It’s the kind of December week that usually sees Telluride’s slopes buzzing with skiers, families, and the swirl of holiday energy. Instead, the famed Colorado resort is eerily quiet, its lifts idle and its mountain echoing with the chants of striking ski patrollers. The Telluride Ski Resort has now entered its fourth day of closure, a direct result of a high-stakes labor dispute between the Telluride Professional Ski Patrol Association (TPSPA) and resort management—a conflict that’s sending ripples far beyond the snowy peaks.
The strike began on Saturday, December 27, 2025, after months of contract negotiations ground to a halt. At the core of the standoff? Wages, retention, and the very future of mountain safety. According to multiple reports, including CPR News, Denver7, and KJCT, the union is demanding a 35% increase in average patroller wage rates over the next three years. The resort’s “last best and final offer,” made on December 8, proposes a 23% average wage hike—starting with an immediate 13% bump for the current season, and 1.5% increases in each of the following two years.
For the more than 70 ski patrollers represented by the union, the math isn’t just about percentages. Katherine Devlin, a sixth-year patroller and union vice president, told CPR News, “These are not just ski bums. Duties range from basic safety, like setting up bamboo and ropes, to responding to medical incidents to avalanche control work in the alpine terrain. We are not easily replaceable. These people basically have PhDs in skiing. They’ve devoted their lives to this career.”
Devlin currently earns $25 an hour—a figure that, according to MIT’s cost of living calculator, falls more than $2,000 short of what’s needed for a living wage in San Miguel County. The area’s sky-high housing costs mean even trainees and rookies, who start at $21.50 an hour, struggle to make ends meet. “I'd say you're pretty lucky if you get a room for $1,500 a month. And that’s just for a room in a shared house,” Devlin said. The result? Experienced patrollers are leaving for better opportunities, while new recruits hesitate to stay, threatening the very safety of the mountain.
“The result is that both people with 10 to 15 years of experience, who are ready to start families and can’t afford to do it here, and rookies, whose starting salaries are too low to survive, are both leaving. That means we’re putting younger and less experienced patrollers in dangerous positions,” Devlin warned. “It directly correlates to the safety of the mountain.”
Union president Graham Hoffman echoed those concerns in an interview with The Denver Post, especially after news broke that a ski patroller at Mammoth Mountain, California, had died during avalanche mitigation work. “It just speaks to the unpredictability and danger of our job on any given day,” Hoffman said. “When we go to work, you never know what’s going to happen.”
The union’s proposal would see entry-level wages rise from $21 to $28 per hour, while patrollers with over 30 years of experience would see their hourly rate climb from $30-$36 to between $39 and $48.60, according to KJCT. The resort’s offer, by contrast, would set hourly rates at $24.06 for trainees, $27.90 for basic patrollers, $34.25 for advanced, $39.60 for specialists, and $39.84 for station leads.
With negotiations stalled and no new talks scheduled, the union has scaled back some demands, dropping requests for improved healthcare and gear allowances. Yet, as Devlin put it, “We want to make a deal. We want to get back to work. We came down, according to our calculations, about over $200,000. And they didn't even come up a dollar.”
Meanwhile, the economic fallout is spreading across the region. The closure, timed with one of the busiest weeks of the ski season, is hitting local businesses hard. Jon Hill, executive director of the Ridgway Area Chamber of Commerce, told Denver7, “The strike is absolutely impacting local businesses. A common thing from all of these business owners is that both sides in the strike do not realize the collateral damage they are doing to the region's economy.”
Examples abound: shuttle services like Tellurides, usually bustling with 34 staffers and 18 vehicles, now sit mostly idle. Ridgway Liquors, owned by Michi Countryman, has seen December sales drop by 25% and is considering layoffs or shorter hours. “One business owner, he was telling me yesterday, if this goes on more than a couple weeks, he's got staff that they might need help getting groceries, and he's already creating a website and some resources for those employees,” Hill said.
Vacationers, too, are feeling the sting, with trips and events canceled and merchants in Telluride and nearby Mountain Village scrambling to offer alternative activities. The Telluride Tourism Board stated, “While this situation is not optimal, the destination is mobilizing to provide alternate activities for guests currently in town and those arriving, in addition to the many experiences Telluride & Mountain Village regularly offer. We remain hopeful the parties will continue to work toward a resolution, and that normal operations will resume as soon as possible.” Mountain Village has rolled out free parking and holiday programming as a small consolation for disappointed visitors.
The resort itself remains closed “to ensure guest safety,” but it’s not standing still. In a statement, spokesperson Nancy Clark said, “The ski resort is actively working on a plan to safely reopen Lifts 1 and 4 as quickly as possible. A defined number of medical providers are needed in order to do that, so the resort has formed a recruitment team, led by industry professionals. The goal is to hire qualified and experienced personnel to temporarily fill the gaps, allowing the resort to open as soon as possible.” Snowmaking has continued, signaling the resort’s intent to resume operations when possible.
Amid increasing calls for local governments to intervene, the Town of Telluride, Mountain Village, and San Miguel County issued a joint statement clarifying that taxpayer funds cannot be used to resolve the labor dispute due to applicable labor laws. “While the merits of this approach have been considered, the regional governments have consulted labor counsel and have been told that such contributions are prohibited under applicable labor laws. Additionally, both parties have indicated they are not interested in third-party financial contributions to resolve this matter.”
For now, Telluride’s fate hangs in the balance, with picketing patrollers hoping for a deal that values their expertise and local businesses hoping for a return to normalcy. “We really love what we do, and that's kind of weaponized against us,” Devlin reflected. As the standoff continues, one thing is clear: the stakes are as high as the mountains themselves, and the outcome will shape the resort—and the region—for seasons to come.
