It’s always a bummer when your vacation doesn’t go as planned. Still, a spoiled trip isn’t often cause for legal action. But for Christopher Bisaillon, a guest at Park City Mountain Resort in Utah over the holidays—where operations were disrupted as a result of the ski patrol union strike—the distance was just too great between the vacation he’d planned and the experience he had.

According to Bisaillon’s class action filed by the Jackson, Wyoming-based Spence Law Firm against Park City’s parent company, Vail Resorts, Inc.: “Plaintiff spent in excess of $15,000 for his family of five to have Vail Resort’s publicized ‘ski experience of a lifetime’ over the holidays. It turned out to be a colossal disaster with the family only being able to ski less than ten runs over the duration of their week-long, Christmas family vacation.”

The suit doesn’t just apply to Bisaillon. It also includes everyone who bought lift tickets between December 27, 2024, and January 7, 2025, and asks for damages of an undetermined amount that would likely exceed $5 million. The suit alleges that Vail Resorts failed to adequately notify guests of the strike’s impact, and says the company also failed to deliver on the advertised value of the lift tickets Bisaillon and others purchased.

Ski vacations come with a notoriously steep price tag, and Park City is no exception. Over the holidays, a single-day adult lift ticket cost $289, according to the court filing. Including travel, lodging, equipment rentals, dining, and lift tickets, the lawsuit estimates that a family can spend between $10,000 and $20,000 for a week-long trip.

Bisaillon, who is based in Illinois, arrived with his family at Park City Mountain Resort on December 28, 2024, one day after the ski patrol union of their locker room to form a picket line. The family planned to ski for the week, but were confounded by hours-long lift lines and little open terrain. The lawsuit alleges just 16 percent of the mountain was accessible.

An NBC News that aired on January 6 said that only 25 of the resort’s 41 lifts were operating. In the same segment, which is also quoted in the lawsuit, another skier named Peter Nystrom tells NBC, “You kind of had to laugh about it. Like, we’re here in one of the best mountains in the country, waiting three hours in line.”

The strike was the latest development in a years-long negotiation between the patroller’s union and corporate leadership, with the patrollers asking for higher wages and better working conditions. On December 14, 2024, the patrollers’ union voted to authorize a strike, and on December 16 informed the National Labor Relations Board that they felt Vail Resorts was negotiating in bad faith.

Vail Resorts said the same of the union’s conduct, with Park City’s vice president Dierdre Walsh telling the Salt Lake Tribune on December 16 that they were “deeply disappointed” union leaders “refus[ed] to negotiate in good faith or discuss mediation.”

The suit claims that Vail Resorts could reasonably have been expected to know a strike was imminent and warn guests of that possibility in advance on December 16. Instead, many guests—like Bisaillon—arrived at the resort without knowledge of the impending strike.

The patroller negotiations, and the possible walkout, were covered in local and national media outlets at the time. However, the suit says that Bisaillon and other guests weren’t alerted by Vail Resorts. It also alleges that the Park City resort’s website, where guests can buy lift tickets in advance of their visit, didn’t post an update referencing the strike’s impact on visitor experience until January 4, a week after the strike began.

Vail Resorts declined to comment to șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű about the lawsuit for this article, and Spence Law Firm did not respond to requests for comment before publication.

“It’s business, it’s complicated. […] But at the end of the day, no visitor cares about that,”Ìę New Yorker Greg Moonves told a Utah NPR , KPCW, on December 30. He was visiting Park City with his family for a five-day ski trip. “We spent a lot of money to come here, as did everyone else, to have a good time skiing with our families. And at the end of the day, they’re not providing the product that they claim they’re providing.”

If a Utah judge determines that the suit fits the parameters for a class action lawsuit, it will continue through the state legal system. Vail Resorts will have the opportunity to settle with the plaintiffs outside of court, or the two parties can proceed to a trial.

Meanwhile, the strike ended on January 7, when the patrol union and Vail announced that they had reached a tentative agreement that “addresses both party’s interests.” One official that the benefits secured by the union, including increased base pay, might be extended to unionized patrollers at other Vail locations.

And on Thursday, January 16, Vail Resorts that they will offer everyone who skied and snowboarded at Park City during the ski patrol strike credit towards passes for the 2025/26 season, the exact amount of which would depend on how many days they had skied.

“We deeply value the trust and loyalty of our guests, and while Park City Mountain was open during the patrol strike, it was not the experience we wanted to provide,” Vail Resort’s COO Dierdra Walsh wrote in a statement. “We are committed to rebuilding the trust and loyalty of our guests by delivering an exceptional experience at Park City Mountain this season and in the future.”

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UPDATE: Late on January 7, Park City Mountain Resort and the Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association announced that they reached a tentative agreement for a contract that will extend through April 2027. “The tentative agreement addresses both parties’ interests and will end the current strike,” reads a joint statement from both parties. “Everyone looks forward to restoring normal resort operations and moving forward together as one team.” șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű will continue to provide ongoing coverage of this story.

Labor negotiations continued on Tuesday between Vail Resorts and the union representing ski patrollers at Utah’s Park City Mountain Resort, owned by Vail Resorts. This is the second day of negotiations this week amid an . Around 200 Park City ski patrollers walked out of their locker room on December 27, during the resort’s peak holiday season, to form a picket line in their fight for higher wages and better working conditions.

“Negotiations have been dynamic and fluid, with things changing rapidly,” says Teddy Zerivitz, who’s on the executive board for Park City Mountain Resort’s ski patrol union. “We’re hopeful that we’ll be able to reach an agreement as soon as possible. We love our jobs, and we want to be back out there. Once we have a fair contract, our skis are in our cars and we’re ready to get back to work.”

Since last April, the Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association, the labor organization representing ski patrollers at Park City Mountain Resort, has been asking the ski area’s parent company, Vail Resorts, for an increase from $21 to $23 an hour for new patrollers and higher compensation for more experienced patrollers, as well as enhanced benefits and educational opportunities. (Veteran patrollers currently earn 35 percent more than entry-level patrol, according to Vail Resorts.)

Vail Resorts agreed to 24 of the 27 contract items the union requested, but negotiations stalled. The patrol union filed complaints with the National Labor Relations Board, citing that Vail Resorts refused to bargain and engaged in coercive behavior. During the strike, the patrol union has urged locals and visitors not to spend money at Vail-owned properties. As of last week, shares of Vail Resorts, Inc. fell by 6 percent. A has raised over $260,000 to support the ski patrollers.

In a written on January 6 by Park City Mountain Resort Chief Operating Officer Deirdra Walsh, she wrote, “First, please know; we care deeply about the work of our ski patrol; we have invested a lot in them and will continue to. Second, they are asking for much more than $2/hour [more]. In fact, on the day they went on strike, their demands equaled $7/hour more. Finally, you should know that we have come to the table with compelling offers.”

Over the holidays, the strike significantly impacted operations during one of Park City’s busiest weeks of the year. Typically, Park City Mountain Resort operates with around 100 ski patrollers working on any given day; currently, they’re managing with what one patroller estimated to be around 30 or 35 patrollers. Guests waited in long lift lines and skied crowded runs due to limited terrain.

“Park City or Vail Corporation didn’t notify any of us or any customers who had reservations that they were in negotiations,” says John Fuqua, a Park City local who recently moved with his family from Jackson Hole and works at a local hotel restaurant. “People spend tens of thousands of dollars to come here, and it ruined a lot of vacations.Ìę The lifts didn’t open until 10 or 11, and we sat in line for hours. This year has been different from past years and we’ll probably ski elsewhere next year.”

Currently, 26 of the resort’s 41 lifts are operating, and about a third of the mountain’s 350 trails are open. that the reduced terrain was due to lower-than-average snowfall and the patrol strike. This week, the mountain opened an additional 51 trails.

“I know the experience at the mountain over the peak holiday period was frustrating for our skiers and riders,” Walsh wrote. “This was not the holiday skiing and riding experience anyone wanted, and we know that. But what we are doing is opening the terrain we can safely open with the people we have each day during the strike.”

Throughout the strike, Vail Resorts has recruited ski patrollers from other Vail Resorts properties to replace the workers on strike. A ski patroller from another Vail-owned mountain told SKI that that has impacted patrol dynamics at their mountain: “We’re still opening all the terrain we can and operating with a full staff, but some of our supervisors have been called away to help at another mountain, which adds work for the rest of the team,” said the patroller, who asked not to be named.

Vail Resorts says that operations haven’t been impacted elsewhere. “We haven’t had any operational impacts at our other resorts related to the Patrol Support Team,” Sara Huey, a spokesperson for Vail Resorts, told SKI. “It’s been business as usual, and our other resorts have had great holiday seasons.”

On December 31, four ski patrol unions from Vail Resorts properties—including Breckenridge, Crested Butte, Keystone, and Park City— addressed to Vail Resorts CEO Kirsten Lynch that cited: “Through the company’s tactics of pressuring coercing, and intimidating skilled patrol leaders to travel to Park City to join the ‘Patrol Support Team,’ you caused irreparable harm to both your patrol labor force and patrol management across all affected resorts. By removing local leadership from their resorts without notice, you failed to provide these patrols proper leadership at the height of the busiest time of the year.”

The letter added that a lack of local leadership has a “huge negative effect on morale, how our teams effectively manage risk for ourselves in the field, and keep a safe experience for the guests that visit our resorts.”

Though more ski patrols have unionized in recent years, no ski resort has seen a strike like this in decades. The United Mountain Workers, a union that first organized in 2003, now represents some 1,100 ski and bike patrollers, lift mechanics, and other resort staff from ski areas, including Park City, Big Sky, Loveland, Stevens Pass, and Steamboat. The union has more than doubled in size over the last six years. This week, Colorado’s Arapahoe Basin ski patrol will vote to decide on becoming part of the union.

As negotiations continue, the outcome of the Park City ski patrol strike could have ripple effects across the ski industry, influencing labor relations at resorts nationwide. For now, with busy holiday weekends like Martin Luther King Jr. Day on the horizon, Park City skiers must navigate reduced terrain and longer lines while the patrollers remain steadfast in their fight.

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It’s not a word you know, but a spirit you can feel when you’re surrounded by people who feel the passion for the mountains that you do. is the intangible force that fuels action outdoors and sustains the wild scene discovered. It’s an attitude shared—a friendly hello to fellow hikers and a deeper respect for the culture and landscape that bind art, music, and refreshing fare with the driven community łÙłóČčłÙ’s committed to this special kind of town. Tap into this mountain magic and translate your passion for the outdoors into a kinder, bolder, more rewarding experience.

Explore DifferentlyÌę

Stewardship of both place and experience is an essential part of mountainkind living, which is why Park City is laid out with to move between town and the outdoors. Explore car-free with lodging options situated right next to slopes or within walking distance of historic Main Street, plus an extensive free transportation system that serves even far-flung trails.

Cozy Quarters
Make the most of time on the mountain with slope-side resorts like the rustic and elegant at , or , where luxury meets heritage. In town, try the Washington School House, a boutique historic hotel, or stay near Main Street at .

Ready Resorts
Park City is already known for being home to , consistently voted the best ski resort in the country. It’s also home to the biggest ski resort in the United States, since encompasses more than 7,000 acres, 300 trails and 40 lifts. offers a different take on adventure with lift-accessed skiing, snowboarding, and tubing in winter and year-round indoor and outdoor facilities for mountain biking, BMX, scooters, skateboarding, trampolines, and parkour.

Abundant Transportation Options
Take to Deer Valley and Park City Mountain resorts. Or try to shuttle up to the trail network. șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű farther with , which offers free micro and bus transit throughout Summit and Wasatch counties. All are free and set up to transport skis, snowboards, and bikes. Or ditch the engine completely and wander the extensive lacework of walking and biking paved and natural paths, tied together by the electric fleet, open from late spring to fall.

Play Responsibly

With hundreds of miles of trails, two , plus accessible rivers and reservoirs below the spine of the Wasatch mountain range, Park City is overflowing with . Find solitude on nordic skiing trails, sharing space with elk and moose. (Remember to give them plenty of room.) Better yet, spot wildlife from a respectable distance in the nearby . When the snow melts, hikeÌę straight from the Deer Valley parking lots for incredible 360-degree alpine and lake views.

Backcountry Bliss
Travel a vast winter wilderness of legendary Wasatch powder on a ski or splitboard tour. Those seeking to escape the crowds and ski untouched snow can hire a ski guide through to find the best powder.

Wheeled Ways
With more than 400 miles of trails spanning cross-country to lift-serviced downhill, Park City is a mountain biker’s dream. And that doesn’t stop when the snow flies. Hop on a fat bike with for a guided exploration of an extensive network of winter-groomed trails.

Wellness Wins
Refresh both body and mind at one of Park City’s diverse offerings of yoga studios. Pair yoga with other wellness services, including a float tank, infrared sauna, and cryotherapy, at . Warm up with a hot class at . Or try standup paddleboard yoga in a natural hot spring crater with .

Enjoy Local CultureÌę

Park City is home to a rich mountain culture, from its Olympic history as a host to the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics (and the upcoming ) to museums, art, and world-class theaters. Go deeper with local artists on a gallery stroll down Main Street and at the (from late spring through early fall), or immerse yourself in one of the town’s storied annual events that keep Park City festive all year long.

Elevated Events
Experience one of the town’s most popular traditions with Park City Mountain’s annual , where ski and snowboard instructors carve down the mountain carrying torches to illuminate the slopes on Christmas Eve. Ring in 2025 with New Year’s Eve celebrations featuring live music, art, and fireworks all over town. Take in award-winning films at the heralded , January 23–February 2. Then watch elite athletes speed through moguls and catch big air at the , February 6–8.

Attuned Tastes
Duck into —the world’s only ski-in distillery—to celebrate Park City’s whiskey heritage with a cocktail. Dine with locals at , , or any number of locally owned and mountain-inspired restaurants in town. Add a soundtrack to your visit with local music at , , or any saloon with tunes floating out the front door.

Olympic Legacy
Explore the Olympic spirit at Utah Olympic Park. Catch a , where Olympic and national team skiers and snowboarders perform acrobatic feats 60 feet in the air to music and fireworks. Then, take a bobsled ride down the same track used in the 2002 Winter Olympics.

At the Park City Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau, “mountainkind” is how we describe the feelings and actions that make us stewards of the mountains we call home. A word that not only gives a name to a community of people, but also describes our culture, values, and approach to living in the mountains:

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You like to travel but you love history. Why not combine the two? We’ve rounded up unique, off-the-radar destinations, both within the U.S. and abroad, that will appeal to history buffs who want to take a more active approach to discovery. Would you ski to a silver mine, or scuba dive to a shipwreck? Or how about walk the length of a half marathon to visit literary sites? From geologic to architectural history, we’ve got some great ideas for getaways that will spark your thirst for knowledge and satiate your adventurous spirit.

If You’re Eager to Explore Old Shipwrecks

Hamilton, Bermuda

Named after Spanish explorer Juan de BermĂșdez, this archipelago was colonized by pirates and its waters are home to more than 300 shipwrecks. Book an underwater excursion with one of the three outposts of to scuba dive or snorkel among various wreckage sites. The capital city of Hamilton boasts the oldest church in the New World and the oldest parliament in the British Commonwealth. Take a self-guided for a few hours of outdoor exploration, including a quad workout up to the tower of the Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity, which dates back to 1905. Stay at the Hamilton Princess Hotel and Beach Club, a convenient base for all points on the island.

If You’re into Architecture

MazatlĂĄn, Mexico

You should also pack your best road-running shoes for long strolls around this historic city center, famous for Neoclassical and French Baroque architecture, colorful houses, and charming old churches. Catch a play at the newly restored Angela Peralta Theater, which first opened in 1874, and walk through the stunning cathedral of Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. Mazatlán’s 12 miles of beaches are also a main attraction, and those in the know climb the series of steep switchbacks (followed by more than 300 paved steps) to the top of Cerro Creston, mostly for the incredible 360-degree views but also to check out El Faro (the lighthouse), built in 1890. To round out your time here, stay at the nine-room , a midcentury property decorated with quirky antiques and designed with a pool overlooking the Pacific.

If You Want to Ski to Silver-Rush Sites

Park City, Utah

At Park City Mountain Resort, you can learn about the mountain town’s silver-mining past on a to historic mining structures. Post-slopes, hop a free city bus to the Park City Museum, whose exhibits and special lectures bring the stories of early settlers and prospecters to life. Come dusk, takes groups to the streets with animated tales of local murder and intrigue. Listed on the National Historic Register and built just five years after Park City was incorporated in 1884, the is now a lavish 12-room hotel popular with VIPs at the annual Sundance Festival. If łÙłóČčłÙ’s too pricey, consider downtown’s Blue Church Lodge, a seven-condo vacation-rental complex in what was Park City’s first Mormon church, also listed on the National Historic Register.

If You’re Captivated by the Geologic Complexity of the West

Gateway, Colorado

In the high desert of western Colorado, you can search for preserved dinosaur tracks, take guided hikes through 300-million-year-old red-rock canyons, and enjoy 26 miles of beginner-to-intermediate just outside this small town. Stay in a lodge room or a casita at the , where you can sign up for an excursion to Dolores River Canyon to study Native rock art, sit in on a lecture about how ancient astronomy was used by the Ancestral Puebloans, and spend a few hours climbing or bouldering the granite walls of Unaweep Canyon.

If You’re Fascinated by the Timeline of Women’s Rights

Rochester, New York

A little more than 100 years ago, women were given the right to vote across the U.S. Rochester hosted several early women’s rights conventions and was home to the legendary suffragist Susan B. Anthony. Visit the National Susan B. Anthony Museum and House, where Anthony met with leaders of the civil rights movement and was arrested for voting illegally in 1872, then paddle the Genesee River, ride a bike along the Erie Canal, or enjoy a beer with a view of High Falls at the Genesee Brewhouse, which is also more than 100 years old. From there it’s just two miles to the Neighborhood of the Arts and the, at the center of stores and eateries.

If You’re an Oenology Buff Who Likes to Bike

Healdsburg, California

Sure, Northern California’s oenological history doesn’t date as far back as some other regions of the world, but its vineyards have a fascinating past nonetheless, one that started with prune farming in the 1920s and ended with winemaking. Stay at the 39-room , named after Healdsburg founder Harmon Heald, an Ohio businessman who left the mining industry for the agricultural bounty of these Sonoma County hills. The hotel has paired up with pro cyclist Peter Stetina to offer , and its sister property, , has a new “Wildflower Walks” package that gets guests outdoors for a scenic trail hike with a local health coach.ÌęIf floating is more your thing, book a guided paddle trip of the Russian River via kayak or SUP with (dogs are welcome along). Or spend your idle hours birding within the 155-acre Healdsburg Ridge Open Space Preserve, home to more than 40 species, including turkey vultures, buffleheads, and cedar waxwings.

If You Classic American Literature

Baltimore, Maryland

Many of our country’s literary greats once called Baltimore home, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, Frederick Douglass, and Edgar Allen Poe. Take a to see landmarks around the city referenced in historic books—you’ll log a respectable 12.4 miles—or stop into Edgar Allen Poe’s house or F. Scott Fitzgerald’s favorite bar, . Other worthy walkable attractions include the pedestrian-only brick Waterfront Promenade that stretches from Fort McHenry, past the Visionary Arts Museum’s sculpture garden, and around the Inner Harbor. , in the historic Mount Vernon neighborhood, opened in 2018 in a site that was once a private mansion.

Megan Michelson is an șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű contributing editor and a fan of historical nonfiction, art and science museums, and any spot listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

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Two Vail resorts are transforming their gondolas with custom-made art from two separate artists, each with a unique tie-in.

At Stowe, artwork will be taking over a handicap-accessible gondola, on the SkyRide line, and at Park City ’s diversity-inspired piece will wrap a cabin on the QuickSilver lift. Both artists were hand-selected by the Vail team for their artistic abilities and unique backgrounds that inspire such creativity.

For Harris, art has always been part of his life and a way to express himself. However, he noticed a “sharp distinction” in his creative process after a kiteskiing accident left him with a life-altering spine injury in 2014, causing paralysis. Now, as a walking paraplegic who finds himself frequently on skis, Harris has a strong commitment to helping others with disabilities enjoy time on snow.

“I feel passion involved with the adaptive sports scene at Stowe,” Harris explains. “Stowe has a strong adaptive ski and sports program, and even without having a previous history of visiting it’s really easy to feel some sort of kinship with a place that cares and has similar goals for accessibility.”

The handicap-accessible cabin on Stowe’s SkyRide gondola is wrapped with Harris’s signature landscape-based, topographic map-inspired artwork. The cabin is ADA-accessible and physically bigger to accommodate wheelchairs and necessary apparatus for skiing.

The inspiration for Harris’s piece “Creating Your Line” came after his first visit to Stowe last March. “My work is landscape-based, and I really like looking out at land and terrain. Pre-spine injury I was really good at reading maps and there’s almost this skill with looking at topographic maps
 [as an artist], I try to be faithful to what the terrain actually looks like and create optical illusions on paper so its a little bit less work than having to read a map.”

About 2,300 miles West of Harris’s topographic map splendor in Stowe, Lamont Joseph White is bringing his artistic lens of diversity to the slopes at Park City. As a fine artist, painter, and digital designer White has been working in the arts for 30 years. His artwork “brings something different” and he hopes when people see his work it will not only inspire a conversation but also bring joy.

In “Uplifted” White tries to encapsulate the idea of “feeling different in the mountains” through using people he knows to serve as models and amalgamations for his artwork. Raised in New York City, White didn’t have the traditional mountain upbringing like many of his now peers, and part of his artwork journey tells his story of feeling somewhat out of place in a contrasting environment.

“I want to bring something different to the mountain, something different than our traditional norms to mountain or snow sport spaces, it’s a place I’ve recreated in for close to 30 years and it is close to how I’ve felt to some degree, just different in the mountains than most of the people I saw there,” White said. “And I’m hoping that because I did explore that subject łÙłóČčłÙ’s why they [Vail] chose me for the project, to show something different than the norm.”

In total it took White about six months from project start to completion, adding that as a Park City resident, he wanted to see the wrapping in person, adding he is looking forward to seeing it with a snowy background.

Both Gondolas are in service at their respective resorts which plan to open for skiing quite soon. Park City has a scheduled opening date of Nov.17 and Stowe the following day on Nov.18. Both artists are also featured in the online gallery in a series of mini films

The Gondola Galery by Epic plans to unveil one more cabin in Spring 2024 at Whistler Blackcomb featuring artwork and collaboration from the .

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Park City Mountain lift mechanics and engineers have joined their ski patroller counterparts in unionizing, the first lift professionals in the United States to do so.

In a 35 to 6 vote conducted by the National Labor Relations Board, lift mechanics and electricians decided to collectively bargain with owners Vail Resorts under the newly formed Park City Lift Maintenance Professional Union. The union joins the United Professional Ski Patrols of America, Local 7781 of the Communications Workers of America (CWA

Park City Mountain ski patrollers made news last year after unionizing and negotiating for increased pay and better scheduling with the resort’s owner, Vail Resorts.

Park City Mountain lift mechanic and union organizer Liesl Jenkins said the move to unionize will result in more equitable pay and improve employee retention, resulting in better and safer service that will ultimately benefit the resort.

“We joke that Park City is the best lift maintenance training school in the country,” Jenkins said. “People would get excellent training here, but then move on to other ski resorts that pay better or have better schedules. This is a way to ensure that pay here is commensurate with other resorts and have people wanting to stay here, which results in better scheduling and safer conditions for everyone.”

Jenkins, who said she has been with Park City for a year and a half, said that individual attempts to negotiate with resort leadership were largely unsatisfactory.

“We do have some newer people who didn’t want to rock the boat and said they’d prefer to negotiate pay on their own, and the old-timers basically said ‘we can tell you how that goes,’ which wasn’t great,” she said. “It’s easy to ignore one person, but not an organized group.”

Jenkins said there are 17 electricians and mechanics on the Park City side of Park City Mountain and 24 on the Canyons side responsible for keeping all 43 lifts safely operating, adding that many lifts operate in the summer as well. She said these numbers are too low and that more help is needed to avoid employee burnout from long hours and covering shifts of those who call in.

Park City Mountain leadership said they would respect the decision to unionize.

“We believe a direct relationship with our team works best rather than through a third party, but we respect the decision of our teammates to choose,” Park City Mountain Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Deirdra Walsh said in a statement. “We’re committed to constant improvement of our employee experience, which includes our significant investment in employee wages and affordable housing for this season, among other steps.”

Negotiations are expected to begin in the next few weeks, Jenkins said.

Jenkins said that life operators from other ski resorts have contacted her about unionizing at their properties as well.

“We’re proud of our work and safety record, and believe that by unionizing we can further strengthen that,” she said. “We’re happy to help improve safety and professionalism throughout the industry.”

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Tommy Pozzi started washing dishes at a diner for seven bucks an hour when he was 13 or 14. Like most teenagers, he didn’t know what he wanted to do when he grew up. But both his parents worked the assembly line at the Buick factory in Flint, Michigan, and they told him and his younger sister not to do what they did. Don’t waste your life punching the clock at a job you hate, they said. Do something you’re passionate about.

Tommy was passionate about the mountains. He’d never seen the big ones out west, but as a young rock climber he read mountaineering books, and in the winter he opened the windows of his bedroom and did push-ups in the frigid air—“cold training,” he called it. After high school he went to the University of Utah, in Salt Lake City, so he could ski and climb, but as a junior he ran out of tuition money. Over the next several years he worked various jobs in the oil and gas industry, which was good pay but a hard lifestyle that involved spending weeks on a rig. By the time he was 30, he had a serious girlfriend, and he could see a future in which the job made him a miserable husband and father. So he quit.

He had friends who were ski patrollers at Park City Mountain Resort, about 30 miles from his home in Salt Lake. In 2015, he started as a rookie patroller there, where he learned new skills constantly: how to make a ski slope safe from avalanches by throwing explosives onto it, how to transport an injured skier down a mountain in a toboggan. He loved the job, but the pay was dismal. His hourly wage increased from $10.25 an hour to $16 his third year, then stagnated. Money got particularly tight after he and his wife had their daughter in 2019. He sometimes had to carpool to work because he couldn’t afford the gas to get there.

Things became even more stressful during the pandemic. In January 2020, the union Tommy had joined—Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association, which represented the 180 or so patrollers and safety personnel on Park City Mountain—had begun negotiating a new contract with the ski area’s multibillion-dollar parent corporation, Vail Resorts, which at the time owned 37 properties worldwide, including Whistler Blackcomb and Vail Mountain. Tommy had hoped the union could bargain for a couple bucks’ an hour raise, which would help him cover his bills. But the negotiations didn’t start until August 2020, and then they dragged on through the following 2020–21 ski season, without resolution. Meanwhile, real estate prices soared in resort towns like Park City, as well as outdoorsy metro areas like Salt Lake City.

In the fall of 2021, Tommy’s son was born, and he began his seventh season as a patroller. That December, the union approached its 46th meeting and 16th month of negotiations with Vail amid a roiling national conversation about labor, as workers from Kellogg’s and Amazon staged strikes and unionization drives. Vail was taking a pummeling in the news due to long lift lines and terrain closures, both attributed to workforce shortages. The union’s talks attracted public support and media attention. When I met Tommy over Zoom a few weeks before Christmas, he told me about the nine-to-twelve-hour days that left his feet and back aching, the commute through Parleys Canyon that became “life or death” in the snow, and the dangers of his job. With regard to hand-throwing explosives, for example, “You can only throw it so far, and some people,” he said, joking, “are not that good at throwing.”

Despite his wry sense of humor, it was clear that Tommy was frustrated by the protracted talks between the union and Vail, which wanted to start first-year patrollers at what was then the company-wide minimum wage of $15 an hour, instead of the $16.70 the union was asking for. (According to shareholder reports, Vail appeared to be financially healthy, earning profit margins in its mountain operations, before depreciation and amortization, of 29.2 percent in 2020 and 32.6 percent in 2021.) At the time, as a seventh-year patroller who oversaw a team of four or five, Tommy made just $17.83 an hour, well below the $20.88 MIT then deemed a living wage to support a family of four in Salt Lake County. A two-week paycheck, after taxes, ranged from $850 to $1,300. His wife made a modest salary at a local nonprofit, and after their $1,200 mortgage, $1,800 a month for two kids in day care, groceries, diapers, a car payment, gas, and other bills, “it’s very much a paycheck-to-paycheck existence,” he told me.

Tommy pointed to the irony that his employee ski pass gave him access to any Vail resort, but he couldn’t afford a ski vacation: not the gas to get there, the hotel to stay in, or the ski lessons for his kids. “But all the people who can afford all that stuff, we’re there to help those guys and make sure that the mountain is open so that they can spend money there,” he said. Noting a recent $118 million acquisition by Vail of three resorts in Pennsylvania, he said, “It’s like, what about the people who make all this possible? It just feels like they think we’re expendable and we have no value.”

The second week of January 2022, the union voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike ahead of the resort’s lucrative Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. A few days later, after a 15-hour meeting that ran into the early morning, the union and Vail arrived at a new contract, which was put to the patrollers for a vote. Tommy deliberated until the final hour before voting yes.

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All across the country, resorts have been working hard to bolster their offerings and to fix systemic issues, from addressing long lift lines and the mountain-town housing shortageÌęto investing in renewable energy. With the proper precautions, there are more reasons than ever to hit the slopes this season.

There’s More Ground to Cover

Ski resorts spend years—decades even—building out their terrain. The wait is generally worth it, with new glades, bowls, and buttery runs to christen. This season in Colorado, Telluride is getting 40 new acres of beginner and intermediate terrain, including the Grouse Glades, while Beaver Creek will open 250 acres of easy skiing, with two quads and 17 new trails in the bowlish McCoy Park. Last February, Idaho’s Sun Valley pulled the curtain back on 380 acres, but due to COVID-19 restrictions, many weren’t able to ski it. This is your year.

The biggest expansion is at Bluebird Backcountry, located near Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and the only no-lift, ­all-backcountry ski area in the U.S. It will open 12 new runs, for a total of 25. This includes four gullies that are patrolled and controlled for slides, with steep pitches that tilt to a puckering 45 degrees, which increases its avalanche-managed acreage to 1,200. If that sounds intimidating, sign up for the Bluebird+ membership for access to backcountry lessons, seminars, and as many half-day clinics as you want all season long (from $250).

Birding on Skis

In the early months of the pandemic, Americans took up bird-watching like depraved raptors. It is a surprisingly delightful passion that also happens to pair well with skiing. Sign up for Alta’s Birding on Skis tour and you’ll head out on a half-day adventure into Utah’s Little Cottonwood Canyon to look for resident populations of rosy finches, mountain chickadees, and, if you’re lucky, perhaps a pair of the mating golden eagles that frequent the area below 10,920-foot Devil’s Castle. Tours start with a 9 A.M. ride up Alta’s Collins Lift over epic black-diamond terrain and end at noon at the Albion base area. A conservation ecologist from Salt Lake’s Tracy Aviary will be along to help distinguish nuthatches from creepers. Because you’ll be contributing to a bird survey of the area, the tour is free and includes a half-day ski pass. Participants need only be at least 12 years old and able to ski a groomed blue run.

Lift Off

This winter will see the unveiling of arguably the most technologically advanced butt hauler on this side of the Atlantic. Introducing the Kancamagus 8, a.k.a. Kanc 8, at New Hampshire’s Loon Mountain Resort, the first eight-pack in the East and one of only a few such behemoths in the country. This particular beast features heated ergonomic seats that look like something out of a SpaceX rocket, a locking safety bar, individual footrests, and, of course, a tinted bubble to stave off that icy New England wind. The extra-wide chairs can be spun up to 12.5 miles per hour—­making the Kanc 8 the fastest lift of its size in the U.S.—and can haul 3,500 skiers per hour to a mid-mountain station in 4.5-minute increments, which is barely enough time to cool your quads. It’s likely the kickoff of a national overhaul to lift technology. Next up is Montana’s Big Sky Resort, which will launch the Swift Current 6, a blazingly fast (read: 13.6 miles per hour), heated six-pack that will increase uphill capacity by 50 percent.

Lodging Gets an Upgrade

Most destination ski resorts need a robust real estate scene and high ­occupancy rates to help fund all the improvements that keep us coming back. This winter brings a slew of new places to snooze at some of the country’s most iconic resorts. Aspen Snowmass will see the opening of Viewline, a mid-mountain luxury complex that includes an Ayurvedic spa, 254 rooms, and 20 suites featuring sheepskin throws and awesome ski-in, ski-out access (from $329). Meanwhile, in Park City, Utah, the Pendry (from $1,500) opens in Canyons Village with 152 rooms and the city’s only rooftop pool. The project making the biggest splash is one of the largest of its kind ever to land in Montana: the Montage at Big Sky (from $1,395). Clocking in at a whopping half-million square feet in the heart of the mountain ­village, the 139-room, 39-­residence stunner looks out over the 8,400-foot Spanish Peaks and has six restaurants, an indoor lap pool, a 10,000-square-foot spa, and, just out the door, a 450-foot tubing park for kids. Of course, the 5,800 skiable acres just beyond your black-marble bathroom are the real attraction.

An Innovative Ski-Town Fix

The mountain-town housing shortage intensified after a pandemic-fueled real estate boom drove out longtime residents and decimated the local workforce. Summer visitors to these locales report long waits and fewer services due to staffing shortages. Where does that leave us this ski season?

Resorts planned ahead. Starting this winter, Aspen, Solitude, Sugarbush, Vail, and others will pay non-tipped employees at least $15 an hour, more than twice the federal minimum wage. Mount Bohemia, in Michigan, will trump them all by paying $20 an hour. But finding an affordable place to live is as tricky as ever, especially if you want to settle down.

Enter the Big Sky Community Housing Trust, a newly formed nonprofit that makes the Montana haven of 3,000 full-time residents and some 4,000 vacation homes one of the most promising ski towns to live and work.

The trust, which is partially funded by a resort tax, builds on an idea unfolding in Vail, where the town pays homeowners a percentage of their property value in exchange for saddling the property with a restricted deed that slows appreciation, lowers the sale price, and helps bolster a more affordable housing pool.

The Big Sky version uses grants and money from the resort tax to give the owners of second, third, and even fourth homes subsidies to rent their pads to local workers at reduced rates instead of going the Airbnb or Vrbo route. The trust is also a key player in the construction of 52 gorgeous condos with restricted deeds that will sell for half their market value, with a hard 2 percent cap on annual appreciation.

That’s a big difference in a place where the average condo now goes for $1 million and a single-family home will set you back a cool $2.2 million. “A regular working Joe just can’t do that,” says Laura Seyfang, the trust’s director. “We’re trying to create a little balance here.”

The Other End of the Rockies

There’s so much in Colorado and Utah to be excited about this winter, with new lifts at Breckenridge, Keystone, and Snowbasin—to name a few—and a cat-skiing operation opening in Loveland Ski Area’s Dry Gulch. But if you have the time and means for only one trip, make it count by going to Taos Ski Valley. The New Mexico resort, perhaps the least corporate of the major resorts in the Rockies, averages 300 inches of snow per year and has a smattering of new offerings this season. For starters, you can sign up for an exclusive three-day learning session with Olympian Deb Armstrong (gold, giant slalom, Sarajevo ’84), who will personally coach you out of your poor angulation or whatever it is that ails you. She’s in high demand, though, so for the rest of us, there’s Taos’s new pro-guided experience, where a local ripper will show you secret stashes and the best way to get your tails into the fall line on the double blacks off West Basin Ridge. Back down in the village, you’ll find new attractions like an ice rink, dinner sleigh rides, and a skier-services building.

Power for the Powder

For all the fresh air, exercise, and soul resetting that sliding down snow-covered mountains offers, resort skiing can be pretty rough on Mother Nature. So it’s worth mentioning that Alterra, Boyne, Powdr, and Vail—some of the biggest resort conglomerates in the game—banded together over the summer to fight climate change by signing an agreement aimed at reducing impact while lobbying for policy changes that make renewable energy the norm in the resort industry. This winter, Park City will take a big step toward fulfilling that goal by tapping into the Elektron Solar Project, an 80-megawatt solar farm southwest of Salt Lake City that will provide every last drop of electricity to the resort by 2023.

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“NOT ON STRIKE JUST PRACTICING,” read the bold white letters on the red picket signs, some hoisted up with ski poles.

On Saturday, a dozen off-duty ski patrollers fromÌę stood outside city hall in downtownÌęLeavenworth, Washington, the Bavarian-themed tourist town 40 minutes from the mountain. They waved these posters while passing out “I SUPPORT SKI PATROL” stickers and informational palm cards that read: “We need your help to pressure Vail Resorts to negotiate a contract with us and provide training, fair wages, a safe and healthy workplace, and respect for what we do.”

Eight hundred miles away, eight of Utah’sÌęÌęski patrollers gathered on Lowell Avenue, by one of the resort’s main entrances, also handing out cards. “Our contract expired on November 14th,” their cards read. “We need adequate sick time, hazard duty / pandemic pay, guest and worker health safety, and respect for professional ski patrollers. Help us send a message to Vail Resorts!”Ìę

Patrollers say the pickets are the culmination of failed attempts at collective bargaining negotiations withÌę, the shared owner of both Stevens Pass and Park City Mountain. As the signs said, the informational picket wasn’t an official work-stoppage strike, since the participating patrollers were on their days off. But they also implied an ominous question: Will the patrollers eventually go on strike, effectively shutting down business at both resorts?

Unionized ski patrols aren’t new—patrollers at Colorado’s Crested Butte Mountain and Aspen Skiing Company’s four resorts (Aspen Mountain, Snowmass, Aspen Highlands, and Buttermilk) have been unionized since 1978 and 1986, respectively. Patrollers at Utah’s Canyons Resort unionized in 2000, though the union was disbanded when the mountain was purchased by Vail Resorts in 2014. But a flurry of new unionizations haveÌęrecently occurred, tracking with the industry’s rapid conglomeration overÌęthe past two decades and the growing portfolios of Vail and its largest competitor, Alterra Mountain Company. The two companies now own 45 resorts in the U.S. alone. Since 2015, four other ski patrols have unionized: two owned by Vail Resorts (Park City and Stevens Pass), one owned by Alterra (Steamboat, in Colorado), and one łÙłóČčłÙ’s independently owned (Telluride, also in Colorado). Additionally, New Mexico’s independently owned Taos Ski ValleyÌęattempted to unionize in 2015. All of the recently formed unions are members of the United Professional Ski Patrols of AmericaÌęLocal 7781, a chapter of the national Communications Workers of America District 7 labor union. To date, none of the patrol unions have ever gone on strike.Ìę

Park City’s union first reached out to Vail to negotiate an extension of itsÌęprevious employment contract in January 2020. Asks include provisions for wage increases, disability insurance for seasonal workers, waterproof uniforms, and regular sick leave, which currently doesn’t kick in until after an employee has worked 1,500 hours. The corporation said it wouldn’t be available to negotiate until June, and patrollers weren’t able to secure a video conference with representatives from the company until August, says Joe Naunchik, president of the union. In November, frustrated by the slow progress, the union opted to let its contract expire, aiming to put more pressure on both parties to negotiate. (With their contract expired, the patrollers and Vail are no longer bound by its no-strike, no-lockoutÌęclause, which prevented either side from leveraging a forced work stoppage as a bargaining tactic.)Ìę

Vail Resorts sent șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű a statement regarding the negotiations with Park City. “The union has asked for a retroactive wage increase in the middle of one of the most challenging financial situations the entire travel sector has ever faced and when no other employee across our entire company has received an inflationary increase,” Vail says. “They have also asked for a wholesale change to how we provide benefits to seasonal employees—an approach that has been in place at the resort, and across our industry, for decades. We are confident that we offer our patrollers, and all of our employees, wages and benefits that are very competitive. That said, we will always remain open to listening to our employees’ concerns. But the issues raised by the union are very complex and do not lend themselves to quick resolution.” The statement also pointed to a bargaining meeting scheduled for January 20, which both Vail and the union attended.ÌęÌę

Meanwhile, the Stevens Pass patrollers who voted to unionize in 2019 have been waiting 21 months to finalize their first contract with Vail, says union president Brianna Hartzell. The pandemic stalled negotiations for five months in the spring of 2020, but Stevens Pass patrollers say discussions were crawling before that. The union is requesting a better compensation structure that it saysÌęwill incentivize experienced patrollers to stay with the company. Under the current structure, a 23-year veteran patroller can make just a dollar an hour more than a rookie patroller earningÌęWashington’s minimum wage, say union members. Accumulating certain skills and responsibilities can increase a patroller’s hourly wage by just a few cents. “We’ve lost really experienced patrollers because of this stuff,” says Katie Warren, vice president of the Stevens Pass union and a seventh-year patroller.Ìę

Another request, Hartzell says, is adequate training, including professional avalanche training, weather-forecasting courses, and more emergency medical training. It takes several seasons to build expertise in these areas in a patrol team, says Hartzell, who suffered a severe wrist injury on the job and has been unable to work this season.Ìę

“If you want someone who can splint a femur in the dark during a blood-moon eclipse while training a rookie on a 50-degree slope and backboarding the guest into a toboggan to be belayed and skied out, you’re going to need someone with more than two years of experience,” she says, referring to an actual event that occurred atÌęthe resort that reflects the need for the company to retain its best patrollers. Of the 48 patrollers at Stevens Pass, 23 are in their first or second year, say union members.Ìę

Without a contract in place, Vail has no legal obligation to resolve employment discussions within any timeframe. In 2019, the company engaged LRI, a consulting firm that claims “,” to dissuade Stevens Pass patrollers from unionizing. In the past 14 months, the Stevens Pass union has filed three unfair labor-practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board against Vail. (Two were later withdrawn in the union’s interest of moving forward with discussions.) In its most recent filing, from , the union says Vail failed to show up for scheduled Zoom meetings on August 18 and December 18.

In regards to negotiations with Stevens Pass, Vail said, “Since Stevens Pass Ski Patrol voted to unionize in 2019, we have been active participants in collective bargaining in good faith, with our next scheduled bargaining date on Tuesday, January 26. Unfortunately, we have received very little and inconsistent engagement on their side of the negotiations.” Vail disputed the union’s claims that it doesn’t provide sufficient training programs, and claimed that the union never confirmed the meetings on August 18 and December 18.Ìę

Vail has recently responded to some of the Park City patrollers’ demands, agreeing to expand emergency sick-leave coverage beyond theÌę80-hour maximum for patrollers working during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company also provided patrollers with N-95 masks at the beginning of the season, although Naunchik says he and some others did not receive enough in their size and didn't get more until January.ÌęVail has also complied with Utah’s House Bill 3007, which mandates workers’ compensationÌętoÌęfirst responders during certain situations, extending coverage to Park City ski patrollers during the pandemic.Ìę

The patrollers at both resorts say the unions are asking for a good-faith response from Vail—for the company to come to the table willing to compromise and work toward progress in a timely fashion. Not even Naunchik, who hails from a long lineage of union coal miners, aluminum millers, teachers, and machinists in western Pennsylvania, wants a work-stoppage strike to happen. But if negotiations continue to stall, he won’t rule it out. “We want Vail to treat ski patrol as professionals,” he says, “and not as a seasonal, expendable workforce to be exploited.”

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Caroline Gleich moved to Salt Lake CityÌęfrom her native Minnesota when she was 15Ìęand has been skiing Utah’s Wasatch RangeÌęever since. She began making a name for herself as a professionalÌęskier when she was just 18, and in 2017, she became the first woman to climb and ski all 90 lines inÌęAndrew McLean’s iconic 1998 guidebookÌęThe Chuting Gallery.ÌęLast yearÌęshe climbed Mount Everest in an effort to promote gender equality in sports. Now 34, Gleich uses her influence as an athlete to promote issues like climate change, cyberharassment, and clean air quality. We asked her to share her favorite places to ski in her home state.

Deer Valley Ski Resort

Why Go: Gleich mostly skis in the backcountry, but if she doesn’t have time for a full backcountry tour in Big or Little Cottonwood Canyons, then she’ll ski in-bounds atÌę. “If I can’t ski perfect untracked powder, then I like perfect groomers,” she says. “Going to Deer Valley feels like a day to restore.”

Need to Know: According to Gleich, one nice thing about the Park City resorts—which include Deer Valley and —is that they don’t see the same weekend crowds as the ski resorts in Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons, like Alta and Snowbird. Which means that Deer Valley can be a good bet even on a busy Saturday. “Deer Valley limits the number of tickets they sell, so even on the craziest days, you won’t be waiting in lift lines for too long,” she says.

Where to Ski: She prefers the terrain accessed via the and the upper part of the mountain, like Lady Morgan, Bald Mountain, and Flagstaff Mountain. “It’s higher up, so the snow stays nice,” she says. Plus, the cookies at the Silver Lake Lodge are hard to beat.

For AprĂšs-Ski: Get a Bloody Mary at the bar of the ski-in, ski-outÌę, and have dinner atÌę, a new farm-to-table restaurant in Park City that Gleich loves.

Alta Ski AreaÌę

Why Go: “I cut my teeth skiingÌę for so many years,” Gleich says. “It was my gateway to backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. I love being so connected to nature there. You have big, unadulterated viewsÌęand a real sense of the wilderness. Plus, it feelsÌęlike you have to exert some human power by sidestepping or traversing to get to the good places.”

Need to Know:Ìę is the spot for coffee before skiing. “And they have tasty waffles and empanadas,” adds Gleich. If she’s driving up from Salt Lake City, she also likesÌę, near the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon.

Where to Ski: Gleich mostly laps Alta’s beloved Collins lift, where you can access steep shots off the High Traverse, like Jitterbug or Alf’s High Rustler. “I also love to ski Alta with my nephews and my 88-year-old dad, who’s had a hip replacement,” she says. “He mostly likes to ski Sunnyside, Sugarloaf, and Supreme.”

For AprĂšs-Ski: Get French fries and a beer at theÌę inside the newÌę. Then head for a soak at theÌę, located on the rooftop of theÌęÌęat Snowbird Ski Area, next door to Alta.Ìę“It’s an amazing place to unwind,” Gleich says. “They have a saltwater pool, a hot tub, and a eucalyptus steam room.”

Mount Superior

Why Go: “One of the most iconic runs in Utah is the south face ofÌę,” says Gleich. “That mountain is like the heart of the Wasatch. It’s one of my favorite places to go. It’s got everything—a beautiful, big-mountain face that gets incredible sunrise light, an exposed ridgeline that feels like an alpine climb, and from the top of the peak, you can see far in every direction. It’s also very close to Salt Lake City. You can be standing on the top of this peak in just two or three hours”Ìęafter arriving at the airport.

Need to Know: As with all backcountry areas, before you go, read the avalanche forecast from theÌę,Ìęcarry a beacon, shovel, and probe, and know how to use them. The Utah Avalanche Center hasÌę for backcountry education in the area. Or hire a guide:Ìę leads backcountry tours up Mount Superior.

Where to Ski: “Superior is really popular—it’s a classic ski descent,” says Gleich. “There are so many features and nooks you can continue to explore.”

For AprĂšs-Ski: You can ski Superior at dawn and be down at Alta having coffee and breakfast after sunrise. “Or get to Alta for first chair after skiing Superior,” says Gleich. “AtÌę at Alta, you can get a warm breakfast sandwich and a nice cappuccino.”

Millcreek Canyon RoadÌę

Why Go: The top section ofÌę, closed during the winter, is a good spot for newer backcountry skiers who want to test their skills on low-angle, low-avalanche-danger terrain. “You’ll skin through a beautiful, dense forest,” says Gleich. “It’s like forest bathing. It’s very quiet.”Ìę

Need to Know: The trail climbs about 1,200 feet overÌęroughly four miles. The side of the road is usually groomed, so it’s also popular with nordic skiers. “It’s a fun tour for people who’ve never toured. You could tow kids in a sled or skate-ski, too,” says Gleich.

Where to Ski: It’s pretty straightforward: Drive up Millcreek Canyon until you can’t drive anymore. Park, then start skinning up the closed road. “You basically skin or cross-country ski up, then ski down the road,” says Gleich.

For AprĂšs-Ski: One of Gleich’s favorite places to grab dinner in Cottonwood Heights is a new, family-owned Vietnamese restaurant calledÌę. “They have pho that they stew for over 24 hours,” she says.

Grizzly Gulch

Why Go: “With climate change in the Wasatch, we’re seeing our snow lines move higher and higher. On years when we don’t have much lower-elevation snow,Ìę is one of the places you can ski-tour consistently,” says Gleich. “It’s the birthplace of avalanche research and a part of the history of snow safety in the U.S. It’s a really important place for people taking avalanche courses and getting into backcountry skiing.”

Need to Know: There’s a piece of proposed legislation called theÌę that seeks to preserve around 80,000 acres of U.S. Forest Service land in the Wasatch, including Grizzly Gulch, which Alta hasÌę its ski area into. It’s anÌę. “I love Alta. But I’m opposed to any plans to develop Grizzly Gulch,” says Gleich.

Where to Ski: Grizzly Gulch has protected, north-facing terrain, so the snow here stays cold and light. “ is a good place to go tour in Grizzly Gulch,” says Gleich. “It’s got nice, open-spaced trees,Ìęgood snow quality, and is lower angle, with minimal avalanche terrain above.”Ìę

For AprĂšs-Ski: Head to theÌę inside the Alta Lodge. “It’s small and intimate and a fun place to grab a drink after skiing,” Gleich says.

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