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Telluride Ski Resort in Colorado to close Saturday due to labor dispute

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) — Telluride, one of the best-known ski resorts in the Western U.S., plans to close in the coming days due to a labor dispute between its owner and the ski patrol union.

The Telluride Professional Ski Patrol Association voted Tuesday to strike Saturday after contract negotiations since June failed to yield an agreement on pay. With no more talks planned before the weekend, Telluride Ski Resort said it will not open that day.

“We are concerned that any organization, particularly one that exists to help people, would do something that will have such a devastating effect on our community,” owner Chuck Horning said Wednesday in a statement.

It was not immediately clear whether the closure will last longer. Resort officials were working on a plan to reopen even if the strike continues, according to the statement.

The patrollers are seeking to be paid more in line with their counterparts at other resorts in the region.

The union wants starting pay to rise from $21 to $28 per hour, and for wages for patrollers with more than 30 years of experience to increase from $30-$36 per hour to $39-$48.60 per hour.

While resort officials sought to lay blame for the impending closure on the union, Andy Dennis, interim safety director and spokesperson for patrollers’ association, said it lies with Horning.

“He’s being a bully. This is what bullies do, take their toys and run,” Dennis said. “All he has to do is give us a fair contract, and this would all be over.”

Ski patrollers sometimes argue for more pay on the grounds that the cost of living is high in ski towns and they are responsible for people’s safety. Patrollers’ duties include attending to injured skiers and the controlled release of avalanches with explosives when nobody is in range.

Even without a strike, Telluride has yet to get going fully this season, with unusually warm weather meaning just 20 of the resort’s 149 trails have been able to open.

Patrollers around the Rocky Mountain region have been voting on unionizing recently.

Last year an almost two-week strike closed many runs and caused long lift lines at Utah’s Park City Mountain Resort. That strike ended when Colorado-based Vail Resorts acceded to demands including a $2-an-hour base pay increase and raises for senior ski patrollers.

Grandfather recovering from surgery after bison attack at Yellowstone sent him flying

By WTOP Staff
(CNN) — What started as a yearly trip for a grandfather and his grandson turned into a visit to a Montana hospital after a bison attack at Yellowstone National Park.Carl McDaniel, 65, was hospitalized with a broken femur after a bison charged and tossed him into the air Friday evening at the park’s Bridge Bay Campground, according to McDaniel and the National Park Service.He was visiting the park with his 13-year-old grandson when they decided to take a walk after dinner.Along the way, they encountered a large bison that appeared to be rolling around in the dust and was not bothering anyone, McDaniel told CNN.“We were about a hundred yards away,” McDaniel said. “He was not aggressive; he was not having problems and we took some pictures and decided to walk on.”McDaniel and his grandson snapped a quick photo and continued with their walk, video of the encounter shows. At the same time, a truck drove by, and the driver laid on his horn in what appeared to be an attempt to get the bison to move, McDaniel said. There is no audio on the video.The bison then appeared to become agitated and began running toward the pair.“There was little time to decide what to do. At that point, he was within 100 yards; he could be to us in seconds, so I told my grandson to run in one direction and I went the other to try and draw him away,” McDaniel said.The animal then pushed McDaniel with the top of its head, sending him flying into the air before he hit the ground, the grandfather said.“When I was on the ground immobile, unable to move, he was right on top of me. He could have stomped on me, he could have gored me, he could have done almost anything to take my life, and he did not do so,” McDaniel said.After McDaniel hit the ground, photographer Mike MacLeod, who captured the encounter on video, had to step in, he told Cowboy State Daily.“I was really afraid he was going to gore the guy on the ground, so I stopped videotaping and ran at the bison, yelled loud, and was trying to be as big and intimidating as possible,” MacLeod said.After the bison took off, people rushed over to McDaniel, who was in a lot of pain, MacLeod told Cowboy State Daily. Yellowstone EMS arrived soon after, he said.“Park emergency medical personnel responded and transported him to a nearby hospital,” the National Park Service said in confirming the incident in a statement to CNN.This is the second bison attack at Yellowstone this year. A 12-year-old was injured near Mud Volcano on June 26, according to the agency.After Friday’s attack, “all the people that were there were amazing; they were all positive, they were trying to help as best they could,” McDaniel said. A nurse started tending to his leg, while another bystander held his head.He was then transferred to a hospital in Bozeman, a two-hour journey during which he was in intense pain. He said he was grateful for the paramedic who helped him along the way.McDaniel broke his femur, the body’s strongest bone, in four places near his hip and suffered several bruises. He had surgery Sunday and could stand by Monday.“I will be doing physical therapy for the next few days to get to walk, but it was not as catastrophic as it could have been,” McDaniel said.The National Park Service advises visitors to stay at least 25 yards away from bison at all times and to never approach the animals. “If the bison follows you, spray bear spray as you are moving away, and seek cover behind nearby trees or cars,” the agency said.Correction: An earlier version of this story understated how far visitors should stay away from bison. The National Park Service advises visitors to stay at least 25 yards from them.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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