Mountain Part Timers

[highpeaksdrifter]

Have you ever thought about working part time as Ski Patrol, Snowsports instructor, Safety Patrol, Mt. Host, or an Ambassador?

If you have, but didn’t pull the trigger what stopped you?

Benefits: pass, family pass, discounts on gear, food, drink, locker room, camaraderie.

Downside: you have to work

 

[deadheadskier]

....in retirement, definitely. I hope to be living in the mountains again and teach kids skiing a couple days a week. Ideally, I'd love to have enough disposable income where I could do this for free independent of the ski area....sorta giving back to the sport that has given me so much. Not sure what the insurance liabilities of it would be and I'd imagine the mountains wouldn't like it as it would take revenue away from them....but, it is a dream of mine.

....in my current life, no....won't happen. Significant other doesn't ski. I have weekends off and spend one day with her, one on the hill.....with a liberal powder clause :lol: So, I really have no interest in forfeiting that day no matter what the benefits might be.

 

[dmc]

I already work for a living.... So i can afford a pass...
For my season pass i get discounts on gear, food, drink, locker room, camaraderie.

So the great thing about being on ski patrol or being an instructor is you GET to ski EVERY DAY!!!!
The bad thing about being s patroller or instructor is you HAVE to ski EVERY DAY!!!!

 

[ed-drum]

People have asked me to be on ski patrol, because of my Air Force medical experience. I might take the course soon, it's free and will be a good brush up on my training. Maybe I'll go be on patrol at Hunter!

 

[Beetlenut]

Kind of the long range retirement plan. Want to retire to Vermont or Maine. Have thought that if I have to work, I'd like to do something on the snow. I could think of a lot worse things to have to do than get on skis every day! So yes, I have thought about it a lot. I have the opportunity to take PSIA instructor classes at the small ski hill near my house, except they want an every weekend commitment which I can't do now.

 

[ta&idaho]

I was hired to be a parking lot attendant at the local mountain (Bogus Basin) when I was 15 so I could get a free pass ($435 at the time, a lot of money for a young kid). When my parents heard my plan of taking the employee bus or hitchhiking every day after school, they decided to buy me a pass. That was the end of my ski-ployment pursuits...

 

[campgottagopee]

When I first moved backed from Smuggs I thought of teaching part-time for a free pass. I was full cert w/ PSIA so knew I wouldn't have to "try out" with the squad and also thought the extra bucks would be cool for drinkin money. Turns out teaching at my local hill was nowhere near as fun or lucrative as up north so I bagged it real quick. It also kinda sucked on nice days havin to hang around in line-up waiting to see ifin you were gonna get a class. Too much time wasted when I could've been skiing. If they had "Mt. Host's" or something like that here I would consider that if all I had to do was ski at poinjt peeps in the right direction.

 

[highpeaksdrifter]

....I could do this for free independent of the ski area....sorta giving back to the sport that has given me so much. Not sure what the insurance liabilities of it would be and I'd imagine the mountains wouldn't like it as it would take revenue away from them....but, it is a dream of mine.

Deadhead, your post invoked a memory I haven’t thought of in a long time.

Back in the 60’s and early 70’s it was routine for Hunter to have 50-80 bus tours each day of the weekend. The mountain sold tickets at the bus area and there was a ski school “sub-station” right there also to grab up people looking for lessons.

Back then tour companies where allowed to bring their own ski instructors on the bus. This practice was about as popular with the Karl Platner Ski School as sheep herders moving into cattle country.

Each group hated the other. Hunter instructors looked down on tour instructors as substandard and total outsiders. The Austrians that Karl brought over each year especially hated them. In turn the tour instructors knew they where thought of as dirt so in turn they hated Hunter instructors.

There where all sort of restrictions on the tour instructors, where they could meet there groups, where they could teach and even when the could ware their tour instructor’s parkas.

My Dad was in charge of assigning Hunter instructors lessons as well as organizing ski offs to determine skiing ability so he was always crossing swords with them. When I was a kid all I heard was they couldn’t ski, couldn’t teach and they where taking money away from real instructors, so naturally I hated the tour instructors too.

Karl Platner was always trying to do away with the tour instructors and eventually they became a thing of the past. I’m guessing they lasted as long as they did because the Slutskys wanted to keep the tour companies happy.

Of course as all old time Hunter regulars know there were always tensions between the Slutskys and the Platners.

Ahhh….good times, good memories.:lol:

 

[reefer]

I already work for a living.... So i can afford a pass...
QUOTE]

X2

and I could never deal with the commitment. The first powder day I would quit because I want to be where I want, and do what I want.

 

[deadheadskier]

Back in the 60’s and early 70’s

man, you're almost old enough to try out my dream :lol:


j/k

 

[RootDKJ]

I've thought about it. I spent 8 years as an EMT in NJ. 4 of those years, my full time job was working on the night crew and will my full time job. I haven't kept my certs up, be it wouldn't take much to get it going again.

I wouldn't pursue it currently as I am taking night classes and live to far away. I wouldn't rule it out in the future though.

 

[ski_resort_observer]

The fact is that many who work at ski resorts do not do so to ski everyday or for free. Many of my co-workers at the Bush ski maybe once a week, course, unless you have a job where you get to ski, your working alot in the winter. Some don't ski at all, maybe their kids do. Most enjoy the work, the environment.

For many of us it's the mountain lifestyle, in my case it's the lifestyle I grew up in. Plus, this is what I face every morning as I head into the "office". Way better than money....:lol:

 

[Hawkshot99]

The first powder day I would quit because I want to be where I want, and do what I want.

I know a bunch of the instructors/ski patroll up at Jimney. Last year when they had a powder day one of the instructors called in and said they had a "family situation" that they had to take care of. There boss knew they were full of it, but couldnt call them out on it. Till later in the day he found his instructor skiing on the mountain. He was fired that day, and pass went bye-bye.:lol:

 

[hardline]

I know a bunch of the instructors/ski patroll up at Jimney. Last year when they had a powder day one of the instructors called in and said they had a "family situation" that they had to take care of. There boss knew they were full of it, but couldnt call them out on it. Till later in the day he found his instructor skiing on the mountain. He was fired that day, and pass went bye-bye.:lol:

well that just dumb you dont take a powder day at your home mt. i have a job that i work so i can buy a pass and travel around the country going to different areas. when i retire up to the stowe area i might do SMR but i think i will just buy a pass.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Have you ever thought about working part time as Ski Patrol, Snowsports instructor, Safety Patrol, Mt. Host, or an Ambassador?

If you have, but didn’t pull the trigger what stopped you?

Benefits: pass, family pass, discounts on gear, food, drink, locker room, camaraderie.

Downside: you have to work

Hell No..my ski time is too precious to give up some of it to work..but I do enjoy helping friends learn to ski and being a tourguide to random people I meet on the lift.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

The fact is that many who work at ski resorts do not do so to ski everyday or for free. Many of my co-workers at the Bush ski maybe once a week, course, unless you have a job where you get to ski, your working alot in the winter. Some don't ski at all, maybe their kids do. Most enjoy the work, the environment.

For many of us it's the mountain lifestyle, in my case it's the lifestyle I grew up in. Plus, this is what I face every morning as I head into the "office". Way better than money....:lol:

Nice shot of Sugarbush North..Glen ellen...

 

[playoutside]

Think about it a lot. Then check the commitment and realize I don't have time or desire to devote to it at the level required at most areas. Pretty sure I'll be a mountain worker during retirement, but much as I'd enjoy it now, it just doesn't fit with all else I choose to do.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Working at a ski area would cut into my vert..

 

[highpeaksdrifter]

Hell No..my ski time is too precious to give up some of it to work..but I do enjoy helping friends learn to ski and being a tourguide to random people I meet on the lift.

That's cool, to each their own and all that crap, but didn't you resently post you quit at 11:00 AM on weekends when skiing Blue?

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

That's cool, to each their own and all that crap, but didn't you resently post you quit at 11:00 AM on weekends when skiing Blue?

Yup..at least when it's crowded..From 7:30AM to 8:30AM..I get 8 fast runs with no people..then from 8:30AM to 10:30AM another dozen or so runs with PASRs and the Blue Crue..then a few more runs and then brunch at the Blue mountain drive-inn..The Poconos are another animal mid-winter when it comes to crowded slopes..I get my quality runs in early and then I bolt..but due to night skiing on all the runs until 10PM 7 days a week..I get equally good sessions during the week although not so much fresh cord..I sometimes wish they opened earlier like 6:00AM..under the lights..then I could get 25k of vert before 9:00AM...