{"id":49538,"date":"2021-01-01T16:03:55","date_gmt":"2021-01-01T23:03:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/purgatory-resorts-main-lift-breaks-general-manager-says-crowding-not-an-issue\/"},"modified":"2021-01-01T23:03:55","modified_gmt":"2021-01-01T23:03:55","slug":"purgatory-resorts-main-lift-breaks-general-manager-says-crowding-not-an-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/purgatory-resorts-main-lift-breaks-general-manager-says-crowding-not-an-issue\/","title":{"rendered":"Purgatory Resort\u2019s main lift breaks, general manager says crowding not an issue"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Purgatory
Purgatory Resort\u2019s main ski lift from its base camp broke this week, but crowding is not an issue, the resort\u2019s general manager said.<\/span>Terrance Siemon\/Ballantine Communications Inc.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Update: Repairs to Purgatory Resort\u2019s Lift 1 have been completed. It reopened at 9:52 a.m. Saturday, general manager Dave Rathbun told The Durango Herald.<\/em>Purgatory Resort\u2019s main lift from its base camp up to the slopes broke this week, causing a bit of a crowding issue \u2013 momentarily, the ski resort\u2019s general manager said Friday.<\/p>\n

Lift 1 (also known as the Purgatory Village Express) is the high-powered, six-person chairlift that brings skiers up the front side of the mountain.<\/p>\n

Dave Rathbun, general manager for Purgatory Resort, said issues started with Lift 1 on Wednesday afternoon. On Thursday morning, technicians arrived and ran the lift for about two hours before the public arrived.<\/p>\n

About 15 minutes after the resort opened at 9 a.m., with skiers headed up the mountain, Purgatory Resort officials decided Lift 1 was not running safely and shut it down.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s what happens to ski lifts, occasionally, unfortunately,\u201d Rathbun said.<\/p>\n

No one was evacuated off the lift, Rathbun said. Instead, people on the lift were taken up the mountain to unload.<\/p>\n

There are two other, smaller lifts \u2013 Lifts 4 and 6 \u2013 at the base of Purgatory Resort that people were directed to use, but it was a bit chaotic as people moved around and figured out where to go, Rathbun said.<\/p>\n

Rathbun said the situation has since settled, and he said a sentiment in the community that Purgatory Resort is packed with out of control crowds is wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cContrary to popular belief, we have not been that busy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Purgatory did see a rush of skiers on Tuesday, the day after a winter storm dropped fresh powder on the mountain, but the melee at the resort was a result of everyone arriving at the same time, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey all got here at the same time, which made it look like a crazy number of people,\u201d Rathbun said.<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cit might have looked like a lot of people were here,\u201d but that there were 2,000 fewer people on the mountain than the same day last year.<\/p>\n

Ski resorts across Colorado have had to adjust to meet COVID-19 protocols.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, under COVID-19 regulations, Purgatory Resort could have had a maximum of 6,100 guests, Rathbun said. Instead, only 4,500 or so people showed up at the mountain.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerception is reality,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd the reality is there weren\u2019t as many people as we see on the holidays.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Purgatory Resort, chairlifts have not been operating at full capacity, which is the main reason why lines are so long, Rathbun said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have the same number of seats,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Technicians are working to fix Lift 1, Rathbun said, and the resort hopes to reopen it \u201cas soon as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Perception is reality. And the reality is there weren\u2019t as many people as we see on the holidays\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[378,685,28,712],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-49538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-alpine-skiing","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-headlines","tag-purgatory"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49538"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=49538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}