Well, sure an enclosed gondola. It’s just a small room, after all. But a chair lift 30’ off the ground in the mountains is probably ventilated enough for safety.
Yeah, but… on a ski lift you are shoulder to shoulder talking right to the face of someone that is only 18"'s away. “What a great run! Where are you from!” I suspect that if they open, they will make quad chairs doubles only.
I guess but most often you’re riding with people you’re already there with. And if we can’t expect people to not talk straight into someone’s face without keeping their scarf on, it’s pretty hopeless.
There are specific ‘singles’ lines that you get loaded up with anyone.
Yes, I know there are.
EasyPeasy, just change that to
“There used to be specific ‘singles’ lines that you get loaded up with anyone.”
If your options are to accept some changes or you no longer get to do an activity, make a choice.
Gondolas are like elevators that can have windows. The risk is not zero but small and can be mitigated as elevator use is but more easily.
While actually out skiing is relatively safe, lift lines can be extremely cramped and last an exceptionally long time. Chair lifts are probably better, especially if you load only groups that are already together. Gondolas are probably out, and Gore is upgrading a lift so that if they can’t run theirs they can still get a reasonable number of people to the top via two lift trips in succession.
But the big problem is lodges, bathrooms, warming huts, bars, and customer service. There’s almost no way to do those safely with the existing infrastructure.
I’ve got skins and backcountry gear, I’ll be fine.
Never been a lift line operator. But have seen plenty of lift lines. I would hope that only family together would be able to go up in a lift.
yeah. I know how that’s not gonna work.
Kind of like pontooning. I saw a list of activities and their relative risk wrt Covid-19. I was shocked to see pontooning listed as pretty risky. We’re out on the river, >100 yards from any other boats!
But then I realized the marina/ramp/launch area can be crowded. That’s why I arrive at the marina early, mask walking to my boat, and get out onto the river quickly. We return earlier than average also. Most pontoon days we see at most one or two groups of people and they’re >15 yards away, or we make it so.
Which sort of pontooning? If that means a party of 20 friends crammed shoulder to shoulder on a party barge drinking & carousing for hours, well … the trnasmisison risk sould be obvious even if they are outdoors in a breeze.
If it’s just you and your wife alone on the boat, not so much. As I pointed out in some other exchange, it’s clear that you’re doing the right thing in your life and in your business. Thank you.
I see this all day at our beach. A unmasked couple who obviously live together sitting well away from everyone else is fine.
But a crowd of 15 unmasked friends 20 feet downwind from a different crowd of 15 other unmasked friends who’re 20 feet downwind from … gives “community spread” a whole new meaning. Sure it’s better that they’re outdoors than doing the same thing inside a local watering hole.
But it’s still darn risky behavior and explains why SoFL is setting national records for COVID infections.
But the upside is now SoFL ICU’s have complementary bedside parking!
CMC
Back when everything blew up in the U.S. in mid-March, I was planning a day trip to Vermont on March 15th. Vail resorts had just announced a few days before this that they were limiting chairlifts to single passengers or groups of people who had traveled to the mountain together. This sounded like a good plan to me. (One problem with this, of course, is that limiting the number of people on each chair will lengthen the lines.)
I’ve also seen social-distancing signs at ski resorts, like this one, which notes that “6’ is about the length of skis.”
In any event, I ended up not going on March 15th, because Vail and almost all the other ski resorts abruptly shut down for the season on March 14th.
I’m hoping that the ski resorts will open this winter in a socially-distanced way. At this point, it’s one of the few things I have to look forward to.
I already don’t spend much time in the lodge when I go skiing. If I get a small day pack, I shouldn’t have to go in the lodge at all. And because I have so many unused vacation days (because we cancelled all of our summer vacation plans), I hope to go during the week when it’s less crowded.
At one point it was speculated that ski tourists were the reason CO got hit harder than a lot of places in March/April, which seems plausible to me.
That’s one reason why I’m not planning any fly-away ski trips next winter. I’m only planning day trips within driving distance, or if things are quiet, maybe a short overnight trip here in New England.
My ski club usually plans several fly-away trips every year. I usually go on most of them. Next year they are only planning one fly-away trip (to Steamboat in Colorado), but I haven’t signed up and don’t currently plan to go.
That’s also spring break, and also the last hurrah of the season for sking. It’s typically a very busy time of year.
Would not surprise me if we get hit again this summer as a lot of people from Arizona and Texas drive north to vacation in the cooler climate of the mountains. There are plenty of cars on the road. It’s about ‘normal’.
On the skiing thing - my wife went to visit her son and family during the winter school holiday here in NZ, down south in the mountains. They convinced her to take her ski clothes, so they could all head up to one of the fields and play in the snow. Our granddaughter has just got her first pair of skis.
Now, the operator has only opened one mountain due to an expected drop in numbers and a staff shortage due to a lack of seasonal workers from the northern hemisphere.
But that mountain was so packed with NZ holiday makers that my wife did not get to go up to the snow. I’m willing to bet that next winter - even if travel restrictions and mandatory isolation for new arrivals are still in place - that the skiing industry is going to get staff from overseas, all fields will be operating at reduced levels, and Kiwis will be spending local dollars skiing.
pivot
Ditto with our primary export industries - meat and seafood in particular from Covid-free processing plants is going to be more valuable on the international market.
You have to have isolation coming in for 14 days, but once in, social activities like sports and film production can proceed without restriction. We already have US sport teams from many sporting codes making inquiries. This means new sources of overseas income, and the recovery/growth of existing ones.
And because outgoing overseas travel is restricted by the requirement for isolation on return (which is going to be charged in future), NZers will be spending their holiday money locally - supporting local businesses.
Ha! I knew it! And you all said this would never happen in the Game Room. 
What’s your sense of whether your government will accept?
To be fair, I said that I didn’t think that there was any way that New Zealand would take them up on such an offer.
What’s your sense of whether your government will accept?
As long as the teams and organizations meet suitable criteria and will be funding themselves for initial isolation costs, I don’t see why not. We already have sailing teams here for the Americas Cup early next year.
The biggest concerns will be around family - we have seen this for a NZ Rugby League team that competed in the Australian Rugby League. They shifted to Australia and isolated as required to continue playing in the competition, and the plan was that families could join them later. With increasing Covid numbers in Australia, family movement had been delayed, and some players have made the choice to withdraw and return to NZ and family.
We will just have to wait and see …