Skiers lambast Park City experience as patrol strike continues
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Skiers line up at the King Con lift at Park City Mountain Resort as it opens Saturday. Photo courtesy of Craig Buschmann
As ski patrollers at Park City Mountain Resort entered their eighth day on strike Friday, guests were taking to social media to warn of crowded slopes, long lift lines and missed opportunities to ski fresh powder.
The intrigue: The complaints come as new research ranks PCMR the third-most-expensive resort to visit in the U.S, with a one-day lift ticket priced at $328.
- Meanwhile, Park City was named the nation's second-most-expensive vacation destination by the travel company Optimos.
State of play: A slew of one- and two-star reviews have pelted the resort's pages on TripAdvisor, Yelp and Facebook since the strike began, with customers describing their experience as "disappointing," "unsafe" and "crowded like a city street."
What they're saying: "In my 40 years of skiing this was the worst experience in my life," a reviewer wrote Wednesday on TripAdvisor, describing lift lines that were hours long.
- "Yesterday I went on one run and gave up," another added.
- "Once they have your money you are screwed," a Yelp reviewer wrote. Another said the conditions and low staff morale "[make] this expensive vacation miserable."
The other side: "We deeply regret that this is having any level of impact on the guest experience and are grateful to our thousands of employees who are working hard every day to enable the experience at Park City Mountain and open the terrain that we can safely open," Bill Rock, president of Vail Resorts mountain division, said in a prepared statement.
By the numbers: As of Friday, 80 of PCMR's 350 trails were open, and 24 of 41 lifts were operating at "the largest ski resort in the US."
- That's a big improvement from Monday, when just 46 trails were open and 19 lifts were running despite about two feet of new snow.
- A year ago Jan. 6, 37 lifts were running and 165 trails were open.
Between the lines: PCMR had more lifts and runs open than at some Utah resorts.
- But higher percentages of neighboring resorts were operational.
The latest: Vail and the ski patrol union planned further negotiations Friday following talks on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.