America's largest ski area, Utah's Park City Mountain, is not having the best start to its 24-25 season.
With limited snowfall in the autumn it currently has less than 15% of its terrain open, reporting 51 of its 350 trails available yesterday, although it did also get a foot of snowfall. But now in a move relatively unprecedented in the USA, its ski patrol has begun an indefinite strike.
The Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association, which represents around 200 patrollers and safety workers say it has tried to make progress on its renegotiations with Park City mountain's owners, the world's largest resort operator Vail Resorts, for nine months and that it was forced to take action following a unanimous vote by its members to strike.
The union wants patrollers' base wages raised from $21 to $23 per hour across all Vail Resorts to adjust for nationwide inflation.
Reaction to the strike was mixed with one second home owner in Park City telling local media he thought striking patrollers were "extremely selfish" whilst others said they thought patrollers deserved a fair wage for all the hard work they do.
Vail Resorts have responded to the strike by bringing in patrollers from their other resorts and advertising full-time, part-time and temporary patrol and mountain safety jobs on the day the strike began.