{"id":51652,"date":"2020-09-11T11:46:15","date_gmt":"2020-09-11T17:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/how-colorados-independent-wolf-creek-ski-area-plans-to-navigate-a-coronavirus-reopening\/"},"modified":"2020-09-11T17:46:15","modified_gmt":"2020-09-11T17:46:15","slug":"how-colorados-independent-wolf-creek-ski-area-plans-to-navigate-a-coronavirus-reopening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/how-colorados-independent-wolf-creek-ski-area-plans-to-navigate-a-coronavirus-reopening\/","title":{"rendered":"How Colorado\u2019s independent Wolf Creek ski area plans to navigate a coronavirus reopening"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Later
Later this month Wolf Creek Ski Area will release season passes, carefully designed to help control traffic at the ski area.<\/span>Courtesy of Wolf Creek Ski Area<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Almost 4,200 Wolf Creek skiers responded to a survey sent by the ski area\u2019s owner, Davey Pitcher.<\/p>\n

They were largely from New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma as well as surrounding communities like Pagosa Springs and South Fork. Typical Wolf Creek skiers.<\/p>\n

They all said, heck yeah they wanted to ski this season. And they were ready to do whatever it takes to get on the lifts. Masks, social distancing and drastically changed food service that would largely entail dining in cars and parking lots were just fine if it meant they could ski.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s encouraging they were willing to modify their behavior this winter,\u201d Pitcher said.<\/p>\n

And a majority said they would use a reservation system.<\/p>\n

Pitcher last week submitted an operating plan to his local public health department proposing a self-imposed cap of 5,000 skiers a day at the 1,600-acre ski area. His capacity is 6,800 skiers.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s offering a premium pass without any blackout days. A midtier pass that has some blackout days and a discount pass that pretty much limits access to weekdays.<\/p>\n

\"Wolf
Wolf Creek ski area owner Davey Pitcher on the site of a new chairlift under construction at the resort on July 2, 2018.<\/span>Jason Blevins\/Colorado Sun file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Buyers of the Wolf Creek premium pass must reserve their ski day 12 hours ahead of time to guarantee a spot. While he hasn\u2019t set pricing just yet, Pitcher estimates that a premium pass will cost around $1,500, up from $780 last year. The midrange pass will be more affordable and the weekday pass \u2013 with some blackout dates during spring break \u2013 will be cheaper than anything he sold last season.<\/p>\n

Purchasers of day tickets \u2013 available only online \u2013 also will be able to lock in their spot. He\u2019s expanded the number of \u201clocal appreciation\u201d days when tickets are priced around $56.<\/p>\n

Read more of this story at The Colorado Sun<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, journalist-owned news outlet exploring issues of statewide interest. Sign up for a newsletter and read more at coloradosun.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more of this story at The Colorado Sun<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Resorts, which last week announced a reservation system that requires pass holders to book high-season ski days well in advance, Wolf Creek is adjusting its pricing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[233,685,28,372],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-51652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coloradosun-com","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-headlines","tag-wolf-creek-ski-area"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51652","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=51652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51652"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=51652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}