Eager early-season crowds are helping Colorado ski resorts fine tune operations before the holiday crush

Winter Park delayed its opening a couple weeks to early December and the pent-up demand almost overwhelmed the Grand County resort on its first Saturday.

Lines were long on Dec. 5 and, as skiers kicked off skis and snowboards to load up the base-area gondola, distancing faded. By midday, the resort had made changes.

“We realized that people need a little help with social distancing, especially when there’s not any marks on the floor, which is hard to do outside,” said Jen Miller, spokeswoman for Winter Park, where workers ended up painting lines in the snow and installing maze ropes. “Certainly Saturday was a good exercise. That’s one way to put it.”

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Nothing like a horde of eager skiers to help resorts identify gaps in their pandemic-influenced plans.

Read more via The Colorado Sun

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