Ski Resorts Panicking About Cold Weather

[snoloco]

If you are following skiing, you would know that many resorts have already closed for tomorrow and Saturday, or have announced severely limited operations. Even Killington, who I've normally considered to be aggressive about operating in inclement weather has completely shut down Pico until Sunday and will only run 4 lifts at Killington on Friday and Saturday, serving less than half of available terrain.

I feel like these closures have gotten much more common in recent years. This is unacceptable. Skiing is not a fair weather sport. Sometimes you'll encounter extreme cold weather. Skiing in these conditions is not for everyone, but resorts should accommodate those who want to, and not pre-emptively shut down. I've skied in sub-zero conditions on multiple occasions. It wasn't ideal, but I still made the most of it.

I'm not sure what is causing ski resorts to be hyper-sensitive and panicky about cold weather. There seems to be a sort of groupthink like with the first covid closure, where once one major resort shuts down, it becomes a domino effect. I don't take the "for the safety of our staff" argument as valid. If anything, most employees have less exposure to the weather than guests do.

I may end up driving south to ski in The Catskills not to get warmer temps, but to get around these ridiculous and unjustified closures. My concern is everyone has the same idea and the resorts down there get slammed with crowds.

 

[sibhusky]

Speaking from a state that regularly gets single digit and negative number days, newer lift equipment, with all its sensors and electronics, is more weather sensitive. Generally, the old fixed grip chairs keep on running. We used to operate regularly with wind chills down to minus 50 and ambient in the minus 20's. Now if you're lucky, they are closing all the upper lifts and if you're unlucky, you're rappelling down from a chairlift.

As for the staff thing, in this region, they can barely get staff to cover their opening hours as it is. Add in few customers and the danger of frostbite while they are waiting for the odd diehard like me to show up and that liftie decides he would rather be a bartender.

 

[Face4Me]

As for the staff thing, in this region, they can barely get staff to cover their opening hours as it is. Add in few customers and the danger of frostbite while they are waiting for the odd diehard like me to show up and that liftie decides he would rather be a bartender.

I think this has a lot to do with it. By reducing operations, they can rotate staff through for shorter shifts, reducing their exposure. I would imagine that there's also a lot of "employee flu" on days like that as well. Think about it ... would you stand out there for 7+ hours for $15 an hour for a seasonal job?

The other thing is liability ... Imagine if a lift breaks down and people are stuck on it for 1 - 2 hours in that kind of cold waiting to be evacuated, not to mention the danger to the personnel getting people off the lift. The line of lawyers waiting to get a piece of that action would make those lift line pictures from Vail look short.

Whiteface announced that they will not be running the Summit Quad. Good decision. We were riding it yesterday morning and all agreed that there was no way we would get on that lift on a sub-zero day anyway ... it's reliability is just too sketchy to take a chance.

 

[Campgottagopee]

We're supposed to be in Forestport this weekend to ride sled. It's the first weekend in our month long rental. We aren't going because of the temps. Not because we couldn't ride, rather because it's Stoopid to do so. If you were to break down out there it wouldn't be good. It's dumb shit like that will get your name in the paper.

 

[Adirondack Johnny]

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[snoloco]

It's true that some lifts won't be able to open, but widespread wholesale closures announced days in advance are another disturbing trend that's spreading like a virus. In my opinion it's really no different than closing a resort due to snow.

 

[jasonwx]

It's true that some lifts won't be able to open, but widespread wholesale closures announced days in advance are another disturbing trend that's spreading like a virus. In my opinion it's really no different than closing a resort due to snow.

they do close resorts for snow , all of the time...
just because you can doesn't mean you should...

 

[Peter Minde]

It's a sound decision IMHO. Back when I owned the '95 Subie, we went to Lake Placid. The Loppet had been canceled due to cold, but we would have lost our deposit on the room. Even though there was less wind exposure than when you're on a lift, -15 and a breeze was cold AF.

 

[snoloco]

they do close resorts for snow , all of the time...
just because you can doesn't mean you should...

Not in the Northeast.

 

[MC2]

I feel like these closures have gotten much more common in recent years. This is unacceptable. .

Sorry, man. Until you own your own ski area, there is not a damn thing you can do about it.

You can decide to change your attitude about it, however. That might make your posts sound (slightly) less whiny.