Will ski areas be open in 2021 --partially--fully--or maybe not really

[dbostedo]

The app I saw them talking about, the one Google and Apple are working in, will ping the phones of everyone within 10 feet of you via bluetooth and collect and analyze that data. If someone tests positive, they mine the data to alert everyone else they interacted with over the past (?) days. So, it will be tracking rides the lift with whom, who sits in the lodge next to whom, etc..

Interesting. I hadn't heard about that kind of system, but I haven't read much on the apps.

 

[Jerez]

I think it's a great idea myself, but I don't see that going over in this country unless it is voluntary to be so registered if you test positive.

 

[Ski&ride]

I think it's a great idea myself, but I don't see that going over in this country unless it is voluntary to be so registered if you test positive.

It’s only a great idea if it can be followed up by testing!

Why do I care if I come into contact with anyone who’s got Covid 19? I either get sick or not. I would know either way...

But if I live with someone immunocompromised, I would want to get tested every time I’m in close proximity of someone who is shedding virus, to see if I caught it and is shedding virus myself.

However, if I don’t get to be tested, what good does it do to know that I’m in close proximity of someone who’s sick? I can theoretically self-quarantine 14 days each and every time. But that gets super annoying. And probably not practical. Would my employer allow me to stay home each and every time I got an alert from my phone? I highly doubt it. On the other hand, if they don’t allow me to stay home, I could potentially infect my whole office worth of colleagues. Aren’t that nice?

So, without on demand testing every time I get an alert I’m in close proximity of someone infectious, I don’t see what good it does to know about it.

But if they say the phone alert is a passport for me to get tested, I’d be the first to sign up!

(You see where I’m going? Give me enough incentives, I’ll let you have my “private” information. Most of us willingly allow google to track us in exchange for navigating through traffic... But without such benefit, I’d be the first one screaming “privacy”!)

 

[crgildart]

Interesting. I hadn't heard about that kind of system, but I haven't read much on the apps.

They did that in South Korea

 

[dbostedo]

Why do I care if I come into contact with anyone who’s got Covid 19? I either get sick or not. I would know either way...

So that you can self-isolate before you know whether or not you've got it (or while you're a- or pre-symptomatic) to prevent any potential spread and a larger outbreak that would have bigger impacts.

 

[Ski&ride]

So that you can self-isolate before you know whether or not you've got it (or while you're a- or pre-symptomatic) to prevent any potential spread and a larger outbreak that would have bigger impacts.

Did you read my WHOLE post? It’s not practical each and every time it happens.

How many of those 14 day self-isolation YOU’re willing to do? And how many your employer will allow you to do?

 

[dbostedo]

Did you read my WHOLE post? It’s not practical each and every time it happens.

How many of those 14 day self-isolation YOU’re willing to do? And how many your employer will allow you to do?

I guess my bigger thought is that it's only effective/likely when the total cases are low enough that it doesn't hit you multiple times. And if you're tracked to a resort, and someone turns out to have it, it would also be good if they could have rules or a determination of whether or not to self-isolate based on location - i.e. on the mountain wouldn't matter, but maybe on the chairlift might.

That secondary effects might be weird too. As resorts open, would a few cases at one make people stay away from that one? Would there be opposition to people being tracked from the resorts themselves?

But it's all speculative, of course, unless there's an actual plan, explanation of an app, and roll-out.

 

[Ski&ride]

it's only effective/likely when the total cases are low enough that it doesn't hit you multiple times.

Frankly, if the total cases are so low my chance of coming into proximity of someone infectious is rare, do I really want to get the app? Do you?

The whole point is, the app CAN be very helpful.

But for it to be useful at all, they need a fairly large uptake. A few people signing up here and there is useless.

Can you count on a lot of people giving up their privacy for a relatively low risk?

If the app is only usable when the case count is low, who even needs it?

To motivate people to get the app to track themselves, they need to have benefits. That, can be particularly useful in the early stage when there’re a lot of cases!

 

[afski722]

For someone who is on the pieriphery of a lot of this stuff and working with tech companies, its like the wild west. Every tech company is racing to develop apps for health, social distancing, and contact tracing. Granted its good tech, but the use case and the "so what" is yet to be determined like everyone is talking about above. The tech can easily generate notifications and alerts, but then was actions need to be taken?

Also, can you imagine how many false positives if people have the ability to change their "status" and then fake notify others of a false positive?

The apps maybe work in closed systems like in places of employment, but in the general public? Not in this country.

 

[Ski&ride]

can you imagine how many false positives if people have the ability to change their "status" and then fake notify others of a false positive?

Not if the notification is by a separate entity, which can run some verification process.

Another deterrent will be to make it a prosecutable offense, the equivalent of shout “fire” in a crowded theater. (There had been one or two such cases outside the US, of people declaring themselves having the disease when they clearly had not. They got such public shaming it doesn’t even need involvement of authority)

 

[crgildart]

I don't think the odds of encountering someone positive are as influential as the impact that a super spreader can have on literally hundreds of people at a large gathering.

Also, the app is only to notify people who were in contact with another prior to that person actually testing positive. I'm not aware of it being used to prosecute people who test positive for violating the self quarantine. I guess it could if they are so stupid as to bring their own phone out in public after being told ti isolate. I'd leave my own phone at home and instead take my wife's, a kid's, or just leave the phones at home if I decided to defy the isolation request.

 

[Ski&ride]

if they are so stupid as to bring their own phone out in public after being told ti isolate.

People are a lot more stupid than that!

In Hong Kong, incoming residents were told to self-quarantine, and issued a tracking bracelet instead of using their own phone. So you would think they KNOW the tracking bracelet will report their whereabouts, right?

Sure, they go out to eat and shop while wearing the bracelet!

Not just one or two cases. Quite a few.

 

[Ski&ride]

The Future of Travel (Published 2020)

Perhaps no industry has been as hard hit by the pandemic as tourism. As restrictions on companies and travelers ease, what will the new world look like?

www.nytimes.com

“Hilton rooms will have a seal on the doors, indicating they haven’t been entered since they were last cleaned”

“Listings on Airbnb will soon indicate whether hosts are practicing stringent new cleaning guidelines, including a minimum 24-hour waiting period between bookings. A new category of listings will indicate no guest has occupied a rental 72 hours before arrival.”

So I’m not the only one who thought of those!

 

[crgildart]

Well, I’m not the only one who thought of that!

The Future of Travel (Published 2020)

Perhaps no industry has been as hard hit by the pandemic as tourism. As restrictions on companies and travelers ease, what will the new world look like?

www.nytimes.com

“Hilton rooms will have a seal on the doors, indicating they haven’t been entered since they were last cleaned”

Meaningless if the person who cleaned it was infected. I'm only going to be confident when NOBODY has been in there for at least 3 full days. Realistic? No way they're going to guarantee each room stays empty for 3 days at a time before new guests enter.. unless we're willing to pay for those 3 days as a premium.

 

[Ski&ride]

Meaningless if the person who cleaned it was infected. I'm only going to be confident when NOBODY has been in there for at least 3 full days.

Totally meaningful if the cleaning was done 3 days ago and no one has been in it since!

In 95% of the rooms, no one has been in the room since it was last clean anyway.

The difference will be WHEN it’s been cleaned!

No way they're going to guarantee each room stays empty for 3 days at a time before new guests enter..

They don’t have to keep ALL the rooms that way. There’re others who don’t care.

But yes, they can charge the “clean room” premium, which at low season will cost $0

With destination (ski area, theme parks) having to observer social distance and possibly operating at reduced capacity, hotels will struggle to fill their room even during “high season” anyway

The fact there’re people paying for Holiday Inn when Motel 6 cost half as much, it’s clear many people value a lot more of things other don’t.

 

[anders_nor]

They have started reopening resorts here, also opening summer resorts, indoor resort opens soon as well.

 

[Henry]

Many of the hotels and restaurants require summer business to carry them to the next winter. I recently read an article that Jackson, Wyoming, businesses do 70% of their revenue in the summer (and, Jackson is unusual with a huge summer business). If these hotels and restaurants in all ski town & ski area villages don't have enough summer business, will they be open for next winter? No one knows. I don't want to lose a deposit to a bankruptcy.

We know that the U.S. airlines will take an axe to their flight schedules after the current subsidies expire in September. We don't know if there will be sufficient flights at convenient times to get us to ski resorts. We don't know who will decide that a flight isn't worth the risk of catching the disease. Will we dare ride an airport shuttle to the resort without distancing?

Will anyone carpool to a ski trip? Will anyone share a hotel or condo room with someone other than a family member? How many regular skiers won't be able to afford to ski? Will a group of skiing friends be able to dine together?

Will there be a treatment and a vaccine in time for skiing next winter? Will the treatment and vaccine be highly effective, or of limited effectiveness like the current flu vaccines? Will more than one shot be needed? They still haven't invented a vaccine for the coronavirus-caused common cold. (Remdesivir is said to cut the hospital stay by 4 days...good but not great news.) Will this virus mutate into something even tougher, or will it mutate itself out of existence like SARS?

Too many things are unknowable at this time. It's too early to put money at risk for a trip.

 

[sparty]

Beartooth Basin just posted that they do expect to open May 30, with further details re: Covid-19-related procedures to come.

Beartooth Basin

Beartooth Basin, Red Lodge, Montana. 8,623 likes · 1 talking about this. Established in the mid 1960 by Austrians Pepi Gramshammer, Eric Sailer and Anderl Molterer, the Red Lodge International Ski...

www.facebook.com

 

[John Webb]

On my July trip to Timberline at Mt Hood, I had my canoe with me and went skiing in the morning and canoe sailing in the afternoon at the Columbia River Gorge which is one of the prime wind surfer spots on the west coast. It was a wild ride in a canoe and it kept me busy. I actually lost my spare paddle out of the canoe without even realizing it. The paddle washed ashore and some people found it, knew it was mine and returned it to me as I was the only crazy guy in a canoe within miles of the river.

Luckly you had another paddle. Else you'd be up the creek without a paddle. Someone had to say it !

 

[The Colonel]

I don't think the odds of encountering someone positive are as influential as the impact that a super spreader can have on literally hundreds of people at a large gathering.

Also, the app is only to notify people who were in contact with another prior to that person actually testing positive. I'm not aware of it being used to prosecute people who test positive for violating the self quarantine. I guess it could if they are so stupid as to bring their own phone out in public after being told ti isolate. I'd leave my own phone at home and instead take my wife's, a kid's, or just leave the phones at home if I decided to defy the isolation request.

The very idea of anybody knowingly, with an active virus, breaking quarantine and going out into the population spreading this life taking disease is preposterous and akin to manslaughter. Unfortunately there are ultra selfish people who would do this very thing!