Backlash Against Vail Resorts

[MakersTeleMark]

Many flaws have been brought to the spotlight, so now we see what they view as a solution. It will start with Epic pricing for next season which should come any day now as tis the season.

Edit: So, it looks like their first “solution” is to extend season to May 1.

Can you imagine the meager labor force's reaction? VR has them by the balls with the raise, and all those visas ....

Yeah, should be epic.

[SkiBall]

Can you imagine the meager labor force's reaction? VR has them by the balls with the raise, and all those visas ....

Yeah, should be epic.

I am not VR and it still is going to really eff with work side of things. And for us that the shoulder season window for vacay was already kinda slim with the 24th closing, this kinda really sucks.

[Dee Hubbs]

So, it looks like their first “solution” is to extend season to May 1.

It's so the lifties will leave early and not get their bonus. They typically close at the end of the second week of April, now the will slim back operations for two extra weeks, and lifties will get only 20-24 hrs of shifts for two week. Will they go join their landscaping jobs for 40+hrs a week and forfeit their Vail bonus. or will they stick around for only 20hs a week just to get this bonus.

[MakersTeleMark]

It's so the lifties will leave early and not get their bonus. They typically close at the end of the second week of April, now the will slim back operations for two extra weeks, and lifties will get only 20-24 hrs of shifts for two week. Will they go join their landscaping jobs for 40+hrs a week and forfeit their Vail bonus. or will they stick around for only 20hs a week just to get this bonus.

They are so short staffed I don't think 40 hrs will be a problem, especially when all the J1's are forced to leave (before the season ends).

[Boosh]

Listen to the Katz interview in that podcast. That's definitely something I took away. The man has zero passion for skiing. Yeah, he probably skis a little, but, more out of obligation than anything. And he's top dog at that company, still, even if there's a new CEO, who should have been interviewed. That's her job, after all. And he sets the tone with his hires and promotions, too. Listen to a few other Vail higher ups that the Storm Skiing Journal interviewed, and it's the same vacuous corporate babble. Alterra isn't perfect, of course, but at least when Stuart interviews them, I hear a VP or hill manager talk about their history starting as a liftie or instructor more than once, and their love of skiing.

I finally listened to the Katz interview on my drive home yesterday and you're right; he danced around a lot of the topics, and didn't take much ownership of any of the problems they're facing. He kept saying that they're getting unfairly targeted on social media this year, and tried to deflect any criticisms that were brought up. When he was specifically asked about how they will improve next year, he didn't even really answer the question. It's easy to see he doesn't care; he knows they're going to keep pulling in pass sales revenue, and he doesn't give a damn about the actual experience.

[detrusor]

^^^^

And that’s it in a nutshell. VR has your money and doesn’t give a fuck.


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[ffmedic84]

From a company email today by Kirsten Lynch

New $20 per hour minimum wage at all 37 North American mountain resorts and corporate.
New $21 per hour minimum for Patrol, Maintenance Technicians and Certified Commercial Vehicle Drivers.
New CAD $20 per hour minimum wage at Whistler Blackcomb, from current CAD $15.20.
Guaranteed minimum of $20 per hour for tipped roles.
Hourly employee wages will increase with compression adjustments based on leadership and career stage differentials.
This represents an average wage increase of nearly 30% across hourly employees in North America


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[Bunion 2020]

Housing is still the nut to be cracked.

[Benny Profane]

From a company email today by Kirsten Lynch

New $20 per hour minimum wage at all 37 North American mountain resorts and corporate.
New $21 per hour minimum for Patrol, Maintenance Technicians and Certified Commercial Vehicle Drivers.
New CAD $20 per hour minimum wage at Whistler Blackcomb, from current CAD $15.20.
Guaranteed minimum of $20 per hour for tipped roles.
Hourly employee wages will increase with compression adjustments based on leadership and career stage differentials.
This represents an average wage increase of nearly 30% across hourly employees in North America


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Did they announce annual executive bonuses?

[This End Up]

I sense a significant increase is pass prices coming.

[MakersTeleMark]

I sense a significant increase is pass prices coming.

I would welcome that with open arms.

[SkiBall]

I would welcome that with open arms.

Co-signed. .

[XavierD]

Housing is still the nut to be cracked.

Lack of an HR department was the main gripe I heard from actual employees. Housing was next up. Both are being addressed in the email. We will see if done in a significant manner.

Stated a significant investment in affordable on mountain housing development as well as commitment to build more as they get permits approved by local governments.

This set of initiatives, if followed through on, would make MTN highly competitive for seasonal workers in pretty much every community they are in. It will hit some independent businesses in their zones relatively hard for a work force.

Agree the cost of an epic pass needs to go up.

[wolfelot]

When will they announce next season’s pricing and offerings?

[yeahman]

It will hit some independent businesses in their zones relatively hard for a work force.

Yeah, but if the ski area is fucked those local businesses are kind of fucked too. It all starts with the ski area.

Agree the cost of an epic pass needs to go up.

The couple billion they have in the bank isn't enough?

[Flounder]

Boy, so many anti Vail threads that I’m not sure which ones to bump. The fuckers are directly responsible for this death.

https://vtdigger.org/2022/05/22/stat...ployees-death/

10 days after buying Stowe they were already arguing to ignore manufacturers requirements to replace safety equipment yearly. Jamie Barrow needs to choke on a bag of dicks.

On June 17, 2017, 10 days after Vail Resorts announced it had closed on its purchase of Stowe Mountain Resort, the director of operations and risk management at Vail Resorts, Jamie Barrow, sent an email to the president of Terra Nova, Eric Cylvick, objecting to Terra Nova’s recommendation that the lanyards be replaced every year if they were under heavy use.

“The term heavy use is undefinable,” Barrow replied. “We are not willing to accept your change to another company’s retirement criteria without a clear safety alert or service bulletin per ASTM We will continue to follow the Petzl retirement data that is clear and definitive.” (ATSM was formerly known as American Society for Testing and Materials.)

The next day, Cylvick wrote back.

“It is our opinion that this is Petzl’s requirement,” Cylvick said, citing the company’s standards for uses ranging from “occasional” to “intensive.”

Terra Nova sent out an additional alert on Oct. 24, 2019, reminding users to replace the lanyards annually.

Again, Barrow resisted. He emailed Terra Nova the same day with a four-point email, including questioning whether Terra Nova did “really intend to have this as a safety alert as this would mean all zip-tours worldwide would need to shut down until all lanyards greater than a year old are replaced.”

Terra Nova maintained that ziplines constituted intensive use and refused to delete the safety alert, the report said.

[Bunion 2020]

Small world, I got Eric his 1st job ski patrolling way back in the late 80s in Park City, (actually just a matter of telling him to apply because he had his EMT and could ski and putting in a good word with the PD).

End of that season he asked what a few of us thought of him as a river guide, he had never, ever camped outside. Next thing ya know he was on the Middle Fork of the Salmon for about 10-15 years. Then he got into Zip-lines when they were in their infancy.

He is a good guy and if he says this is a safety issue I believe him.

[DBdude]

Is the state of vermont a little behind on what is an adequate inspection for zip lines?

I am a little disturbed that Vail decided what is safe and what is not safe.

In vermont you can't get a car to pass inspection when body panel's have a rust hole and Vail get's to decide what is safe for a zip line?

[Flounder]

I think historically Vermont has been pretty lenient with ski areas as they are a major economic driver for the state. By skimping on replacing the lanyard for 3 years they killed a guy and the state only fines then $27,306.

To go with your car inspection analogy, in 2015 the state charged a mechanic with manslaughter because he passed a car with rusty brake lines that crashed and killed someone. For sure they should have arrested Jamie Barrow for blatantly ignoring the manufacture’s requirements in order to boost Vail’s profit. Those lanyards probably cost a hundred bucks.

[yeahman]

You'd think there will be a major civil suit or settlement. The state's findings could factor in prominently, despite the paltry fine.

Using lanyards three years is f'ing insane IMO. Those things are exposed to a lot of sun, which greatly weakens them.

[singlesline]

That's insane. If a company sells you a system that incorporates components made by other manufacturers and are possibly being used out of spec...you go with what they tell you.

You don't go to the zipline manufacturer and say "but Petzl normally rates these for 3 years under what I think a more fair characterization of usage is"...and I can't imagine your insurance company would be happy to hear you are pushing back on recommended service interval for your zipline system. I admit that 1-year seems a little extreme for a lanyard that only sees seasonal use, but ziplines/adventure parks are atypical use and involve frequent use by a bunch of random morons rather than say...rope work professionals maintaining, inspecting, and monitoring the service life of their own PPE (and who know how to treat them nicely and watch out for potential damage).

And a Petzl JANE-Y (what I assume they are using here) is $40 max at retail. Probably cheaper when bought in quantity from an industrial supplier. It is just a short piece of dynamic rope with some sewn loops and some plastic convenience sheath parts thrown on.

[summit]

It's always amazing what fucktarded hills corporate douchebags decided are worth dying on to scrimp a few coins into their win column.

[TBS]

You'd think there will be a major civil suit or settlement. The state's findings could factor in prominently, despite the paltry fine.

Using lanyards three years is f'ing insane IMO. Those things are exposed to a lot of sun, which greatly weakens them.

Sounds like the deceased was an employee, so Vail's work comp policy will pay out.
If self-insured, MTN will likely conclude that paying out quickly and for more than policy amounts is probably the least-cost solution

If they have a 3rd party carrier for WC, it wouldn't surprise me to see carrier try to weasel out of paying on basis of safety violations. Then all hell breaks loose.

And agreed with @Summit that corp management can sometimes be so incredibly short sighted about things like safety protocols.

[Clownshoe]

This is so fucking sad. Those janes are so cheap that they’re almost free by comparison to a Vail budget. Vail saving a couple bucks killed this poor fella

[baron]

Boy, so many anti Vail threads that I’m not sure which ones to bump. The fuckers are directly responsible for this death.

https://vtdigger.org/2022/05/22/state-finds-vail-resorts-failure-to-replace-equipment-contributed-to-stowe-zipline-employees-death/

10 days after buying Stowe they were already arguing to ignore manufacturers requirements to replace safety equipment yearly. Jamie Barrow needs to choke on a bag of dicks.

jesus-80 mph; no idea speeds like that were achieved on zips/you would think safety would be top priority