Data shows Park City Mountain’s open terrain reached its lowest level in seven years during the strike

Park City Mountain base area at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday, December 29th. Photo: Park City Mountain Webcam

Historical data shows that with an average snowpack of 42 inches last week, 34 lifts and 177 trails (50% of the mountain) should have been scheduled to open, when in fact only 18% were available.

PARK CITY, Utah – Vacation visitors to Park City Mountain Resort are expressing frustration that limited open space coincides with the Park City Ski Patrol Union’s ongoing strike against Vail Resorts, Inc (NYSE:MTN). In one of the busiest weeks of the year, guests endured hour-long lift queues, coupled with weather-related delays despite much-needed snowfall.

Historical data shows that with an average snowpack of 42 inches last week, 34 lifts and 177 trails (50% of the mountain) should have been scheduled to open, when in fact only 18% were available.

TownLift’s analysis of seven years of 5 a.m. operational tweets shows that last week was the fewest lifts and trails scheduled to open relative to snowpack depth in recent history.

Similar reading on TownLift

In December, as the strike was looming, Deirdra Walsh, VP & COO of Park City Mountain, told KPCW that there would be no impact to mountain operations if the Park City Ski Patrol Union decided to strike.

The data

Each morning of winter operations, Park City Mountain shares an operations update, including a 5 a.m. snow report with scheduled trails and lift openings, to the ParkCityMtnAlert account on the platform

TownLift analyzed seven years of 5 a.m. snow reports for the period from Dec. 27 to Jan. 2, the first week of the strike. The following table averages the resort-reported totals for each day of the week and compiles an annual summary with a seven-year average.

Data variability and averages
For the past three seasons, base depth has been reported from the low mountain range, while previous reports in 2020/21 used Jupiter and an unknown location. TownLift’s snowpack analysis focuses on the past three seasons but includes all available data. When multiple base depths were reported, the highest base depth value was used. What’s notable is that trails and lifts tend to open faster and wider once the base depth reaches a certain level. For consistency, data for the period December 27 to January 2 were averaged to account for anomalies such as power outages or storm days.

Snowmaking capacity varies each year depending on temperature and significant investments in snowmaking capacity are not reflected in these reports.

We have made the table containing the data extracted from the daily mountain operations updates publicly available here. You can clone your own version for custom analysis. If you think of something interesting, let us know at [email protected]

Snow cover for the week of December 27th to January 2nd for the last 7 years.

The average reported snowpack for the week of December 27 through January 2 over the past seven years is 42 inches. Coincidentally, the snowpack in the first week of the ski patrol union strike matched that average and was just below the trend line for average snow depth over the same period. Notably, the average snow depth for the week this year was 32 inches, 10 inches higher than the same week last year.

Average percentage of lifts and slopes open during the week of December 27th to January 2nd

Excluding snowpack, this is the percentage of available slopes and lifts that were open for an average of one week over the past 7 years. Last season the resort had 46% more terrain open and 24% less snow (32-inch base versus 42-inch base this year) for the same week of operation. Taking into account the undisclosed location of the base depth in 20/21, the only week with fewer lifts and slopes open was the 20/21 season, where the reported average base depth was 20″, while in the 24/25 season it was slightly more than twice that average base depth was 42″.

Open paths vs. snow depth

The larger the gap between the red and blue lines, the larger the typical number of open paths relative to the snowpack depth. In the 2023/24 season, 135 trails were open with an average base depth of 32″. The best comparison is the 2020-21 season, in which 58 trails were open – slightly fewer than this year’s 63 – although the base depth is only 20 inches (location undisclosed), less than half this season’s depth.

Open paths per inch of base depth

By dividing the open slopes by the base depth, we calculate the average number of open slopes per inch of base snowpack. In 2022/23 (65-inch base) and 2023/24 (32-inch base), the averages were 4.8 and 4.3 open paths per inch of base, respectively. This year, the resort reported a record low of 1.5 tracks per inch of base with a 42-inch base.

Long lines, lifts and hiking trails are not open

When the strike began Dec. 27, Walsh said, “We want to assure skiers and snowboarders, our employees and this community that despite the union’s actions, Park City Mountain will remain open with safety as our top priority and that “The entire proposed site will remain open thanks to Park City Mountain and our other mountain resort patrol leaders.”

A Jan. 3 Instagram update from the resort said, “While we haven’t been able to open all of the grounds that we would have liked, we are excited to have opened 30 new trails this week, with more on the way.” We We would like to thank our guests for their patience and assure you that with the team members we have in place every day, we are able to open the site safely.”

Representatives from Park City Mountain and Vail Resorts have not yet responded to multiple requests for comment about the impact of the ski patrol union strike on operations.

Guests and locals have filed countless complaints regarding the limited slopes and lifts the resort was able to open during the strike, including hundreds of emails received by TownLift.

Parkite, JF Lanvers, told TownLift in a letter to Kirsten Lynch: “I stopped skiing at Park City Mountain on December 27th because no terrain was opening despite all the new snow we got. I now feel like I’m not getting the value I deserved when I purchased my pass in May.”

Seven years of tweets for December 30th

Similar reading on TownLift