Vail Resorts Announces Season Closure and More Canadian Resorts Close

March 18th, 2020
Fernie Alpine Resort has joined the long list of North American resorts that are now closed. Photo: Nick Nault

Mountainwatch | News

As the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continues to evolve, more resorts in North America have closed operations for the season.  As we reported on Monday, all resorts in Europe are closed after lock-downs in Italy, France, Austria, Switzerland, Germany and Norway.

Vail resorts also announced on the weekend that that it had suspended operations from March 15-22 when it would reassess the situation, while Alterra mountain company announced its 15 North American resorts were closed until further notice.

Well, we didn’t have to wait a week for Vail Resorts to reassess as it announced this morning that all of its North American resorts will remain closed for the 2019-20 season. However, the statement did also say that Vail would, “consider reopening Breckenridge, Whistler Blackcomb and Heavenly in late April/early May, dependent on the situation with COVID-19 as well as weather conditions.”

While Whistler Blackcomb and Silverstar closed on March 15, other Canadian resorts issued statements that they would remain open until advised otherwise by government and health officials. That advice has been received over the past two days with Revelstoke, Big White, Fernie, Kicking Horse, Nakiska Lake Louise, Sunshine and Kimberly al announcing they are now closed for the 2019-20 season.

However, in Japan there have been no change and ski resorts with enough snow are still open and at this stage they are sticking to the scheduled closing dates. By all reports, life is going on as normal in the Japanese ski resorts and there has been some heavy snowfalls over the past two days. Hakuba has received another 20-30cms in the past 24 hours on top of the 60cms on Monday night, Steve Lee, calling it some of the best powder of the season.

Here in Australia there has been understandable speculation about the affects the Coronavirus may or may not have on our ski season, which is still three months away. At this stage it is business as usual for the Australian ski resorts, all of which are preparing for the usual season opening on the June long weekend, conditions permitting.

The notable exception is Selwyn Snowfields which will not be opening this 2020 season due to the extensive damage suffered in the January bushfires.