More than two feet of fresh snow fell in Park City, Utah, last week, perfectly timed for the crowds of vacation skiers who gathered at Park City Mountain, the largest ski area in the United States. But instead of experiencing a powder high, skiers and snowboarders faced long lift lines, limited terrain and widespread frustration caused by a ski patrol strike.
“Five minutes of bliss for 50 minutes of waiting in line,” one Park City skier said on Instagram.
The Park City Professional Ski Patrollers Association, which represents 204 ski patrol and mountain safety personnel, went on strike Dec. 27 against Vail Resorts, owner of Park City Mountain. The ski patrollers are demanding a $2 increase in their basic hourly wages, from $21 to $23. The union presented its proposal in September with the goal of reaching an agreement before the ski season, but Vail disagreed, causing patrols to go on strike during the busy holiday season.
Vail Resorts has said it has increased patrollers' wages by more than 50 percent over the past four seasons.
“We are proud of the significant investments we have made in all of our employees, including patrol, which have far exceeded inflation,” Bill Rock, president of Vail Resorts Mountain Division, said in a statement Friday.
Without enough patrols to open trails, respond to accidents and do avalanche mitigation, about a quarter of Park City's trails are currently open. Normally more than 100 patrols cover Park City's 7,300 skiable acres, but the union said there are only 30 to 35 patrols on the mountain, many of whom are supervisors or patrols brought in from other Vail ski areas.
“We deeply regret that this will have any impact on the guest experience and are grateful to our thousands of associates who work hard every day to make the Park City Mountain experience possible and the grounds we can safely open,” he said. Rock said in the statement.
Vail Resorts and the Park City patrol union negotiate with a federal mediator on an almost daily basis. Both sides have hinted at making progress, but the union said Vail “is far from addressing most of our members' concerns.”
Vail Resorts bought Park City in 2014 and combined it with a neighboring ski area called Canyons the following year. Canyons ski patrol formed a union in 2001, and when the two ski patrols merged, Park City patrollers voted to join the union, which is now part of the Communications Workers of America.
Valued at nearly $10 billion, Vail Resorts owns and operates 42 ski resorts in North America, Australia and Europe. Last year, Vail sold 2.4 million of its multimountain Epic Pass, which transformed the ski industry by lowering prices and expanding skier access when it was introduced in 2008. But the resulting rush led to customer complaints at some resorts and overwhelmed some rural communities. depending on the ski industry.
The ski patrollers say they are being supported by an outpouring of online and in-person support. An account on GoFundMe currently contains more than $200,000 in donations.
“We've had community members come to our picket line every day to let us know they support us, drop off food and donate to our strike fund,” said Margaux Klingensmith, a Park City patrolman for six years as well as a business manager of the union.
But this is cold comfort for frustrated skiers who can't get to the goods. Instead of taking to social media to post videos of flying snowflakes and big jumps, they share scenes of endless lift lines.
“The amount of money spent not skiing is appalling,” said one holidaymaker, quoted in local news station TownLift.
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