With Thanksgiving week marking the unofficial beginning of the Colorado ski season and fresh snow blanketing the high country, resorts in Summit County are being hit with reductions governing on-mountain capacity because of new COVID-19 restrictions.
A new public health order issued last week by the Summit County Health Department stipulated the county’s four ski areas are “required to work with the local public health agency to further reduce their daily capacities relative to those designated in their existing COVID-19 operating plans.”
Keystone, Arapahoe Basin and Breckenridge are already open. Copper Mountain is tentatively scheduled to open next week.
The new reductions, coming in response to Summit County being moved to Level Red on the state’s COVID-19 dial, went into effect on Wednesday. Summit County manager Scott Vargo called the reductions “proportionate to the risk” and “meaningful,” but declined to provide specific numbers or percentages.
Summit County ski areas were given permission to open for the season after working out COVID-19 operating plans in collaboration with the county health department in the fall.
