Just like you, it hasn’t been easy for us. After pausing in-person experiences on March 17, we had to temporarily furlough many of our employees. Since, we’ve secured funding through the Payroll Protection Program, enabling new work opportunities for our guide and administrative staff. We’ve launched online avalanche education classes, planned a virtual festival, inspired adventure through client stories and guide beta, and much more. 

Now, we’re excited to enter the next phase with Colorado Mountain School opening for in-person adventures starting May 23, 2020. We appreciate your patience and support in getting us here.

Note: The Estes Park Adventure Hostel operated by Colorado Mountain School will remain closed through May 2020 and is subject to change.

The short answer is “yes.” The only way to fully limit your risk of contracting or spreading COVID-19 is complete isolation. Just like going to the grocery store, there is an element of risk by going out to the mountains with others. 

To ensure all clients are aware and accepting of this risk, all clients must complete and sign an additional COVID-19-specific Acknowledgement of Risk / Release of Liability form before participating in one of our guided adventures or instructional courses.

By acknowledging we cannot eliminate risk, we turn our focus to managing it. It is our primary goal as professionals and recreationalists to manage our risk every time we play in the mountains. That means proper planning and decision-making.

We are professional risk managers and the wellbeing of our guests and guides is paramount. Whether it’s dealing with avalanche hazard, rockfall or COVID-19, we have frameworks, systems and controls in place to inform our risk management process. But we aren’t in this alone. As a valued member of our climbing or skiing party, we expect you to participate in risk management under our guidance. Here’s what we can do to manage our risk together:

Before We Meet

It is our goal to minimize as much risk as possible before meeting face-to-face. 

Our guides are trained to recognize COVID-19 signs and symptoms, and methods of transmission. Our Service Team will contact each participant in your course or private outing by phone ahead of the start date. In your first call, roughly two weeks out, we will answer questions, discuss risk management, share medical forms and schedule a time to hold a COVID-19 medical screening call within 24 hours of your adventure start time. 

This second conversation, the medical screening call, includes a standard set of questions provided by the Center of Disease Control (CDC). Based on your response, a recommended action is automatically generated from the CDC. Based on this recommendation, we will give you direction on if it is appropriate to participate or if you will need to reschedule. Guides will also undergo a COVID-19 medical screening call.

We have adapted our client cancellation and employee sick leave policies to allow more flexibility in case of potential exposure to COVID-19. If you cannot participate in your originally scheduled adventure, we’ll first try to find another time that fits your schedule. If that fails, you’ll have the option to receive a credit for any future adventure with CMS, or obtain a full refund.

During Our Adventure

Guides and clients must travel separately to and from the trailhead. We strongly discourage carpooling for guests outside of the same household. 

Upon meeting, all guides and clients will do their best to maintain at least six feet of physical distancing, but we recognize this may not be possible at times. When within six feet of others, guides are required to wear non-medical cloth face masks. Clients are also required to bring a non-medical face covering such as a cloth face-mask (preferred) or buff when near others. As long as you have proper social distance, it is okay to temporarily remove your face covering when climbing or skiing. When appropriate, guides and clients may choose to wear gloves. 

We recommend our clients bring their own gear. In some cases, we may need to share gear such as a rope or a client may need to borrow gear from CMS (organized ahead of time). All gear provided by CMS and our guides will undergo cleaning procedures before each outing. Clients are required to bring some form of hand sanitizer as we will be practicing proper hygiene throughout the day. If rock climbing, consider bringing a liquid chalk that has at least 60% alcohol content. 

This is by no means an exhaustive list. These are just a sample of the systematic processes and procedures we have put in place to demonstrate how we approach managing COVID-19 risk. If you have concerns that you’d like to discuss, please contact our Service Team and we would be happy to discuss them. We believe in transparency, so our entire COVID-19 Operations Plan is available upon request, but be warned, it’s over 25 pages!

Risk management will be an interactive discussion leading up to, during and after your adventure. If clients refuse to follow our risk management instructions, we will be forced to end the day prematurely. We appreciate your understanding and participation in managing risk for our group’s outing.

The dynamic nature of this pandemic requires us to be nimble and flexible in how we respond. Because some things are unpredictable and/or out of our control, there may be more pauses or adaptations to our field calendar to come. Our team will contact you if there are any reasons for postponing or altering your adventure.

You can look forward to more online learning opportunities, like tech tips, gear reviews, etc., across all course categories in the coming weeks. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook, and join our email list to get notified about new opportunities to connect and learn. 

We appreciate your patience, understanding and support in these trying times. Whether it is at 13,000 feet or on a live video chat, we’re excited to help you ignite passionate living through mountain education and adventure.