For those who are hoping to get away from the restrictions set in place in late November Castle Mountain may be the place to go.

Castle Mountain Resort isn't immune to COVID however, they have had to make a few changes to their facilities although Sales and Marketing Manager Cole Fawcett says nothing too drastic.

"We are in one of the last areas in the province that is not under enhanced restrictions so it sort of business as usual apart from the restrictions we already had which is restrictions to the number of guests that we can accept in our indoor spaces, changes to our snow school programs, mandatory face coverings even though the area that we are within does not have in order we have decided that's what we need to do to keep our staff and our guests safe."

Fawcett says they hope to avoid enhanced measures or "the purple zone" though do have a plan if they end up inside that zone.

"If our area goes into the enhanced status or the purple zone as we're calling it these days we would have to throttle back some food and beverage areas and times even more. We've done a lot of planning over the summer and fall and so far we are not unduly affected beyond what we have already planned for."

Castle Mountain's lounge was among those places to get some changes, Fawcett says its seen lots of reduction to its capacity

"It's not the same as it normally is, certainly our day lodge capacity is far below what it would normally be, somewhere in the vicinity of a quarter of what it would normally be. We are also changing the way that we provide food and beverages, We've provided plexiglass barriers and each and every one of our tables which generally accept up to 12 guests but of course with mandates saying tables should not accept up to 6 we've cut every single one of those in half and removed quite a few to achieve physical distancing for the start of the season and for the entirety of the season."

Fawcett says with them being among the last places in the province outside of the enhanced measures they have seen an increase in interest from people wanting to get out and hit the mountain.

" There's definitely an increase in skiing and snowboarding this winter there is no question, its early in our season but interest has been solid, we've seen good interest in season passes, we've seen lots of families buying together which is interesting but kinda predictable. With many sports for youths not going this year, I think families have really taken comfort that skiing or snowboarding is a sport they can do as a family or in a bubble."

 

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