Colorado Wolf Creek Wants to Reopen

[Itinerant skier]

Not if it's by reservation and the skiers are given appointment times for arrival. That has actually worked really well for Baldy and it's fed by Los Angeles, San Diego, the OC, the Inland Empire. Overall, a much higher population than the front range.


This is a pretty high number to allow for good social distancing in the parking area. Do they have a giant parking area? Do they have multiple lifts in the base area. Even if they only allow so many to arrive per hour - figuring 8-noon as the starting times, that's a lot of people in the base area at one time. Baldy has only been allowing 4 appointments for each 10 minute period -so 24 an hour.

The health risk would be to the employees. If there is no lodging available in the area, it will be just day trippers so no overload to the local medical units.

Exactly! Mt Baldy is also MUCH closer to the major population centers than WC is. It's a 3 hour drive from Pueblo.

 

[mikel]

Apparently WC has decided to call it a season

 

[Tricia]

I was extremely positive that A Basin would reopen this spring but also stated in several posts that if it didn't happen it would be because Summit kept it from happening. Lodging is also still not happening and an issue. Summit is still in locals only mode. Not wanted - out of state or frangers although the Summit Daily worded it much nicer.

@Philpug and I were talking about this.
I have a hope to ski again this spring/summer, but he cautioned that my hope was not going to happen even if something opened up because there would be travel restrictions.
I miss skiing in a huge way. He has all but moved on to mountain biking while I am continuing to do home projects and wondering why my efforts in the yard and gardening aren't doing well. Heck I'm at least a few weeks(if not a month) ahead of where I usually am when it comes to planting, and such.

 

[Popeye Cahn]

Would be really, really interesting. A few years a go when we had a low snow season Wolf Creek was reporting 45 minute lift lines during spring break, as per ski instructor buddies. Mostly Texans.

Funny you mention Texans. A Texan I know was skiing there mid March with his son and was very impressed with the place. Like me, he has also returned to the slopes after many years.

 

[Gary Stolt]

Would love to see it in action, but not worth the 90 minute drive for me.

How many season's passes are held by non-locals? How many day tickets will be sold to non-locals? Hotel rooms in Pagosa? Food? Bringing pathogens to a mtn community with a tiny hospital?

If they limited it to locals only, I'd be all for it. If contact tracing of infected residents pointed to an non-local, and that non-local was then responsible for the entirety of that resident's medical bills and lost wages, I'd be all for it.

Non-residents tend to be the supidest people on the hill, in the woods, on the roads, and in town. I wouldn't expect that they'd simply attain a higher level of consideration now.

Be careful, we are all non-residents when we leave our local community.

 

[Ski&ride]

You're free to sit by and let that happen, I won't try and stop you.

Talk about blizzard. You can’t STOP what’s NOT happening!

Good that you’re not trying...

 

[Jerez]

Not if it's by reservation and the skiers are given appointment times for arrival. That has actually worked really well for Baldy and it's fed by Los Angeles, San Diego, the OC, the Inland Empire. Overall, a much higher population than the front range.


This is a pretty high number to allow for good social distancing in the parking area. Do they have a giant parking area? Do they have multiple lifts in the base area. Even if they only allow so many to arrive per hour - figuring 8-noon as the starting times, that's a lot of people in the base area at one time. Baldy has only been allowing 4 appointments for each 10 minute period -so 24 an hour.

The health risk would be to the employees. If there is no lodging available in the area, it will be just day trippers so no overload to the local medical units.

It is moot anyway but yes they do have a huge parking area. Actually divided up into 3 areas accessible by walking to the base. There are 3 widely separated lifts at the base area and they said they would close off the decks so no congregating. That said, I do think it is putting employees at risk. But WC has always had a libertarian attitude toward that sort of thing.

 

[Ski&ride]

I do think it is putting employees at risk.

Any business that are open will have increased risk to its employees. Heck, any town/region/state that are open, will have increased risk.

But that risk needs to be managed as we can’t stay locked down forever.

As I said earlier, one way to mitigate that risk is offering testing for the employees. Not after they got sick, but random sampling of employees like they do in hospitals!

That way, there’s a much better chance of catching silent carriers before they have a chance to infect other employees and customers. And if a county does that to all the newly opened business, they also get a handle on which industry is most or least able to support distancing successfully.

Sadly, I didn’t see any state/county doing that in an organized fashion. So we’re opening only with our fingers crossed, nothing better.

 

[mikel]

@Philpug and I were talking about this. I have a hope to ski again this spring/summer, but he cautioned that my hope was not going to happen even if something opened up because there would be travel restrictions. I miss skiing in a huge way. He has all but moved on to mountain biking while I am continuing to do home projects and wondering why my efforts in the yard and gardening aren't doing well. Heck I'm at least a few weeks(if not a month) ahead of where I usually am when it comes to planting, and such.

I am still holding out and hoping but who knows. Phil is probably right, time to move on. There was ski related stuff covered by the Denver media this weekend. Nice shots of Copper and Loveland but the discussion was all about everything happening. The extended order by the Governor, decisions made by counties, resorts wanting to open but can't, a couple still hoping, and they capped it off with the avalanche danger now.

 

[skibum4ever]

@mikel I have to admit that I am hoping also. That doesn't mean that I'm not doing summer stuff. It just means that I would like to ski again before the snow melts.

I'm hoping but I have no expectation of skiing again this season. However, I'd love to be proven wrong.