{"id":14211,"date":"2025-12-30T05:15:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T12:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/telluride-ski-resort-remains-closed-as-ski-patrollers-continue-wage-strike\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:33:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:33:07","slug":"telluride-ski-resort-remains-closed-as-ski-patrollers-continue-wage-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/telluride-ski-resort-remains-closed-as-ski-patrollers-continue-wage-strike\/","title":{"rendered":"Telluride Ski Resort remains closed as ski patrollers continue wage strike"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A skier heads down a run at Telluride Ski Resort. (Courtesy Telluride Ski Resort)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

One of the busiest weeks of the ski season has gone quiet at Telluride Ski Resort, where empty slopes and idle lifts mark the third day of a ski patroller strike.<\/p>\n

The walkout began Saturday after months of negotiations between the resort and the Telluride Professional Ski Patrol Association failed to produce a new contract that satisfied the needs of both parties.<\/p>\n

Katherine Devlin, an advanced patroller and vice president of the local union, said she believes her colleagues deserve the increase in pay and benefits they\u2019re asking for, as they handle far more than routine mountain safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are not just ski bums. Duties range from basic safety, like setting up bamboo and ropes, to responding to medical incidents to avalanche control work in the alpine terrain,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are not easily replaceable. These people basically have PhDs in skiing. They\u2019ve devoted their lives to this career.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the center of the dispute is pay. Devlin said confusion around the numbers has circulated publicly, but the union is seeking an across-the-board increase of about 20%.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve offered us about 13%, and their numbers haven\u2019t changed in three weeks. I understand 20% sounds like a lot, but these wages have been compressed for decades,\u201d she said. \u201cFor instance, I\u2019m a sixth-year patroller, and I make $25 an hour.\u201d<\/p>\n

With negotiations stalled, Devlin said the union has reduced its demands, including dropping requests related to health care and gear allowances. But the resort\u2019s offer has not changed in weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make a deal, we want to get back to work,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve come down on our demands by about $200,000, but they haven\u2019t come up in their offer by even a dollar.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to MIT\u2019s cost of living calculator, assuming a 40-hour workweek, that hourly wage puts Devlin below the amount needed for a living wage in San Miguel County by more than $2,000 annually. That\u2019s due in part to Telluride\u2019s high-cost housing market. Trainees and rookies are making even less, with hourly wages starting at $21.50 an hour.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d say you\u2019re pretty lucky if you get a room for $1,500 a month. And that\u2019s just for a room in a shared house,\u201d Devlin said.<\/p>\n

The low wages, she said, are driving experienced patrollers away \u2013 a trend she says threatens safety on the mountain.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe result is that both people with 10 to 15 years of experience, who are ready to start families and can\u2019t afford to do it here, and rookies, whose starting salaries are too low to survive, are both leaving. That means we\u2019re putting younger and less experienced patrollers in dangerous positions,\u201d Devlin said. \u201cIt directly correlates to the safety of the mountain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many patrollers rely on side jobs to make ends meet, often working in the restaurant or construction industries to supplement their income. Devlin says that means many patrollers are cutting back their hours to part-time and creating a gap in available workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really love what we do, and that\u2019s kind of weaponized against us,\u201d Devlin said.<\/p>\n

This is not the first time patrollers have gone head-to-head with resorts in Colorado. Last year, Keystone patrollers also demanded a wage increase from parent company Vail Resorts after employees at a sister resort went on strike.<\/p>\n

The resort has said it will remain closed indefinitely and warned that trespassers on the mountain will be prosecuted.<\/p>\n

CPR News reached out to Telluride Ski Resort for comment but had not heard back by the time of publication.<\/p>\n

To read more stories from Colorado Public Radio, visit www.cpr.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Patrollers want a 20% increase due to housing costs and affordability<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[378,1604,1605,1606,1255,28,97,994],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-14211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-alpine-skiing","tag-contract-issue-wages","tag-employee","tag-employer","tag-employment","tag-headlines","tag-telluride","tag-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14211"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19387,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14211\/revisions\/19387"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14211"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=14211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}