resort industry
Vail Resorts offers end-of-season bonus as ski areas struggle through labor crisis
Ski resorts are struggling with COVID-ravaged workforces and swelling crowds. Vail Resorts promises workers a $2-an-hour bonus as it weathers a labor crisis, a potential strike by Park City ski patrollers and a declining stock price.
Epic crowds are colliding with epic labor shortages at ski areas
As a record number of pass holders arrive at Vail Resorts ski areas, a critical labor shortage and quarantined workers has delayed terrain openings and cut services, spurring a backlash among workers and local skiers.
Busier-than-ever year for Grand Junction chairlift maker reveals strength of nation’s resort industry
Ski resorts big and small are ordering new chairlifts, marking a record year for Grand Junction’s Leitner Poma
Ski racing legend Bode Miller plans first ski academy at Granby Ranch
Olympian Bode Miller, who is building a $25 million, 125-student ski academy at Grand County’s Granby Ranch ski area says “I want to put something in place that will change our entire education system for sports.”
Vail Resorts sold 2.1 million Epic Passes for 2021-22 season after cutting prices by 20%
Resort operator reports a 76% increase in pass sales from 2019-20, which is about 900,000 more tickets and passes purchased in advance.
A new plan — again — for Colorado’s Cuchara Mountain. But this time it’s not about skiing and condos.
Florida entrepreneurs want to develop an adventure hub at southern Colorado’s long dormant Cuchara ski area. They have big dreams, but first they need to convince reluctant leaders.
Colorado ski resorts are in an uphill battle for workers amid the historic labor shortage
Ski areas are reaching out to locals, relying on visa programs and retooling jobs as they search for hundreds of workers in communities enduring critical housing and labor shortages.
Powdr’s Fast Tracks offers $49+ chance to skip the lift line at Copper Mountain, triggering a skier backlash
Even a U.S. senator is calling on Powdr to kill the program
Alterra Mountain Co. sues insurance company over $200 million in denied coronavirus losses claims
Ski resort operator says Lexington Insurance paid virus claims in 2015 and 2018 but denied $200 million in 2020 COVID damage "simply because the claim is large."
Colorado Supreme Court declines to hear case challenging ski areas’ use of waivers to avoid lawsuits
Charlotte Redden appealed her argument against the blanket immunity provided to resorts in ubiquitous liability waivers to Colorado’s highest court, which declined to hear her case. “This is a tragedy for ski safety in Colorado,” said one lawyer.
59 million skiers visited U.S. resorts in the 2020-21 winter season
78% of ski area operators said this season exceeded their expectations, according to a National Ski Areas Association survey
Colorado ski resort operators turbo-charged technology last season, and many of the upgrades are here to stay
"COVID accelerated everything,” one ski resort operator says. “We took a multiyear process and did it in like five months.”
Record-breaking real estate frenzy is changing the culture of Colorado’s mountain towns as locals are priced out
More than $15 billion in property sales in 2020 in seven resort communities marks a 61% increase over 2019. Historic sales volume and sky-high prices are pushing locals out of mountain towns.
Colorado ski areas aren’t talking about skier fatalities this season. So we asked coroners instead.
At least 11 skiers were killed in traumatic crashes during the 2020-21 season, according to 16 county coroners surveyed by The Colorado Sun.
Colorado mountain, resort communities are rebounding — and then some — from coronavirus-scarred 2020
Despite grim projections last spring, many of Colorado’s high-country resort communities saw waves of in-state visitors in the fall and early winter fill local coffers.
Ski patroller unions set to grow in Colorado’s consolidating resort industry
Ski patrollers at Keystone, Breckenridge and Big Sky plan votes to join six other ski area unions as labor advocates predict a revival of collective bargaining for resort workers
Climbing coronavirus cases in Colorado’s high country aren’t tracking back to ski resorts
Health officials in eight counties have not traced positive tests back to lift lines, chairlifts or ski slopes.
Colorado appeals court agrees that ski pass waivers protect resorts from liability in chairlift injuries
The Colorado Court of Appeals ruling on lift ticket and season pass waivers -- which release ski areas from “any and all liability” -- could erase resort safety responsibilities outlined in laws like the Ski Safety Act and the Colorado Passenger Tramway Act
Up to 55 injured skiers and snowboarders arrive at Colorado emergency rooms each day, analysis shows
More than 4,100 skiers and snowboarders were transported to emergency rooms in ambulances or helicopters across 2018, 2019 and the first part of 2020, which is about 10 patients every day of the season.
