Otis Ski Ridge ready for season with new COVID-19 restrictionsDate: 12/28/2020 OTIS – Despite current COVID-19 restrictions, Otis Ski Ridge had its full launch after Christmas and is preparing for a busy season.
Ahead of the full launch after Christmas, General Manager Eric VanOostveen said conditions on the mountain are good so far.
“The conditions are great, we have a bunch of natural snow, we’ve had some really good snow making temperatures over the past two weeks. The mountain’s in pretty good shape, we have some warmer weather coming Thursday or Friday, but I think we’ll make it through,” he said.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, VanOostveen said the ski area is following all of the social distancing and capacity guidelines.
“We have restrictions for everything inside, we’re down to 40 percent in our lodge and our ski shop. The other one is the state guidelines say if you arrive together you ride together, which is basically you can ride on the chair lift with people you came with,” he said.
As part of the capacity limits, the ski area is limiting how long people can stay inside to eat.
“Food service inside is grab and go, we recommend all our customers, if they’re coming in to eat to stay a half hour to 45 minutes. If you’re just coming in to grab a cup of coffee, 15 minutes. As long as people are staying outside 15 to 30 minutes and going outside before coming back in, the constant rotation makes sure the lodges never fill up,” he said.
VanOostveen said the ski area is keeping up with social distancing and sanitizing everything as much as possible.
“Everybody is 6 feet apart on our lift lines. We sanitize, sanitize, sanitize. The buildings get fogged twice a day on top of the daily cleaning each department does on their own.
Unlike other ski areas, Otis Ski Ridge is not requiring skiers to make a reservation ahead of time, but they are thoroughly keeping track of everyone that comes to ski.
“We’re doing full contact tracing for all our visitors. So, everybody that buys a day ticket they sign in for contact tracing. Our season pass holders check in at the other ticket window and we just check them off,” he said.
Even though they do not require reservations, if there are too many people on the mountain, VanOostveen said they will stop taking in new skiers for the day.
“On any given day, as long as the capacity on the hill is safe, where everybody can ski and keep their distance, we will keep letting people in. We do have a number in our parking lot where we will stop selling day tickets if we hit it,” he said.
As with typical years, VanOostveen said Otis Ski Ridge had a soft launch on the weekends ahead of Christmas when they open for normal hours.
VanOostveen said he is expecting a busy year and the phone has been ringing off the hook ahead of their full launch.
“Looking at the past weekend and the phone calls that are coming in, I think people just want to get outside. The phone’s been ringing off the hook,” he said.
Otis Ski Ridge is open Wednesday through Sunday and on all holidays and school vacation weeks.
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