{"id":806414,"date":"2020-04-15T11:08:37","date_gmt":"2020-04-15T17:08:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=381793"},"modified":"2020-04-15T11:08:37","modified_gmt":"2020-04-15T17:08:37","slug":"the-day-skiing-died-inside-the-historic-day-coronavirus-forced-colorados-ski-industry-to-shutter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/the-day-skiing-died-inside-the-historic-day-coronavirus-forced-colorados-ski-industry-to-shutter\/","title":{"rendered":"The day skiing died: Inside the historic day coronavirus forced Colorado\u2019s ski industry to shutter"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/04\/colorado-sun-1024x576.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/04\/colorado-sun-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/04\/colorado-sun-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/04\/colorado-sun-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/04\/colorado-sun.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"><figcaption><strong>Skiers take some final laps during night skiing Saturday, March 14, 2020, at Steamboat Resort in Steamboat Springs. The resort\u00d5s parent company Alterra Mountain Co. announced just hours earlier that they would close for a week starting March 15. The announcement came about 30 minutes after Vail Resorts announced they would also be closing their resorts. (Matt Stensland, Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/strong><br \/><em>colorado sun<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>On the morning of March 14, Gov. Jared Polis studied data&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/coloradosun.com\/2020\/03\/14\/lisa-merck-coronavirus-crested-butte\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">on coronavirus infection rates<\/a><i class=\"fas fa-external-link-alt\"><\/i>&nbsp;in Colorado\u2019s ski towns, which were 20 to 30 times higher than the rates on the Front Range.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;It was Saturday and the busiest day of the season for ski areas \u2014 the day when Colorado\u2019s $5 billion resort industry welcomed the largest wave of big-spending, spring-breaking vacationers, pouring in largely from New York, Florida and Texas.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Polis had concerns that social distancing strategies deployed by the crowded resorts weren\u2019t adequate. Cleaning gondolas and limiting ridership to just families wasn\u2019t enough. Limiting access to mountain facilities wasn\u2019t going to stop the spread of COVID-19.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>He wanted to shut down the ski areas. Immediately.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\">\n<div class=\"row sd-donation sd-donation-mobile p-0\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/SDN-logo-white-1.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/SDN-logo-white-1.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/sdn-banner-paypal.jpg)\" class=\"col-xl-8 p-3 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/donate\/?utm_source=article&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_campaign=donation&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=mid-article\">Donate<\/a><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cThere were many, many mountain communities that said, \u2018This is our livelihood. This is our business. We need the tourists.\u2019 But I\u2019m making the decisions based on the science and the data. Eagle County has one of the highest infection rates in the country,\u201d he said in a recent interview. \u201cIf we had not acted early \u2026 not only would those numbers in those mountain communities be higher, but more people would have brought the virus back to the Denver metro area.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Melanie Mills spent that Saturday on the phone. The longtime head of the influential Colorado Ski Country trade group spoke with the governor several times as he leaned toward an unprecedented executive order requiring all resorts to close immediately. She was collecting thoughts from her 24 member ski areas and urging Polis to give them a day to close.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe pushed hard for a more orderly closure than 8 p.m. on the busiest arrival day of the year,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was a pretty intense time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mills said she was not privy to health statistics Polis was seeing, but the industry remains confident the governor acted in good faith, making his decision based on public safety.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"p402_hide\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/coloradosun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/03\/IMG_0723.jpg?w=1024\" alt class=\"wp-image-84556\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Kids were sledding and tubing on Vail\u2019s Pep\u2019s Face ski run Tuesday afternoon. Vail Resorts on Tuesday announced the closure of its North American ski areas for the season. (Jason Blevins, The Colorado Sun)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a traumatic decision for the ski industry and it was one that was made for us and not on our timetable,\u201d Mills said. \u201cThat was tough on operators, our communities where we operate and on our guests.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In Telluride, resort captain Bill Jensen woke up Saturday to brilliant blue skies. His ski hill was about to wrap its best season ever.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverything was going great and then poof,\u201d he said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>He had pulled some tables from mountain restaurants to keep people apart. Lift attendants were preventing bunching in lines. Skiers seemed to be following social distancing rules. The lifts were starting to close around 3:30 p.m. when he got a voicemail from Mills. She said she had a call with the governor coming up and wanted to touch base.<\/p>\n<div class=\"p402_hide\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/coloradosun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2019\/03\/190305_A003.jpg?w=1024\" alt class=\"wp-image-22497\"><figcaption><strong>Giuseppe\u2019s Restaurant atop Telluride ski area. (Brett Schreckengost, Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cI got a premonition,\u201d Jensen said. So he texted Rob Katz, the head of Vail Resorts, asking what was up. They hadn\u2019t connected in months. Katz called him immediately and told him he was shutting down his company\u2019s resorts for eight days.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll the Colorado resorts?\u201d Jensen asked. \u201cHe told me, \u2018No. All of North America.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Minutes later, at 4:09 p.m., Vail Resorts, the largest resort operator in the continent, began the chain reaction that would see all of Colorado\u2019s ski areas closed by nightfall and resorts across the world closed within days. Katz suspended operations at 34 resorts in 15 states and Canada.<\/p>\n<div class=\"p402_hide\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/coloradosun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/03\/IMG_4750.jpg?w=1024\" alt class=\"wp-image-83391\"><figcaption><strong>Skiers enjoy a warm day at Beaver Creek\u2019s Ritz Carlton at Bachelor Gulch on Saturday, March 14, a mere hour before Vail Resorts chief Rob Katz announced the closure of the company North American resorts. (Jason Blevins, The Colorado Sun)<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Then Jensen called Mills, who told him the governor wanted ski areas to shut down for at least eight days. An executive order was coming, she said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>There were just three weeks left in Telluride\u2019s season, so Jensen preempted Polis and announced the southern Colorado resort was ending early, the first to say it was closed for the season. It would be a few more days before other resorts recognized the futility of pretending the coronavirus pandemic would be over in a week.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Jensen weathered blistering attacks from his loyal skiers for two hours before the governor\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1Xb5ZiwhjKZDPGowYkOjXXOe89Mee0nNa\/view\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">order was announced at 8 p.m.<\/a><i class=\"fas fa-external-link-alt\"><\/i><\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople were calling me, saying, \u2018What are you doing? Why are you doing this?\u2019 And then the order came down,\u201d said Jensen, who is co-owner, president and spokesman for the Telluride ski area. \u201cWe did it our way, and it was the right decision.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Polis said he\u2019s heard from resort operators and community leaders who now recognize the need for the swift closure.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s human nature. Probably some of the folks who were saying, \u2018Don\u2019t shut down our community\u2019 and \u2018Keep the tourists coming\u2019 are the same people now saying \u2018Why didn\u2019t he shut us down earlier?\u2019\u201d Polis said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re in elected office, you\u2019re accustomed to that on a variety of issues. There\u2019s heated emotion. That\u2019s totally natural. Yes, some people were very upset at the time. Now, with what we are seeing in our mountain communities there\u2019s a greater understanding why it needed to occur.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Rusty Gregory, the head of Alterra Mountain Co., was more than a week into social distancing by the time March 14 rolled around. He had closed the base lodge at his company\u2019s Crystal Mountain resort near Seattle on March 7 as the contagion swept through Washington.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"p402_hide\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/coloradosun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/03\/Rusty-Gegory-Mountain-Top.jpg?w=1024\" alt class=\"wp-image-85190\"><figcaption><strong>Rusty Gregory, the CEO of Alterra Mountain Co., at Mammoth ski area. (Provided to The Colorado Sun)<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>His team watched the spread of COVID-19 in California and Colorado as they geared up for a busy weekend to cap the week of March 9. Closing the base-area lodge at Crystal had worked to keep skiers apart, but could that be done at Alterra\u2019s much larger resorts in the two busiest ski states in the country?&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUsually, knowing the right thing, that is the easy part and the hard part is doing the right thing,\u201d Gregory said. \u201cThis was different. We weren\u2019t sure what the right thing was.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A big storm was bearing down on California, with the promise of the first fresh snow in more than two months. Winter Park and Steamboat ski areas were ready for their regular surge of weekend visitors. State health officials in both states were imposing distancing requirements. Gregory said, as he worked through the week and watched the spread, he and his resort captains knew they had to close all their ski areas.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>At first, they pursued a plan \u201cto close slowly and in an organized fashion,\u201d Gregory said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut it became clear to me that once you come to the conclusion that it\u2019s not good to bring people together, it became imperative for us to close down immediately,\u201d he said. \u201cI went to bed that night convinced I had been too reactionary and it was the wrong thing for our guests and for our employees. By the middle of the next day, it was clear we had done the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s been a month since Gregory pulled the plug on 15 ski areas in a matter of hours.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt seems like a year-and-a-half ago,\u201d he said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis has been the antithesis of every experience I\u2019ve had in my 40-plus years in this business,\u201d Gregory said, noting that his decade at southern California\u2019s Mammoth ski area revolved around opening up early and staying open \u201cas absolutely late as possible.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo this was a very foreign frame of mind to be in,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was the right decision but it was very much an unnatural act.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mike Kaplan, the head of Aspen Skiing Co., had just hiked to the top of Aspen Highlands Bowl when he got a call from Pitkin County officials that the governor wanted ski resorts to do more than limit access to facilities and chairlifts.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"p402_hide\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/coloradosun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/04\/FullSizeRender.jpeg?w=1024\" alt class=\"wp-image-95012\"><figcaption><strong>Aspen Skiing Co. chief Mike Kaplan, in blue, speaks with employees at Snowmass ski area on the morning of March 14. (David Krause, Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/strong><br \/><em>AP | Fred Pardini<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>He had 3,000 workers on the schedule for the next day. His team had a list of even tighter restrictions \u2014 like closing all facilities and shutting down gondolas \u2014 ready to go. He skied down the bowl and spent the next several hours preparing for additional measures. At 5 p.m. he saw the news that Vail Resorts and Alterra Mountain Co. were closing their ski areas, including Vail, Beaver Creek, Keystone, Breckenridge, Winter Park and Steamboat.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI said that\u2019s the indicator that it might be time,\u201d Kaplan said. \u201cJust talking about it now reminds me of the song \u2018American Pie.\u2019 You know, \u2018The day the music died.\u2019\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>He got on the phone with local health officials and started making plans to shut down his four Roaring Fork Valley ski areas by the end of the day Sunday.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But then his team heard the governor wanted more immediate action. Polis wanted resorts to close right then.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere was a little back and forth about whether that was mandatory or optional and by Saturday evening it was mandatory,\u201d Kaplan said. \u201cIt was a crazy several hours. But when the governor said shutting down would save hundreds of lives, we said \u2018OK, we are done.\u2019 And really, him saying that made the decision easier for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Polis said several resort operators who were asking for an additional day or two have come around.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think they understand now that it would have been a longer and worse disruption to their business and of course ultimately cost many lives had we not acted,\u201d Polis said.<\/p>\n<p>Kaplan and his team in early March had scripted a five-stage response to the pandemic. They didn\u2019t get to finish it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe went from Stage 3 to Stage 5 in a matter of hours,\u201d he said, noting that the crew is writing a Stage 6 right now that details recovering from the closure. \u201cWe fully support the governor and what he is doing, and we appreciate the state\u2019s efforts to keep us safe and hopefully get us restarted.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Colorado Sun staff writer Jesse Paul<a href=\"https:\/\/coloradosun.com\/2020\/04\/15\/colorado-ski-resorts-shutdown-backstory\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> contributed to this report.<\/a><i class=\"fas fa-external-link-alt\"><\/i><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported news organization dedicated to covering the people, places and policies that matter in Colorado. Read more, sign up for free newsletters and subscribe at <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/coloradosun.com\/\"><em>coloradosun.com<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/the-day-skiing-died-inside-the-historic-day-coronavirus-forced-colorados-ski-industry-to-shutter\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Skiers take some final laps during night skiing Saturday, March 14, 2020, at Steamboat Resort in Steamboat Springs. The resort\u00d5s parent company Alterra Mountain Co. announced just hours earlier that they would close for a week starting March 15. The announcement came about 30 minutes after Vail Resorts announced they would also be closing their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-806414","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-14 01:32:14","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806414\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}