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How the Ski Business Got Too Big for Its Boots

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How the Ski Business Got Too Big for Its Boots

More StoriesThis is what happens when companies don’t have to compete for labor. Thanks to industry agglomeration, ski-resort workers have only a small number of potential employers, making it harder to switch jobs if they don’t like the way a particular resort treats them. And supervisors can afford to be high-handed. During my tenure, for example, instructors would sometimes have shifts added to their schedule without permission; at other times, they would have shifts canceled after arriving at work—meaning that they’d driven to the mountain only to get sent home without pay.For now, however, what’s on offer to skiers is governed by the unfortunate logic of mountains and monopolies. America has only so many ski areas, and as long as they’re controlled by a couple of conglomerates, the whole experience will continue to go downhill.Naturally, this strategy has worked well for both Vail and Alterra. Vail’s revenues have increased by 50 percent since my brief spell with the company in 2017. Alterra, a smaller company, is privately held and does not disclose its financials. But Big Ski’s business model works well enough at Alterra’s scale that, last year, it purchased a new ski area in Colorado for more than 0 million.For those unfamiliar with the industry, the union’s decision may have seemed puzzling. People who work on skis tend to love skiing, so why would they want to stop? They’re called ski bums, after all, not ski laborers. But for anyone who has been employed by Vail—and navigated the housing crises that plague resort communities—the union’s pleas are entirely comprehensible. The Park City strike illustrates just how distorted the American ski business has become, both for workers and for visitors. Central to the malaise is one trend: monopolization.As a result, skiers tend to buy either Vail’s Epic Pass or Alterra’s Ikon Pass, season tickets that, depending on category, afford varying levels of access to a selection of the companies’ resorts (and, particularly for Ikon, of affiliated ones). These passes offer a better deal than day tickets; in some circumstances, they give better value than the season passes of earlier eras. But they also represent an intricate form of price discrimination filled with disadvantages. Skiers must purchase them before the winter begins. Many of the passes come with restrictions. And, as a lump sum, they’re hardly cheap: The Epic “Northeast Value Pass,” for example, is about 0, and has blackout dates on Vail’s marquee northeastern-U.S. properties. Only the full Epic Pass, priced at roughly ,000, is limit free.The system has not worked as well for staff, who remain underpaid. Vail set its minimum wage at in March 2022, after facing staffing shortages and an earlier strike threat by ski patrollers. But that hourly figure is set against the extremely high cost of living in resort towns: In Park City, the median monthly rent is ,500, which is about what a Vail minimum-wage employee makes working full-time. Meanwhile, Vail’s charity arm continues to brag about helping staff with “hardship relief.”How a Strongman Made Himself Look WeakThis article originally misapplied a male pronoun to Quinn Graves. In fact, Graves is a woman who uses female pronouns.This new economic model means that visitors have fewer affordable ways to hit the slopes—especially if they ski only on an occasional basis. For instance, newbies may find themselves obliged to buy season passes just to spend a few days learning how to ski. The season-pass imperative also forces skiers of all levels to commit to one of two ecosystems, Epic or Ikon. This constrains people’s choice of where to ski, and makes planning trips with friends harder. What it does allow is conglomerates to keep people ensconced at company properties, buying overpriced food, lodging, and equipment.Support for this project was provided by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.At the Park City resort, Vail owns a formidable collection of lodges and rental properties, but none of it was allocated to employees in my time. In 2022, the company began working with a separate development to help lease out discounted units for 441 of its staffers—but Vail has hundreds more employees at the resort, so those dormitories and apartments are nowhere near enough to make a very expensive town remotely affordable for most workers. In fact, according to a 2023 University of Utah study, only 12 percent of the community’s workforce live in Park City itself. This housing crisis is one of the main factors behind the strike. To help explain the picketing, Quinn Graves, one of the union’s officials, told New York magazine that most of her colleagues don’t live locally.That video came to mind last month when I heard that, starting December 27, Park City’s ski patrollers were going on strike to demand higher wages and better treatment. “We are asking all of you to show your support by halting spending at Vail Resorts properties for the duration of this strike,” the union said in an Instagram post. “Do not use Vail-owned rental shops or retail stores. Do not stay in Vail-owned hotels.”Most of the visitors who fly in to ski at Park City probably do not think much about these issues. They are, after all, there for a vacation, not for field research on economic injustice. But this season, they’ve had plenty of opportunity to ponder that: Because most of the resort closed during the patrollers’ strike, visitors had to wait in freezing lines for hours for brief runs down the few slopes Vail managed to keep open with supervisors and patrollers drafted from other mountains. Many of these guests, sick of Park City’s high costs, came down on the side of the strikers. Online, angry customers blasted Vail for refusing to give staff a raise. One person filed a lawsuit against the company in which he bemoaned how ski-ticket prices have risen “exponentially” over the past 10 years. In person, guests chanted “Pay your employees” while waiting to get on lifts.On January 8, the company listened. It struck a deal to increase average pay for patrollers by an hour and offer better leave policies. “This contract is more than just a win for our team,” Seth Dromgoole, the union’s lead negotiator, said in a statement. “It’s a groundbreaking success in the ski and mountain worker industry.” Other Park City employees, including instructors, have similarly cheered, hoping that the bump will eventually extend to them.For much of skiing’s history, mountains were locally owned and operated. But over the past few decades, that has changed. In the 1990s, ski resorts began buying other ski resorts. Private-equity firms got in on the act. Soon, these conglomerates were gobbling up one another, creating a small clique of businesses that had control over the industry. Independent mountains still dot the country, but most major resorts now are either owned by or associated with one of two giant corporations: Vail and Alterra.The Democrats’ Senate Nightmare Is Only Beginning

In 2016, I was hired to teach skiing at the Park City resort, in Utah. The ultimate fun job: For one winter, I would get paid to do and share my favorite activity.

Updated at 2:08 p.m. ET on January 12, 2025

About the Author

Daniel Block is a senior editor at Foreign Affairs.
The outcome may encourage other ski-resort workers to organize. The idea of unionizing was bandied about by ski-school workers when I was there, and labor-organization rates have spiked at ski areas. The rationale is compelling: To get a fair deal in the face of corporate consolidation, workers may have to consolidate themselves.This consolidation is perhaps the main reason the sticker price of skiing, never cheap, has become exorbitant. With fewer competitors, Vail and Alterra have been free to jack up prices. In 2000, when Mount Snow (where I learned to ski) was owned by a smaller company, the cost of a day pass was about in today’s dollars. Today, the Vail-owned resort charges approximately 0. The pricing at Park City is even steeper. Twenty-five years ago, you could get a three-day ticket for 8 in today’s dollars. Now you’re paying 0.But I soon realized that although the piste conditions might be great, the working conditions were poor. An early clue was a training video that Vail Resorts, Park City’s owner, showed to employees. It bragged about how the company’s charity organization was helping local residents. The only problem: One of the charity cases was a Vail employee. In other words, the company was obliviously broadcasting how underpaid its own workers were.
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Temple Begins Indoor Track & Field Season at UPenn This Weekend

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December 6, 2025

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PHILADELPHIA – Temple women’s indoor track and field season opens its 2025-26 campaign with a meet this Saturday, Dec. 6, at the Penn Opener. The meet will be held at the indoor facility located in South Philadelphia, The Ott Center, and is hosted by Penn. The Cherry & White have 17 returners along with 16 newcomers joining the Owls, 15 of which are freshmen. The jumping events will start at 11:30 a.m. followed by the running events at 1:30 p.m. Catch all the action live on ESPN+ or by viewing the link below.

Live Results 

Previewing the Owls

  • A total of 26 athletes will represent Temple across 11 events this weekend.

  • Freshman Emilie Creighton, Aly Doyle, Kei-Mahri Hanna, Rian Johnson, Kenya Merritt, Kamryn Ohm, Janae Pettaway, Smilla Ranebro, and Adama Turay, will make their indoor track and field college debut this weekend.

  • Nine Temple athletes will compete in the jumps: Emelie Beckman (pole vault), Doyle (long jump), Ohm (pole vault), Ranebro (high jump), Shalisha Robertson (long jump and triple jump), Reagan Schwartz (long jump and triple jump), Deja Scott (long jump), Inara Shell (long jump and triple jump), and Reece Sullivan (pole vault). 

  • For the sprints, Zayniah Ali, Pettaway, Turay, and Lila Ziegler  will compete in the 60m dash. Also, racing in the 60m hurdles are: Ali, Doyle, and Turay.

  • Competing in the 300m dash are Ali, Grace Hickman, Merritt, Pettaway, and Maliah Powell. 

  • Racing in the 600m are Jayla Green, Hanna, Mariah Jameson, Chole Smith, and Dicia Watkins. 

  • Laila Cottom and Maya Gomes will represent Temple in the 1,000m race. While, Creighton and Johnson will run the 3,000m race. 

  • To conclude the meet Temple will race three 4×400 meter relay teams. 



Previewing the Field
    Other schools that will be competing this weekend are Delaware, Georgetown, Hampton, Rider, St. Joseph’s, Penn, Princeton, Morgan State, and Villanova. 

Up Next 

    Temple will return to the Ott Center to compete at the Penn Select hosted by Penn on Saturday, Jan. 10.



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Women’s Track & Field Sees Positive Performances at SVSU Holiday Open

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December 6, 2025

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RESULTS

UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. –

Three top 10 performances in program history put the Albion track & field team in good spirits at the SVSU Holiday Open.

Performing inside the vast field house with a 300m track, Caragh Dwyer placed 14th in the 400m (1:02.92) that was good enough to earn a top 10 mark in team history.

Maggie Sorrelle leapt for a mark of 2.82m in the pole vault, which was the fourth-best in Albion history and highest since 2020.

In the throws, Morgan Hurd’s 14.81m toss in the weight throw was fourth-furthest in Albion history and tenth overall among the field.

Mia Czarnowski (8.31, PR), Sorrelle (27.66) and Brianna Bennett (1:05.70, PR) were the best finishers for the Britons in the 60m, 200m and 400m, respectively.

Czarnowski posted a 4.77m in the long jump, while Zoey Bennett leapt a 9.45m in the triple jump.

As for other throwers, Kaylee Kopulos notched 10.42m and 12.43m tosses in the shot put and weight throw, respectively.

Up Next

Albion will be back in action during next calendar year, as they will head to Heidelberg’s brand-new indoor track for the Larry Brown Invitational on Friday, January 16.

 



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USC Women’s Volleyball Falls to Cal Poly in NCAA Second Round Bout

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December 6, 2025

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LOS ANGELES – The fourth-seeded No. 14-ranked USC women’s volleyball team (25-7) fell in five sets (25-19, 25-20, 20-25, 14-25, 15-7) to Cal Poly (27-7) in the second round of the 2025 NCAA tournament and was eliminated from the postseason at Galen Center on Friday, Dec. 5.
 
KEY PLAYERS

  • Fr. OPP Abigail Mullen led all scorers with 21.5 points earned on a match-high 17 kills (7e, 39att, .256) to go with 10 digs for her eighth double-double. She also had five blocks and two service aces.

  • Fr. S Reese Messer put up her 11th double-double with 46 assists and 11 digs. She also added six blocks (one solo) and had three kills on eight swings (.375).

  • RS So. OH London Wijay had 10 kills (3e, 38att, .184) and 12 digs for her eighth double-double (17th career).

  • RS So. MB Leah Ford had nine kills (1e) on 17 swings to hit .471 and led the team with seven blocks.

  • So. MB Mia Tvrdy played just the last three sets but finished with eight kills on 10 swings (.800) and had two blocks, two digs and a two-handed jump-set assist on a kill by Mullen.

  • Sr. MB Rylie McGinest had six kills (1e, 13att, .385) to go with one block.

  • Fr. LIB Taylor Deckert led the team with 13 digs and added six assists. Sr. LIB Gala Trubint had four digs and a service ace.

  • For the Mustangs, Emma Fredrick led with 17 kills and had 17 digs to lead all players. Kendall Beshear and Annabelle Thalken each had 12 kills. Beshear had 14 digs for the double-double and served a pair of aces. Emme Bullis put up 44 assists with 12 digs for a double-double.

HOW IT HAPPENED

  • The Mustangs never trailed in the opening frame to grab a 25-19 win. Both teams registered 15.0 points, but the Mustangs committed fewer unforced errors to come out on top. The Trojans had 13 kills with five from McGinest but hit just .146 with seven errors on 41 swings. Cal Poly had just 11 kills but hit .258 and had a 3-1 edge in blocks. Both teams each served an ace, but the Trojans served six errors to the Mustangs’ two in the loss.

  • The teams were tied 13 times and the lead changed hands five times before Cal Poly took a 2-0 lead with a 25-20 win in set two. Mullen had five kills to lead the Trojans, but USC totaled just 10 kills and hit .147 in the set. Both teams had three blocks apiece, but the Mustangs still hit .270 with 15 kills (5e) on 37 swings with five more kills from Beshear. 

  • USC secured a 25-20 set-three win on the second of two service aces from Dani Thomas-Nathan. Tvrdy came in and sparked the Trojans with the first kill of the frame and finished with five on just six swings. Mullen tallied six kills on 12 swings without an error and helped USC hit .326 (18k, 4e, 43att). The Trojans had four blocks to help hold the Mustangs to a .194 attack rate with 10 kills (4e) on 31 swings. USC never trailed and led by five twice before winning by five.

  • Back-to-back Mustang errors broke the eighth and final tie of the fourth and put the Trojans in front, 11-9, en route to a 25-14 win. USC continued to push and moved in front by six, 17-11, on a block by Mullen and Ford. Back-to-back kills from Mullen put USC on top by seven, 19-12, and her tool kill made it a 10-point USC lead at 23-13. Mullen and Wijay each scored four kills in the fourth as the Trojans hit .448 (14k, 1e, 29att) and had three blocks to hold Cal Poly to a .081 hitting percentage with 12 kills (9e) on 37 attacks.

  • Cal Poly broke a three-all tie in the fifth with a 6-0 run and was never threatened on the way to a 15-7 win to seal the 3-2 win. Beshear had a six-serve run that included a service ace to put the Mustangs on top by six, 10-4. The Trojans could get no closer than within five despite every effort. The Mustangs hit .316 with eight kills (2e) on 19 swings over USC’s .091 rate in the fifth with five kills (3e) on 22 attempts.

MATCH NOTES

  • USC fell to 13-6 all-time against Cal Poly. The teams met for the first time since 2012.

  • The Women of Troy fell to 15-4 at home this season and to 231-64 (.783) all-time at Galen Center, which includes a 21-5 mark in NCAA tournament matches.

  • USC goes to 131-45 (.744) all-time in the postseason with an 85-38 (.691) mark in the NCAA tournament.

  • The Trojans fell to 14-11 in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

For more information on the USC women’s volleyball team and a complete schedule and results, please visit USCTrojans.com/WVB. Fans of the Women of Troy can follow @USCWomensVolley on Facebook, X, TikTok, and Instagram.
 



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Indiana volleyball vs Colorado NCAA tournament final score, game updates, next

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December 6, 2025

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7:57 pm ET December 5, 2025

When does Indiana volleyball play next? Indiana volleyball next game, opponent in NCAA tournament

Aaron Ferguson

Details are still to come on the next weekend of the NCAA tournament. The certainties: IU is headed to Austin, Texas as UT hosts that quadrant as the No. 1 seed. The first and second rounds in Austin will finish Saturday night. No. 8-seed Penn State awaits the winner of Texas and Florida A&M in Saturday’s second round match.

7:55 pm ET December 5, 2025

Indiana volleyball celebrates Sweet 16 berth

Aaron Ferguson

Here’s how it looked as IU won its second-round match against Colorado:

7:50 pm ET December 5, 2025

Indiana volleyball highlights in win vs Colorado

Aaron Ferguson

Here’s a look inside Wilkinson Hall for IU’s win:

7:42 pm ET December 5, 2025

Indiana volleyball stats in win vs Colorado

Aaron Ferguson

The Hoosiers hit .378 for the match and had an 11-2 blocking advantage against the Buffs. The serving pressure wasn’t there like it was against Toledo, but IU played solid defensively and were able to clinch its second Sweet 16 appearance — its other was 15 years ago in 2010.

Candela Alonso-Corcelles led the way with 16 kills with just one error on 27 swings, an efficient .556. Freshman Jaidyn Jager added 15 kills (.375). The middles did plenty of work with Madi Sell having seven blocks and Victoria Gray adding four. Avry Tatum also had five blocks with eight kills. Setter Teodora Krickovic had 29 assists, eight digs and three blocks.

Colorado hit .208 for the match, led by Ana Burilovi’s 19 kills (.239) and an efficient seven on 11 swings for Cayla Payne (.545). But nine service errors did not help the Buffs, particularly with five in the first set.



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Kansas women’s volleyball vs Miami (Fl.): NCAA tournament final result

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December 6, 2025

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Updated Dec. 5, 2025, 8:26 p.m. CT



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Former UH volleyball player, youth coach accused of producing child porn

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December 6, 2025

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HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – A former youth volleyball coach who played on the University of Hawaii men’s volleyball team was arrested and charged with production of child pornography, allegedly with a former player.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Hawaii, announced Friday that Elias David, 37, of Waimanalo, was charged by criminal complaint on Dec. 3.

He was employed as a firefighter for the Department of Defense and worked at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Federal Fire Station 9.

According to the criminal complaint filed by the FBI, a 17-year-old told her aunt she was having sexual intercourse with David, who was a family friend and her volleyball coach since she was 13 years old.

Court documents said the teen’s relationship began with David in 2023 after a volleyball trip to Las Vegas. She was 16 at the time.

The teen told investigators that David was providing extra training to prepare her for college. She also admitted to engaging in different types of sexual contact with David that including oral and vaginal sex, documents said.

She also said that their sexual activities occurred at the fire station where he worked, at a nearby warehouse, as well as at David’s home and vehicle, documents said.

David was arrested in July of 2024 for sexual assault in the second degree. He waived his Miranda rights and was interviewed.

During his interview with investigators, David said they “began to develop feelings for each other and ‘fell in love,’” and admitted that he and the teen engaged in a sexual relationship, documents said.

David said that the romantic phase of the relationship began around March 2023, and admitted to ordering ride share services for the teen so she could leave her house to meet him at or near his workplace, documents said.

Investigators said they found 97 graphic videos of the two of them on her phone and 78 emails referring to ride share trips and GPS location data.

David played for the University of Hawaii men’s volleyball team in 2009.

If convicted, he could face up to 30 years in prison.

Copyright 2025 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.



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