Vail Resorts was established in 1962 with the opening of Vail Mountain. Vail has come a long way since 1962 and today operates 37 resorts across 15 states and three countries making it the leading global mountain resort operator. Vail’s mission within the ski industry is to create an “Experience of a Lifetime”. With every story, there are always two sides and it is very apparent as to whether Vail is in fact bettering the ski industry or ruining many guests’ experiences. 

Vail Resorts have been facing a lot of backlash so far during the 2021-22 season from both employees and riders. Snow came late this season at many resorts, but that of course is out of anybody’s control. However, when the snow did come many of the lifts to get to the freshly fallen snow were struggling to stay open amongst a staffing shortage. Simultaneously, employees of the resorts were complaining of lowered wages. As a result, multiple lawsuits have been filed on behalf of the employees.  To combat these legal allegations “Vail Resorts has extended a $13.1 million offer to settle five wage and labor lawsuits filed in California” says the Denver Post.

On the other hand, there is a very major issue amongst the riders of Vail’s Resorts as many would say they are ruining their home resorts. A massive aspect of the skiing industry today is the route of freestyle/park skiing. The park skiing community is the primary group of riders that is enraged with what Vail is doing with their resorts. After reading through threads on the Newschoolers forum, a forum for the park skiing community, where people are expressing their feelings on the situation. The general consensus is that Vail seems to be valuing profit over the experience of their guests. Many of Vail Resorts are seeing the scaling down of their terrain parks and users are saying that “park crew members are leaving resorts like Keystone and Breckenridge due to poor management and direction that Vail is leading its parks in”. The simple and popular formula that justifies Vail’s actions on Newschoolers is that “shareholders don’t see the value or immediate profit in parks so the parent company asks the individual resorts to decrease the budget”. The unfortunate part that makes it not completely in Vails hands is that the management of the individual resorts which tends to be an older crowd, accompanied by the fact that park skiing is more of a younger generation’s cup of tea results in them not caring for the parks one way or the other. So, they end up cutting budgets leaving the park staff to work with what they’re given and can’t do much more than the bare minimum.

There isn’t too much to the other side of the story that isn’t already blatantly obvious. The other half of the skiing community simply is not affected by the destruction of the parks. However, both sides can most likely agree that Vail has many issues to sort out and priorities to set straight. Vail Resorts may seem very appealing to the typical tourist’s eye, but there is a lot under the covers.