Checking in on COVID-19 protocols
Resort had outbreak that included more than 100 employees
W INTER PARK» Nick Hulse figures he’s gotten in three dozen ski days this winter, and last Saturday topped them all with nine inches of fresh powder at Winter Park to kick off a fluffy Presidents Day weekend.
“The best day I’ve had, for sure,” the Denver resident said while tailgating with five friends — and no COVID-19 concerns — at Winter Park’s Mary Jane base area as bratwurst sizzled on the grill. “It skis really deep. It’s super nice out there.”
And judging from several random interviews, Winter Park skiers and riders weren’t worried about COVID-19 even though the resort reported five days earlier that it was experiencing an outbreak among employees that exceeded 100 cases.
Kris Penn of Chicago, who was skiing with her husband, their two children and another family, said she had “no reservations at all” with the way Winter Park has been managing COVID protocols. Her family has a second home in Winter Park and skied there for two and a half weeks over the Christmas holidays.
Now they’re back for another extended trip.
“First of all, they are very clear about mask wearing,” Penn said. “The lifties are all trained well to stop (masks that are lowered). They’re on it, every time. There’s no inside food service, so you have to queue up outside, and any social area requires mask wearing. We’re super conservative as a family. If anybody is going to be scrutinizing it, it’s our family, and we’re totally comfortable.”
Hulse, 26, said he skied Alta and Snowbird in Utah the previous weekend and found things sketchy there.
“The mask police, people who were policing it, were really not on it,” said Hulse, an Ikon Passholder. “I definitely felt a little less comfortable there. They were trying, but they were not as attentive. I’ve skied a bunch this year, I ski at Copper all the time, Winter Park, and they were way better than the Utah guys. This is like my 35th day, and never once did I feel nervous with COVID.
“I have witnessed, a couple of times, people talking back about the mask thing. It really doesn’t matter how you feel about it. If it’s going to keep them open, might as well just follow all of the rules so we can ski.”
At entrances to Winter Park buildings, resort staff members were posted, counting every person who went in and out to maintain COVID capacity limits. They had devices connected electroni
to message boards posted outside the buildings, keeping real-time counts for visitors. For example, at 8:58 a.m., a sign at West Portal Station said 52 spots were available inside. It cycled with another display reporting the current capacity at six other locations spread out across the resort.
While moderate-sized lift lines queued up in the Winter Park base to ride the gondola, resort staff paced the area looking for folks who didn’t have their masks pulled up over their noses. Occasionally they would find someone and ask them politely to pull their mask up.
“This is not an anomaly, what you’re seeing today,” Penn said. “This has been our experience
now for the better part of 20 days this season.”
Earlier in the week, snowboarder Andrew Johnson of Louisville reached out to The Denver Post to complain that resort staff wasn’t enforcing the mask mandate in lift lines when he visited the previous week. Johnson said he stood in line for 30 minutes at the Super Gauge Express at the Mary Jane base area with an unmasked man standing a few feet behind him, vaping non-stop.
“There were people loading the lifts with no masks on,” said Johnson, 31. “It was very crowded and very, very close. There was no social distancing between groups. People got bunched up and there was nobody enforcing it. We ended up leaving after doing like two runs because no matter where we went, it just felt way too crowded, just not following the protocally
cols at all. There were people walking around with their masks pulled down in big groups of people. It was unbelievably shocking.”
Two other people contacted The Post after the Winter Park outbreak was reported, one taking issue with Johnson’s comments after they were published, the other criticizing Winter Park. But last Saturday, everyone interviewed by The Post had no issues.
Winter Park resident Allison Beauvais and a friend visiting from Houston, Diane LeMaire, expressed full confidence in the resort’s COVID protocols while reheating homemade chili on a grill for their daughters in a tailgate set-up at the Mary Jane base.
“I think it’s great,” Beauvais said. “Everybody keeps their mask on while they are in the lift lines, and they’re pretty good about making sure you do that, so we feel totally safe. I know there was an outbreak recently, but that didn’t stop us in any way.”
In fact, LeMaire thought the rules being enforced at Winter Park went “almost overboard,” because she’s used to rules being looser back home in Texas.
“In Houston, if you’re outside, you don’t wear a mask,” LeMaire said. “When you come down the slopes, it says this is a mask zone, and they’re regulating it. They’re making sure, ‘Above your nose.’ They’re being really friendly about it, but I almost think it’s a little too much. I think they’re being super safe. There’s sanitation stations, and restaurants are closed, so you’re not indoors with anybody.”