.....International buyers in many cases, who had never seemthe homes. One paid something like $500K over asking.

Bars are open illegally. Caterers are working very large private parties; the caterers wear masks, nobody else. Lots of beautiful people hugging.

Her 32 year old roomate, and four of their friends have tested positive. Partying, being very social, entitled.

So.....before you plan on a visit, the REAL facts are that Aspen SkiCo wants very much to have a good season, and host many visitors....and it seems like the puzzle pieces are getting rearranged every day. So much unknown and “possibly subject to change.”

One issue is that so many well to do familes have flipped from Aspen as their vacation retreat to Aspen as “home”, often selling a $6-7Mil vacation home for a bigger $20Mil home, that there is huge pressure on the schools...both public {often the top rated in CO} and the private school, which was full up early last spring.

My observation is that it might be a different year there. Hope not too different.

Our daughtef typically skis at least an hour or two every day of the season. Not planning on that this year. Yet.

And yeah, I have driven from the MA coast to Aspen and Vail a number of times. The older we get, the more we would like to stop. Not in these times. One of our adult children and SO just did it non stop. Slept quite a bit when they “landed.”

Odd times.....we have family in Aspen, Jackson, Steamboat, Vail and in MT. Looks like we’ll be taking a year off from heading in that direction. Family advice is “Don’t bother...”

Ugh.
Well the case numbers in Pitkin County seem pretty low right now. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that they stay that way, but definitely something to watch.
 

RobSN

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She doesn't ski so I'm going to have to figure out what she can do to spend her days besides shopping and hitting the spas!
I have the same problem vis-a-vis the wife, but to my mind shopping and hitting the spas is way higher risk than skiing in the open, hence while I have a week in Purgatory booked at a condo that she could stay at, I'm not sure that she'd want to be there ...
 

TheArchitect

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I have the same problem vis-a-vis the wife, but to my mind shopping and hitting the spas is way higher risk than skiing in the open, hence while I have a week in Purgatory booked at a condo that she could stay at, I'm not sure that she'd want to be there ...

Yeah, it's tough. If, and that's a big IF, the shops and spas are open do you really want to go there?

Such a strange world we're living in right now.
 

Andy Mink

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familes have flipped from Aspen as their vacation retreat to Aspen as “home”
This is happening in Tahoe/Truckee too. Many Bay Area folks are heading to their second homes or even long-term VRBOing now that they can work from home and so many schools are doing distance learning. That puts a lot of pressure on the relatively small infrastructure around Truckee as far as stores and services go. And hospitals. Did I mention hospitals?
 

Living Proof

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Prior to the last Gathering at Aspen, now several years ago, I was a regular attendee, starting with the spring week at Summit County. One of my small jokes is that I've spent more nights in a motel room with @Gary Stolt than anyone other than my wife. Knee arthritis, that started the year of the last Aspen, shut down my skiing. It was both good and bad to watch the past several years Gathering TR's, great memories seeing my friends, bummed that I could not longer ski. In March of this year, I had a total knee replacement, in large part motivated by returning to Aspen, which is the first Rocky Man area I visited many years ago. Aspen is a most special place.
While my knee surgery has been very successful, the dream of rejoining a Gathering is on hold pending development of a vaccine for the virus. A Gathering remains 6 months away, nothing we know now can prepare me for what reality will look like then, especially life at a ski area. Reality is a very cold destroyer of dreams.
 

DanoT

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And now rumours are circulating that the border will not be open till next summer. So I'm out for sure.
I posted in another thread that I had planned on getting the Aspen Super Senior Pass at $540 and spend a month or more gypsy-ing around the Roaring Fork Valley in my truck camper, coinciding with the Aspen Gathering. Now though, even if the Canada-US border does open, I am not going anywhere even regionally. I am going to stay outside any lodges and day ski locally out of my truck camper. No ski travel but still an RVer-Skier. :)
 

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