Excellent review of Vail Resorts. I’ve been skiing in Colorado for 50 years. VR has ruined the experience. VR should be broken up with antitrust violations to get more competition in the ski industry.
I agree 💯, Vail brings trouble everywhere they buy out, it's terrible! Sell back to mom and pop ownership that knew how to run their local ski areas!!!
I appreciate the review that you’ve given on Vail Resorts. I was born and raised in Breckenridge, and feel like Vail just took over my entire county that I grew up in. It’s no longer recognizable, and it definitely started happening once they were acquiring more resorts. It started out as they we’re gonna give back to the community, they ended up just taking over. It’s a shame that they have not been able to treat their employees and communities with the respect they promised.
ParkCity used to be two separate resorts - The Canyons and ParkCity. Both resorts were already too big to ride in a day. In the 2000s I would get a season pass to one or the other for less than what it costs to go to PC for a day. How can they not afford to pay their patrol more?!
And pay single day pass rates? Fuck no! I'd gladly pay twice the cost of the Epic local pass. Wouldn't mind others cancelling though, makes my lift lines shorter.
I really feel for those poor lift ops dealing with the horrendous lines. That said, I'm behind ski patrol 100% in this strike. Anyone that puts their life at risk dealing with avalanche hazard deserves more than $21.00/hr. Burger flippers in California make more than that!
if it makes u feel any better they dont have to run the lifts most of the time during the strike its illegal to run a lift before it has been run and inspected by licensed ski patrol
@@taymc5150 Thats the thing, all the liftys assigned to the closed lifts are not working and not getting paid either. No union for them, they are just SOL. Also Ski patrol has absolutely nothing to do with inspecting the chair lifts themselves. Not their department at all, there are lift operators, lift operations supervisors, lift mechanics, and the tramway safety board
@@taymc5150 Not correct. Ski Patrol = mountain safety/skier safety and rescue. Lift Operations = lift operations and maintenance, safety and service checks. Two completely different "departments," if you will.
I'm a seasonal worker. I Have been traveling the western US for 7 years. This is what is ruining it for people like me. It's happening a lot. Your cost as a tourist will increase 25-35% over the next 10 years. I don't have a good answer. But private equity and venture capitalists buying everything ruins it for everyone.
You should do another video about the major share holders of vail. Blackrock and vanguard to name a couple. You could even speak on how Disney bought vail in April of 2024. Glad people are covering this. I was a lift operator summer and winter at park city mountain resort.
You had me going there - Disney buying Vail Resorts(i.e. taking it private) was an April Fools joke in 2024 - but both Disney and Vail are rapacious toward their customers and their employees, so it made perfect sense. Re lift ops, thanks for your service.
@ that’s a trip! I thought it was crazy so I kept looking but can’t find anything that says it was an April fools joke. Even google AI doesn’t know it was a joke 😂
That pay bump wont solve anything. That's not the difference of making or breaking a living wage in Park City. You will never be able to buy a house or feed a family with 23 a hour, you need 100k a year or more. Then tickets will bump to 500+ to cover that. They need to get back to work and dial in their side hustle or get a real job.
At least with Ikon most mountains on that pass allow no more than 7 days at each mountain. Ikon pass also costs more. I won't be going to a VR mountain again which is quite sad considering they mostly operate on public lands.
A slight correction….I live here in PC and ski the mountain almost daily. The snow is NOT in perfect condition and there was no 3 feet of powder over the past 2-3 weeks. Scrub, tree roots and rocks are prevalent across the resort.
PC local here too... the mountain is rarely fully open during the holidays. its usually mid Jan until its at 100%. Ski patrol and strikes do not determine when the mountain can open, its mother nature.
Vail Resorts had only 6 lifties willing to work at Stevens Pass, WA in December and January a few years ago - Stevens is a local gem they bought up about 5 years ago, with 9 chairlifts. So the 6 lifties could only run 3 chairs (the park crew ran the park chair, and the pro patrol, who were on strike as patrollers, ran the most advanced chair at the area out of a sense of duty to their long-term local customers.) I heard the reason there were only 6 lifties: Vail supervisors wrote up the lifties for uniform violations one warm spring day because they had their uniforms unzipped because it was too warm. Next winter, almost nobody was willing to work, given crappy wages AND no respect from the company. State Attorney General received a petition with 40,000 signatures requesting him to file a WA Consumer Protection Act violation lawsuit, because less than 40% of the mountain's area was open.
Hilarious to hear that Vail's concern with a lousy $2 per hour raise is that Patrol, now paid $21 per hour, was making $14 per hour until 5 years ago. My god, any more money and they might be able to afford something other than mac and cheese for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! And patrol have to be medical semi-professionals - not sure I want somebody who is only paid $21 an hour in charge of first aid and transportation to infirmary response to be in charge when I'm badly injured by a Gwyneth Paltrow clone! In fact I'm sure I don't want that.
Vail resorts in some way saved skiing and snowboarding. The Epic pass is a bargain if you live close to skiing areas and own a condo in one of the major resort towns. We do and we spend no money to Vail Resorts beyond the epic pass at around 800 bucks a year. The flights to colorado and gas, if we drive by car to our local skiing areas, would cost us the same amount regardless if Vail Resorts is broken up or not. So there is no problem right now. The problem is in the future when no young people learn how to ski because families just can't afford this anymore and when there are no workers at those resorts because they essentially lose money by working there. I'm afraid in 10-15 years there will be a big collapse in skiing because of the greed and shortsightedness of Vail Resorts and Ikon.
they should make $50/hr. They perform skilled work. The executives that make $3200/ HOUR could not do any skilled jobs at the resort. The only jobs the executives could do ( paid $3200/hour) is bring drinks to people. The. executives would not be able to prepare food for the customers without poisoning the guest. The executives would not even be able to clean properly.
Gotta be honest, until the price of a lift ticket comes down to a level that makes it easier for the middle class and not just the rich to participate, I am having a hard time being concerned. Not just tickets, but the price of ski equipment, and amenities at ski resorts! I grew up loving skiing, but at it present trajectory, I would rather the industry just went away!
The answer is to go to the independent mountains. Once Vail took over Okemo in VT and Sunapee in NH I stopped getting their season passes. I refuse to hand over my hard earned money to a company that doesn't care about skiing.
The main hiccup between the parties isn't the requested $2 raise that the ski patrol union wants the general public to focus on and be up in arms about, but rather their demand for year-round housing and health benefits. As a former seasonal FWS worker, I can attest that these benefits are nearly non-existent in other seasonal industries across the U.S. and could be quite costly for Vail.
I took my 5yr old grandson to an east coast 600ft vertical Vail Resort ski mountain. $95 for the ticket and after 3 runs he only wanted to play in the snow (like any 5yr old). Outrageous! Guess he will never learn to ski. Will wait for snow in the back yard and build a snowman.
Vail needs to have its rights to use public lands (National forests mostly) yanked and those rights provided to community organizations and local corporations which will provide affordable skiing to the people who live in the area of the public lands. No more making any use of the public lands subject to a $300 day ticket or only to those who can afford a $700 season pass. Katz was taking $30 million a year out of the business before he moved on. That's utter BS. If you can't survive on $300k a year, don't ask for help from the government.
VR resorts mountain management Basically ruined my passion for skiing. These issues have been going on at Vail in Colorado for years. Those lift lines are normal now. It has totally ruined the sport.
great review. really interesting dilemma with climate changing the industry and companies like this keeping resorts and jobs going, it's a business model that should work, but not at the employees expense...
@@jakedaly7906I am outside everyday, the water cycle is very sensitive. I don't think YOU understand the gravity of building homes in the mountains that disrupt creeks and wildlife.
Luckily for me, I purchased both Ikon and Epic passes this year. That is, good thing I have Ikon pass because my Epic pass has been useless -- Park City Mountain has been totally unusable this year. I have not skied a single day with Epic pass. Honestly, Deer Valley has my respect, they seem to take care of their employees, they do their best to maintain their terrain, and their service is always excellent.
I worked for Vail before COVID and just KNEW when they acquired and nearly doubled their portfolio that quality was going to go downhill very fast. wages were already a concern then! So much greed
They do this every year and people are fighting back why? Because the industry pays low wages I worked there for years with maybe 2 raises of pennies. The wages went up after covid because they had to not because they wanted to incentives their employees. Each season I knew and worked with people who who lived in their cars in the snow at 7000 ft elevation. And if you've ever had to be saved you know how hard these folks work its kind of like paying firemen hey are the first responders on the mountain! Keep fighting PCMR ski patrol!!!
Hey Guys and Gals, I’m 66 years old while I haven’t skied in 40 years, what ever happened to the ski patrol being a volunteer service. Back then the ski patrol provided a free service for a day of free skiing. At least that was how I understood the procedure. “Back then”.
But are we talking about ski patrol or lift operators. It sounds like most of the comments are about lift operators. Which these people need to live in very expense areas and need to make a decent wage to survive.
I am all for employees making a decent wage but the whole premise of this video is off due to the fact that ski patrol was asking for more than just a two dollar raise. They were not honest about their demands or the level of their training and expertise (I was a ski patroller there so...). You hit the nail on the head when you said every department will likely want more if they get what they are demanding so Vail has likely accounted for that. Shareholders are not inherently evil as anyone can buy their stock and become a "shareholder" including the employees, they aren't evil rich people in a boardroom. The cost of living in Park City was already extremely high before Vail came to town because of the competition from people that are willing to pay more to live there. Many of the people complaining about ski towns being over run are the same transplants that caused the problem and no-one forced them to move there. If you don't like the cost to live there or the crowds, please leave. Vail should quadruple the cost of skiing and we will see who really wants to be a skier and who is a struggling instagram influencer living their "best life" in a glamorous ski town they can't afford. I'll work two jobs to cut down on crowds and run the transplants that call themselves locals out of here.
Vail was known some years ago for paying half what Aspen did to their instructors. Like $20/hour for a $1,000 all-day private lesson. Now it sounds like they are paid about $200 for a lesson the mountain charges $1,600 for.
As someone who has skied almost every place in North America? I never ski Utah anymore. Always crowded always expensive and if they do get any snow, you can forget about short lift lines. It’s crazy! I’m not sure why anyone would go skiing in Utah??? One of the worst places to go skiing in the United States for sure.
One thing not quite right. Vail Resorts couldn't really take over the town of Vail because there isn't really a town there. It is the base area and surrounding lodgings for visitors. It's not a real town, not like Breck. They ran the numbers and decided they'd go for the volume but keep prices high to capture the families with a lot of disposable income. Kind of like what Disney World started doing some years ago. It's their prerogative and they are under no obligation to reroute money from stockholders to employees. I don't think that the people seeing their expensive vacations annihilated because of the strike are likely to blame the resort. This will create a lot of animosity towards the striking patrollers. They chose the worst time for the visiting public to strike. It makes sense in that they have maximum leverage, but it also appears that management is going to ride it out. People might not come back to Park City but they will likely go to another Epic resort.
I think the part you are missing is how clear it was the visitors were blaming Vail and not the patrollers. A part of the reason is because the local population is so over Vail that the local population was able to articulate why it was Vails fault and then that story spread online.
I lived/SKIIED/worked Vail 1972-92. It was Vail Associates then. Along came the real estate market. I have never been back, nor will I ever ski at one of their "resorts". F' em. I'm with the patrollers.
I live in the People's Republic of WA state. I was a volunteer adaptive snowboard instructor with a non-profit at Stevens Pass for 10 years. When Vail bought the mountain, they cut employees' hours, pay and bennies. Suddenly, people I had known and worked with for years were gone. The resort was understaffed for over a year. They would open a portion of the mountain, and they had ski patrol running lifts. I asked them once "if patrol is running the lifts, who the fuck is patrolling??!" In 10 years of adaptive snowsports instruction, I never had an accident/incident/injuries on my watch. When Vail bought the mountain, things became dangerous due to lack of staffing and having patrollers doing things that other employees should have been doing. Vail also shut down on-mountain housing. Keep in mind, due to terrain and space constraints, we don't have ski towns like Commierado or Utah, so employees have to drive at least an hour from the closest town.
i lived in beaver creek back in 03-05. nobody got paid because all the work visas and illegal immigration brought the wages down for everyone. it seems the same at every ski resort town.
When ski areas had individual owners, they may not have made much money on their investment, but they kept the focus on the skiing and the community. That lent an individual character to each resort and fostered the sport’s slightly offbeat counter culture. Corporate skiing doesn’t value any of these qualities. Instead their focus is squarely on profit margins and stock price. The idea of the multi-pass seemed great at first until you learned how it led to massive overcrowding and general degradation of the skiing experience. More doesn’t mean better, especially in this case. Corporate America strikes out again.
Yes. Because they must train and do continuing Ed year round to keep their Oec,EMT and paramedic certifications to patrol and generally speaking there are not a lot (or any) seasonal “medic” jobs. So while they do work other jobs in the off season (landscaping, backcountry guide, etc) they aren’t compensated to keep their medic certifications and the off season jobs don’t have health insurance, etc. 😊yet patrolling is obviously vital to these resorts and theses individuals primary job. While receiving no hourly wage in the off season, they are asking for insurance to continue and for compensation for ConEd… which seems appropriate.
@ continuing education. Not all professions get that covered…I don’t know what having few seasonal medical field jobs has to do with anything. If the argument is the “have to do all of X” “just for Y”, then maybe they should reevaluate if the job is worth it to them? So the other “off-season” jobs (who’s to say the ski patrol job isn’t the “off-season”) don’t offer health benefits. Why is that Vail’s responsibility? Just because a job is dangerous doesn’t mean health benefits are automatically offered. You think seasonal fisherman out at sea get health benefits by default? I think the wage bump and *maybe* compensation for CE and the like, are appropriate asks. But health insurance year round for a seasonal job? That’s just absurd.
All those squeezed out employees with no market power. Some that are tipped, get increased compensation from the wealthy customers. But Ski Patrol are salary only.
Most of us Skier are fairly affluent. Meaning we are investors also. The only way to get these conglomerates attention is to not buy or hold any of their Stocks in our portfolios. When they start seeing major slides they will do better.
That works well on smaller ski areas. This is a massive location and really takes a very professional patrol to manage the business at the safety level that is required and expectation of opening terrain that needs a lot of avalanche mitigation.
Greedy billionaires did the same crap to the real estate market. Who can afford to buy a home or rent a decent place today unless they earn mega huge pay?
I love how states like Colorado are so Liberal but their never have been employee unions in Colorado and it is reflected in the disparity of labor in this state. I have been here 20 years and came from Wisconsin. They had unions for everything. While employees benefited the public did also, in the timely and quality work of union members. This sudo- Liberal state is so cheap on the worker it stinks.
If you are a skier, STOP GIVING YOUR MONEY TO THE VAIL JUGGERNAUT!! They are homogenizing the experience and ruining it for everyone…support your local, independent area.
Ugh... Park City local here. The patrollers need to get back to work. The crowd chants "pay your employees" and where do you think that money comes from? The CROWD, duh. I don't ski there anymore, can't afford it. The daily passes are 355 otd and I have a family of 4 so its not gonna happen. Holliday lines are never good, yes its bad because of the strike but the resort is rarely fully open as snow storms usually don't build a solid base until mid Jan. I did patrol when I was 19, best job I ever had but its not a career. If you can make a living wage being a ski bum then I would never have gotten my real job and marketable skills, who would? the $2 wage difference is not going to do anything when a 1 bedroom condo costs $650K, you need to be making over100K to afford any housing up here, lift tickets would bump to $500 a day to cover that.... This strike is not solving anything. Unions suck - Get back to work, or get a real job.
IF the last administration hadn't pumped so much "stimulus" cash into the economy all the inflation & decline in purchase power would not have happened AND if so many people hadn't gotten fraudulent PPP loans to purchase airBnB properties then Ski towns would have housing for their non skilled workers.
Give us a break, mister "Fiscal Conservative". Unemployment was skyrocketing. Vail was evil long before the pandemic. And housing for workers has been a major problem in ski towns since the 90's (and before, in some places). That includes both skilled and non-skilled workers. Stay the hell out of ski towns if you think pro patrollers aren't skilled workers.
Oh, the intelligentsia have joined the conversation. Please provide your own avalanche control, richard, and don't call patrol when you break a leg or suffer a concussion - I'm sure your 12-year-old kid can get you down the mountain just fine. As for Covid masks, read some of the research - they reduce infection rates per unit time by a factor of 10 if one person in a pair is wearing one, and by a factor of 100 if both are.
Excellent review of Vail Resorts. I’ve been skiing in Colorado for 50 years. VR has ruined the experience. VR should be broken up with antitrust violations to get more competition in the ski industry.
Vail Resorts is a problem -- a big one.
Did you miss the part where resorts weren't surviving on their own?
I agree 💯, Vail brings trouble everywhere they buy out, it's terrible! Sell back to mom and pop ownership that knew how to run their local ski areas!!!
Vail has also ruined Whistler BC Canada :(
@@cheeseontoastbrah that's BS
I appreciate the review that you’ve given on Vail Resorts. I was born and raised in Breckenridge, and feel like Vail just took over my entire county that I grew up in. It’s no longer recognizable, and it definitely started happening once they were acquiring more resorts. It started out as they we’re gonna give back to the community, they ended up just taking over. It’s a shame that they have not been able to treat their employees and communities with the respect they promised.
ParkCity used to be two separate resorts - The Canyons and ParkCity. Both resorts were already too big to ride in a day. In the 2000s I would get a season pass to one or the other for less than what it costs to go to PC for a day.
How can they not afford to pay their patrol more?!
Exactly 💯
Please cancel your automatic season pass renewal.
This sends a message to the shareholders.
And pay single day pass rates? Fuck no! I'd gladly pay twice the cost of the Epic local pass.
Wouldn't mind others cancelling though, makes my lift lines shorter.
When we got hosed during Covid on our epic passes, we haven’t been back to a VR property.
@@BB-vy6ig He said cancel the auto renewal. You can still buy it later. It's the message bro.
@@marckopp5567 yep. let their finance team panic and understand consequences
I really feel for those poor lift ops dealing with the horrendous lines. That said, I'm behind ski patrol 100% in this strike. Anyone that puts their life at risk dealing with avalanche hazard deserves more than $21.00/hr. Burger flippers in California make more than that!
if it makes u feel any better they dont have to run the lifts most of the time during the strike
its illegal to run a lift before it has been run and inspected by licensed ski patrol
@@taymc5150 Thats the thing, all the liftys assigned to the closed lifts are not working and not getting paid either. No union for them, they are just SOL. Also Ski patrol has absolutely nothing to do with inspecting the chair lifts themselves. Not their department at all, there are lift operators, lift operations supervisors, lift mechanics, and the tramway safety board
@@taymc5150 Not correct. Ski Patrol = mountain safety/skier safety and rescue. Lift Operations = lift operations and maintenance, safety and service checks. Two completely different "departments," if you will.
I'm a seasonal worker. I Have been traveling the western US for 7 years. This is what is ruining it for people like me. It's happening a lot. Your cost as a tourist will increase 25-35% over the next 10 years.
I don't have a good answer. But private equity and venture capitalists buying everything ruins it for everyone.
You should do another video about the major share holders of vail. Blackrock and vanguard to name a couple. You could even speak on how Disney bought vail in April of 2024. Glad people are covering this. I was a lift operator summer and winter at park city mountain resort.
You had me going there - Disney buying Vail Resorts(i.e. taking it private) was an April Fools joke in 2024 - but both Disney and Vail are rapacious toward their customers and their employees, so it made perfect sense. Re lift ops, thanks for your service.
@@teacherguy5084Disney might not have bought Vail but Walt did create the green, blue, black system we use today.
@ that’s a trip! I thought it was crazy so I kept looking but can’t find anything that says it was an April fools joke. Even google AI doesn’t know it was a joke 😂
CEO pay $3,100 an hour. 200 Patrollers want $2 more per hour. That is $400 an hour.
That pay bump wont solve anything. That's not the difference of making or breaking a living wage in Park City. You will never be able to buy a house or feed a family with 23 a hour, you need 100k a year or more. Then tickets will bump to 500+ to cover that. They need to get back to work and dial in their side hustle or get a real job.
@@timdskibumsome ski bum you are. Do us all a favor and go play in traffic.
@@timdskibumyou are indeed a ski bum tim.
The point OP made was, they can 100% afford the pay bump. You just saying "WoRk mOrE" is not constructive.
Supply and demand.
@@timdskibumdamn bro you're harshin my mellow
i was there. WORST SKI EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE
Should have gone to solitude. It lives up to its name.
Tell us more
@@Adroit1911 Ikon ruined that resort. It's not anywhere close to being Solitude.
I’m worried about Ikon ruining resorts too
At least with Ikon most mountains on that pass allow no more than 7 days at each mountain. Ikon pass also costs more. I won't be going to a VR mountain again which is quite sad considering they mostly operate on public lands.
A slight correction….I live here in PC and ski the mountain almost daily. The snow is NOT in perfect condition and there was no 3 feet of powder over the past 2-3 weeks. Scrub, tree roots and rocks are prevalent across the resort.
PC local here too... the mountain is rarely fully open during the holidays. its usually mid Jan until its at 100%. Ski patrol and strikes do not determine when the mountain can open, its mother nature.
They’re doing all that striking for only $23. They should demand more.
Vail Resorts had only 6 lifties willing to work at Stevens Pass, WA in December and January a few years ago - Stevens is a local gem they bought up about 5 years ago, with 9 chairlifts. So the 6 lifties could only run 3 chairs (the park crew ran the park chair, and the pro patrol, who were on strike as patrollers, ran the most advanced chair at the area out of a sense of duty to their long-term local customers.) I heard the reason there were only 6 lifties: Vail supervisors wrote up the lifties for uniform violations one warm spring day because they had their uniforms unzipped because it was too warm. Next winter, almost nobody was willing to work, given crappy wages AND no respect from the company. State Attorney General received a petition with 40,000 signatures requesting him to file a WA Consumer Protection Act violation lawsuit, because less than 40% of the mountain's area was open.
They tried to ruin Stevens Pass, such a great ski area, I was saddened when they bought it!
Hilarious to hear that Vail's concern with a lousy $2 per hour raise is that Patrol, now paid $21 per hour, was making $14 per hour until 5 years ago. My god, any more money and they might be able to afford something other than mac and cheese for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! And patrol have to be medical semi-professionals - not sure I want somebody who is only paid $21 an hour in charge of first aid and transportation to infirmary response to be in charge when I'm badly injured by a Gwyneth Paltrow clone! In fact I'm sure I don't want that.
All they want is a raise from $21/hr to $23/hr. Not asking for enough it seems.
Vail resorts in some way saved skiing and snowboarding. The Epic pass is a bargain if you live close to skiing areas and own a condo in one of the major resort towns. We do and we spend no money to Vail Resorts beyond the epic pass at around 800 bucks a year. The flights to colorado and gas, if we drive by car to our local skiing areas, would cost us the same amount regardless if Vail Resorts is broken up or not. So there is no problem right now. The problem is in the future when no young people learn how to ski because families just can't afford this anymore and when there are no workers at those resorts because they essentially lose money by working there. I'm afraid in 10-15 years there will be a big collapse in skiing because of the greed and shortsightedness of Vail Resorts and Ikon.
Vail just caved ! Patrollers got their fair share!
they should make $50/hr. They perform skilled work. The executives that make $3200/ HOUR could not do any skilled jobs at the resort. The only jobs the executives could do ( paid $3200/hour) is bring drinks to people. The. executives would not be able to prepare food for the customers without poisoning the guest. The executives would not even be able to clean properly.
I honor the people that are on strike I hope the rest of the country will understand the reason for the strike
So Biden f-ed up the economy so now every body needs to go on strike? it will be pandemic economy all over again. Nice plan.
Gotta be honest, until the price of a lift ticket comes down to a level that makes it easier for the middle class and not just the rich to participate, I am having a hard time being concerned. Not just tickets, but the price of ski equipment, and amenities at ski resorts! I grew up loving skiing, but at it present trajectory, I would rather the industry just went away!
The answer is to go to the independent mountains. Once Vail took over Okemo in VT and Sunapee in NH I stopped getting their season passes. I refuse to hand over my hard earned money to a company that doesn't care about skiing.
The main hiccup between the parties isn't the requested $2 raise that the ski patrol union wants the general public to focus on and be up in arms about, but rather their demand for year-round housing and health benefits. As a former seasonal FWS worker, I can attest that these benefits are nearly non-existent in other seasonal industries across the U.S. and could be quite costly for Vail.
I took my 5yr old grandson to an east coast 600ft vertical Vail Resort ski mountain. $95 for the ticket and after 3 runs he only wanted to play in the snow (like any 5yr old). Outrageous! Guess he will never learn to ski. Will wait for snow in the back yard and build a snowman.
Thanks PC for making people not ever want to come back to Utah! I'm serious too, it's too crowded here.
Vail needs to have its rights to use public lands (National forests mostly) yanked and those rights provided to community organizations and local corporations which will provide affordable skiing to the people who live in the area of the public lands. No more making any use of the public lands subject to a $300 day ticket or only to those who can afford a $700 season pass. Katz was taking $30 million a year out of the business before he moved on. That's utter BS. If you can't survive on $300k a year, don't ask for help from the government.
I liked this video and I find that he was very matter of fact but I think some more labor focused language to talk about the strike could help.
Had to move out of p.c. After the Olympics 2003. My rent quadrupled. 🤙😎🌴
VR resorts mountain management Basically ruined my passion for skiing. These issues have been going on at Vail in Colorado for years. Those lift lines are normal now. It has totally ruined the sport.
great review. really interesting dilemma with climate changing the industry and companies like this keeping resorts and jobs going, it's a business model that should work, but not at the employees expense...
What dilemma? We’re getting record snowpack every year. Quit watching the news and go outside.
@@jakedaly7906I am outside everyday, the water cycle is very sensitive. I don't think YOU understand the gravity of building homes in the mountains that disrupt creeks and wildlife.
Luckily for me, I purchased both Ikon and Epic passes this year. That is, good thing I have Ikon pass because my Epic pass has been useless -- Park City Mountain has been totally unusable this year. I have not skied a single day with Epic pass. Honestly, Deer Valley has my respect, they seem to take care of their employees, they do their best to maintain their terrain, and their service is always excellent.
Ikon just ruined different resorts, Solitude, Brighton and Snowbird. The multi resort passes are all evil!
@@dandonnelly6498 I agree. But I am trying to do the best I can with what I have to work with.
I worked for Vail before COVID and just KNEW when they acquired and nearly doubled their portfolio that quality was going to go downhill very fast. wages were already a concern then! So much greed
Vail's choice is shareholders over skiers. At some point that will implode.
They do this every year and people are fighting back why? Because the industry pays low wages I worked there for years with maybe 2 raises of pennies. The wages went up after covid because they had to not because they wanted to incentives their employees. Each season I knew and worked with people who who lived in their cars in the snow at 7000 ft elevation. And if you've ever had to be saved you know how hard these folks work its kind of like paying firemen hey are the first responders on the mountain! Keep fighting PCMR ski patrol!!!
Why would anyone stand there waiting?
Hey Guys and Gals, I’m 66 years old while I haven’t skied in 40 years, what ever happened to the ski patrol being a volunteer service. Back then the ski patrol provided a free service for a day of free skiing. At least that was how I understood the procedure. “Back then”.
But are we talking about ski patrol or lift operators. It sounds like most of the comments are about lift operators. Which these people need to live in very expense areas and need to make a decent wage to survive.
I am all for employees making a decent wage but the whole premise of this video is off due to the fact that ski patrol was asking for more than just a two dollar raise. They were not honest about their demands or the level of their training and expertise (I was a ski patroller there so...). You hit the nail on the head when you said every department will likely want more if they get what they are demanding so Vail has likely accounted for that. Shareholders are not inherently evil as anyone can buy their stock and become a "shareholder" including the employees, they aren't evil rich people in a boardroom. The cost of living in Park City was already extremely high before Vail came to town because of the competition from people that are willing to pay more to live there. Many of the people complaining about ski towns being over run are the same transplants that caused the problem and no-one forced them to move there. If you don't like the cost to live there or the crowds, please leave. Vail should quadruple the cost of skiing and we will see who really wants to be a skier and who is a struggling instagram influencer living their "best life" in a glamorous ski town they can't afford. I'll work two jobs to cut down on crowds and run the transplants that call themselves locals out of here.
I work at whistler the epic gear subscription thing is so terrible lines are always insane
With the amount they charge for a one-day lift ticket, there is no excuse for not paying their employees properly.
It shouldn't take an hour to get on a lift...
Vail was known some years ago for paying half what Aspen did to their instructors. Like $20/hour for a $1,000 all-day private lesson. Now it sounds like they are paid about $200 for a lesson the mountain charges $1,600 for.
Now do a video on what has happened to Brighton!
As someone who has skied almost every place in North America? I never ski Utah anymore. Always crowded always expensive and if they do get any snow, you can forget about short lift lines. It’s crazy! I’m not sure why anyone would go skiing in Utah??? One of the worst places to go skiing in the United States for sure.
Altera sucks too they dont pay Ski Patrol enough earthier
Why you need ski patrol, as long as lift guys and mechanics working all good. In Europe you rarely see ski patrol.
Skiers should have gone to Deer Valley (ski only luxurious resort).
I agree
To flat
One thing not quite right. Vail Resorts couldn't really take over the town of Vail because there isn't really a town there. It is the base area and surrounding lodgings for visitors. It's not a real town, not like Breck. They ran the numbers and decided they'd go for the volume but keep prices high to capture the families with a lot of disposable income. Kind of like what Disney World started doing some years ago. It's their prerogative and they are under no obligation to reroute money from stockholders to employees. I don't think that the people seeing their expensive vacations annihilated because of the strike are likely to blame the resort. This will create a lot of animosity towards the striking patrollers. They chose the worst time for the visiting public to strike. It makes sense in that they have maximum leverage, but it also appears that management is going to ride it out. People might not come back to Park City but they will likely go to another Epic resort.
I think the part you are missing is how clear it was the visitors were blaming Vail and not the patrollers. A part of the reason is because the local population is so over Vail that the local population was able to articulate why it was Vails fault and then that story spread online.
I ski, and as my boss told me years ago I am not a skier, this is enough to make me not ski.
Sounds like the mayor or owner of ski resort is not taking safety seriously and the strike doesn't help there's other ski resorts in Utah
Are the lift operators and snowcat drivers also striking in support of the ski patrol?
$21 an hour is like $5 in park city. It’s like a huge airport
I lived/SKIIED/worked Vail 1972-92. It was Vail Associates then. Along came the real estate market. I have never been back, nor will I ever ski at one of their "resorts". F' em. I'm with the patrollers.
Yikes they're calling in middle managers to do avalanche control? What could possibly go wrong.
I live in the People's Republic of WA state. I was a volunteer adaptive snowboard instructor with a non-profit at Stevens Pass for 10 years. When Vail bought the mountain, they cut employees' hours, pay and bennies. Suddenly, people I had known and worked with for years were gone. The resort was understaffed for over a year. They would open a portion of the mountain, and they had ski patrol running lifts. I asked them once "if patrol is running the lifts, who the fuck is patrolling??!" In 10 years of adaptive snowsports instruction, I never had an accident/incident/injuries on my watch. When Vail bought the mountain, things became dangerous due to lack of staffing and having patrollers doing things that other employees should have been doing. Vail also shut down on-mountain housing. Keep in mind, due to terrain and space constraints, we don't have ski towns like Commierado or Utah, so employees have to drive at least an hour from the closest town.
i lived in beaver creek back in 03-05. nobody got paid because all the work visas and illegal immigration brought the wages down for everyone. it seems the same at every ski resort town.
It should be noted that the strike is now over.
The ski guys asking for a $2 raise... It's like that John Cusack ski movie from the 80s -Better off de@d "Two dollars!"
The last suggestion about rethinking your ski trip is a pretty terrible one. How about just let the consumer/corp/unions hash it out.
23$? bruv ask for 30$
When ski areas had individual owners, they may not have made much money on their investment, but they kept the focus on the skiing and the community. That lent an individual character to each resort and fostered the sport’s slightly offbeat counter culture. Corporate skiing doesn’t value any of these qualities. Instead their focus is squarely on profit margins and stock price. The idea of the multi-pass seemed great at first until you learned how it led to massive overcrowding and general degradation of the skiing experience. More doesn’t mean better, especially in this case. Corporate America strikes out again.
Makes me want to watch that movie "Out Cold"
2:40..."improved benefits for seasonal employees"...no, they want full time benefits (year round) for a seasonal job.
Yes. Because they must train and do continuing Ed year round to keep their Oec,EMT and paramedic certifications to patrol and generally speaking there are not a lot (or any) seasonal “medic” jobs.
So while they do work other jobs in the off season (landscaping, backcountry guide, etc) they aren’t compensated to keep their medic certifications and the off season jobs don’t have health insurance, etc. 😊yet patrolling is obviously vital to these resorts and theses individuals primary job.
While receiving no hourly wage in the off season, they are asking for insurance to continue and for compensation for ConEd… which seems appropriate.
@ continuing education. Not all professions get that covered…I don’t know what having few seasonal medical field jobs has to do with anything. If the argument is the “have to do all of X” “just for Y”, then maybe they should reevaluate if the job is worth it to them?
So the other “off-season” jobs (who’s to say the ski patrol job isn’t the “off-season”) don’t offer health benefits. Why is that Vail’s responsibility? Just because a job is dangerous doesn’t mean health benefits are automatically offered. You think seasonal fisherman out at sea get health benefits by default?
I think the wage bump and *maybe* compensation for CE and the like, are appropriate asks. But health insurance year round for a seasonal job? That’s just absurd.
The majority of Ski Patrol salaries in British Columbia, Canada currently range between
$12.50CAD to $19.47CAD
($8.69USD to $13.53USD)
Oooof
All those squeezed out employees with no market power. Some that are tipped, get increased compensation from the wealthy customers. But Ski Patrol are salary only.
Most of us Skier are fairly affluent. Meaning we are investors also. The only way to get these conglomerates attention is to not buy or hold any of their Stocks in our portfolios. When they start seeing major slides they will do better.
How odd. I'm so old I was in the CSPS and it was a volunteer "job" We got free skiing a the jacket and equipment.
That works well on smaller ski areas. This is a massive location and really takes a very professional patrol to manage the business at the safety level that is required and expectation of opening terrain that needs a lot of avalanche mitigation.
Won't someone please think of the share holders?
The shareholders do not have the right to screw towns and workforce.
😢 all they want is stock buybacks.
The idea of a subscription sounds awful. Can’t think of anything worse.
It’s crushing local businesses
Not stopping business at all dude 😂 come here bro
Greedy billionaires did the same crap to the real estate market. Who can afford to buy a home or rent a decent place today unless they earn mega huge pay?
Pick an industry big business greed has yet to ruin. Yeah, i thought so.
Serves you right pc, that’s why I only go to powder or sb :O
Have you seen what the owner of Netflix is doing to Powder Mnt. Lift tickets are not cheap.
Support the patrollers! What is your life worth
I love how states like Colorado are so Liberal but their never have been employee unions in Colorado and it is reflected in the disparity of labor in this state. I have been here 20 years and came from Wisconsin. They had unions for everything. While employees benefited the public did also, in the timely and quality work of union members. This sudo- Liberal state is so cheap on the worker it stinks.
This is Utah and we are a very red state. Maybe the reddest.
Ran by disney, become disney.
Vail equals Disney for institutional evil, no doubt. But the Disney purchase was an April Fools joke.
Please reduce the level of your background music. It is distracting and makes your voice over harder to hear.
Let's go joe
Crazy to see how many folks breaking the picket line and trying to ski with ski patrol on strike😂😂😂 I have zero sympathy for them. Stay home next time
Ski patrols ruin all visitors.
They could always walk up!
this "real story" is loaded with opinions lol
momopol capitalisn at the peak
Best thing. "Vile Resorts " goes under!!!
$800M revenue a year resort. 😂 paying their employees $20 a hour! SOB‼️👎🏻
Vail is NOT private equity! They’re publicly traded. Stop saying that. Lol
If you are a skier, STOP GIVING YOUR MONEY TO THE VAIL JUGGERNAUT!! They are homogenizing the experience and ruining it for everyone…support your local, independent area.
If you are unhappy with your employer, find another job.
Go, Ski patrol
Privledged
vail resort is done
trash clickbait video
Oh, did he hit a nerve with an investor? Lose 15% of your trust fund in under a week?
I hope Trump bans strikes, nobody forced them to work as ski patrol. How dare they mess up one of my 3 ski vacations per year. Frickin plebs.
God forbid the people that keep the mountain safe make a living wage. I thought you people couldn’t afford eggs and gas.
What a 🤡 statement. You probably hack your way down pizza pieing.
A trump ran ski resort would be epic.
@@ShawnQueefusEveryone skiing in jeans?
Tell me you know nothing of the labor movement and the American spirit😂😂😂😂
Ugh... Park City local here. The patrollers need to get back to work. The crowd chants "pay your employees" and where do you think that money comes from? The CROWD, duh. I don't ski there anymore, can't afford it. The daily passes are 355 otd and I have a family of 4 so its not gonna happen. Holliday lines are never good, yes its bad because of the strike but the resort is rarely fully open as snow storms usually don't build a solid base until mid Jan. I did patrol when I was 19, best job I ever had but its not a career. If you can make a living wage being a ski bum then I would never have gotten my real job and marketable skills, who would? the $2 wage difference is not going to do anything when a 1 bedroom condo costs $650K, you need to be making over100K to afford any housing up here, lift tickets would bump to $500 a day to cover that.... This strike is not solving anything. Unions suck - Get back to work, or get a real job.
IF the last administration hadn't pumped so much "stimulus" cash into the economy all the inflation & decline in purchase power would not have happened AND if so many people hadn't gotten fraudulent PPP loans to purchase airBnB properties then Ski towns would have housing for their non skilled workers.
Give us a break, mister "Fiscal Conservative". Unemployment was skyrocketing. Vail was evil long before the pandemic. And housing for workers has been a major problem in ski towns since the 90's (and before, in some places). That includes both skilled and non-skilled workers. Stay the hell out of ski towns if you think pro patrollers aren't skilled workers.
Pretending ski patrol guys are anything more than ski bums is like wearing a COVID Mask - ridiculous.
Oh, the intelligentsia have joined the conversation. Please provide your own avalanche control, richard, and don't call patrol when you break a leg or suffer a concussion - I'm sure your 12-year-old kid can get you down the mountain just fine. As for Covid masks, read some of the research - they reduce infection rates per unit time by a factor of 10 if one person in a pair is wearing one, and by a factor of 100 if both are.
Ok buddy