Covid-19 Restrictions at English Ski Area Next Winter

5th September 2020

Last modified on May 14th, 2021

We’ve heard from the mighty Vail Resorts, looked at other resorts in the Alps & kept across developments in the southern hemisphere over summer. But what about closer to home? Yad Moss in the Pennines to be precise.

Many people don’t even know of the Yad Moss outdoor ski area in England.

It is in the North Pennines in Cumbria and is 11kms south of Alston.

There’s 4kms of varied intermediate skiing and plenty of ‘characterful’ off-piste.

It has been operating for 40 years.

In a good winter it has been known to offer around 40 days of skiing and can be open in November through to mid-April.

It has a single fast ski tow which is reached after a 10-minute uphill walk from the roadside.

The auto-stacking Poma is 600m long and climbs 125 vertical metres.

It can move up to 600 skiers and snowboarders per hour and serves runs of up to 800m in length.

Yad Moss ski area

Snowsports England, has given clubs the ‘green light’ to open provided some fairly simple social distancing measures are put in place.

Yad Moss has just published its position:

“We will have to limit numbers in the day lodge,” said the ski area.

“We will also ask you to keep ‘a ski pole’s distance’ from each other when in the queues for the tow and the ticket office, when on the hill and when using the day lodge, but otherwise the Yad Moss committee hopes that you will be able to enjoy a more or less normal Pennine skiing and boarding experience.”

See here for the Yad Moss website with all the details.

It hopes to install a perspex screen in the ticket office but face coverings will not be mandatory.

Most activity at Yad Moss is outside, those using the day lodge are usually there to eat and drink, and it has a handful of members who routinely lip read.

“To ‘track and trace’, we will ask for your phone number when you buy a season or day ticket – and request that, if possible, you bring a pen with you to write down your details if you’re buying a day ticket.”

“If we get days when we expect to be very busy, we will limit access to Yad Moss by selling day tickets online and in restricted numbers the day before.

“We have adapted our first aid and emergency protocols, to ensure that we can operate safely under social distancing measures.

“We provide this information about Covid-19 mitigations so you can make an informed decision about whether to ski or board at Yad Moss this winter.

“Ultimately, it is your own decision about whether you feel comfortable joining us on the slope this year.”

50 skiers out on slopes of English ski area