If anyone worried about lingering tension between union ski patrollers and their supervisors following the 12-day strike that ended late last week, they can relax.“We have a lot of love for our managers and our supervisors here at Park City. I think we were excited to get back and be back to having their backs and getting this mountain open for the public and the community,” said Tate Finigan, a third-year patroller at Park City Mountain. “From our perspective, it was really just a lot of excitement and eagerness to deliver the experience that we know we can provide and get terrain open and be back showing our faces and helping out guests.” By Friday afternoon, Park City Mountain’s available terrain had grown from 30% on the last day of the strike Jan. 8 to 75% with 36 of 41 lifts running and 261 of 350 trails open. The strike escalated tensions between the Park City Professional Ski Patrol and their employer, Vail Resorts, which relied on non-union patrol supervisors as well as patrollers from other company resorts to maintain the mountain during the work stoppage. Reunited with their non-union colleagues who had remained working during the strike, the patrollers expressed gratitude and excitement. The returning patrollers have been focused on rebuilding that solidarity among the workforce, said Quinn Graves, union business manager and a fourth-year patroller. “This whole strike was not at all against our local managers or our supervisors. This was very much a fight with Vail Resorts to pay us what we think we deserve, which is a living wage,” said Graves. “I don’t think that this needs to cause any sort of tension between local management.” “I hope that folks can see the bigger picture, and that this is not only for us in Park City, but hopefully this sparks some change in the wider industry, and that people who work seasonal jobs, especially in places that are expensive to live, like Park City, get paid what they’re worth,” she added.“My mindset has just been about getting back to work, working really hard, and we’re all just so excited to be back and have ratified a contract. Of course, we wish this would have happened prior to our season starting, and we wish the strike would have never been forced on us. We’re just super grateful to be back, and grateful to be working with our friends and coworkers.”Since the strike ended, the mountain has seen 11 inches of new snowfall. Ski patrol and mountain safety members returned to work on Jan. 9.“Our priorities have been safely opening terrain, not at any sort of pace that is too fast, but opening what we can as we are able to,” said Graves. ”Our snow safety team is working really hard and working with all of us back on the mountain to open things safely and as efficiently as we can for the skiing public.”Finigan agreed.“Something that we all came in with was having a super positive attitude towards getting the mountain ready to roll,” Finigan said. “Following the lead of our managers who had been here and getting ready to just have a really positive experience. Show people what Park City can be, and more so, what Park City really is.”The post Ski patrol settles in to the work of opening more Park City Mountain terrain appeared first on Park Record.