The Colorado Sun

resort industry

Coronavirus Primary category in which blog post is published

With winter travel to Colorado resort communities very unclear, airlines are showing “unprecedented” flexibility

What is usually a set-in-stone schedule of flights is an Etch-a-Sketch this fall as Colorado resorts struggle to gauge demand for skiing and airlines work to accommodate coronavirus-wary travelers.

Travel within Gunnison has been restricted to residents only during the COVID-19 pandemic. People traveling from out of county or the state of Colroado must inform the Health Department of the number of people arriving, where they will be staying if they are a 2nd home owner and must have their own supplies and be self quarantined for 7-10 days. Gunnison County has 108 positive COVID-19 cases and 5 deaths and is one of the most highly infected areas per capita in Colorado.

Top Stories

Coronavirus has cost Vail Resorts more than $200 million. So far.

By Jason Blevins Business Primary category in which blog post is published

Retailers are seeing spike in backcountry gear sales. That has avalanche educators, search teams worried.

By Jason Blevins Outdoors Primary category in which blog post is published

Bluebird Backcountry is expanding just as uphill skiing is expected to explode during coronavirus

By Jason Blevins Outdoors Primary category in which blog post is published
Skiers begin their day at Bluebird Backcountry in mid-March. The state's first-ever human-powered, backcountry ski area drew hundreds of skiers to slopes spilling from the prominent Whiteley Peak outside Kremmling. (Shondia Houtzer, Special to The Colorado Sun)

COVID exodus fills vacation towns, including Colorado’s high-country destinations, with new medical pressures

By Kaiser Health News Coronavirus Primary category in which blog post is published

How Colorado’s independent Wolf Creek ski area plans to navigate a coronavirus reopening

By Jason Blevins Outdoors Primary category in which blog post is published

Want to ski at a Vail Resorts mountain during coronavirus? You’ll need a reservation.

By Jason Blevins Outdoors Primary category in which blog post is published
Business Primary category in which blog post is published

Trump’s ban on visa workers breathes new life into college-age ski bumming in Colorado’s resort towns

Ski area operators are reporting a surge in applications from college students and locals as hiring strategies, operational plans shift in the pandemic.

Outdoors Primary category in which blog post is published

Purgatory and Silverton Mountain float interest in Silverton’s community ski hill

Two southwest Colorado ski area operators are interested in working with the Town of Silverton to grow the remote community’s Kendall Mountain ski area into a year-round amenity

Outdoors Primary category in which blog post is published

He wasn’t the best skier, but he was Colorado’s preeminent ski bum. Farewell, Charlie Toups.

“Everyone seemed to know him. … He lived life in such a unique way,” a friend recalls of Charlie Toups, a quintessential Colorado ski bum who spent decades living in cars in ski area parking lots.

Outdoors Primary category in which blog post is published

Ski resorts push lift-ticket seller Liftopia toward bankruptcy, revealing deep impacts of coronavirus closures

Aspen Skiing Co., Alterra Mountain Co., Arapahoe Basin and others say they’re owed more than $2 million after the coronavirus ended the season early

Outdoors Primary category in which blog post is published

Smaller ski areas retain their workers with help of federal coronavirus stimulus money

Granby Ranch, Hesperus, Loveland, Monarch, Powderhorn, Purgatory, Ski Echo, Ski Sunlight, Silverton Mountain and Wolf Creek qualified for a cumulative $5 million to $13 million in PPP loans, enabling them to keep employees paid during the pandemic

Report: U.S. ski industry lost $2 billion because of coronavirus

Politics and Government Primary category in which blog post is published

Colorado’s tourism marketing budget revived as lawmakers bet travelers will be crucial to coronavirus recovery

It looked like the state would zero out Colorado Tourism Office spending on promotion. But without visitors, communities built on travel will founder, budget writers say.

Outdoors Primary category in which blog post is published

The day skiing died: Inside the historic day coronavirus forced Colorado’s ski industry to shutter

Resorts wanted one more day to close since the shutdown happened as visitors from all over the country were flocking to Colorado for spring break. Gov. Polis said waiting would have led to more infections.

Coronavirus Primary category in which blog post is published

Hundreds of international workers at Colorado ski resorts are in limbo as countries close borders, airlines cancel flights

“It’s not that we want to stay. We just can’t leave,” says a ski instructor from Argentina who is among hundreds of J-1 and H-2B visa workers trapped in resort towns unable to get home.