Ski patrollers at Park City Mountain Resort have reached a contract agreement with Vail Resorts that could end a strike that left the country’s largest ski area struggling with long lines and closed terrain over the recent holidays.
The ski area operator and the Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association late Tuesday announced a new tentative agreement through the 2026-27 ski season, ending a 12-day strike that has made national and international headlines.
The unionized patrollers spent several months negotiating with Vail Resorts for increased pay and benefits before hanging up their skis and striking Dec. 27. It is the first known ski patrol strike in recent decades and a reflection of the growing influence of collective bargaining for resort workers facing skyrocketing home prices and high costs of living in mountain communities.
The Park City City Mountain ski patrollers were scheduled to vote Wednesday on the new contract, according to a joint Instagram post late Tuesday by the Park City patrol union and the United Mountain Workers union that represents more than 1,100 workers at 13 ski areas.
The union’s bargaining committee representing about 200 Park City ski patrollers unanimously endorsed ratification of the new contract.
“The tentative agreement addresses both parties; interests and will end the current strike. Everyone looks forward to restoring normal resort operations and moving forward together as one team,” reads the statement, which notes that neither the patrollers nor Vail Resorts will be commenting further until the contract vote.
Vail Resorts and its Park City Mountain patrollers had reached agreement on 24 of 27 contract items before the strike. Ski patrollers said they were asking for a starting wage of $23 an hour while the resort operator held firm at $21 an hour.
“People have asked, ‘Can’t you just pay patrol $2/hour more? It’s never been about $2. There is a lot of misinformation surrounding these negotiations,” Deirdra Walsh, the chief operating officer at Park City Mountain, wrote in a Jan. 6 guest editorial in The Park Record newspaper. “They are asking for much more than $2/hour. In fact, on the day they went on strike, their demands equaled $7/hour more. Finally, you should know that we have come to the table with compelling offers.”
News of the strike stretched across the globe, with social media posts and news reports showing long lines and Park City Mountain struggling to accommodate holiday crowds with as little more than a quarter of its ski terrain open. Patrollers have raised more than $300,000 through an online fundraising campaign. The backlash against Vail Resorts has been fiery, with a daily deluge of pro-union social media posts as well as plenty of perspectives from irked skiers.
This week the company listed a job opening on LinkedIn seeking a senior manager of communications for both Crested Butte Mountain Resort and Park City Mountain.The company is in the middle of contract negotiations with Keystone ski patrollers and lift mechanics at its Crested Butte Mountain Resort. Patrollers who unionized last year at Keystone are meeting with Vail Resorts administrators Wednesday.