Ski Resorts Panicking About Cold Weather

[Zykamps]

I of course would love to start up the chainsaw to chop chop chop, but that can't fix a smashed window.

Agree! I was looking at a 36 inch tree wrecking the house. Be safe and get it done when you can.

 

[Campgottagopee]

Let's look at the winners and losers from today. Who got the most lifts and terrain open:

The winners:

Gore: opened all scheduled lifts.

Mad River Glen: Opened all scheduled lifts.

Okemo: opened access to all terrain except South Face

Whiteface: No summit but kept the gondola running all day.

Mount Snow: Maintained summit access and access to all main face and Carinthia terrain. Sunbrook and North Face remained closed.

The losers:

Killington/Pico: Pico didn't open and Killington only ran 3 lifts despite having long lines. They could've easily opened more lifts that were less wind exposed than what they had open.

Stratton: only opened lower mountain. No summit access or Sun Bowl.

Smuggler's Notch: Did not open.

Jay Peak: Did not open.

Wildcat: Did not open.

Everyone else is somewhat in the middle.

Lmao
With all of this nonsense, did you ski yesterday, or were you in your warm little office throwing stones at people running their business they way they see it best for everyone.

 

[Johnny V.]

Talked to my Brother in Law last night-Cannon was closed yesterday.

 

[x10003q]

Talked to my Brother in Law last night-Cannon was closed yesterday.

Wildcat was closed, too.

 

[Warp daddy]

There is certainly public pressure to "do something", and then there's a lot of groupthink, so when one resort closes or mostly closes, a bunch of others seem to follow. Hmm what does that sound similar to from the last 2 years? Yep I thought so. And just like with covid, if you call anything into question then you are a bad person who wants people to die, or in this case to get frostbite.

Inconsequential First World issue

 

[jasonwx]

Does anybody remember Laughter

Not sure everyone gets this.
Ya need to be a music lover over 50

 

[Peter Minde]

Hmmmm... another cold weather story. FIA low temperature limit for nordic ski races is -4 F. Below that, fuhgeddaboutit. One year, the Keskinada 55 km ski marathon in Quebec. Race morning, the temperature was -12 or something stupid like that. But with 3500 people on the starting line, the organizers go, "Zut alors, ze race is on!" I wasn't there that year but multiple athletes ended up hospitalized. One of my friends who was there now has to bundle bundle up like crazy even for mild temps.

At least this thread gives us something to do until it warms up.

 

[tirolski]

Lab had a pipe burst at the bottom when it was dark Friday morning.
Folks fixed the pipe and then windy Lake Effects & some grooming helped with the body work.
Thank You Jesus! and all the those who fixed it under tough conditions.

 

[Harvey]

Can't believe I missed this thread. Working too hard I guess. But I just read it all.

I also like sno's passion and his contributions have gotten even more valuable as he has gotten older. But IMO (<emphasis) he's still got some distance to travel regarding what really matters.

My counterpoint:

1 - The day will undoubtedly be a money loser for many hills. Ski areas lose money most days (non-holiday and mid-week) but this will be a Saturday. Maybe think of closing today as saving money for a final snowmaking push, if we get the temps.

2 - Imagine you'd spent your whole working career saving for retirement and paying off your house or whatever. If someone told you if you skied today there was a 1-in-200 chance you'd lose everything would you do it? The ski areas are weighing risk against benefit. I think we all acknowledge the increased risk. Can you quantify the benefit? If you ran the ski area, and someone died on a day when you opened, and the vast majority shut down, what is your liability?

3 - Also how do YOU feel about that decision for the rest of your life? Do you forget about it in a day, or carry it will you forever?

4 - Add to that the ski areas are getting positive re-enforcement from the vast majority of their customers for making this decision.

 

[Jim]

I'm not usually one to say I want to forego skiing because it's too cold. But this particular cold snap seems especially unusual to me in a few ways.

1) From what I can remember, most of the time if we're going well below 0 around here, it's on calm, clear nights in January after a recent snowfall. This time, these temps are accompanied by nasty winds.
2) It hasn't been cold much at all the winter so far, making it feel even colder by comparison.
3) It's going to be warming right back up very quickly.

So it makes a lot of sense to me to shut down or limit operations for a day or two when very few paying customers want to be out in it anyway, and it keeps customers and staff safer. The biggest safety issue I see, which I think was mentioned earlier in the thread, is that if there was some sort of lift trouble and and people are stuck up there in the cold and brutal wind for any length of time, it's not going to be good.

At Royal, yesterday wasn't an issue because there were never plans to be open. For today, the first change was to cancel the Trailblaisers childrens program and tack on an extra week at the end. Definitely a no brainer. Then the announcement came about delaying opening until noon today. This also makes a lot of sense, since the worst of the cold is right now and by noon it will at least be a little more reasonable to be outside. People who really want to get some runs in can do so, and staff members don't have to be out in the worst of the cold.