Did “Epikon” exacerbate Covid-19 at ski resorts?

Whether it’s in Germany or in the United States, ski resorts have been a hotbed for starting the contamination and today, three ski resort communities are major hotbed, if not by sheer numbers, but on a per-capita basis, of the pandemic in the U.S.

One could be tempted to draw a parallel between the widespread availability and usage of the multi-resort passes known as “Epic”, “Ikon” or “Mountain Collective”, by incenting skiers to broadly and easily travel from resort to resort with their universal season passes.

This possibility seems quite intuitive, but when one look at the major resorts and their numbers there is no consistent trend.

Sun Valley is obviously the hardest hit with 2 fatalities, followed by Park City and the Vail Valley, but then Aspen start bucking the trend and so does Summit County, Colorado, that includes Breckenridge, Keystone and Copper as its major ski areas.

As for Jackson Hole, it’s roughly at the same level. As for the Whistler-Blackcomb, in Canada, I couldn’t find any stats.