my first job outside the family businesses was attaching tickets at Snow Summit when I was 15. my mom was head bookkeeper there for many years. let me put it this way: they closed the local schools. the park district canceled youth karate classes and youth and adult basketball league games. the annual bald eagle count was canceled. so, many officials recognized the possibility of danger and acted accordingly
but you have the ski resorts saying: things are fine, c'mon up. which is understandable from their point of view because they make money for a small and unpredictable number of weeks in a calendar year. and that's all good for restaurants and gas stations, but for the rest of us there's an ick factor. buyer beware, I guess
I don't know the head count these last few days but 100,000-tourist weekends happened frequently in my 30 years there. I wish LE didn't have to deal w/ the usual BS when something so critical requires their attention