PARK CITY (and all) SKI PATROLLERS DESERVE MORE.

[schindlerpiste]

OK. So there is not a ton of snow. Jupiter is not open. The Canyons Ridgeline from Monitor Sound of Music is beautiful virgin pow. The south face of Square Top slid. The Peak 5 gate is open, but the 9990 gate is not. 9990 opened yesterday and despite being very rocky, it was completely chewed up at 9:15am this AM. I took 3 laps on Red Pine Chutes today, and saw at least 7 people duck the rope to ski the Square Top shoulder. Also, a few skiers were f**king sitting in the middle of RPC trying to help their girlfriend down who definitely did not belong there. C'mon patrollers, the strike is over. You are professionals. Until we get a significant dump you need to do a better job policing the extreme north side of the 9s.
So frustrating. I just never see that shit at ALTA or Snowbird.

[halliday]

Ya never know, N. Korea has some potential for excellent skiing. Maybe invite Kim Jong to the Beav summit and get the lay of the land.

North Korea has potential for a lot of things including skiing. Just need to get that fat little prick out of there. What a waste of humanity that country is. Im sure the NKs would like to live in the real world if they only knew what it was.

[skiJ]

Storm Skiing Podcast has a fresh and good interview with Max Magill, President of the PC Patrol union. Stuart throws soft balls and doesn't come back to questions that are evaded, but the podcast is still usually informative and a good listen. This is a change up, and unlike the normal CEO types Stuart interviews, Max gives straight, and imo, thoughtful answers.

Kinda surprised Stuart did this as buttery as he is with the stuffed shirts, but he did. Good on him.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/7JE...RVGNNTSilBxDWQ

Thank you for this ugly-

there are a couple of other comments about this, so part of this is now repetitive, ...

for those who cannot listen to the podcast, these were my take-aways vvv

$2/hr increase in starting wage ;
up to more than $7/hr increase for patrollers with more than ten years experience, also doing Snow Safety work ;
"average" increase of more than $4/ hr --
( I do not know how they calculated this 'average' )

a couple of other benefits were also mentioned -

attainable 'parental leave' ;
a spare Patrol uniform in the locker room, and accessible laundry facilities near the locker room.

congratulations to the patrollers.

skiJ

[schindlerpiste]

Vail steps up to the plate: 50% credit for tickets and passes for days skied at PCMR during the strike. No relief for people who didn't visit resort because of strike.
https://www.parkrecord.com/2025/01/1...VFIutT7DaYqt9w

[Skistack]

Or they determined the cost of fighting and potentially losing a class action lawsuit, plus further brand damage would be higher.


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[XavierD]

Or just trying to slow the bleed of non renewing pass holders.

[Harry]

My streaming is now full of ads for Park City.


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[TBS]

Vail steps up to the plate: 50% credit for tickets and passes for days skied at PCMR during the strike. No relief for people who didn't visit resort because of strike.
https://www.parkrecord.com/2025/01/1...VFIutT7DaYqt9w

That’s a reasonable response - if you were at PCMR for four days that week you get a credit of 25% of the current year pass price on next year’s pass.

Or they determined the cost of fighting and potentially losing a class action lawsuit, plus further brand damage would be higher.


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Or just trying to slow the bleed of non renewing pass holders.

Or all of the above.
It doesn’t say whether this move settles the class action suit.

It will give those affected an incentive to renew instead of becoming ikonic

[accounting dweebury]
The credits should not affect this year’s revenue. It will come out of next year’s results.
[/accounting dweebury]

[Meadow Skipper]

That’s a reasonable response - if you were at PCMR for four days that week you get 50% off your pass next year.





Or all of the above.
It doesn’t say whether this move settles the class action suit.

It will give those affected an incentive to renew instead of becoming ikonic

[accounting dweebury]
The credits should not affect this year’s revenue. It will come out of next year’s results.
[/accounting dweebury]

Right? 50% off of what?

[TBS]

^^^Note that I fixed the math in the post you quoted.

But yeah, point taken. In my hypothetical you would get a credit of 25% of the cost of this years pass. If they raise prices say 20% next year, the value of the credit declines by about the same amount.

[goldenboy]

More fun fallout.

"Even though Vail Resorts and Park City ski patrollers were able to reach a new labor agreement last week after a strike, there is still fallout from the dispute. On Wednesday, the Pomerantz Firm, a law firm with offices across the globe, announced a probe into allegations that Vail and Park City executives “engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.”

A press release from Pomerantz announced a class action lawsuit on behalf of the company’s shareholders."
https://www.theinertia.com/mountain/...ty-ski-patrol/

And locally for me--
“It’s starting to feel a bit like Vail is the dragon sitting on its big pile of gold in its cave,” said Billick. “We’ve gone from a very strong partnership with CBMR thinking strategically to now where we can’t even get them to help with a little bit of advertising in this situation. It seems like they’re just going to push the liabilities and responsibilities off on us to advertise their business while they build up their declining stock price. So, it seems we’re fundamentally off-kilter with our relationship with the ski resort. It is very disappointing.”

“I don’t think it’s a simple thing and I can understand why they wouldn’t do it,” said Billick. “But they are doing it all from their perspective. In the long-term, there has to be a collaboration between the communities they are in. We saw that break down in Park City (and the ski patrol strike). It goes straight to the stock price.”
https://crestedbuttenews.com/2025/01...ith-community/

[XavierD]

Some more less than glowing national coverage of vail

https://www.wsj.com/business/vail-re..._copyURL_share

[FigureELEVEN11]

Fail's conduct at Attitash and Wildcat is just as bad if not worse than the PC situation. Its been very cold yet they won't blow enough show to expand past the original WROD and are trying to blame it on the snowmaking pond. Total BS and never these issues before Fail they don't care about Wildcat bc there is no paid parking or real estate at the base.

Epic is working well for my family this winter otherwise though Sunapee/Stowe have been good and skiing western resorts for free with your east coast pass is cool. Just obnoxious that the North Conway hills basically won't open more than the WROD outside of Dr King Weekend-Presidents unless there is a ton of natural snow. There's nothing wrong with applying the gym membership model to ski passes. I don't really want the Super passes to go away honestly as much as everyone bitches about them.

[TBS]

In Vail-adjacent news, reps from MTN visited Mt Brokenchair (Bachelor) last week. Powdr has put it up for sale.

We call it Mt Brokenchair because the lifts break constantly. Electrical problems are common with several chairs, forcing them to run on diesel. Which takes about 30 min to get started. The newest chair never runs at full speed, even on the calmest spring day. About once a week, folks have to hike out from the NW Express Chair, locally known as Auntie’s Wheel (think Thunderdome), because when it spins the consequences can be unpleasant. That’s a 2+ mile slog with 600’ of elevation gain. Photos of people hiking out kinda looks like old paintings of Napoleon’s retreat from Russia.

With that background…
During Vail’s visit, power to ALL of the lifts died mid-morning. Some of their folks got to sit on a chair overlooking much of the resort for an hour. Others got to participate in the reenactment of Napoleon’s Retreat, while others got to hike out with MtB’s Prez from another lift - 3/4 mile with 100’ elevation gain.

I’m guessing the conversations on the way out were awkward, especially if the Vail guys asked about the backup power system (which is also in need of upgrade).

Hopefully this wasn’t the “guest experience” Vail had envisioned, and their interest has waned…

[romeo tango]

^^
monkeywrenchin' ?

[TBS]

Unlikely - there was a break in the supply from the utility.

Just a stroke of luck - good luck IMO if Vail walks away

[anotherVTskibum]

That’s a reasonable response - if you were at PCMR for four days that week you get a credit of 25% of the current year pass price on next year’s pass.





Or all of the above.
It doesn’t say whether this move settles the class action suit.

It will give those affected an incentive to renew instead of becoming ikonic

[accounting dweebury]
The credits should not affect this year’s revenue. It will come out of next year’s results.
[/accounting dweebury]

Most likely, to take that offer you will need to actually purchase the next year's pass and sign a waiver. Said waiver will include a release of all claims against Vail, lawsuit goes *poof* for anyone taking the pass credit.

[DoubleBogey]

The lawyers are going to make so much money

[Squirreljam]

So interestingly vr’s rolling out a new model for patrols at mountains w “complex terrain” and bumping (patroller) hourly pay at those. Seems a bald faced payout to head-off future labor organizing at the places most important to vr. Of course those hills already w collective bargaining in place don’t get the raise.From bill rock: “I am writing to share with you that Vail Resorts is investing in a new category of skills-based pay for patrol, Mountain Terrain Complexity, which recognizes the unique skills needed by patrollers who work at our resorts with avalanche terrain. Pay increases will go into effect immediately for hourly patrollers who work at Vail Mountain, Beaver Creek, Whistler Blackcomb, Heavenly, Northstar, and Kirkwood. Compensation changes for union-represented patrollers at our other resorts with avalanche terrain are subject to the applicable collective bargaining agreement or the collective bargaining process, and we will discuss next steps with patrol leadership at each of those resorts.”

[TBS]

Seems like maybe MTN management found Jesus during the PCPSPA negotiations.

Problem is, there’s already blood in the water. Breck’s contract is up this spring and Keystone patrollers just voted to unionize. And you can bet the non-union shops are talking about organizing as well.

And while true that management can’t arbitrarily change Union contract terms, you can bet the organized shops will be getting at least what these non-union shops will now get.

IIRC, the PC contract grants their members auto wage increases if other of MTN’s resorts offer higher pay for equivalent jobs. Which means this new “investment” in patrollers is likely not as much as what the PCPSPA got. Which is gonna cause the other non-Union locations to decide “I deserve what the PCPSPA got guys got”.

[Kevo]

Dozens of Breck lifties call in to protest living conditions in employee housing.



Man I hate Vail resorts.

[halliday]

Sounds like they need a prevailing wage schedule. Might be kinda hard given the jurisdiction. Also, the communications workers of America seems like a weak union.

[Skistack]

Crested Butte lift maintenance union has authorized a strike after finally receiving a response to wage increase request submitted 9 months ago.


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[Kevo]

Crested Butte lift maintenance union has authorized a strike after finally receiving a response to wage increase request submitted 9 months ago.


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Good for them.

[goldenboy]

CB lift maintenance quote in the local paper:

They submitted a wage proposal in March 2024 and Vail finally came back this month with a formal response. “We were offered the same wages we currently receive, presented as ‘the best we can do,’” said Pearman. “In the meantime, people haven’t gotten raises in two years.