Traveling to Pitkin County / Aspen?

[Pat Donnelly]

Pitkin County, Colo., home to Aspen Snowmass, will require overnight visitors coming from outside Pitkin, Eagle, or Garfield counties to complete an affidavit confirming they had a negative Covid-19 test result 72 hours prior to arrival, or will quarantine, either for 14 days upon arrival or until they obtain a negative test result in Pitkin County. The requirement goes into effect Dec. 14.

Pitkin is the only county in Colorado with these requirements. According toThe Aspen Times, one of the biggest challenges for a community like Aspen is the need communicate the requirements to visitors in advance, which will require a collaborative effort.

[queequeg]

On 12/12/2020 at 7:21 AM, Pat Donnelly said:

Pitkin County, Colo., home to Aspen Snowmass, will require overnight visitors coming from outside Pitkin, Eagle, or Garfield counties to complete an affidavit confirming they had a negative Covid-19 test result 72 hours prior to arrival, or will quarantine, either for 14 days upon arrival or until they obtain a negative test result in Pitkin County. The requirement goes into effect Dec. 14.

Pitkin is the only county in Colorado with these requirements. According toThe Aspen Times, one of the biggest challenges for a community like Aspen is the need communicate the requirements to visitors in advance, which will require a collaborative effort.

Thanks Pat! I was thinking of making a run to aspen this winter.

[pow4ever]

i had to do it for my annual Maine Sugarloaf trip.
Follow individual state CDC mandate. 

I follow best practices:  stay home, mask up doing essential in public, practice social distance.  say no to family get together.  Who am I kidding; it's how i live my live anyway lol...  now it's just normalized my hermit life style.

For travel:
stay in studio by myself, drive up by myself.
Got a covid test 72 hours before I checked in.

Antigen test(rapid) test should be good enough as PCR test result take longer to get result.
The tricky part how to stay safe in the clinic and airport/airplane (outside of my control).

[John Gilmour]

Aspen Covid positive test results are high. 

What people don't seem to understand is dormitory style living is a very bad idea with Covid for ski co workers who often, during  holiday period , operate on very little sleep. Ski Co should have anticipated this based on Singapores approach to dormitory workers. 

Running any fever for any infection gets people sent home, which IMHO is great since flu won't be spread as easily this year. The flu rips through Aspen every year. 

Aspen flu  right after new years is highest and then drops off after. Jan 4th . So should Covid positive results be highest then.  My favorite coffee shop ( I haven't gone inside anywhere since I got here ) is closing for  a few days because of  " lack of staff". I asked "So are you are hiring ?" They said " no reason to hire , who just wants to work this job for only a week while people recover".

Reports of 10% sick now. Which to me seems about average for this time of the year. Normally from Dec 18-Jan 2 I ride Buttermilk (but don't go inside the lodge) Highlands if snow is good , avoid Snowmass because of the need to take a bus, and no Aspen unless on a chair lift which in the past was hard to avoid the morning shared Gondola to get up top, but now thy are running chairlifts the entire way (brrr it's a long ride) . That has been my strategy to not get sick in Aspen since 2008 after getting totally sick 2006 and 2007 which has worked well with me only getting sick after Snow Polo DJ'ing in 2011.

Rv' ing Aspen to avoid Covid doesn't really work because your rig is in the snowmass park and ride bus transfer lot  with zero RV hook ups (no power or water)  and no nearby bathroom access, plus you are  back on a bus to go skiing unless you are in a sprinter, which could fit inside the lot or detach a travel trailer . No place to park a travel trailer or large RV in aspen , though Sprinter rigs might work for Ajax. Buttermilk has no overnight parking. 

I have been very comfortable in my carpartment with the heat set to 73 degrees when it's 6 degrees outside.  It ensures I get tons of sleep and no Covid b cause of Bioweapon defense mode which I activate mornings that filters any bacteria or virus . Yoga membership includes showers.  And, if it's gets Cloudy flat light  it's a trip to the hot springs . This really only works at sunny resorts where you can ride everyday with tons of accommodations and après.

The trails are wonderfully uncrowded , the groom holds up good all day. Après ski indoors  is no dancing and scattered tables . Bonnie's got 9 geodesic see through plastic domes for making outdoor dining more comfortable - so bitching cool looking. 

There is a huge Heated tent (for food you bring) atop Ajax in addition to the regular sun deck restaurant which offers takeout service which is good since they limited sundeck to very few people and lines form starting at 1pm to get into to eat. My answer, to that is I cook out on the picnic tables.

Aspen's Silver Queen Gondolas are frost covered in the morning inside and out as all the windows are open and have to stay open. They looked like they were removing hardware to keep the Gondola windows from closing yesterday.That might just lower your immunity. They spray the gondolas insides with disinfectant  ( probably a great thing to do in the future too).

If Pitkin required daily Covid tests or tests every 3 days for Aspen workers then they might have been able to control the Worker population from infecting the Tested Negative guests.  But that did not happen so 10% infected.

An imperfect quarantine is almost the same as no quarantine at all , it just delays onset of full infection, but once it starts the infection rates are about the same. You can't have a quarantine be effective when you have movement between separate quasi "quarantine " populations .  California's high rates of infection seem to parallel traffic volume on the 405,5,110,10,91   Freeways. Infection rates dropped when traffic jams were none exisitant because movement between population was significantly reduced, it didn't stop the infection , it just delayed it. 

My worry is that now ski co has made its yearly profit , they might shut down again.  Any ski operations from now until the next of the year except for Presidents' Day will be at a loss. And if given an excuse not to bleed red ink, they will likely take it.

Winter X games has not been promoted . I just heard from my old boss that they might be needing help, it looks like the are a go ...but with a limit of 500 people total (staff plus athletes) my skill set is needed as sleds need to run athletes up for their runs unless they made temporary rope tows.

The Aspen town race series , America's longest continuous running ski contest, will still run this year. I am helping out with it. No after party, no scoreboard. Social distancing in effect.  Even if they shut the lifts down, we will probably try  to use sleds to get everyone up. I'm sure racers would walk up if they had to.

Edited January 4, 2021 by John Gilmour

[arneburner]

I plan to ride aspen Feb 8-11. Getting a covid test on Feb 5. Hope too see Larry, Bob, and others. Staying at the base of Buttermilk. 

[arneburner]

On 1/25/2021 at 2:03 PM, arneburner said:

I plan to ride aspen Feb 8-11. Getting a covid test on Feb 5. Hope too see Larry, Bob, and others. Staying at the base of Buttermilk. 

Negative test result received and mtn reservations made. Plan to ride snowmass on Mon, Milk on Tues and Wed. Not sure about Thursday.

On 1/25/2021 at 2:03 PM, arneburner said:

 

 

[John Gilmour]

I just spoke to some of my Aspen local friends and Aspen is now completely open 

No more restaurant closures,

 

Andno more restaurant closures,

 

And they got about 2 feet of snow in the last week or so

[Colozeus]

@softbootsurfer @John Gilmour or anyone else, how are conditions at aspen? Planning a trip the weekend of the 20th for 4 days or so. Is coverage good across all mountains? Or are conditions at summit county resorts better?

[John Gilmour]

I dunno , I’m at the beach right now. But ask me tomorrow after I drive there. Friends say the snow is good now.

[Cthulhufish]

On 3/9/2021 at 9:26 AM, Colozeus said:

@softbootsurfer @John Gilmour or anyone else, how are conditions at aspen? Planning a trip the weekend of the 20th for 4 days or so. Is coverage good across all mountains? Or are conditions at summit county resorts better?

Spring conditions now. Coverage is fine, with more snow expected this weekend.

[John Gilmour]

We got a ton of snow . Monday was some pretty good fluffy stuff like Aspen used to get in the 1989s very cushiony.

it didn’t firm up much today as temps have been cool, it’s staying like winter 25 degrees this morning . 
 

This late the snow is typically hard in the morning, but now it’s like February snow!  Usually I have to wait for Ruthie s run to get  sun to soften in March, but today it was perfect at open. 
 

snowed all afternoon and tonight. 
 

don’t miss this.

[John Gilmour]

It’s like midwinter in Aspen , getting snow at night pretty regularly . Very good carving, though sunnier skies would be welcome . It’s usually a melt out freeze thaw by now, but it’s been cold and being overcast much of the day has preserved the snow. I can only think of a few times in previous years  after March 15 when it hasn’t been mashed potatoes by 2pm.  It’s certainly more like winter skiing than spring skiing , Ajax tavern was a chilly late lunch yesterday. 
 

I haven’t been able to break out any spring skiing wear and my feet have been cold like mid February. I’ll probably leave Aspen this year without experiencing slush or a pond skimming contest .

Edited March 26, 2021 by John Gilmour