Viral investor letter calls for firing Vail’s “Evil Empire” leadership. Will Vail’s woes affect bike park season?

It seems every time I skim the headlines, Vail Resorts is in the news again — and never for a good reason.

For those unfamiliar, Vail Resorts is the largest ski company in the world, currently valued at $6.44 billion. Vail owns an astonishing 42 mountain resorts in four countries. While they’re best known as a ski company, many of these resorts are home to famous bike parks as well. Well-known Vail Resorts with bike parks include Whistler, BC; Keystone, CO; Crested Butte, CO; Northstar, CA; Seven Springs, PA; Crans-Montana, CH; and more.

Staff strikes afflicting operations at several Vail-owned resorts

This winter, the Park City Ski Patrol went on strike over their low wages, causing uncertainty for guests at the largest ski resort in the USA during the holiday season. The strike drove home their point — that ski patrollers are critical staff and are woefully underpaid. Eventually, the strike paid off, with “a $2-an-hour base pay increase and raises for senior ski patrollers” which averaged $4 an hour, according to EMS1.com.

The strike has had a cascading effect, with other groups striking or threatening to strike across the nation. Most recently, the Crested Butte Lift Mechanics Union has authorized a strike and is picketing, but they’re still on the job as of the time of this writing. The mechanics are also asking for a pay raise to $23 an hour. “It worked for Park City,” said Rob Alexander, a unionized lift mechanic.

Due to their takeovers of once-core mountains like Crested Butte, Vail has come to be known as the “Evil Empire.” The company has made a reputation for imposing draconian oversight on resorts it acquires and gutting the local culture. This point was acknowledged and recently driven home in a letter from an investor to the Vail Resorts, Inc. Board of Directors.

Investor calls for Vail CEO and CFO to be replaced and for Chairman of the Board to resign

Late Apex Partners, LLC (LAP) wrote a letter on January 27, 2025, to the Vail Resorts, Inc. Board of Directors, which has since gone viral. LAP claims that Vail is their single largest holding and that Vail has great potential, with a path to a 140% equity upside. However, they outlined four problems and five things that must be done in order to achieve their desired outcome.

The problems that LAP outlined were scathing, noting that “Vail’s KPIs and insider compensation incentives are not aligned with value creation” and that free cash flow has declined by 15%. They also stated that “Vail’s capital allocation is incoherent” and that they’ve “mismanaged the balance sheet.”

“Competitors are eating Vail’s lunch, and management is asleep at the wheel,” LAP writes. They conclude by highlighting the belief that Vail is the “Evil Empire,” and how the “decision to centralize marketing under CEO Lynch has created significant gaps, been inauthentic, and cut out the heart of each mountain. Management’s incredibly short-sighted actions have led to lost opportunities and destroyed brand value.”

How will mountain bike season be affected?

At present, it’s unclear how or if mountain bike season will be impacted. Frankly, even in the midst of the ski patrol strike at Park City, the mountain ran mostly as usual, albeit with a few hiccups. That said, all of these signals point toward long-term trends that have taken place at these resorts.

In some of the communities where Vail has taken over a resort — such as Crested Butte — the lack of investment back into the resort and infrastructure has been telling, prompting comparisons to resorts owned by other companies that are, instead, reinvesting back into the community. LAP specifically called this out in their letter, saying that “Vail has virtually endless opportunities to reinvest into the business, grow its competitive advantages, and grow the sport” but that the “excessive dividend has reduced the Company’s ability to reinvest into high-return initiatives and its key asset: customer experience and goodwill.”

Unfortunately for mountain bikers, bike parks already play second fiddle to winter operations. Could this be why we’ve seen little in the way of trail development at many of Vail’s bike parks (with Whistler being one major exception)? And could this be a sign of what is to come — namely, that bike parks owned by Vail’s competitors will grow to dominate the industry?

At this point, it’s too early to tell, so we’ll keep following this story as bike park season approaches.