“Don’t make us hate Vail Resorts for owning something we love and cherish.” That’s the last sentence I wrote in my email to Vail Resorts following a week of skiing at Park City over the holidays that was marred by dangerous conditions due to the Company’s labor dispute with the resort’s ski patrol.

It’s safe to say that Vail has a…mixed reputation—to put it mildly—among skiers. A lot of this boils down to the feeling that Vail is focused on wringing every dollar out of visitors without much consideration for the guest experience. For an activity where vibes have outsized importance, it’s all about the bottom line with Vail.

When it comes to specifics, people are often griping about the wait times at ski lifts, the cost of lift tickets, outrageous concession prices, or mayhem in parking lots, among other grievances. Others lament that the corporate spirit infiltrated their favorite ski area once Vail took over, that the mountain now has 5 times the visitors it used to, and how resort workers are getting pinched more and more each year. But the Patrol Strike was something different altogether. This was dangerous.

Due to the Patrol Strike, Park City was only able to open ~20-25% of their terrain over the holidays. But the amount of skiers slamming the resort didn’t subside much, since many skiers buy season pass products and/or had already reserved flights and accommodations. The result was that expert skiers, first timers, and everyone in between packed onto the same few trails instead of spreading out over the extremely large resort. I saw more collisions between skiers than I ever have in my life.

The Company argued that limited snowfall was a key factor creating the difficult circumstances, and while that’s true to some extent, it’s also dishonest. Snowfall at Park City this season got off to a slow start all the way through Christmas Day, but thankfully over 2.5 feet fell between Friday December 27th and Tuesday December 31st. That dump took the season snowfall vs. average from 45% to 75%.

The most damning evidence that snowfall wasn’t primarily responsible for the terrain closures is that other ski areas nearby opened 40-57% of their terrain with similar conditions.

No one was making similar complaints about these ski areas.

Vail barely acknowledged the disruption in the early days of the strike, but the debacle entered the national headlines and made a skiing story into something much bigger.

In case anyone needed more proof that something went very wrong, Vail is possibly getting sued by its consumers and stockholders as a result of the whole fiasco.

On January 16th, Vail emailed guests and announced that they’re going to issue credits to anyone who skied at Park City during the strike. While this is welcome, it’s also tone deaf, insufficient, and self-serving.

The Company continues to rely on the fact that the mountain was open over the holidays as a justification for the deeply-flawed terms and conditions regarding the credits, despite the obvious displeasure with that same experience. Possibly the worst aspect of these credits is that they can only be used towards a 2025-2026 pass product. In other words, “spend more money with us, and come see what lovely surprises we have in store for you next year!”

The Company isn’t offering compensation for lessons or rentals, which doesn’t make any sense, as any visitor who purchased those FROM VAIL RESORTS also didn’t receive their full value. Finally, the logic on their FAQ page is internally inconsistent and is driving me nuts.

I love skiing. If you’re reading this, you probably love skiing too. We’re not going to stop skiing because of one bad experience, or because someone is making money off of us doing something we love. But this whole situation feels like rooting for a pro sports team with a bad owner. Look no further than crazy expensive concessions and parking prices. Like rooting for your favorite teams, people are going to keep skiing despite who the owner is and how they treat something important to them. But the difference here is that the loyalty is to the sport, not a team, a specific ski area, or a specific pass product.

Don’t make us hate you for owning something we love.