Monopoly! Vail Resorts SCREWED Skiers. High prices, screwed Union workers... [View all]

Wall Street monopoly SCREWS consumers
These Private-equity firms are Ripping-off skiers

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Heavenly Ski Resort currently charges OVER $200/day for Adult lift

WOW, Heavenly Ski Resort ALSO jacked-up cost for the gondola ride
just to view, for non-skiers……..

Just Gondola Ride…
Cost is a whopper………..$117/adult
For child………………$81
Teen 13-18………..$103
For Senior 65+….$103

HELL I CAN STILL REMEMBER PAYING ABOUT $28 Adult
back when that gondola was fairly new., but after a few years
so the novelty wore off demand.

Unfortunately Paywall…
https://www.businessinsider.com/vail-resorts-biggest-hated-name-skiing-2025-1?op=1

How Vail Resorts became the most powerful — and most resented — name in skiing

Jan 11, 2025

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https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/01/big-ski-snow-strike/681291/

How the Ski Business Got Too Big for Its Boots
A recent strike at a major resort has put the spotlight on what a bad deal both workers and visitors are getting.

By Daniel Block

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

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.

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.

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.”

For those unfamiliar with the industry, the ……….
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.

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.