Seven Springs Mountain Ski Resort and Hidden Valley Ski Resort opened earlier this month for the season, putting precautions in place to keep patrons safe during the pandemic.
“We’re really asking for people to stay outside and not come into any of the offices,” said Alex Moser, director of marketing. “We really improved our e-commerce where people can buy lift ticket, rentals, schedule snow sports lessons and buy their season pass online, and then they can just drive up to the toll booths at our main entrance or our North entrance and get their phone scanned and they’ll get a ticket and be on their way.”
Ordering food and beverage also looks different for the ski resorts because of the restrictions on indoor dining. Moser said they have moved tables from inside the ski lodge to outside the lodge. There are three take-out windows available and an outdoor grill.
For those staying in the hotel, the resort is offering room service, which Moser said is working very well.
“We got to keep a lot of our dining room servers working because we just repurposed them and asked them to deliver room service instead of serving people’s tables,” he said. “It kept people working, which is what we all need right now.”
As the largest employer in the region, the company isn’t undermining the importance of keeping people employed during the pandemic, Moser said.
While on the properties, Moser said it is essential people follow social distancing and mask guidelines. While people are on the actual ski slopes and following social distancing guidelines, they are not required to wear a mask. At any other time, however, they must wear it, including on the lifts.
“Following the guidelines starts at home,” he said. “Putting our employees in positions to enforce it, we can only go so far with that, so we are really asking families to make sure their children and their teenagers understand what is expected of them when they arrive here, too.”
In order to keep people social distanced while they wait for the ski lifts, there are ghost lanes separating the lanes with people in them, so no one is waiting beside another person. They also have employees monitoring the lanes to make sure people have their lift tickets and are properly socially distant from others.
Moser said COVID-19 has made its dent on the resorts’ income, especially during the summer, as weddings, festivals and conferences typically make up much of their summer business. This year, the resorts have seen an uptick in winter season pass purchases, however, said Moser. He believes this is due to people wanting safe outdoor activities to participate in during the pandemic.
“People are looking for things to do outside,” he said. “We’ve had a few days where the number of people visiting our website exceeded any single day since 2012.”
Moser said the biggest challenge they are dealing with now is simply getting information about their new operations to their guests. One of the main ways people can receive new information about the resorts is through their social media accounts.
“A ski resort is a community,” he said. “It’s a community of everybody just wanting to get together on the snow.”
Seven Springs’ winter season hours are Sunday through Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Thursday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Hidden Valley’s season hours are Monday and Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Wednesday and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Laurel Mountain Ski Resort is remaining closed for the time being.
