Editor’s note on March 14: Vail Resorts has suspended North American operations. Read more here.

Jon Schaefer started thinking seriously about closing the ski areas his family owns and runs, Berkshire East in Massachusetts and Catamount Ski Area in New York, earlier this week. Schaefer’s wife works at the area’s local hospital and its small, rural health care system is responding to patients who’d contracted COVID-19, or coronavirus, the outbreak that’s rapidly spreading around the world. Although there were no known cases of the virus among the ski areas’ employees or guests, Schaefer felt like he had a duty to act.

“We had regional cases and it was heavily on my radar,” Schaefer, the general manager for the two resorts, told POWDER on Friday. “As this became more of a problem, I started to weigh heavily on how we should assess our role in the spread of this illness.”

So, he did what he felt he had to: He announced the immediate closure of Berkshire East and Catamount, effective at 4 p.m. on Thursday, March 12. Schaefer said it came down to wanting to protect the families and individuals who frequent the mountains as well as the staff, many of whom—ranging from ticket sellers to ski patrol to mechanics—are older in age, making them more susceptible to complications from contracting COVID-19. The closure comes several weeks before the resorts were slated to shutter for the winter season, resulting in what Schaefer estimated to be a fairly significant financial loss of possibly tens of thousands of dollars.

In a draft of a letter that will go to passholders, Schaefer wrote, “Other mountains have chosen other options and to remain open, which we did consider, but then I considered my staff, the ski patrol volunteers, and the sanity of opening a business that would assuredly mix individuals and families from across southern New England, and we simply saw no other option but to close.”

The two resorts were among the U.S.’s first ski resorts to close early due to COVID-19. Ski resorts across Europe have been closing due to the outbreak over the past couple of weeks.

Since Berkshire East’s announcement, several other resorts in the U.S. have declared early closures. Burke Mountain, in Vermont, is closing winter operations on March 14 due to the virus. Taos will be closing on March 22, two weeks ahead of schedule. Jay Peak Resort, in Vermont, announced it would be closing operations early for the winter season as of March 14.

“This is obviously a difficult decision for us and one that we have not made without hours and days of deliberation and predicated on hourly updates from federal agencies, state offices, and international health organizations,” wrote Steve Wright, Jay Peak’s president and general manager, in a statement. “We felt it was the most prudent thing to do given the evolving climate and the changing protocols and restrictions relating to travel.”

Jay Peak is offering full refunds or credit for next year to those who had booked trips for the remainder of the season and the resort’s hourly year-round employees can apply for short-term unemployment.

Many ski areas are staying open but are significantly changing operations to combat the spread of the virus. In order to encourage social distancing, Snowbird, in Utah, is closing its tram, as is Jackson Hole, Wyoming; Mammoth Mountain, in California, will be loading gondolas at 50 percent capacity, and Big Sky, in Montana, will be limiting tram cabins to 10 passengers at a time.

Crystal Mountain, in Washington, is closing all lodges and indoor restaurants, encouraging guests to bring their own food, and limiting shuttle capacity. Aspen Snowmass, in Colorado, will not be loading unrelated parties in the same gondola and the resort has relaxed its cancelation policies at resort-owned hotels.

All of Vail Resorts’ North American properties remain open, as of press time, but resorts will be serving only pre-packaged food and no hot foods and skiers and riders are being asked to only ride chairlifts with their own party.

Events across the ski industry have been canceled or postponed, ranging from the Freeride World Tour to Winter Wondergrass to Jackson Hole’s Rendezvous Spring Festival. The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team canceled all events scheduled for the remainder of the season in the U.S.

POWDER will continue to update this story as other ski area closures are announced. Read the latest update, as of March 14, here.