Colorado's Telluride Ski Resort will close indefinitely Dec. 27 in concert with the planned start of a ski patrollers strike.
The Telluride Professional Ski Patrol Association (TPSPA) authorized the work stoppage on Dec. 23 with a 99% vote in favor. The ski area's private owner, Telski, responded the following evening with a decision to close the mountain rather than attempt to operate during the strike.
"Currently, we have no idea how long their strike will last, so we will continue to work on a plan that allows us to safely open again as soon as possible," Telski said.
Telluride said it will refund all advance lift ticket and ski school purchases as well as provide a pro-rated refund on its annual pass. Telluride is also on the Vail Resorts' Epic Pass.
Destination marketing organization Visit Telluride issued a statement encouraging travelers to move ahead with their planned visits.
"We understand that your vacation experience may look different than originally planned. However, the warmth of our community and the spirit of Telluride remain unchanged," the DMO said. It highlighted activities such as snowmobiling, Nordic skiing, snowshoeing, ice skating and heli-skiing.
The ski patrollers union and Telski have been in labor talks for months. The union says the three-year value difference in its most recent contract proposal and the Telski proposal is just $65,000.
"The union has proposed many solutions to spread the cost of this proposal over the life of the contract and proposed several ways to reach the wage structure we believe will address the attraction and retention problems this patrol continues to face," the union said in an Instagram post.
Telski says it has offered patrollers an immediate wage increase of 13% and guaranteed minimum cost-of-living increases of 5% in the coming two years. Entry-level wages would increase to an average of $24.06 per hour, with station leads averaging $39.84 per hour.
"This offer provided our ski patrol with industry-leading, livable and sustainable wages," Telski said.
The TPSPA strike will begin exactly a year after the start of the highly publicized and largely successful strike by patrollers at the Park City Mountain Resort, the U.S.'s largest ski area. Park City is owned by Vail Resorts.
The ski area remained open during that 13-day strike, but holiday vacationers were frustrated by long lift lines and limited open terrain.
Ski patrollers have increasingly unionized in recent years under the United Mountain Workers, which is part of the larger Communication Workers of America Union.
Most recently, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort patrollers unionized in November.