Ski resort operator will pay $17.5 million to Ikon Pass skiers — and $2.9 million to lawyers — who sued the company over the pandemic-shortened season
ski area closures
Posted inBusiness, News, Outdoors
Alterra Mountain Co. sues insurance company over $200 million in denied coronavirus losses claims
When viruses shut down ski operations at Canadian Mountain Holidays and Ontario’s Blue Mountain Resort in 2015 and 2018, Lexington Insurance Co. paid the resort owners $200,000 in business interruption claims. But when the coronavirus pandemic shut down the two ski operations in March 2020 — and more than a dozen others owned by Denver-based […]
Posted inBusiness, COVID, Economy, News, Outdoors
Colorado resorts expect next ski season to be pretty normal, but some coronavirus changes may stick around
A year ago this week, lift-served skiing was broken. Ski areas around the planet ground to a sudden halt in a desperate effort to slow the spread of contagion. Operators were distributing food from spring-break-stocked coolers and figuring out what to do with jobless workers in employee housing, all while slashing budgets and planning for […]
Posted inBusiness, COVID, News, Outdoors
Vail Resorts losses continue as pandemic impacts stretch into ski season
Vail Resorts, the largest ski area operator in North America, reported continuing and growing losses as the pandemic threatens travel and haunts the coming ski season. The company reported a 50% decline in revenue for the first three months of its fiscal 2021, which ended Oct. 31, compared with the same period last year. But […]
Posted inBusiness, COVID, News, Outdoors
Masks up! Colorado ski resorts are moving ahead as state, counties and businesses restrict access
VAIL — The lift operator in the maze at Vail Village’s Gondola One tilts his head back and hollers: “Masks up please!” There are no unmasked skiers in the line, but maybe some masks have slipped below noses. It’s the second day of operations at Vail ski area — a busy Saturday — and skiers […]
Posted inBusiness, COVID, News, Outdoors
Vail Resorts lost $140 million after coronavirus forced its ski areas to close. That’s actually better than expected.
Cost cutting by Vail Resorts after it closed its 34 North American ski areas on March 14 lessened the financial blow of the coronavirus. Slashing plans for capital upgrades, suspending cash dividends to shareholders, reducing salaries and furloughing hourly workers helped Vail Resorts lose only $140 million in income in the first four months of […]
Posted inNewsletters, Outsider
Owner of Wolf Creek ski area wants to reopen this weekend. But first he has a major hoop to jump through.
Updated at April 30, 2020, at 11:28 p.m.: Gov. Jared Polis orders Colorado ski areas closed until at least May 23. Davey Pitcher wants to open Wolf Creek ski area this weekend. His limited opening plan won unanimous approval from boards of county commissioners in Archuleta, Rio Grande and Mineral counties. He got approval from […]
Posted inBusiness, COVID, News, Outdoors
The day skiing died: Inside the historic day coronavirus forced Colorado’s ski industry to shutter
On the morning of March 14, Gov. Jared Polis studied data on coronavirus infection rates in Colorado’s ski towns, which were 20 to 30 times higher than the rates on the Front Range. It was Saturday and the busiest day of the season for ski areas — the day when Colorado’s $5 billion resort industry […]
Posted inBusiness, COVID, News
Hundreds of international workers at Colorado ski resorts are in limbo as countries close borders, airlines cancel flights
When Gov. Jared Polis ordered the state’s ski areas to close on March 14, he also launched Ana Panessi into a frantic race to get home. It was a race she did not win. “So many people, they were able to run away very quickly. We did not have the same opportunity. So we are […]
Posted inBusiness, COVID, News, Outdoors
“Locals only” coronavirus closures of Colorado public land may not be legal. But mountain communities say it’s needed for safety.
More resorts are banning uphill traffic as skiers flock. And as a second snowy weekend approaches with the entire state now under stay-at-home orders, more health departments and sheriffs are following that lead with both orders and requests to limit outdoor activity by visitors from afar. San Juan County Sheriff Bruce Conrad on Saturday took […]