General Chat

Rollo might not have had to cancel his skiing holiday in Colorado and probably lose money if he'd waited a few days ...............

That depends of course on where he was going, but if it was a resort owned or operated by Vail Resorts, then they've shut down.

Vail announced on Saturday afternoon that they would be shutting down all operations, both retail and skiing, at all their resorts in North America from Sunday March 15 to Sunday March 21.

They will use the 7 days to re-assess the rest of the season and determine whether it’s “advisable or feasible to re-open”. They will pay their employees for the 8 days off.

Spring Break began here yesterday (Friday), and many people either had already booked or booked at the last minute to go to our local major resort of Whistler/Blackcomb .................. now owned by Vail Resorts. It happened only hours after Whistler/Blackcomb had been telling people that the resort would stay open as they were going to rely on "spatial distancing" and cleaning,

It is where a large part of the 2010 Winter Olympics were held, and obviously attracted the company which has bought up many of the ski resorts in North America.

The close-down has caught a lot of people by surprise, a nasty one if you had booked a week of skiing starting today or tomorrow. Lodging and properties will remain open for people already there or who have reservations but no new reservations will be taken.

It's possible / probable that refunds or re-bookings would be made available to those who have booked but are unable to ski.

This affects W/B plus another 33 resorts in 4 States in the US.

Strangely (maybe), the 3 Australian ski resorts operated by Vail are still operating

Unfortunately my finances do not extend to holidays in Vail although I have been skiing there and at Breckenridge. No, I am joint owner of a "condo" at Winter Park.
https://www.winterparkresort.com/media-center/coronavirus-information

Winter Park also has miles of excellent skiing for those who wish to enjoy themselves rather than break their necks. It is very family friendly, the US equivalent to la Plagne in France,

All of the Col. & USA ski restorts have been ordered to shut down by the State. so regardless of location my holiday would have been nixed. OTOH I have not lost any money on the acommodation. Further due to my habit of getting last minute tickets at bucket prices I have not had to get a refund for the flights either. But for Mr Trump's timely intervention I could well be fighting to get a refund.

So for the rest of this season skiing is out, everywhere :-(

I would not be at all surprised to see dancing (line, disco, ballroom), cycling, sailing, horse riding, windsurfing, car boot sales, steam railways and pretty well anything that'ss fun to do squashed by the new puritanism.

And there is of course there the likelihood of granddad lock in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0-leRNxhmg

May I say that some of the measures that I'm hearing are to be instituted by Boris are quite crazy, and impossible! :-D

Winter Park is a great place, but just keep your fingers crossed that Vail Resorts doesn't cast its beady eye on the resort, and makes an irresistible offer to the owners, whoever they might be.

That's what happened at Whistler / Blackcomb.

Then came the shock .............. lift prices and passes more than doubled in most instances. It priced the place out of reach for most local (ie Whistler, Vancouver and BC) skiers.

There was such an uproar that Vail Resorts had to pull back, but it still costs more than it did before.

Other resorts in BC reaped the benefit!