Ski Bum Culture and Ski Towns: One Take

[thetrailboss]

A very interesting article.

Ski-bum culture suffering real-world invasion

Nearly two decades ago, I moved to the mountains to be a ski bum, chasing snow. I was a stereotype — an East Coast kid...

www.aspendailynews.com

 

[4aprice]

Yes living in the mountains is expensive. Certain areas have taken action on this though. Winter Park is/has opened 2 buildings with a capacity of around 300 just for resort employees. Copper I understand has done the same.

I know when I get out there I hope to arrange something to work for the small resort we bought at. (on the weekends and holidays) Not a serious job but something to keep some change coming in and keep any boredom away (not that I'm worried about that in Colorado)

 

[NYDB]

All you need is a trust fund.

 

[ThatGuy]

Im living at the bottom of the mountain for dirt cheap, skiing everyday, getting great tips, meeting lots of women and making cool friends. So its working great for me! Best decision I ever made. And the J-1s know how to party

 

[snoseek]

She wrote a book. I read it and it spoke to me...


It's the time of your life till it's not.

 

[Hawk]

Im living at the bottom of the mountain for dirt cheap, skiing everyday, getting great tips, meeting lots of women and making cool friends. So its working great for me! Best decision I ever made. And the J-1s know how to party

Salt Lake is probably one of the last places you can live that life style.

 

[ss20]

Im living at the bottom of the mountain for dirt cheap, skiing everyday, getting great tips, meeting lots of women and making cool friends. So its working great for me! Best decision I ever made. And the J-1s know how to party

I was just talking about this at the Peruvian last night with friends/co-workers. We have it good in Utah for the economics of ski bumming.

The article overdoes the gloom n doom of the industry. Wages have at least doubled in all areas, in some spots, tripled... in just the last 5 years. The new construction boom in the industry is for resort housing/dormitories. The ski industry will always rely heavily on labor and the available labor pool is shrinking year after year. The 20-somethings of the world are not making the journey into the industry and not staying in the industry. That needs to change. That's the biggest issue I see. Positives though... WFH never took off and land/real estate/rent values will all come back down to earth. The AirBnb bubble has burst. After a decade of rapid change in the industry I really expect to see things calm down a bit. No we won't see a return of $600 a month rooms a half mile from the resort, but things are settling down.

 

[deadheadskier]

Definitely resonates with 2023 me and 1995 me who moved to Stowe as a 20 yo college drop out looking to be a ski bum.

6 guys packed two to a room just off the MTN road in a tiny A-frame that we had paid for the entire season up front on savings from Cape Cod seasonal job wages.

All the ski bums lived right in town. Now? They're out in places like Hardwick commuting in. Both the few new generation ski bums and the ones that remain from my generation, which are also few.

Fell in love with the lifestyle so much I went back to school at UVM for a hospitality degree and lived most of my college career still out in Stowe commuting to school easily with 99 cent gas.

I saw the writing on the wall even before graduating in 2000 that the math was near impossible to live the dream of working and raising a family in Stowe even with a very good service industry job. Stuck it out for one last ski bum season and left. I did find myself trying again a few years later at some other ski resorts, but it just wasn't going to work. And the numbers are so much worse today.

The mental health observation is very true. Had two close friends in Stowe take their lives and many more that have drank themselves to death since. Might have been me had I stayed.

It's encouraging to hear that mountains are investing heavily in employee housing, but in addition to the dorms and maybe more importantly, affordable family housing is needed. That's how you keep good management and other important town workers.

Bar Harbor actually has an interesting program. There are a number of homes in town in an affordable housing program where you can buy the home, but can only sell it at the rate of inflation plus I think it's 2% over the term you own the house. I know a nursing supervisor who lives in such a place. Arguably not a great investment, but she gets to live in a nice home with her family , lock in some of her housing cost at a set rate vs variable renting and gets to keep the equity when she sells. Works for her and it works for the community as they need her to be able to quickly report to the hospital. Said she'd be living off island without the program. I don't even live in a tourist town and I wish my town had such a program for young people.

 

[BodeMiller1]

Came to Vermont to work at Killington and ski. Gave up when I realized it would cost money to do so.
Then started applying for a job at Stowe. Lost interest mostly because of the process of applying on line and the pay sucks.

Now it's back to the real world, but think I'll stick around Vermont for a few years. In New Hampshire taxes on houses are sky high.

Choose Vermont over Maine because Maine is fun, but there's some very weird stuff going on there. Seems like in Vermont you're either a poor hippy or a professional. Not much of a middle class. Agree with DHS, glad I slowed down partying as yep old friends dying at an alarming rate.

 

[BenedictGomez]

Yes living in the mountains is expensive. Certain areas have taken action on this though. Winter Park is/has opened 2 buildings with a capacity of around 300 just for resort employees. Copper I understand has done the same.

Park City has a bunch of newly opened employee buildings on the Canyons side, starting just behind the Cabriolet lift. It's essentially necessity given how expensive Park City is, which everybody knows, but the other thing that isnt widely known is that 70% of housing units in PC are vacant. A terrible waste really, and one that dramatically increases housing price due to supply & demand dynamics. My guess is the town will eventually enact AirBnb/Vrbo and STR regulations in the same manner many other towns and cities currently are, I dont really see any other way out.

 

[thetrailboss]

Park City has a bunch of newly opened employee buildings on the Canyons side, starting just behind the Cabriolet lift. It's essentially necessity given how expensive Park City is, which everybody knows, but the other thing that isnt widely known is that 70% of housing units in PC are vacant. A terrible waste really, and one that dramatically increases housing price due to supply & demand dynamics. My guess is the town will eventually enact AirBnb/Vrbo and STR regulations in the same manner many other towns and cities currently are, I dont really see any other way out.

SLC has said STR regulations and doesn’t enforce them.

 

[crank]

I spent a winter in Park City back in the 70's and affordable housing for ski bums was a real challenge even then. We rented a house in Heber for a few months until we were able to find an affordable place in PC.

Lake Tahoe, South Lake Tahoe, used to have plenty of reasonable housing. It may still, IDK.

 

[jimk]

Park City has a bunch of newly opened employee buildings on the Canyons side, starting just behind the Cabriolet lift. It's essentially necessity given how expensive Park City is, which everybody knows, but the other thing that isnt widely known is that 70% of housing units in PC are vacant. A terrible waste really, and one that dramatically increases housing price due to supply & demand dynamics. My guess is the town will eventually enact AirBnb/Vrbo and STR regulations in the same manner many other towns and cities currently are, I dont really see any other way out.

The number of massive slopeside mansions that sit empty 50 weeks out of the year at Deer Valley is obscene. I'm speaking about over by the Jordenelle Gondy, where the snow pack is always low and the trails are mostly boring cat tracks and service roads.
I guess I shouldn't pick on Deer Valley only. In March of 2015 I stayed in a nice, large townhouse community near Silverthorne, CO for the whole month. I was stunned by how 90% of the town homes never seemed to be used even though it was a gorgeous time for skiing.

 

[BenedictGomez]

SLC has said STR regulations and doesn’t enforce them.

That's an issue as well, some places do have rules and they're being wantonly violated due to known lack of enforcement.

Other places are using the issue as mere a cash grab under the guise of "this is a problem" and charging token license fees just to make money. But the places that are getting serious about a crackdown are getting results.

 

[4aprice]

That's an issue as well, some places do have rules and they're being wantonly violated due to known lack of enforcement.

Other places are using the issue as mere a cash grab under the guise of "this is a problem" and charging token license fees just to make money. But the places that are getting serious about a crackdown are getting results.

This is what I see going on in our town in Colorado. Forcing registration and Implementing a fee per room on an STR's. This is of course under the guise of "we don't want to be another Summit County." Thing is it probably hurts the summer market here more then winter. We won't worry about that as we are only planning on doing a Seasonal rental for the summer months.