SPOKANE — Idaho’s Schweitzer Mountain Resort threatened Thursday to close unless skiers and snowboarders start voluntarily masking up.
“If we cannot get this under control, I’m willing to shut down the entire operation until we’re able to open additional lifts and terrain,” said Tom Chasse, the resort’s president in an email to season pass holders and newsletter subscribers.
The mountain requires that all skiers and snowboarders wear a mask, or some other type of face covering, when waiting in lift lines.
Because of the pandemic, the resort is only loading members of the same household onto chairlifts. At the same time much of the mountain remains closed due to limited snowfall. These two factors have led to long lift lines, Chasse said.
When he skied the mountain on Sunday, Chasse said, roughly 90 percent of guests were masked up in line. However, the 10 percent that weren’t are taxing mountain staff.
“A lot of teenage kids,” he said of the main offenders. “They’ll put it up. But as soon as they go by you they drop it down.”
Most people aren’t defensive or aggressive when asked to cover up. Instead, they need a “constant reminder.” But, having to do the reminding is getting to be too much.
“It’s unrealistic to staff every bathroom, every lift line and every indoor space to remind guests to mask up,” he wrote.
The letter, which was posted on Facebook around 1 p.m., comes just days after Bonner County Sheriff Daryl Wheeler said he would not enforce a North Idaho mask mandate. That proclamation was followed by a Bonner County commissioner threatening to cut funding to the Panhandle Health District.
Chasse’s letter references the turmoil, stating that “the pandemic has become somewhat of a political issue locally.”
The Panhandle Health District Board of Health, which serves Kootenai, Benewah, Boundary, Shoshone and Bonner counties, passed a mask mandate Nov. 19 for the five-county district. Schweitzer, located north of Sandpoint, is in Bonner County.
Those conflicting messages have created “challenges for us,” wrote Chasse.
Skiers or snowboarders who don’t want to cover their face have until Dec. 11 to roll their season passes forward a year.
“If you’re not happy with our protocol, even if you’ve skied every day this season, we will roll your pass next year. Just take the year off,” Chasse said. “I don’t want you to come here and be miserable.”
Currently, Schweitzer is only open to season pass holders on the weekends and there are a limited number of day passes available midweek. By Dec. 18 the resort will start selling a limited number of day tickets all week.
