Snow bumming

[skipuppy]

Should be fairly slanted in this community but I am interested anyway

[Randy T.]

Guess I'm only a semi snow bum. I've been working since I was 16 and never went to college full time. I do ride every weekend and am lucky enough to have a job where I can leave and ride during the week whenever I want to. Like today, work at 6AM leave at 8AM rode until 11 and go home at 4 or 5. That makes me happy.

[jayj]

I must say I would be a snow bum in a second if I didn't have the passion that I do for my line of work :D but constant projects with constant deadlines in a not very high-paying industry makes it hard to get to the mountain more than a handful of times a year

[Neil Gendzwill]

Sigh... one of my biggest regrets. Turned 17 the summer I graduated high school and went straight into college, never even gave it a second thought. 4 years later I was completely burnt out on school. Should have spent a year or two in the mountains when I had the chance. Now there's just no way, what with a family to support.

[veector]

I would say im kinda a snow bum, but since im still in highschool i guess not, but working as a ski/snowboard tech has its perks

[philfell]

None of the selections describe me well.

I'm a bum, but I don't have a real job or work for the resort.

[Guest Randy S.]

To pay for it: I worked my ass off all summer following college and lived with my parents. I hardly spent a dime all summer. By December I had around $5000 saved so it didn't really matter if I worked that winter. I went to France where I had a connection who could put me up for a few days until I sorted out my own living arrangements (this was pre-internet so comms were harder). I found jobs working in a pub, then in a slopeside restaurant and also taught/guided skiers. Also worked one day a week for a travel company doing the intro speach on the bus when we picked up new tourists at the airport on changeover day. It was a blast. I skied or rode 6 days a week, learned to snowboard, learned new words in French, met lots of English, French and Swiss women and got laid more in one season than I had in my entire life leading up to that time. I finally blew out my knee badly in March and came home for arthroscopic surgery.

It was the best winter of my life.

[ak_rider]

Total ski bum. went to college near ski areas, but school got in the way of riding so i kept dropping out. Have worked in just about every aspect of the industry from tech to salesperson to my now career of snowboard instructor. Finally found a way to finish my degree too, online school is awesome. I fund things with student loans. When I eventually graduate I will be very in debt, but you can't really put a price on living in the mountains and doing what you love. I'll also be making more money by then too, hoping for CASI level 4 by the time I graduate, in about a year and a half.

[smaynard]

"Real job" right out of college. Spent 6 years banking cash, then left it to go ride out west. Spent 4 years at the base of the mountain, used up what I had saved, then moved back to the old job. Recently left again (after 6 more years) for a "real job" opportunity in a ski town (Burlington, VT). Mainly to be near the mountains again. Figure it's a pretty good compromise. I guess I'll never learn.

[Mike T]

I have a real job but it comes with a generaous vacation policy and I use it all during the winter, so I wind up riding 50ish days a year which ain't bad for a working dad.

My goal is to retire early and spend a lot more than 50 days on snow a year. Hopefully in about 10 years when my daughter is old enough to enjoy travelling.

[Gleb]

Going to college now but soon, i'm hoping to be skiing/ride every night, or at least close to that. Im starting to love wachusett more and more. As i posted in a previous thread, i wouldn't mind going to work in alaska then taking a few years off to just ski and ride as much as i can.

[ARCrider]

only one winter so far that I was jobless with a season pass. unemployment covered rent and food.

hoping for some early retirement close to mountains.

until then working steady midnights lets me get on the slopes every morning.

[tufty]

I'm not sure I fully understand what is referred to by 'snow bum'

I made the concious decision to move to the mountains with family etc, not so much snow bumming as 'getting the hell out of London and going somewhere we actually want to be', a quality of life decision. Since then I've done what is needed to stay here, painting houses, working on the slopes, etc. I found during that experience that working on the slopes was the only job I've ever enjoyed enough to want to go to work every morning, and nets you a free pass to boot, but pays peanuts.

On the other hand, making software pays more and gives me more time off to go boarding.

Am I a snow bum, or not? I dunno.

Still, had a really nice morning cutting some nice curves in the corduroy in Megeve, nobody on the slopes, every year I forget how the first couple of days kill your legs :)

Simon

[Jack M]

I deeply regret not snowbumming for a year. I figure I'll just have to bust my ass and put myself in a position to be able to pay for a lot of mountain time. However I would have only snowbummed for one season. I have two good friends who snowbummed in Tahoe, caught the fever, and lived in that neverland for 4 years. For one of them, it basically erased his entire college education. He can't get a job now in the field he studied for. The other guy is 31 and is basically at a point in life where most 27 year olds are.

[LeeW]

been one out in breck training racing on alpine boards. lived in a shack. no electricity, no heat, no water, no nothing. so had to have extension cord and rely on the wood burner and go to next door building for a shower. didnt cook once. only ate fruits, veggies, etc. stone's throw from snowflake lift. well worth it. my real job now? terrain park maintenance/snowmaker/special events in winter time and a ski liftway electrican for a factory in summer time. :p the shack was about thrice the size of the standard bathroom sq inche. did pull ups on the frame beams, too. gettin' up at 3 am is the ritual to keep the fire going. now that's total hardcore, and well worth the appreciation of living pampered life now.

[LeeW]

Total ski bum. went to college near ski areas, but school got in the way of riding so i kept dropping out. Have worked in just about every aspect of the industry from tech to salesperson to my now career of snowboard instructor. Finally found a way to finish my degree too, online school is awesome. I fund things with student loans. When I eventually graduate I will be very in debt, but you can't really put a price on living in the mountains and doing what you love. I'll also be making more money by then too, hoping for CASI level 4 by the time I graduate, in about a year and a half.

By the way, i wish you the best of luck for CASI level 4. way to go! and do you happen to know where BOEC building is? that's the shack im referring in above post of mine, btw.

[Guest whatmovesyou]

Did it in reverse. Retired at 56. Then I became the "ski bum". Worked part-time at a "True Value" store after closing hours to buy "the toys" that I wanted. It really worked for me.

[crucible]

I was a snowbum for 2 years -

I worked in the movie industry here in Vancouver as an environmental and safety manager during the prime of the "X-Files" days, which left me the winter to be a snowboard rep for Winterstick Snowboards, back when they were still based out of SLC.

Rode that train from Alaska to Banff to Jackson Hole to Oregon - got over 100 plus days of riding in per season, saw a lot of couches, made marginal money in the snowboard industry, but had a blast.

Good times, Great pow....

George

[Guest Tim Tuthill]

I'm old!! So it was ski bumming. In the best place on earth!! Sun Valley Idaho!! Early 60'S. Did odd jobs around town. Lift ticket was $5.50 per day. Went in the Coast Guard right after high school. After that went to college, but it got in the way of fun. Was at Montana State, drove to the Valley on the weekends, they got longer don't you know. The Coast Guard called and said you do one more duty period and your out 3 years early. I'm on it. Learned to fly airplanes, got hired by Western Airlines. So, I never worked a day in my life. Don't lose sight of what you want! Life is way too short!! As the Nike AD says, "Just Do It" See you at Aspen!!!