Telluride Professional Ski Patrol Association

Telluride Ski Resort’s Official Ski Patrol

The Situation

The Telluride Professional Ski Patrol Association's (TPSPA) contract term with Telluride Ski & Golf (Telski) ended August 31, 2025.
TPSPA has been negotiating with Telski since June 2025.
TPSPA is seeking a fair contract that reflects their essential contribution to the economic health and operational stability of our region. This includes a wage and benefit increase for new and veteran patrollers commensurate with comparable ski resorts and cost of living in the Telluride area.
Telski has had TPSPA’s financial proposal since August 6.
On Dec. 6, Dec. 15 and Dec. 22 the company proposed identical offers, voted down 99% each time by the membership
TPSPA made as many concessions as is possible and arrived at the Company’s side of middle, all they need to do is meet us there. One call back to the bargaining table can end this strike very quickly

What TPSPA is asking for?

Improved compensation and compensation structure.
TPSPA is attempting to fix a broken and out of date wage structure. We want to enhance the attraction and retention of this job. A starting wage here is $21. Solitude patrollers, for example, are making $24 an hour just to walk in the door.
TPSPA wants to improve our Special Team Compensation structure. To join a dangerous and heavily trained Special Team gets you an extra $0.50 an hour. This includes pulling the firing cord on a Military Howitzer, investigating a serious or life altering accident on the mountain, and other highly specialized roles.
TPSPA needs to protect the institutional knowledge that our senior patrollers possess. An erosion of this knowledge would lead to an exponentially unsafe operation. At Eldora 3rd year patrollers are now making more than $30. At Telluride we have 30 and 40+ year patrollers barely making above $30. The institutional knowledge these senior patrollers possess is irreplaceable.
TPSPA is trying to inch closer to a Living Wage. It only gets harder and more difficult to live in the Telluride area. If we lose the Ski Patrol that is barely hanging onto housing right now, we may never be able to replace them.
In some instances, a 21% increase can sound like a scary number. But a 21% increase when patrollers are barely making $25, or under $30, is still not that much.
In a letter on December 29 Telski stated, “The ski patrol union’s last and in what they called their bottom line economic proposal was 35%.” Here Telski is referring to an outdated number that includes both a healthcare stipend and a modest increase to our gear allowance, along with a new pay structure that incentivizes institutional knowledge and progression in the company.
TPSPA explains this number includes a since dropped healthcare stipend and increased gear allowance, the number now only includes wages, and is 28%(21% year 1, 3.5% (cost of living) years 2 and 3)
A 28% increase actually looks like:
- The very bottom of TPSPA’s pay scale, entry level $21/hr (medical certs and expert skiing ability required) would increase to $24.50/hr
- The vast majority of our patrol with 30+ years of tenure (currently $30-$36/hr, all but two patrollers less than $35/hr) would see an increase to $38.40-$48.60 by the end of a 3 year contract.

What you can do to help?

Consider a donation to our assistance fund through GoFundMe.
Email gm@telski.com responding to this letter asking for a vote.
Email TellurideSkiPatrolUnion@gmail.com with your personal stories with Ski Patrol. Have we helped you or a loved one off the ski area or side country? TPSPA wants to hear from you!
TPSPA also needs letters of support. Write your own or use the community member or business owner outlines (hyperlinked) and send to TellurideSkiPatrolUnion@gmail.com
Follow TPSPA on Instagram for updates.
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TPSPA did not want to strike!

The hope is to negotiate a contract with Telski in a timely manner that the TPSPA membership will vote for. We were hoping to be a lot closer together regarding a financial agreement by December 6, but the company presented a “last, best and final offer” the membership voted down by 99%. After many attempts to make concessions and meet in the middle from the Union between Dec. 8 and Dec. 22 the company presented the same LBFO in the form of direct dealing, and then formally a third time with no movement on Dec. 22.

TPSPA is not purposefully delaying bargaining sessions. We are working as hard as we can to secure a fair contract that values the irreplaceable skill, knowledge, and training that successfully make this complex mountain as safe as it can be. We’ve been at the table since early June. Telski has had our financial proposal since early August. The company has had months to prepare a contingency plan and is failing the community by choosing to close the resort instead of even trying to open in a limited capacity.

We know how much a work stoppage affects our community, our friends, and the area at large. We want nothing more than for the Company to listen to our concerns and put forward an offer that addresses our concerns. We have made it exceedingly clear what our bottom line is, and if they are able to meet us on their side of the middle here, we can have a contract ratified immediately and be back to work.