Hardline Tactics – Park Record

Nobody wants a strike. Patrol officers love their job, their community and take the safety and well-being of the ski public extremely seriously. We are first responders, we like to help, we run towards danger and never escape.

While I’m disappointed that Vail Resorts is once again using the stonewalling and stalling tactics to get the patrol to this point, it doesn’t surprise me. The ego and arrogance that can wear them down and break the solidarity of this patrol is astounding.

And once again I crawl from the bleachers to express my full support to the Park City Mountain Patrol and to ask the greater Park City community to do the same.

I helped found the Canyons Professional Ski Patrol Association and negotiated several contracts on both sides of the table. I understand a few things about this process and know that this situation could have been avoided if Vail Resorts had agreed to arbitration months ago when the union suggested it. Instead, we enter the holidays with an uncomfortable uncertainty that impacts the entire community. Even a short business interruption has far-reaching effects

While I have trust and respect for most of the patrol leaders at Park City Mountain, they are a head with no arms or legs. The best leader in the world cannot accomplish his mission without the team, the body and the effort. The expertise and institutional knowledge. An innate understanding of the complexities of daily operations at this massive resort.

When I was a patrol leader, it took an entire season or more for an experienced new employee to fully understand the operation and demonstrate the value of their experience. Bringing in outside patrol officers and harboring any arrogance that the resort can operate anywhere near normal or maintain levels of safety and competence is ludicrous at best.

When it snows? Changing routes and opening up will be a herculean task and will expose these replacements to unnecessary damage. The Park City ridge has proven time and time again that it is an avalanche problem that should not be treated lightly.

When I started patrolling ParkWest in 1992, I was paid $4.85 an hour. We received no overtime pay, no benefits, and had little control. The patrol ran over the mountain and times were fun. I was also able to pay rent, live in Red Pine Condos, and afford groceries without stress.

Fast forward to 2024: Housing costs in Park City are 268% higher than the national average. The cost of living is 66% above average. The rent for the apartment I once lived in was ten times what it was when I was there, but the wage increases are closer to a factor of four.

Corporate greed created this problem, and now workers are fighting back. If you love your job and have a good quality of life, don’t pay the rent. At a time when ski companies are making record profits, sitting on hundreds of millions in cash and constantly looking for more, it is unreasonable to expect skilled miners to settle for less than the cost of living.

A starting wage of $23 an hour is still ridiculous to me. You deserve far more. Ski patrol is the best, worst and hardest job I’ve ever had. It has given me my best friends, a wonderful community and great memories. It cost me my soul, paid for with thankless work, the blood and tears of my colleagues and guests.

When my role as an expert witness expired, I was tossed aside like another piece of broken bamboo. Vail Resorts is about profits over people, while patrol officers are always about people.

Jake Hutchinson

Gunnison, Colo

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