Record editorial: Park City’s working class stepped up once again during a topsy-turvy ski season
We did it, Parkites: We’ve reached the end of a ski season that will go down as one of the most challenging — and memorable, for reasons good and bad — in our town’s history.
What’s more, we’re hitting the finish line in much better shape than most people predicted when the lifts started turning at Park City Mountain Resort and Deer Valley Resort late last year.
Indications so far show the Park City economy proved resilient, even if most local businesses haven’t exactly set revenue records. Meanwhile, more than 21,000 Summit County residents will have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose by the time the last skiers and snowboarders clear the slopes Sunday, a stunning milestone considering the health situation when the winter began. And most Parkites were able to get in enough turns to tide them over until the snowflakes start falling next season.
As we pat ourselves on the back and reflect on the last several months, let’s give proper credit where it’s due. We owe a major thanks to everyone who made this ski season possible, a long list that includes lifties and restaurant servers, snowplow drivers and ski patrollers, hotel staffers and store clerks — and many others.
This ski season — even more than most — illustrated that the working class remains the backbone of Park City. Like they do every winter, workers pulled long, demanding hours. New this season, though, was the threat for many of being exposed to the coronavirus on any given day, a risk that far exceeds the challenges workers typically face during even the most grueling winters. And many of them powered through for wages that are too small to afford to live comfortably in this community.
Their jobs are often thankless, but we can’t take their sacrifices for granted. Without their efforts, the season wouldn’t have even gotten out of the starting gates. It’s a testament to their hard work that we’ve made it here, to the final days of the season, in one piece.
Never again will Park City experience a winter quite like this one. That’s a good thing for so many reasons. But we made it. And thanks to the contributions of many people in this topsy-turvy season, we even made some happy memories along the way.
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