Telluride reopening as striking ski patrollers accept contract, return to work

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FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) — Telluride Ski Resort in southwestern Colorado began to reopen Friday after a vote by striking ski patrollers to accept a contract and return to work.

The resort shut down Dec. 27 after the Telluride Professional Ski Patrol Association rejected a company pay proposal. The resort remained closed except for beginner carpets and a lift serving two beginner runs that were staffed this week by managers and temporary ski patrollers.

With help from artificial snowmaking and a foot (30 centimeters) of recent snowfall, more lifts and runs will open starting this weekend, resort officials said in a statement.

"We are confident that this last offer represented a fair compromise,” resort representative Steve Swenson said in the statement.

Neither the resort nor the ski patrol union divulged details of the deal endorsed by the union with a Thursday vote. Negotiations had been ongoing since June.

The union sought pay increases from $21 to $28 an hour for new patrollers and from as little as $30 to almost $50 for the most experienced ones.

“While we are ultimately very disappointed to not address our broken wage structure, we are immensely proud of our efforts that have led to this financial movement. We are even prouder of the recognition and implementation of our supervisors into the unit,” read a union statement on social media Thursday.

Ski patrollers elsewhere in the Rocky Mountain region have been unionizing. Some argue for more pay on the grounds that the cost of living in ski towns is high and that they are responsible for safety.

Patroller duties include attending to injured skiers and the controlled release of avalanches with explosives when nobody is in range.

An almost two-week ski patrol strike a year ago closed many runs and caused long lift lines at Utah’s Park City Mountain Resort. That strike ended when Colorado-based Vail Resorts acceded to demands including a $2-an-hour base pay increase and raises for senior ski patrollers.