Alpine Skiing Under Travel Restrictions - How?

[rocket21]

I went by Attitash New Years Eve day and it was horrible. Horrible conditions and lift lines a mile long. They can have it. No 6 ft distance there.

It's been a terrible holiday week for skiing, but let's not start any rumors of non-compliance so that the mob tries to shut down our ski areas.

Assuming they had the ghost lanes set up (providing side-to-side distance), then "social distance" was maintained, as tails and tips of skis naturally provide the front-to-back distance between folks in a lift line.

 

[hikerbrian]

We skied at Wachusett yesterday. The experience crystalized some things for me. In no particular order:
1. For MA residents, the biggest challenge to skiing in another state is the 10-day required quarantine upon RETURNING TO MA. If you ski in NH, you have to fill out a travel form with the state of MA and then quarantine for 10 days. Alternatively, one could get a COVID test to shorten the quarantine. One option: get the test on Friday, ski in NH all weekend, and return to MA on Sunday. Whenever the test results come back - since the test would have been administered within 72 hrs of arriving in MA - you're good to go (as long as it comes back negative). It's a bit of a loophole since I imagine the spirit of the order is to prevent infections acquired in another state from manifesting in MA spread. And testing on Friday wouldn't show if you'd been infected while traveling. So there is that.
2. Having lived in relative proximity to Tahoe for a period of 5 yrs, I qualify New England snow conditions now as either 'normal' or 'amazing.' There is nothing else. There was no natural snow at Wachusett yesterday, and it had rained a bit in the previous days. So conditions were 'normal.' You get my drift. If I'm skiing, I am not complaining. I happen to like 'fast' conditions.
3. We didn't go into the base lodge. I think it's quite restricted. They had porta-potties set up at the base. Should have done that years ago! Carrying snacks in my pockets and then grabbing lunch in the car was totally fine. Better, in some ways.
4. Ticket sales were restricted, and you had to purchase online in advance. Lift lines were actually better than I've often seen mid-season. Maybe 8-10 min wait at the high end. Usually more like 5 min.
5. We only rode the quads. Rules were you had to either ride the lift with people you drove up with, or two singles could ride up in a chair together at either end of the chair, with the two middle seats empty. This worked fine for our family of 4, and with ticket sales restricted lift lines were not an issue, even though most chairs weren't full.
6. Face coverings were required in all areas. I started with a cloth mask, and it was fully saturated within 1-2 hrs. Like, wet and gross. So I switched to a normal neoprene face mask (the ones that have holes in the mouth area and a nose hole) with a fleece gaitor over that. This situation is not ideal. I think the risk of outdoor transmission is small, but it's non-zero. I'm not sure if the fleece gaitors I saw as face coverings provided any efficacy.
7. There were ghost lanes in all the lift lines. Combined with skis, physical distancing was generally effective.

Hope that is helpful to some. If we opt to go to NH at some point to ski (not sure it'll happen), there will be another learning curve. I'd appreciate insight from anyone who has gone, specifically regarding lift lines.

 

[Mac]

Mac, I read about an interesting loophole in the border closure restrictions.

Canadian RV owners intent on getting to warmer climes to sit out the winter have been short-hop flying over the border and having their empty RVs towed across the border by US towing services. They then reunite with the RV and drive it to FL, AZ, etc.

Think Spring.

Thanks for the thought. Not really interested in going south. It's my lack of Northeastern winter hiking and skiing that's giving me withdrawal symptoms. Can't even go to the Chic Chocs right now, without quarantining for 2 weeks on my return to Nova Scotia.