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Berkshire East and Catamount Closed for Season

icecoast1

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In other words, it's a crap winter so we want to shut down early to stop losing money
 

JimG.

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Wow, I just typed a response to Dr. Jeff's thread about early closures.

And I agree with icecoast1's response.
 

BenedictGomez

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In other words, it's a crap winter so we want to shut down early to stop losing money


That is precisely how I view it. They just locked-in & maximized their bottom line for 2019-2020.

Even with the "crap winter", now they'll probably fare quite well financially this season (at their customer's expense).
 

NYDB

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I'd be pretty pissed if I was a passholder at B east (which I am not so I don't really care) . I thought they made a decent amount of snow for a little place.
 

AdironRider

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It does feel a bit scapegoatish given both these places are not known for pushing a late season.

I would be pissed though as a pass holder and would demand a pro rated refund.
 

icecoast1

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I'd be pretty pissed if I was a passholder at B east (which I am not so I don't really care) . I thought they made a decent amount of snow for a little place.

In any other circumstance, I could see that happening. But given the panic and hysteria going on everywhere, this will be seen as a necessity to protect people, not what it is, a way of stopping the bleeding from a bad winter
 

faceplant

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First dominoes to fall.

'CLOSED FOR THE WINTER SEASON. Catamount owners have acted swiftly to control COVID 19 and any potential exposures of it to Catamount's staff and customers.
We appreciate your understanding and support. We look forward to the 2020-2021 winter season.

In the near future we will provide an update regarding the opening of our summer activities. ''
 

KustyTheKlown

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Agreed. I doubt we see players shutting down early. Convenient reason for these resorts to stop the bleeding
 

Newpylong

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'CLOSED FOR THE WINTER SEASON. Catamount owners have acted swiftly to control COVID 19 and any potential exposures of it to Catamount's staff and customers.
We appreciate your understanding and support. We look forward to the 2020-2021 winter season.

In the near future we will provide an update regarding the opening of our summer activities. ''

I will translate that:

"Catamount owners have acted swiftly to stem the financial bleeding from not having a lift line deeper than 5 people since February break. This bleeding would only be exacerbated by blowing more money on labor and fuel to piece together any resemblance of decent skiing, that no one outside of a small handful of passholders will come to because there hasn't been snow in people's yards since January."

How did I do?
 

BenedictGomez

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I will translate that:

"Catamount owners have acted swiftly to stem the financial bleeding from not having a lift line deeper than 5 people since February break. This bleeding would only be exacerbated by blowing more money on labor and fuel to piece together any resemblance of decent skiing, that no one outside of a small handful of passholders will come to because there hasn't been snow in people's yards since January."

How did I do?

Spot on.
 

Vaughn

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they'll probably fare quite well financially this season (at their customer's expense).

At their customer's expense.... how? Every single day pass buyer got what they paid for - a day of skiing. Season pass holders have been skiing there since mid November, the earliest opening ever. On a good year, there might be two or three more weekends of skiing up there tops. I never realized running a small regional ski hill was supposed to be a public good, not a profitable business. What crybaby thinking...
 

WWF-VT

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To our Berkshire East and Catamount Guests and Employees:


Berkshire East will close for the season today, Thursday, March 12 at 4pm and Catamount Ski Area will not reopen this weekend. COVID-19 has been discovered in the surrounding hill towns and multiple people are being quarantined. To be clear, no known Berkshire East or Catamount customers or employees have been effected by this illness, but as the GM of these businesses, I have a responsibility to my employees and my customers to act swiftly to contain any potential virus spread in areas that I can control.


In 2006, I was buried in an avalanche in British Columbia. While being buried in that tumble of snow the only thing I could think of was “this isn’t worth it…” This experience informs me now as the only thought that comes to me is, “no ski turn is worth a life.”


My role in this business was given to me by my father who loves being at the mountain every day. His demographics put him at a higher risk than others. If I can’t recommend that he visit his facility, how can I ask anyone else to do the same? Our staff is our family. Our guests are our tribe.


Thus, with conviction, we believe that our businesses can be leaders (however small) in beating back COVID-19 from its current beachhead by immediately closing for what remains of the winter season.


There simply is no benefit to remaining open.


The best science shows that this type of aggressive mitigation is both inevitable and overwhelmingly in support of the public good.


We urge other business leaders and our elected officials to follow suit in continuing to aggressively close down public spaces so we can proactively begin to get this insidiousness behind us.


We send the full weight of our prayers to the healthcare workers and their families who are on the front lines of this battle. As this illness spreads exponentially, we must all take immediate action to “flatten the curve” in order to allow our nations health care workers to make effective headway against the current caseload of COVID-19.


We shout from our mountain tops that you can make a thousand daily impacts by washing your hands, not touching your face, practice social distancing and simply sit back while doing everything in your power to stop the spread.


This is certainly an inconvenience to our customers and will result in major changes for our staff. None of this is going to be easy and we are passing into unknown territories. But like any good skier knows, you beat back challenging situations by pressing forward into them aggressively and decisively.


Lastly, this is personal, I’m related to medical professionals working in hospitals with active outbreaks. We shut down out of love and support for these people and the staffs in these hospitals.


We are confident in the future. We will announce a reopening date for our whitewater rafting, zip lines, aerial adventures, and biking in the coming weeks as guidance comes down from the CDC, the NIH and WHO.


Jon Schaefer


 
Last edited:

x10003q

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Noting that management is fraudulently canceling the rest of the season for its' financial gain by blaming a viral epidemic that kills the elderly is crybaby thinking?

Say they are only getting 10% of normal visits due fears related to the COVID-19, should they still stay open? They are not usually pushing the limits on spring closing anyway. Why shouldn't they preserve capital? It is the smart financial move. If there was no COVID-19 they would be closing at their normal date.
 

BenedictGomez

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Say they are only getting 10% of normal visits due fears related to the COVID-19, should they still stay open?

Two obvious things there:

1) That's not happening (currently anyway).

2) That's not what they said (they went the Superhero route).
 

Bosco DaSkia

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Mt Abram is pulling the plug after this weekend....


This Weekend at Mt Abram
Due to the deteriorating snow conditions on the mountain and the very real threat of the COVID-19 virus, management has decided that this Sunday, March 15th will be the last day of ski operations for the season. Like many businesses, schools, and governments, we feel closing the mountain is the most responsible thing to do in these unprecedented times to ensure the well-being of our employees and customers.

Fortunately unlike other seasons, this is not a farewell until next winter. We are beyond excited to start on our projects to expand the experience here at Mt. Abram beyond skiing to include summer and fall activities. We hope you will join us this weekend for a few last turns and entertainment in Loose Boots Lounge on Saturday with Doug Alford & Steve Caswell starting at 3 followed by Crime Scene at 7.

Stay tuned for the launch of summer and winter season early bird pass sale next week and continued updates on summer operations.

Thank you everyone for your continued support and a great season!

The Mt Abram Ownership & Management Team
 

x10003q

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Two obvious things there:

1) That's not happening (currently anyway).

2) That's not what they said (they went the Superhero route).

I do not ski at Catamount or BE, but saying that is "not happening" is just guessing without having access to the numbers. They probably saw a reduction in visits that was well beyond the normal patterns.

The message tone clearly bothers you, but it is the reason for closing. No virus = no early closing.
 
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