![\"Telluride](\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-760w,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2026-01\/260106-Tony-Daranyi-rs-29e75e.jpg\")
Ski patrollers in mountain towns across the West are increasingly leading the push for higher wages in communities hit hard by rising cost of living. A year ago, ski patrollers in Park City, Utah, went on strike, which caused the resort to close most of its terrain for nearly two weeks, drawing backlash from visitors. Ski patrollers at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in Wyoming voted to unionize last fall, joining a wave of other patrollers who have done so in recent years, including those at Keystone Resort, Eldora Mountain and Arapahoe Basin Ski Area in Colorado. The United Mountain Workers union<\/a> says it now has about 1,000 members.<\/p>\n \u201cWages haven\u2019t kept up. We\u2019re so far below what it takes somebody in this community to afford either rent or trying to buy even an affordable house,\u201d said Daranyi, a past union president who helped start the Telluride union a decade ago. \u201cThis is about more than just the Telluride ski patrol. This is a reflection of what\u2019s going on in all mountain communities, and it\u2019s also a reflection of what\u2019s going on nationwide with income inequality and wealth.\u201d<\/p>\n Surviving on a ski resort salary has long been a struggle, especially in destination towns with some of the world\u2019s most sought-after real estate. But the surge in housing costs<\/a> in resort communities following the pandemic has pushed workers to a breaking point, ski patrollers said. <\/p>\n \u201cWe are like an ambulance on the ski hill that doesn\u2019t charge anything for our services, and some of us are getting paid barely more than an entry-level position,\u201d said Amanda Kelly, a patroller at Keystone Resort. \u201cWe risk our lives and our bodies, and we require a lot of skill to do what we do, and we\u2019re struggling with even just feeding ourselves day to day.\u201d<\/p>\n Home prices in rural vacation communities increased 47% in the three years following the start of the pandemic, compared to a 36% increase in rural areas overall, according to a recent analysis by Harvard University researchers<\/a>. Vacation communities in the West, such as Telluride and Park City, saw the biggest increase, with home prices up an average of 51%.<\/p>\n The researchers attributed the spike to an influx of remote workers and buyers of second homes, who flocked to rural communities looking for more space, lower housing costs and easy access to outdoor activities. Rural areas saw a population gain of 540,400 from 2021 to 2023, compared to a loss of 77,900 in the three years prior to the pandemic, the Harvard researchers found.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing in our mountain communities across Colorado is like what we\u2019re seeing across the country on steroids,\u201d said David Seligman, executive director of Towards Justice, a workers’ advocacy group, who is running for Colorado attorney general as a Democrat. <\/p>\n Unlike some resort workers, ski patrollers have a level of training that makes them essential to operations and difficult to replace in a strike. They are responsible for ensuring the safety of the guests on the mountain, including administering first aid, rescuing guests stranded on chairlifts or cliffs and preventing unintended avalanches with explosives.<\/p>\n![\"Keystone](\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-760w,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2026-01\/260106-Amanda-Kelly-rs-82ff41.jpg\")