Lawsuit Is Filed Against Vail Resorts After Park City Strike

The ski patrol strike at Park City Mountain, Utah, is over, but now a lawsuit has been filed against Vail Resorts for allegedly not disclosing the strike's impacts.

Christopher Bisaillon, the plaintiff, has filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of guests that purchased Park City Mountain lift tickets between December 27th and January 8th—the duration of the ski patrol strike.

The lawsuit accuses Vail Resorts, which owns Park City Mountain, of “intentionally and willfully deceived hundreds of thousands of consumers."

“Because Vail Resorts failed to disclose the strike and resultant conditions on Park City’s operations, what was expected to be a dream vacation for thousands of families, at the expense of tens of thousands of dollars per family, quickly turned into a colossal nightmare,” the 16-page class action complaint reads.

Three law firms are involved in the lawsuit: Meyers & Flowers, Tarpey Wix, and The Spence Law Firm.

In December, the Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association (PCPSPA) unanimously voted to authorize a strike against Vail Resorts after hanging in contract limbo for several months.

Then, on December 27th, the patrollers went on strike in pursuit of better benefits and pay. The strike appeared difficult for Park City to manage, and one video, reportedly showing frustrated guests chanting “Pay your employees!” while waiting in a large lift line at the resort, circulated online.

Bisaillon’s complaint alleges that during the strike, only approximately 16% of Park City’s terrain was open, with guests facing lift lines that were up to three hours long.

Park City Mountain COO Deirdra Walsh acknowledged the strike’s operational impacts in an editorial written for The Park Record.

“On behalf of the resort, I want to apologize to everyone that we haven’t been able to open the terrain we had hoped for by now and that the line wait times were longer than usual during the peak holiday because of the ski patrol union strike,” Walsh wrote.

After the strike concluded this week, Bill Rock—the president of Vail Resorts’ Mountain Division—said in a statement, “We apologize to our guests who were impacted by this strike and are incredibly grateful to our team who worked hard to keep the mountain open and operating safely over the past two weeks.”