Ski patrollers are leading the push for higher pay in expensive mountain towns

Telluride Ski Resort patrollers are striking for higher wages, part of a movement across the West in communities that have been among the hardest hit by rising cost of living.

Tony Daranyi has worked as a ski patroller in Telluride, Colorado, for 27 years. He’s a certified EMT with advanced training in forecasting avalanches and using explosives to mitigate them. He works in extreme weather and puts his safety on the line each day.

For that, he said, he’s paid about $32 an hour, on par with most other seasoned ski patrollers; newer patrollers make $21 an hour. Those wages, Daranyi says, aren’t enough to live on in one of the most expensive housing markets in America, prompting him and his fellow ski patrollers at the Telluride Ski Resort to go on strike Dec. 27 — a move that shut down the resort during the busy holiday season.

Telluride ski patroller Tony Daranyi has been pushing for higher wages for a decade.Courtesy of Tony DaranyiSki patrollers in mountain towns across the West are increasingly leading the push for higher wages in communities hit hard by rising cost of living. A year ago, ski patrollers in Park City, Utah, went on strike, which caused the resort to close most of its terrain for nearly two weeks, drawing backlash from visitors. Ski patrollers at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in Wyoming voted to unionize last fall, joining a wave of other patrollers who have done so in recent years, including those at Keystone Resort, Eldora Mountain and Arapahoe Basin Ski Area in Colorado. The United Mountain Workers union says it now has about 1,000 members.

“Wages haven’t kept up. We’re so far below what it takes somebody in this community to afford either rent or trying to buy even an affordable house,” said Daranyi, a past union president who helped start the Telluride union a decade ago. “This is about more than just the Telluride ski patrol. This is a reflection of what’s going on in all mountain communities, and it’s also a reflection of what’s going on nationwide with income inequality and wealth.”

Surviving on a ski resort salary has long been a struggle, especially in destination towns with some of the world’s most sought-after real estate. But the surge in housing costs in resort communities following the pandemic has pushed workers to a breaking point, ski patrollers said.