thinking about this, is it really easier/better in terms of covid?
I mean lets examine closer for a moment. here is a theory. FWIW LOL
And so we put in a ski day.
Ok so we have a couple/few bathroom breaks in the lodge (and bathroom) with many folks and interacting.
Then on lift lines. Now here is where things can be very different on a crowded hill and also a small hill.
We are now in a herd. Yes outside but still a herd. And even with the limited ticket sales the lines can be just as long due to the non filling of chairs. The lift lines can be and often are actually longer than the ski runs at small places like the pocono resorts. But even if it large resorts you can still have significant time in lines.
Even just 10 mins or perhaps 7 mins. The runs down at a place like Blue in PA (which is very popular) may be skied down if non stop in just a few minutes. And other hills are even smaller vertical than blue. And some lifts are not even top to bottom but can be caught perhaps 2/3 way down.
So if one were to consider the ski time vs the lift line time we can often find we are on line more than we are skiing when at small crowded places.. And thats assuming lines or 7 to 10 minutes. Plenty times they are longer than that.
So lets do 20 runs (for one example) at a small hill and even if just 7 minutes average wait (which is being very generous and not even averaging in the really long waits at all). Thats 140 mins in the interacting herd of lift lines, Now also add the couple lodge bathroom breaks as well. lets say between unmounting at the racks and walking in and using the facility and back to the racks again (perhaps 7/8 minutes) assuming your not on a 5 to 10 min bathroom line or lodge entrance line. This doesn't also even consider if you have children, So again another favorable only 20 mins to the 140.
thats 160mins or 2htrs 40mins spent interacting and thats being generous as i took only the favorable numbers without adding any given scenarios that always make it longer.
You can go to a restaurant with limited capacity and finish in far less time than 2hr40mins. Even a upper scale restaurant for a full course meal you can be done in 1.5 hrs. And due to capacity restrictions you may be in less company and further from folks in that restaurant vs your proximality in lift lines and bathroom/lodge usage. And also only spent about half the time.
So unless Im totally miscalculating or by mistake missing a whole other huge side to this, our skiing is really no better. Not too different from anything else and (as in my example) may even collectively be causing more close proximity interactions vs going to dine and even for a longer period of time over all. Of course the actual skiing down in itself is the much safer covid thing than anything else by nature of the free space involved. But we are not at all always doing that and depending where we are talking about we may spend as much or more time not doing that.
maybe just something we should consider before saying our skiing is very covid safe vs other things. Im mean IDK
Did i make a big mistake or miss something that dismisses my whole theory here? Hopefully i did