Liftying to Instructing

just remember the golden rule.. if you french fry when youre supposed to pizza youre going to have a bad time

Nah you don't have to be certified, that comes later. Do it! It'll help you personally with your ski game as well...spending alot of time focusing on proper form and technique. The more certified you become the more money you make. Don't expect your first year to be easy though. You'll spend plenty of your days on the easiest terrain imaginable with very young kids who likely don't wanna be there who are from Florida and have never seen snow. Just try to stay positive, make it fun, the group will vibe off your energy and it will make it all the easier. Years that follow definitely get easier though.

Just talk to your HR people and they would hook it up guaranteed.

If your a part time worker, being an instructor or ski patrol would give you the most time to ski.
Small hills or resorts don't really require instructor classes til you start teaching adults (usually). Big resorts usually require Level 1 Ski instructor class. Ski patrol needs medical training of sorts. Paid patrol usually needs OEC. Volunteer just needs a certified medical class of sorts.
I work as a lifty full time in Colorado but get a 4 on 3 off schedule. Plus as lead, I just ski around and make sure that first years are doing their job. Perk of being there for awhile.

Every mountain is different. Just finding what job gives you the max time skiing is half the battle.

c'mon....you're talking about teaching 5 year olds to ski. of course they'll hire you. I warn you though, teaching small children to ski, especially at a small ec or midwest resort is not easy in that you're still not really skiing much outside of a switch snow plow, and it's more babysitting and managing problems than anything. Could be good for you if you really like kids.

casualc'mon....you're talking about teaching 5 year olds to ski. of course they'll hire you. I warn you though, teaching small children to ski, especially at a small ec or midwest resort is not easy in that you're still not really skiing much outside of a switch snow plow, and it's more babysitting and managing problems than anything. Could be good for you if you really like kids.

This is very true. This was my 1st year teaching, so I pretty much only taught 1st day lessons. Babysitting in the pouring rain required vast amounts of patience. My advice to you would be to take everything very, very slowly. Little kids get burnt out fast if you push em too hard. When a wet and cold child becomes a wet, cold, and tired child, things get rough.

casualc'mon....you're talking about teaching 5 year olds to ski. of course they'll hire you. I warn you though, teaching small children to ski, especially at a small ec or midwest resort is not easy in that you're still not really skiing much outside of a switch snow plow, and it's more babysitting and managing problems than anything. Could be good for you if you really like kids.

haha, i did not think of it that way but cool! I mean, Im a very stoked kind of person when it comes to skiing and I love sharing that with people! I understand that at first I'll be with kids and I'm totally cool with it. I doubt it's easy but I feel like it would be totally worth it to get kids out learning!

I like that this would be something that I could actually build on as well. Like do all the certification stuff, maybe even do some freestyle stuff with kids in a few years if possible. I don't know haha.

if you really like it and pursue it with certs, maybe move west or somewhere with really fun and challenging terrain and get into small group/private lessons for advanced intermediate or whatever, I bet it's fucking rad.

Getting paid to ski is a beautiful thing really in any capacity, so it's a start. Just don't have unrealistic ideas about how much skiing you'll do in that job at this point with your experience/creds. Don't you know instructors from the mountain you work at? Talk to them and feel it out see how they like it. One thing to know is it's common at many places to struggle to get many hours. A lot of people I know who've done it (I work on hill and have liftied before) would get cut a lot and paid for an hour to show up and wait around and freeski if lessons weren't busy. So, as a way to make a living....."living"...... it's maybe not as reliable as an hourly job where you're guaranteed hours, but I don't know.

Either way, it's probably just worth it to get the experience, meet people, be outside (you could be working a soul sucking cashier/retail/server job) and figure out if you want to pursue it further. Right now, I couldn't see myself doing anything other than working at a ski area, I fucking love it and am surrounded by incredible people from all over. Hey, maybe if you cut your teeth now, who knows, maybe it's a stepping stone to you becoming a cat ski or heli guide, or who the hell knows.

First year instructors are at the bottom of the priority list. This means that everyone higher qualified or more experienced than you will get lessons before you and you may only get work if it's busy. Some places pay you a small retainer to be there for the day and turn up later to see if there are any afternoon lessons, but many places you will only be paid for the hours you teach. Your hourly rate is not great until you have many seasons of experience at the same place and are highly qualified.
In short, it's a great job if you love it but don't expect much work or much pay.

Ski schools vary wildly in how they operate and what your experience will be like. If you can try and speak to a couple of people that have worked there to hear what its like in terms of pay and amount of work.

When I started instructing I didn't like it. I was on the beginner slope with 4-6 year olds everyday which was a slight suprise. Once I realized that was all I was qualified for at the time and got into the teaching part I really liked it.

You get to ski everyday, but know its going to be low level skiing. See if they have any local kids programs. They can be a cool opportunity to ski with kids that are stronger skiers, but the tips, pay, etc, is usually less.

Get Certified, at least your level 1 right away. Usually more pay, its easy, and it looks nice on a resume.