The time period of March 13th to 15th of this year will be remembered by all of us. We all knew that something was up in our March 13th post, hoping that people would play it smart and avoid overcrowding. But near the end of the ski day on the 14th, I went upstairs to grab a mocha, because the line at Treats was long. It was totally packed indoors, just like any other weekend storm day. The moment I knew it was over was when one of my good friends saw me upstairs and said “Welcome to Wuhan.”
It couldn’t have been an easy decision to close the resorts, knowing that the biggest storm series of the season was moving in. But one by one, each one announced that they needed to call a timeout on the season. Fortunately they all realized that it would not work out to well to advertise that they were the only resort that did not care about humanity.
The North Lake Tahoe Resort Association released a nice video today, giving each of the North Tahoe resorts a chance to talk about the closure. Although the closure eventually grew to be wider and longer lasting that many people thought, we respect that decision to this day.
While it’s likely that all of the resorts will manage to survive a shortened season for 19-20, things could get potentially disastrous if we haven’t figured things out by next season. Let’s hang in there, all together, and do what we can to not let things get out of hand again anytime soon.
Update: We’re noting here the link supplied by VCSki in the comments below. It’s a one hour interview with Rusty Gregory, CEO of Alterra, which goes in depth into the decision to shut down this season, and what the future could look like. If you’re in to skiing, and have an hour to kill, you should listen. Here’s the link to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast.
Here’s Rusty Gregory’s response on those days:
https://skiing.substack.com/p/covid-19-and-skiing-podcast-9-alterra