Telluride

[Wentzl]

Any thoughts out there about the ski patrol strike in Telluride?

[JROSKA]

No. And what exactly does this have to do with climbing 14ers in Colorado?

[Trotter]

No. And what exactly does this have to do with climbing 14ers in Colorado?

Its divisive and should get some arguments going

[Dave B]

No. And what exactly does this have to do with climbing 14ers in Colorado?

Excellent question given how decoupled skiing is from mountains. Even better question because I'm 99% certain there are exactly zero skiers that use this site...

Anyways, as to my thoughts, experienced ski patrol should get paid more than $32 an hour. Especially in a spendy locale like Telluride, but not just in Telluride.

[climbingcue]

I don't have the answer, but if you price out all the help it is really hard to run a business. Employee housing seems like the only way to help out the issue. You will never be able to pay the help enough to afford a 1.6 million dollar house, they would need to make between 300k-400k a year to do that.

I wish them all luck and looking forward to seeing the solution they come up with.

[rmcpherson]

The absurdity is that a billionaire is holding a town and the livelihoods of many hostage over a difference of $36k per year. It's the epitome of pettiness. More evidence, if we needed it, why billionaires shouldn't exist.

As alluded to by @climbingcue, the root cause of all this is gross wealth inequality.

[mtree]

Telluride is small and very one dimensional compared to Aspen, Vail, Breck and similar ski towns. In the winter its a destination resort and lacks the day trippers or nearby "affordability" area. Your options are Telluride or nothing. Even "nearby" Ouray is essentially closed. Not sure how to wrestle this beast. I used to really enjoy some of the local bars and restaurants (I'm sure most of my favorites are long gone). It was at the fringe of expensive. Not that many years ago many locals lived it the woods surrounding town! Strange dynamic. Not sure if that's still the case. Most of my time was during the summer months, but I did spend a long winter weekend in town at one time. Oddly enough, it was shockingly chill at night. I didn't spend much time in the mountain village (gondola access) so maybe that's a different vibe.

I don't know the details of the who's and what's or blame game, but I hope it gets resolved soon.

[cottonmountaineering]

there has been a gradual transformation of ski towns from affordable to catering to the 1%. Some ski towns are providing affordable housing for staff so service workers can work there, others are not and forcing hour long commutes, living in vans/tents/etc. The ski towns have been really cracking down on the people living in the forest lately and have been suffering for it (Looking at you Aspen and CB). At some point there wont be any service workers left willing to live in poverty just to get a free lift ticket, billionaires will try every solution besides paying people a living wage.

[seannunn]

I don't have the answer, but if you price out all the help it is really hard to run a business. Employee housing seems like the only way to help out the issue. You will never be able to pay the help enough to afford a 1.6 million dollar house, they would need to make between 300k-400k a year to do that.

I wish them all luck and looking forward to seeing the solution they come up with.

I don't take a position on what a "fair wage" for ski patrol would be.
However, I will point out that it is not necessary to live in a town in order to work there.
Rico, Ophir, Sawpit, and Placerville are all within 25 miles or so of Telluride, making for a reasonable commute.
I am not defending rich people taking advantage of poor people, although I know plenty of people where I live who would be glad to make $36/hour.

As you say, another option would be employee housing. The feds could give a couple of acres of national forest land to someone who in turn would build out an apartment complex just outside of Telluride and would be bound to only rent to people with full time jobs in Telluride. Just a thought.

Sean Nunn
Peculiar, MO

[d_baker]

I don't have the answer, but if you price out all the help it is really hard to run a business. Employee housing seems like the only way to help out the issue. You will never be able to pay the help enough to afford a 1.6 million dollar house, they would need to make between 300k-400k a year to do that.

I wish them all luck and looking forward to seeing the solution they come up with.

I don't take a position on what a "fair wage" for ski patrol would be.
However, I will point out that it is not necessary to live in a town in order to work there.
Rico, Ophir, Sawpit, and Placerville are all within 25 miles or so of Telluride, making for a reasonable commute.



Sean Nunn
Peculiar, MO

Sean Nunn, are you familiar with those towns you mention?
I don't think they're stacked with housing options.

Employee housing is the way to go. Living conditions of said housing still won't be the greatest, or I doubt it would, but it could help. In Ouray, I'm not sure if it was the city or a co-op thing, but they bought a hotel and converted the rooms into employee housing. I'm not sure how that has worked out for them though.

The company I work for had a project in Telluride in summer of '24.
Housing was not easy to come by. The airbnb that I had was over 10k a month. And that was just for me. And it wasn't a fancy airbnb.

[cottonmountaineering]

I don't have the answer, but if you price out all the help it is really hard to run a business. Employee housing seems like the only way to help out the issue. You will never be able to pay the help enough to afford a 1.6 million dollar house, they would need to make between 300k-400k a year to do that.

I wish them all luck and looking forward to seeing the solution they come up with.

I don't take a position on what a "fair wage" for ski patrol would be.
However, I will point out that it is not necessary to live in a town in order to work there.
Rico, Ophir, Sawpit, and Placerville are all within 25 miles or so of Telluride, making for a reasonable commute.



Sean Nunn
Peculiar, MO

Sean Nunn, are you familiar with those towns you mention?
I don't think they're stacked with housing options.

Employee housing is the way to go. Living conditions of said housing still won't be the greatest, or I doubt it would, but it could help. In Ouray, I'm not sure if it was the city or a co-op thing, but they bought a hotel and converted the rooms into employee housing. I'm not sure how that has worked out for them though.

The company I work for had a project in Telluride in summer of '24.
Housing was not easy to come by. The airbnb that I had was over 10k a month. And that was just for me. And it wasn't a fancy airbnb.

yeah out of curiosity i looked in the sawpit/placerville/telluride area and the cheapest house listed for sale is 2.4M, he is probably just not aware how bad things have gotten

[osprey]

Housing in Ophir is 1.8 - 1.9 million.
Lots are 350,000.