The COVID-19 pandemic has halted plans, activities, and businesses at all levels. Professional and amateur sports leagues are all over the map with their scheduling. Hundreds of thousands have lost jobs and small businesses. Vacations have been postponed or cancelled altogether. But at least we have been able to get outside.
Data show a dramatic increase in outdoor recreation during 2020. Americans picked up cycling, running, and hiking in troves. A survey by the Civic Science Center in March showed that 15% of those interviewed planned to hike more due to COVID-19 restrictions. Thus, summer outdoor recreation boomed in the Adirondack Park. There was such an increase that highway signs were needed along route 73, the highway that goes through the High Peaks Region, warning hikers of high-volume traffic and to plan for alternative hikes. An estimated 12.4 million hikers visit the Adirondacks in a normal year and, while the data doesn’t exist currently for volume in 2020, a modest personal estimate is that there was at least a 30% increase.
Now it’s winter, a popular time of year for Adirondack tourism and the climate couldn’t be less agreeable. To say that snowfall has been light would be an understatement. Whiteface Mountain has a sorry 20” base and warmer temperatures have kept heavier snowfall at bay. Without heavier snow, the mountain won’t have a fruitful season. The park is also favored for its abundance of frozen lakes, making winter a true wonderland for ice fishing and skating, cross country skiing, snowmobiling, and other recreation. Snowmobiling alone is responsible for a big chunk of income from winter tourism in the park.
When our lakes don’t freeze, however, a gap forms in not just the region’s tourism but in its soul as well. I am so sick of driving out to an Adirondack lake or pond and finding that the ice isn’t ice but rather slush and wet snow on top of ice. I'm a good ice skater, but no one can skate through more than a foot of slush. And forget pond hockey. Even if there wasn’t a pandemic killing recreational activities, the weather would. Lake George typically has a pond hockey tournament. But this year, there isn’t a square foot of ice on that lake. Even last year was a dreadful year for the tournament. Although the lake had frozen enough in February, the 40-degree heatwave had players sweating and skating through slush. Frequent breaks were needed to shovel the ice into playable conditions. Screw global warming, I’m over it. Can we please finally work together to reduce carbon emissions and make winter great again?