People who pay big bucks for a premium ski experience at Park City Mountain Resort in Utah about 45 minutes west of the southwest Wyoming border are having to cross picket lines to get to the mountain.
A ski patrol strike at Park City has wreaked havoc on the mega-sized ski area and has people pointing fingers at each other with allegations of unfair treatment and unreasonable demands.
Park City is owned by Vail Resorts Inc., which is feuding with its unionized ski patrol on the mountain.
As a result, the Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association has been on strike since late December and has filed unfair labor practice complaints against the company.
This has led to complaints of long lines, closures and delays from people who pay for ski trips. Angry customers are sharing videos of hours-long lines and noted the relatively few number of trails open on the mountain.
Park City resident Alex Mather told Cowboy State Daily the lines on the mountain are the worst he’s ever seen on every lift, and that the mountain is lying about how many runs it has open.
“Everyone was upset,” Mather said. “Almost every conversation was in regard to the mess of a situation the mountain was."
Minnesota resident Peter Nystrom told ABC4 Salt Lake City the strike basically ruined his vacation.
“If management isn’t taking care of the employees, then the employees won’t be able to take care of their guests and consumers. And if the guests and consumers stop coming back, then the organization really doesn’t have anything left, because they don’t have anyone to sell services or products to,” he said.
According to CNBC, the Park City strike has also affected Vail Resorts stock, with shares tumbling more than 5% compared with a week ago.
Mather worked as a snowboard instructor at Park City until this winter, quitting because of the work conditions. He said he feels sympathy for the striking ski patrollers, who only make a few more dollars per hour than cafeteria cashiers and still won’t be able to afford to live in Park City even if granted the pay hike.
What Do They Want?
The crux of the Park City ski patrol’s demands are a raise for base wages to $23 per hour from $21, which the union says has been the base wage since 2022. According to CNBC, the patrol said on Dec. 27, the first day of the strike, that Vail did not offer a counterproposal to its demands related to wages or benefits.
Vail, which also owns dozens of other resorts, told CNBC in a weekend statement that it has increased Park City patrol wages more than 50% over the past four seasons. The average entry-level hourly patrol wage sits at $22.40 when factoring in skill-based pay incentives, the company said. The average patroller earns $25 per hour, it said.
“Our wages and benefits are strong, as demonstrated by the high return rate among patrol teams across our company and by the number of applicants we get for any patrol opening,” Bill Rock, president of Vail Resorts’ Mountain Division, said in the statement. “Still, we remain committed to reaching an agreement that demonstrates the great respect we have for our patrollers.”
According to industry website Unofficial Networks, Vail brought in nonunion workers from other parts of the country unfamiliar with the mountain to help with their ski patrol duties.
In Wyoming, Antelope Butte Ski Patrol Director Christy Lohof said she doesn’t believe Park City’s Ski Patrol’s requests are unreasonable.
“It’s unfortunate their striking is impacting skiers, but on the flip side, I certainly support it,” she said.
Lohof, who works at Antelope Butte full time, said the resort is looking for more full-time patrollers this season and would welcome any who want to come up from Park City. For now, they pay volunteer ski patrollers who want to work for the day.
The National Ski Areas Association told Cowboy State Daily there are 17 ski areas nationwide that have unionized ski patrols, none of which in Wyoming.
Drew Kneeland, ski patrol director at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, said even though his mountain has no affiliation with Park City, they don’t view the strike at Park City as a positive.
“The situation in Park City is negatively impacting the ski industry across the country,” he said. “I am hopeful that the Park City Ski Patrol and Vail Resorts can swiftly come to agreeable terms.”
Cody resident James Patrick was the head of ski patrol at Sleeping Giant Ski Area for about 10 years. Although not particularly knowledgeable about the Park City situation, he said when a mountain is short-staffed, duties that usually fall outside the ski patrol purview often fall on the patrollers.
Why Do They Want It?
The biggest reason the patrollers want a raise is because the cost of living has drastically increased in mountain towns and Park City, a trend seen in many desirable areas throughout the West.
Nick Lansing is the chair of Eldora’s Professional Ski Patrollers Union in Colorado, which unionized last spring because of similar issues with the company that owns Eldora Mountain outside Boulder.
He and others protested on the Park City patrol’s behalf at Vail headquarters in Broomfield, Colorado, last week.
“There’s similar reasons to a lot of patrols who see themselves getting priced out of mountain towns,” Lansing told Cowboy State Daily. “There’s a lot of people who want to look at patrol as a long-term career but just need a little help. You hear stories of patrollers all over using food banks, sleeping in cars. They do not have enough to buy groceries.”
In addition to the pay raise, Lansing said Park City’s ski patrol also wants an improvement to certain health benefits.
Even though Antelope Butte is a much smaller mountain than Park City, Lohof said she can relate to the issues there since almost everyone who works at Antelope Butte has to drive at least 45 minutes each way to work there. She said it’s difficult to make it in the seasonal job of being a ski patroller when considering how much the cost of living has gone up over the last few years.
“The cost of everything has pretty much doubled, how do you make a living?” she asked.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
