Put a fork in it.
I went skiing after work today, but the main lift was closed due to high wind and strong gusts. The previous melt followed by a freeze had turned the run beneath it into chip-in-your-drink-ice, which from across the valley looked like it was red/orange lava. Spectacular!
On the other side of the valley, the secondary lift had some stoppages during severe gusts, but it was worth it to carve the ice over there. There’s something tremendously satisfying in laying down an edge and riding it through an arc – a good way to end a week.
It seems to be a combination of factors leading to these closures.
The buzz behind the early closures of the smaller, more southerly resorts like Mohawk Mountain, Berkshire East, and Catamount is low crowds because of the lousy conditions this March (with no natural snow on the ground in Connecticut or Massachusetts), with the tipping factor now being the coronavirus.
Jay (and Burke) have had decent conditions from what I’ve heard, but their tipping point is apparently restrictions on Canadians entering the U.S. due to the coronavirus.
I recently heard refrozen groomed described a “coral conditions”.
All Vail ski resorts in North America will not operate Sunday, March 15 through Sunday, March 22, with future guidance to follow.
http://news.vailresorts.com/corporate/update-on-coronavirus-from-vail-resorts.htm
Here in New England, that includes Mount Snow, Okemo, Mount Sunapee, Stowe, etc.
There goes my planned trip to Mount Snow tomorrow. FWIW, I was planning to stay out of the lodge entirely.
Alterra as well, shutting down all operations at 15 resorts in North America. All of CO is shut down, most of Tahoe, lots in Utah. The remaining ski areas will be jammed with die hards.
And, it just started dumping today at Tahoe. 4 to 5 feet by Monday night, after about 6 weeks of barely any snow. Sheesh! Vail has Heavenly, Northstar, and Kirkwood in this area.
I was thinking of going up today but thought tomorrow would be better. Dammit!
Even if the resorts were open, I wouldn’t be headed to a ski area at this point. It’s just not a good response to the situation, I don’t think.
I went up Friday afternoon. It was pretty typical for a late season Friday afternoon. Didn’t have to wait more than 4-5 chairs to get on the lift.
The lodge changed from cafeteria style long rows of tables to individual tables for social distancing. Starting tomorrow will close the lodges except for the bathrooms and a 7 minute warming break. I guess trying to limit all the parents that stay in the lodge all day whilst the kiddos ski.
There was 4" or so of snow on Friday and Sat, and nothing on the forecast for the next week. I’m going up tomorrow with my son as it might be the last snowboarding day of the season for me. It’s extremely low risk if don’t go in the lodge.
I lived in China throughout SARS. It was a lockdown about like what the US is experiencing. Although if you were on a plane, if one person had a fever then the entire plane of passengers and crew went into 2 week isolation. Wash your hands, avoid touching surfaces, social distancing, and my best learning was have a thermometer handy to tamp down the anxiety when you cough or think it’s a fever…
Late last night a friend and I decided to go to Pico in Vermont today (instead of Mount Snow). Resort indicated they were open today. You save $20 if you buy a lift ticket in advance online, so I bought a ticket last night at 10 pm.
…and just got up to find that Pico (and Killington) have now shut down as well from March 15-22.
Wachusett and Butternut still indicate that they are operating today, but I think someone is trying to tell me something. I’m done. Going back to bed.
Ditto.
Going skiing at a resort probably isn’t a good idea even if a few areas remain open.
Had the hill pretty much to myself today, and the main chair was open so I spent the day on ice on yesterday’s lava flow pitch.
*Pop will eat itself:
Everybody’s happy now
Everybody’s singing
Everybody’s happy, man
We’re bulletproof
Everybody’s happy now
Everybody’s singing
Everybody’s happy, man
We’re bulletproof! ! ! ! Bull-et-proof!*
As the day continued the glorious orb of the morn ever so slightly warmed the surface of the slope, making it faster: HOLY CRAP LE MERDE! faster. A couple of people fell down while standing at the top prior to starting their run and they accelerated until they slid into the rough at the side – way too scary for me to ever want to see happen again (the only fatality our hill has ever had was when a person slid off the side into the trees).
On very hard pack I tend to be a one foot skier to insert and maintain the edge without it bouncing out, but by mid-afternoon speed picked up into local highway speeding ticket territory and my GS race skis were getting wobbly so I had to distribute force over both of them to keep them stable enough to hold edges through the arcs. Even then, they were still a bit unstable.
For every problem there is a solution. Last night I pulled out an old pair of alpine boots, stuffed some liners in them, and tuned up my Super-Gs. 
An hour to go until the lift opens but the endorphins are already flowing!
Spent yesterday opening it up on GS teles – had it been my vehicle I could have been ticketed on all the highways in my region of Ontario.
Spent today doing the same as yesterday, only on SG alpine gear – had it been my vehicle I could have been ticketed on all the highways in Canada except one, and had the boiler plate not been somewhat tilled, it would have been that highway too.
The highpoint of the day was from the chair observing the head racing coach open it up a few times – pure beauty. One hell of an athlete. Some folks do while other folks teach. He is both in spades.
Had some interesting conversations. In the parking lot a young employed but chauvinistic adult was whining to me about how unfair it was that his folks are insisting that he contribute to the purchase of his own car when his minor kid sister (who is already a ski race instructor) does not have to do the same despite her not having a car (yeh, no car – why he thinks that she should pay for not having a car is beyond me). With a straight face I replied, “It’s because she is superior to you in every conceivable way.” There was a moment’s silence which was broken by a woman who had overheard this from behind the next car over – she started howling with laughter. I hope he gets the message that being a chauvinist is not cool. I doubt if he will forget that woman’s laughter any time soon.
The other interesting conversation took me off the hill for half an hour in the morning and was with one of my family concerning a COVID-19 policy decision she was getting put in place at a med school. At the end of the conversation she said, “I guess you want to get back to your skiing.” I replied, “Yeh, I just hit 104,” referring to where I was in my gradual progression in cranking up my speed (this was my first time on alpine gear this season, I was only on alpine gear a couple of times last season, and today I had forgotten to put in some heel lifts to improve the ramp angle in my alpine boots resulting in my occasionally finding myself in the back-seat, so I was taking things one step at a time on the hill). She’s not a skier, so she assumed that I had a fever that I was ignoring. That’s when I learned what borderline hyperpyrexia means from the very stern, very concerned disembodied voice at the other end of the line who would not let me get a word in edgewise (tele or alpine, ya gotta get your edge in). That’s when I started laughing out of the absurdity of it all which got her thinking “That doesn’t sound like someone about to suffer brain damage,” which got her laughing too.
A couple of days of great skiing, shutting down a chauvinist, and laughter with a loved one – it doesn’t get much better than that.
British Columbia Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry:
I guess she did not realize that Vail and Alterra were about to close down all of their ski resort holdings (Vail owns Whistler now).
Fucking Vail. Because Vail shut, The Summit at Snoqualmie decided to close for 2 weeks. It was the only resort still open in WA state. Thankfully, today was a beautiful day, couple inches of powder, sunny, below freezing. It was empty for the first hour or so, until everyone got the text today is the last day for at least two weeks. Still, my son and I got 8 pretty good runs snowboarding and back to Seattle at noon.
Well, we made it to Colby KS before the news hit that Vail Resorts was closing everything. We we turned around and drove back home. Bummer since this is the only ski trip we were taking this season… Probably for the best but dealing with super-sad kids on long car ride home wasn’t the best start to Spring Break (which will now last an extra two weeks due to school closures…).
It snowed overnight, so I ducked out of work early for an hour on the slopes before the lift closed. A bit heavy, so no screamers, but still a lot of fun dancing the telemark waltz with the white ecstacy.
A bit of a bummer when it started lightly spitting rain for a few minutes just after the final run. I don’t know if the conditions will be firm enough for me to strap on the SG boomers again this season unless we have a cold snap.
I posted this earlier this evening in a vintage nordic forum, but I thought some folks in this thread might be interested in how they can have a terrific time skiing without having to travel far and without having to have a ski facility with lifts and lodge and COVID-19 closures. Just find a local ravine that still has some snow-cover on it, strap on a pair of skinny skis, and see what you can do to turn that ravine into a big smile on your face. It’s all good. Once there is no snow at all left, then ski grass. Once there is no grass left, ski sand, which, by the way, one of the greatest skinny skiers of all time, Bill Koch, who brought skate skiing to the international stage, took up when he retired from FIS cross-country competition. No beach? Get out on roller skis or inline skates. No paved roads? Time for a traction kite and step-turn practice. It really is all good, so hang in there (especially if you are traction kiting) despite the world going to shit and the ski resorts closing early.
“1974 Atomic Intertop 2000 Edgeless. As long as there is no ice or scrape they’re fun on green circle runs, technically challenging yee-ha-fun on blue square runs, and technique-guru-with-a-rictus-grin-fun on black diamond runs. They are also environmentally friendly: ski to the hill and at the end of the day ski home again. Or skip the hill and explore your favourite summer hiking trails in the winter wonderland. These puppies are far-out!”
Received a message from the hill after midnight. They’re closing today to minimize risk due to COVID-19. One heck of a close, very hard working team that made for a fine season. Kudos to them! I wish I could spend today on the hill, but things are a bit hectic at work.
Fortunately, there is still a lot of snow on the hill and in the bush between my place by an old World Nordic site and the hill, so there will be some fine skiing in the next two or three weeks, with the benefit of making me earn my turns rather than snooze on the lift (yeh, once this season I fell asleep on the chair and rolled off in a panic as it went around the wheel – ski 'till ya drop, says I).
Wow…and my wife tells me that I’m obsessed with skiing. 
(I got 28 days of skiing in this season, which included two trips out west, four overnight trips here in New England, and day trips to Vermont every remaining weekend from December until the resorts all closed this past week.)