Epic Pass holders file class action lawsuit against Vail Resorts over Park City strike kpcw.org/ski-resorts/2025-01…

Final update on the @VailResorts Park City ski patrol strike. Deirdra Walsh (Park City's VP and COO) posted an op-ed earlier this week (link below) apologizing for the experience on the mountains during the strike, which I appreciate. Below is my op-ed cross-analyzing a few of @VailResorts claims: "We strive for transparency on operations. And the truth is that during this unprecedented time, each day is dynamic, and we are doing the best we can to keep guests informed." - Vail Resorts had been in negotiations with the ski patrol for 9 months and literally polled their ski patrollers in December to see how many would go on strike. The first time most guests learned about the strike (or even the possibility of a strike) was when we started experiencing massive lines and over 80% of the mountain was shut down on what should have been a powder day. - Vail Resorts lied to customers for the first x3 days of the strike, blaming shutdowns on "snowfall and wind." - Vail Resorts used their app to lie about lift lines (basically every day the Epic app would say "15 minute waits" on lines that were lasting well over an hour. Not sure if this was a feature or a bug but this this is what customers experienced. - It wasn't until enough people posted the truth on social media that VR finally admitted on social media that their operations were being impacted because of the strike. "Over the months of negotiations with the patrol, we did make progress...We had three mediation sessions scheduled for Dec. 26 and 27, and Jan. 2, based on the assigned mediator’s availability. The union made the choice to walk out after just the first session because they knew that is when it would impact the experience most. We never walked away." - Vail Resorts could have chosen to hold these mediation sessions at any time in the first 9 months of negotiations before the ski season started. Why did Vail choose to wait until right before a peak holiday weekend to finally bring in a mediator? Could it be because Vail wanted to take leverage away from the Ski Patrol Union by waiting until the season started? 🙃 "By choosing to strike during the peak holiday, the union hurt their fellow employees, skiers and snowboarders, and their neighbors." - I asked it before and I'll ask it again, why didn't Vail Resorts figure this out with their ski patrollers months in advance of the ski season? Vail knew this was an issue for 9 months and only chose to bring in mediators the week between Christmas and New Years. Blaming the strike on the ski patrollers is misleading and indicates further failure of Vail Resorts to take responsibility for their obligations to their guests. "Please be kind to the people who are working so hard to keep the mountain open. The harassment that our employees have been subjected to over the past two weeks is not in the spirit of our community’s values." - I truly hope that guests weren't being cruel or harassing any of Park City's employees. This whole situation was completely out of Park City employees' hands and being mean or angry towards people who were just doing their jobs doesn't help anyone. I didn't observe this while I was on the mountain and didn't see it in videos or online, but if it did happen then I absolutely condemn this. - What I hope Deirdra was not referring to as "harassment" was frustrated customers vocalizing their disappointment online in Vail Resorts' leadership for ruining their vacations and being lied to about it. My message to Deirdra and, more specifically, to Kirsten Lynch, Vail Resorts' CEO, is this: Vail Resorts' obligation, first and foremost, is to their customers. Guests don't pay the ski patrol for the "Experience of a Lifetime" (as branded on the Vail Resorts' homepage); they pay Vail Resorts. The ski patrol didn't have $770 million in EBITDA last year: Vail Resorts did. Vail Resorts had lots of options to fulfill that obligation and avoid the disruptions to Park City operations both in advance and during the ski patrol strike such as: - Vail could have decided the PC Ski Patrol was asking for pay or benefits that Vail felt they couldn't provide, and mutually parted ways months in advance of the ski season (they had 9 months to figure this out) and trained a new ski patrol. If they're as expendable as Vail appeared to treat them, maybe this is what they should have done? - Vail could have paid the ski patrollers what they were asking and ended the strike at any time or avoided the strike in the first place. - Vail could have been transparent with guests about the situation from the beginning and offered guests options for salvaging their vacations. It still isn't ideal, but who knows, maybe the ski patrol union is or was asking for things Vail can't give? But they could have told people, so their guests could course correct before wasting their vacation at a mountain they didn't know was barely open. Any of these (or many other options) would have salvaged the experience for their customers and not put guest safety at risk on overcrowded runs with inadequate ski patrol coverage. From the outside looking in, it looks a lot like Vail's leadership took a gamble that if they just waited until the ski season started, the ski patrol would just grin and bear it. When that gamble didn't play out, it appears that they took another gamble and chose to let the ski patrol go on strike because they figured with ski patrollers from other Vail resorts and temp workers they could make Park City work without their ski patrollers. When that gamble didn't play out, they doubled down on their losses and, 10 days later, they still had only 31% of their mountain open compared to their neighbor, Deer Valley, who had 71% of their mountain open. From what I could gather online, Deirdra Walsh has spent virtually her whole career working at ski resorts. She seems like someone who loves the mountains, loves skiing, and really cares about her employees and creating an amazing experience for guests. Responsibility for an event of this magnitude sits squarely at the feet of Vail Resorts' CEO, Kirsten Lynch. Kirsten consciously chose to punish customers in order to play hardball with their employees and then, at best, allowed or, at worst, directed her social media and communications to gaslight thousands of frustrated customers. The damage to Vail's brand and future Epic Pass sales is going to last for years to come. And this is to say nothing about the impact this will have on the small businesses and real estate in ski towns where Vail Resorts has a presence. I would highly encourage the $mtn board to take a sober review of Kirsten's decision-making leading up to and during this debacle as well as her stewardship of Vail Resorts as a brand and a business. Vail Resorts did a great job of popularizing skiing for many years and the prior CEO's dedication towards giving back to veterans (my father served in the Air Force for 20 years and our whole family benefitted from their discounted Epic Passes for ex-servicemembers) is one of the main reasons I got to enjoy the sport as much as I have over the past 20 years. Buying an Epic Pass used to be one of my favorite purchases of the year. My hope is that Vail Resorts' board finds leadership that helps them course correct and again become a brand that people love and trust. In the meantime, they've got a long road ahead of them. parkrecord.com/2025/01/06/we… @dhowell @SoFloExecutive @munves @bmullahy2news @michael_riley @liftblog @TownLiftNews @KPCWRadio @skimagonline @p_malatesta @zak_podmore @sustainbytrain @iz_aries @NShrubs @iwasid @stgoldst @ZachWritesStuff @jfberke @ByGerrySullivan @ChossUSA @Cheryl_Smith1 @BarbBanfieldRN @on_bender @RichardHornsby @amerine1000 @VladTheInflator @thef1diplomat @KoryBobrow @HofkampMichael @chlacc @KeyWestTheDog @Velcroski @DrMcAlees @dr_cdeutsch @peterpham @AFRO_THUNDER80 @CorpoTuck @symphonictank @Murph_eth @wind4me @adamshay @ROchoaLabor @MickEnglewood @REITR0B1424 @iwasid @emily_lip

Vail Resorts got hammered on CNBC this afternoon for the Park City fiasco. "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 are advertising." Stock down 6.5% today.

@VailResorts CEO Kirsten Lynch is driving their brand and $mtn stock into the ground. It’s becoming increasingly apparent that this whole tone deaf debacle stems from her putting her ego ahead of guest experience and safety. paragonintel.com/mtceos/ceo-…

Pales in comparison to the $460 million in market cap $mtn lost today. Responsibility for this along with the long-lasting brand damage to @VailResorts lies with their CEO Kirsten Lynch for putting her ego before the safety and experience of guests and her fiduciary duty to her shareholders.

Day 5 update on @VailResorts Park City ski patrol strike. Here's a synopsis of what's happened for those impacted by nearly 90% of Park City being shut down the past 5 days and wondering what's going on: - Park City ski patrol has been asking for a base pay increase from $21/hr to $24/hr for several months (neighboring Powder is $26/hr and Deer Valley is $24/hr). This also hasn't increased in x3 seasons so their ask is well below inflation. - Vail Resorts (VR) and @PCski leadership refused to budge and let them go on strike beginning Saturday 12/28. VR also preemptively flew in ski patrol leadership from many of their other resorts (impacting their holiday and family plans as well as safety at those other locations) which they thought would mitigate any operational impact. - The result for the thousands of guests visiting Park City for the holidays has been horrendous. Guests have and are still experiencing hour+ long wait lines, runs dangerously overcrowded resulting in guests being hit by other skiiers, guests are waiting longer than usual for Ski Patrol when injured (the days I was up there I didn't see a single Ski Patroller on the mountain), and over 80% of the mountain is still closed due to avalanche concerns (because the experienced Ski Patrollers who know how to mitigate for it are still on strike). - VR lied to customers for the first x3 days, citing that wind and snow were the reasons runs were closed and lines were long, until they finally released a video admitting that it was due to the ski patrol strike and told us they were going to re-enter negotiations and come to a resolution. - Last night, PC Ski Patrol notified us that Vail Resorts still has refused to grant them the concessions they asked for, they have allowed the strike to continue, and conditions are still terrible today. - Finally, the attached letter from the Breckenridge Ski Patrol Union revealed that Vail Resorts has also been compromising the safety of guests at other VR resorts and pressuring other employees from those resorts to act as leverage against their fellow ski patrollers in Park City. @VailResorts did a great job for many years popularizing skiing and making it more accessible. And this generation of leadership, specifically, their CEO Kirsten Lynch, is undoing over a decade of good will by making the conscious decision this past week to punish their customers in order to send a message to their employees. They've compromised the safety and ruined the vacations of thousands of guests because they're more focused on minimizing costs than they are in ensuring that their customers have a beautiful and safe experience during the vacations they invested thousands of dollars in to enjoy over the holidays. This entire situation was avoidable and could have been resolved immediately at any point in time, but VR leadership chose and continues to choose to subsidize their customer experience in order to minimize their costs. Kirsten Lynch's responsibility is to maximize the value of $MTN stock for shareholders. How does stealing time and money from thousands of guests, putting guest safety at risk, and causing irreparable harm the Vail Resorts brand maximize shareholder value? @VailResorts board should hold Kirsten, Deirdra Walsh (VP & COO of Park City), and Bill Rock (President of VR Mountain Division) accountable for putting cost-cutting and their personal egos ahead of customer safety and experience. My hope is that VR and Park City leadership humbly admits they were wrong and stops putting Park City guests safety at risk, ends the strike so the Park City ski patrol can get back to work, and opens up the mountain. @UtahStateParks @ParkCityGovt @PCMtnAlert @NSAA_org @usfs_r4 @ParkCitySki @tanyaachar @KSKInvestors @MariahXHoard @mirandastacy @sbmgreer @RobBradUVA @thomas_scott__ @LiberalLeopard @ZcryptA @lyfeblock @dhowell @trevorcall1 @crypto_chik01 @SoFloExecutive @munves @bmullahy2news @michael_riley @liftblog @TownLiftNews @KPCWRadio @skimagonline @sundancefest @p_malatesta @zak_podmore @SoFloExecutive @sustainbytrain @iz_aries @NShrubs @iwasid @stgoldst @ZachWritesStuff @jfberke @ByGerrySullivan @ChossUSA

@SeanReyesUT you and your team should look into this. @VailResorts stalled negotiations with the Park City ski patrol and allowed them to strike going into one of the busiest weeks of the year, resulting in only 13% of the mountain being open as of Monday 12/30 and creating extremely dangerous conditions for Park City guests. They punished their customers in order to send a message to their employees and ruined thousands of vacations for tourists and holiday weekends for Utah residents while simultaneously putting guests in danger due to a lack of ski patrol personnel, overcrowded runs, and unmitigated avalanche danger.

100%. @VailResorts did a great job for many years popularizing skiing and making it more accessible. And this generation of leadership is undoing over a decade of good will by using their guests safety and vacations to punish their employees. Unless they course correct soon this will have longstanding consequences to #MTN shareholder value and Bill Rock, President of the Mountain Division at Vail Resorts and Dierdra Walsh, Vice President and COO of Park City should be held accountable by the board for their colossal and tone deaf mismanagement of this debacle.

Ski Patrol hasn’t had a raise in x3 seasons while inflation has been 20%+ in that same timespan. At the end of the day, @VailResorts is the party here with an obligation to their customers (ie the guests who invested thousands of dollars to vacation at Park City) to deliver on their experience and to do so whatever the cost. Vail Resorts leadership made a conscious decision to subsidize the experience and safety of their customers and the fact that this negotiation led to a strike is 100% their responsibility.

Day 3 update on @VailResorts Park City ski patrol strike. Virtually all of Canyons is closed after getting another 8” of fresh snow tonight due to lack of ski patrol coverage. Serious safety concerns; we didn’t see a single ski patroller while we were on mountain Saturday, the few lifts that are open are understaffed, and the ski patrol vets who know where and how to run avalanche control are on strike so, even if they were open (which ~90% of the mountain isn’t), any runs with decent snow have significant avalanche risk. Intended to ski x3 days on this trip. Ending trip a day early on what should be a powder day because most of the mountain is closed. The fact that Vail Resorts made a conscious decision to play hardball with the ski patrollers at the expense of the thousands of guests who put their trust in Park City and Vail Resorts to create a beautiful experience for their vacations, and at the cost of compromising their safety, says a lot to me about the values of Vail Resorts’ leadership. If anyone gets hurt this week on Park City Mountain, Vail Resorts should be held liable for any and all damages because the entire resort is a complete safety hazard at this point. Specifically, Bill Rock, President of the Mountain Division at Vail Resorts and Dierdra Walsh, Vice President and COO of Park City should be held at fault for their ridiculous mismanagement of the situation. Also, getting gaslit by their social media team who keeps blaming “winds and snowfall” for the situation only adds insult to injury for customers like myself who will be switching over to Ikon next year after what will go down as my worst experience at a ski resort in 23 years. @UtahStateParks @ParkCityGovt @PCMtnAlert @NSAA_org @usfs_r4 @ParkCitySki please look into the safety situation at Park City before more people get hurt. @tanyaachar @KSKInvestors @MariahXHoard @mirandastacy @sbmgreer @RobBradUVA @thomas_scott__ @LiberalLeopard @ZcryptA @lyfeblock @dhowell @trevorcall1 @crypto_chik01 @SoFloExecutive @munves @bmullahy2news @michael_riley @liftblog @TownLiftNews @KPCWRadio @skimagonline @sundancefest

Day 2 update on @VailResorts Park City ski patrol strike. It’s the 2nd day of less than 20% of the resort being open. It’s also super dangerous because all the ski patrol veterans who know how to clear for avalanches are gone so even if they do open more runs, it’s high risk for any advanced skiing. I’m all for capitalism; what I don’t appreciate is Vail Resorts’ willingness to ruin thousands of customers’ ski vacations for the sake of not giving their Ski Patrol a raise that matches the wages of other resorts in the area like @Snowbird. In case anyone on Vail Resorts’ social media or PR team reads this (which seems doubtful since I haven’t seen them respond to my or anyone else’s social media posts and they turned off replies on their Instagram stories) here’s my some feedback for you: 1) my friends who are lifetime Epic customers tried @BrightonResort today for the first time because Park City’s barely 20% open and they’re all looking at switching to @IkonPass next year. 2) I had switched back to Epic over Ikon as my sole pass for the first time in 5 years. The haphazard and tone deaf mishandling of this situation by Vail Resorts makes it extremely unlikely I’ll be buying an Epic next year. I would invite Vail corporate to stop letting their finance team yank around Ski Patrol and customers so they stop losing even more customers than they already have. @bmullahy2news @michael_riley @crypto_chik01 @munves @liftblog @TownLiftNews @KPCWRadio @skimagonline @MdBreathe @sundancefest

"If you want to make a society work...then you underscore your shared humanity" #Tribe

The beauty and the tragedy of the modern world is that it eliminates many situations that require people to demonstrate a commitment to the collective good #tribe

If a habit remains mindless, you can’t expect to improve it #atomichabits

The most practical way to change who you are is to change what you do #atomichabits @JamesClear