The skier lying on the snow was clearly in pain when Nathan Gillman came across him while snowboarding on the Canyons Village side of Park City Mountain earlier this week.
The skier believed he’d torn a ligament in his knee and didn’t think he could make it back to the base without a sled. Gillman, 34, called ski patrol, and promised the man he’d stay with him until help arrived.
But the minutes ticked by, and no one came. After 20 minutes, Gillman said, a patroller finally arrived. Alone. And without a sled.
A few days later, Gillman, of New Jersey, said he had to stand guard again over another injured skier near the base of the Bonanza Express on the Mountain Village side. A patroller had arrived, but he was working alone, Gillman said. In between the incidents, Gillman had waited in lift lines for up to an hour and watched hundreds of skiers and snowboarders duck under a boundary rope in search of fresh powder and fewer crowds. It felt like the Wild West.
“They have,” Gillman said, “lost all control of the mountain.”
Park City Mountain has been beleaguered by a ski patrol strike, a warm and dry early season and a slew of social media posts over the holiday periods laying bare situations just like the ones Gillman witnessed. Guests have been feeling the pain on the slopes and in the lift lines for weeks. Now Park City Mountain’s parent company, Vail Resorts (MTN), and its investors are feeling it in their portfolio. On Thursday, Vail Resorts’ stock value plummeted 6.5% on the New York Stock Exchange. That’s roughly the equivalent of a drop of more than $400 million in market value.
Bill Rock, the president of Vail Resorts’ mountain division, acknowledged to The Salt Lake Tribune on Thursday that the ski experience Park City Mountain is currently offering isn’t up to snuff.
“I know,” he said, “we haven’t been able to deliver the world class experience we mean to deliver at Park City Mountain over the past few days.”
Rock said the strike isn’t the only factor at play. Lack of natural snow also played a part. As of Christmas Eve, meteorologists estimated snowpack was roughly 50-70% of what it would be in a normal year around Park City. The Wasatch Back finally gained almost two feet of snow this week around the New Year’s holiday, but it came with strong winds that the resort said caused power outages.
Still, Park City Mountain is opening whatever terrain it safely can with the personnel it has, Rock said. A spokesperson previously told The Tribune that means focusing mostly on beginner and intermediate areas. The mountain has also, Rock said, clearly communicated with guests about which runs and lifts are open so that skiers and snowboarders can make informed decisions about their day. Per its website, Park City Mountain will fully refund any unused lift tickets if they are turned in before 5 p.m. on the last day of a ski trip.
However, refunds are not available in most circumstances on Epic Day Passes nor Epic season passes. And, because they can be purchased early in the season at significant discounts compared to Park City Mountain’s $328 walk-up ticket price, they are what most skiers and snowboarders use to access the resort. The Colorado Sun reported 75% of visitors to Vail Resorts’ 43 ski areas this year will be using a pass product.
Analyst Jim Lebenthal laid into Vail Resorts for failing to notify guests about the strike by the Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association. Venting on CNBC’s Halftime Report, Lebenthal said he was in Park City over the holidays and was looking forward to enjoying the nearly two feet of fresh snow delivered by a few late-December storms.
“That’s every skier’s dream, right? Let’s go skiing, guys!” he said. “Except the problem is Vail Mountain (sic), which owns Park City, didn’t let any of us know that there was a ski patrol strike going on, so less than 20% of the mountain was open at the peak holiday time, all right? So I got a great time looking at the snow from the ski lines, which stretched on for an hour.
“I’m a little angry at Vail Mountain,” he added. “You can see why the stock’s been lousy (for) quite some years. … If you want to run a travel-and-leisure company, you darn well better give the experience that you’re advertising. Because if you don’t, you will get negative PR and you will get nonrepeating customers — exactly what you don’t want.”
Friday marks a week since Park City’s ski patrol union went on strike. After nine months of negotiations — including a several-month stretch during the summer in which the union said Vail Resorts did not respond to its offers — the two sides have reached a tentative agreement on 24 of 27 contract terms. The sticking points include the union’s demands to raise starting wages from $21 to $23 per hour, to compensate patrollers for experience and skills and to offer an improved benefits package that includes better parental leave and healthcare stipends during the ski season.
Mediator-led contract negotiations were held Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday this week. Union business manager Margaux Klingensmith said the next scheduled meeting is Monday, though the two parties may continue to exchange proposals over the weekend.
As a bandage for the loss of approximately 200 patrollers during the peak holiday season, Park City Mountain brought in a “Patrol Support Team.” Estimated to number between 30-35, they include, according to the resort’s website, experienced patrollers from Park City Mountain and “our other mountain resorts.” The Vail (Colo.) Daily reported Vail Mountain’s ski patrol director and senior manager of health and safety are among the replacements. Other management-level patrollers came from Breckenridge, another Vail Resorts property in Colorado, according to the Denver Post.
On Tuesday, ski patrol unions from Park City, Breckenridge, Keystone and Crested Butte sent a letter to Vail Resorts CEO Kirsten Lynch spelling out what they believe are the detrimental effects to workers and guests of deploying the Patrol Support Team.
“(Y)ou caused irreparable harm to both your patrol labor force and patrol management across all affected resorts,” the letter said.
With fewer patrollers to clear obstacles and assist with avalanche control — especially when the Utah Avalanche Center deemed the risk high in the Wasatch Mountains over the holidays — Park City Mountain has been forced to conserve its resources. Nearly all the lifts and terrain out of Canyons Village was closed Monday and again Thursday morning. A video purportedly shot Dec. 30 and posted on Instagram by @alt_patrol_backup shows a line for the Red Pine Gondola stretching beyond the bars and shops and almost to the street. And several people, including Gillman, have reported slow ski patrol response times.
Rock said Vail Resorts is negotiating in good faith. So, if lift lines and response times are infuriatingly long, he indicated guests need look no further than the picket lines forming daily just outside the resort for the explanation.
“It’s disappointing that the union walked out on productive conversations and instead took drastic action during the holidays,” Rock said, “given that we had reached agreements on a vast majority of the contract points that they opened (with).”
Nik Smith, the vice president of the Park City patrollers union, sees it differently. The union has filed several complaints with the National Labor Relations Board accusing Vail Resorts of unfair labor practices and negotiating in bad faith. He said in a statement issued Wednesday by the union that Vail Resorts has continually failed to make an adequate counteroffer.
“Given the major impacts our work stoppage has had on resort operations,” Smith said, “we are surprised the company’s counter proposal is still far from what we feel is acceptable.”
As of Friday morning, the union had raised more than $190,000 for its strike relief fund.
Park City Mountain has the most lift-served terrain of any ski area in the country. Yet even its expansive borders haven’t been able to contain the fallout from the strife between its owner and its ski patrol. Park City’s economy relies heavily on the tourism generated by its two major ski resorts, and the conflict has made the whole town uneasy.
“We’ve got a little more of an unnerving feel in town,” said Cole Sports Manager Jace Peck. “Maybe more than we have over the last couple of years with the same variables.”
The two parties previously wrangled for more than a year before coming to terms on a contract in 2022. Union membership also authorized a strike during those negotiations but never walked out.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Park City ski patrollers officially go on strike, citing unfair labor practices and marking the latest chapter in the union’s negotiations with Park City Mountain and its owner, Vail Resorts, on Friday, Dec. 27, 2024.
Cole Sports, an outdoor gear rental and retail shop, has a store inside the Mountain Village as well as near its entrance. When the experience on the mountain irritates skiers and snowboarders, Peck said it trickles down to the stores.
“We’re here to sell fun,” he said, “and we feel like fun is being cut off at the knees.”
Most local retailers, Peck believes, don’t hold the patrollers liable for the public relations stench that’s hovering over Park City Mountain. Rather, he said, the widely held perception is that resort operators are prioritizing profit over people to the consternation of both workers and guests.
“Why change,” he asked, “when the money is rolling at an incredible clip?”
Vail Resorts netted $230.4 million in profit during the 2024 fiscal year that ended in September. That was down some from $268.1 million in 2023. Earlier this year the company announced it planned to cut back its workforce, saving it an estimated $100 million.
Rock, the Vail Resorts executive, said he wants Park City to live up to skiers’ expectations.
“I do care about the guest experience,” he said. “… And I also know that (the experience they’re getting is) not what a lot of folks expect when they come here.”
• Correction: Jan. 3, 2025, 4:15 p.m. >> The ski patrol union is seeking improved benefits but not year-round benefits, as was stated in a previous version of this article.
