This is a little late, but Happy New Year to all of you. After a long drought of snow it seemed as if we may not even get open for the Holidays and I was going to have to eat some crow. But just in the nick (no pun intended) of time it started snowing plenty. In fact, it was so much and so continuous it was a challenge getting it packed and groomed on our end. It was like when you fall in deep powder and it takes every bit of energy you have to get yourself back up right … if you can find your ski that is. We received 45 inches over a 10-day period and mostly evenly spread over each day. Although it was a bit like Groundhog’s Day for us the result was epic skiing for everybody. It was a challenge as well for CDOT and Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC) who closed Monarch Pass two different times during our peak visit days.
For several days myself and my administrative team worked at the lifts to help them with some of their staffing shortages as well as see firsthand how the new RFID Gates are working. All in all, it went swimmingly in my opinion. There’s always a little learning curve for most of us, but we are quite pleased with the result. Thank you all for your patience and understanding during this time. We were unable to open various venues during the Holidays due to the timing of the snow, extremely high winds, and a few minor staffing shortages, but I am happy to announce that we now have our terrain open wall to wall as well as the tubing hill, terrain parks, and cat skiing operations.
COVID is still a thing and although it has diminished the lengthy loss of time away from work for our staff, it is still a thing. It is still getting people sick, vaccinated or not. Fortunately for those vaccinated it reduces the likelihood of being hospitalized significantly. We at Monarch are wearing masks indoors and we are now wearing surgical masks, KN95 masks, or N95 masks. We are certain that the cloth masks we were all making a year ago are no longer useful. Same is true for neck gators/buffs. I understand that there is no mandate per se from the state or anyone to wear masks indoors, but we are hoping all visitors join us in wearing masks indoors while we are still struggling through this pandemic. Just a little ways to go before this latest COVID storm blows by. In the meantime let’s go riding.
