Maine ski resorts are preparing for different winter during the pandemic
by Conrad Cole
December 13, 2020
Ski resorts around Maine are taking all sorts of measures to stay open while being very conscious about the spread of COVID. Many New Englanders, including students and staff here at Yarmouth High School, are keeping an eye on Maine’s two biggest resorts, Sunday River and Sugarloaf.
Both owned by Boyne Resorts, the mountains have similar social distancing and mask protocols. They opened up on November 23, but only for owners of their various season passes and will be open for single lift tickets on December 14 when they believe enough of the mountains will be open for distanced skiing.
“Yeah I’ve got a season pass but I’ll be going up less this year because of ‘rona,’” said sophomore Sami Rizakallah, a self described avid Sugarloaf snowboarder who bought a pass earlier in the year.
Right now they are encouraging skiers and snowboarders to buy tickets in advance online. They have calendars with each day of the season priced out, going down the further into the season, for example a Sugarloaf Saturday in April for a teenager, comes in at just $40.
The base lodges are going to be severely restricted. Masks are required all around lodges and in lift lines too. You can no longer store bags inside which basically requires people to gear up in their cars. So far, all of the restaurants are open but will have strict limits on the number of diners, and there will be new food trucks outside. They are also adding bathrooms and tables outside, just to accommodate more people.
“I won’t be skiing too much this year,” said junior Ethan Blake, “and I definitely won’t buy a pass because I go to a bunch of different mountains.”
Blake is more or less happy with his situation because his favourite mountains aren’t in an exempt state and his skiing plans haven’t even changed too much from the pandemic. “I prefer Wildcat and other New Hampshire resorts to the Maine ones,” he said.
Yet another hit to the skiing industry was that Massachusetts was taken off the exempt list, meaning visitors need to take a COVID-19 test or quarantine for two weeks. According to Sugarloaf’s website, Maine mountains are popular throughout New England, and Massachusetts, being the biggest in terms of population, makes up a large portion of skiers.
Junior Owen Gillan is worried about the opposite. “I go to Sunday River, Black mountain and Shawnee peak,” he said, “but usually the highlight of the season is a big trip to Vermont, which probably won’t happen this year.” Gillan says he’s worried about having to quarantine, and so will likely stick around the state.
One more measure that just Sugarloaf is taking on their website is a health screener, requiring people to confirm that they don’t have any symptoms of COVID, something YHS students that did a fall sport will be familiar with.
All of this may seem like bad odds for the mountains, but both of the resorts webpages say they're being optimistic and trying to make the best out of it. According to a Portland Press Herald article from last month, they've started to market themselves as the perfect places to stay because of the rise of online work and school, making the point that even if you have important work, if it’s virtual you can stay at the resort and ski in your off time.
The Press Herald article states that ever since the pandemic kicked off, people have been getting outdoors a lot more than usual because they couldn’t get together as easily with friends. Gillan and Rizkallah both said that they will certainly be going up less this year. Even though ski resorts have plenty of outdoor space, they want the safe approach and are going to be cautious this year.