... county in the USA.  See map

Lots of COVID clusters reported at Ski Resort towns already, but wow, the datails  and actual rates are pretty striking. 

I know there have been lots of reports about Winter travel and speculation wherther it's from after-skiing partying and oral beer pong or just riding up lift chairs/gondolas or standing in lines together. There's even a law suit forming in Europe around an Austrian ski resort just north of Italy where 2500 tourists feel they got were infected/impacted by a resort/bar not shutting down even after it was clear they had infected staff.

Looking at two websites, I decided to look closer at actual reported cases in USA counties with major ski resorts compared to the converted ratio of infected:non-infected from the cases/million in each state.

This is in stark contrast with the vast majority of the rural/sparsely populated portions of the USA where COVID case rates are far below those found in larger cities. 

Idaho: Statewide 1:2008

#1 County: Blaine with an astounding and nation-topping 1:64.  Home to Sun Valley with the big WaPo article yesterday about wealthy tourists bringing COVID there.

Utah: Statewide 1: 2950. (one infected person for every 2950 uninfected persons).  

The county with most? Summit County with the internationally famed Park City at 1:206... over 10X the rate as the state as a whole.  

2nd? Adjacent Wasatch County at 1:545 (lots of people from Heber work in Park City),

3rd most?  Salt Lake County at 1:2421 (big city/metro risks plus 4 ski resorts up Big/Little Cottonwood canyons and cross-pollination with Park City)

Colorado: Statewide 1:1545 (a place synonomous with Skiing... no shocker that it has the highest cases per capita of any state west of the MS except for Washington state, which is 1:1155)

The counties in the rockies with ski resorts are the tops (#1 Vail 1:175; Gunnison Co 1:201; Mineral Co 1:388; Aspen 1:499 etc...

California: Statewide 1:3597.  

The county with the lowest ratio?  Mono County at 1:792... it's home to Mammoth and June Mountain Ski resorts (related article).  

The second lowest is San Mateo at 1:1699 (big city risks and wealthy travelers...), but close behind...

at #3 that is Inyo County, which supplies much of the staff/support to Mammoth/June Mountain, at 1:1799.  

These are higher than anything being seen anywere in the LA area (LA Co. is 1:2500 and both Orange and Ventura Counties are at about 1:5000)

Arizona is no major ski mecca, but there's even a strong trend there. Statewide is pretty low  at 1:4566  

#1: Navajo County (Show-Low/Snowflake area supports Sunrise and are wintern travel retreats) at 1:856, 

#2 Coconino (Flagstaff-Snow Basin-Sedona) at 1:1253; 

#3 Apache Co. (Sunrise Ski resort) 1:3780

#4 Pima Co (Mt Lemon/Tuscon)  1: 4384

#5 Maricopa Co (Metro Phoenix) with its 4.5 million inhabitants and much higher population density, is lower at 1: 4590 than all 4 counties with Ski resorts/support.  Phoenix actually has a better ratio than the state average... that's how much these ski/winter resort communities are skewing the figures.

Wyoming as a state is 1:3584

Their top county?  Teton County with Jackson Hole at 1:721

Montana as a state 1:4405

Aside from a random tiny Toole County with only 4800 people that had 6 cases (1:801) and, sadly, 3 deaths already, their #2 county is Madison County with Big Sky Ski Resort at 1:1461

New Mexico as a state is 1:5208 (best in the West)

#1 County?  Predictably.... Taos @ 1:2526

Anyways, I found this pretty interesting and thought I'd compile the data since we're not getting into the Big12 (or playing any sports) anytime soon.