2003 Edit

.

**This post was edited on May 15th 2020 at 3:12:48am

God damn I love this thread!
I’m trying to decide my priorities right now as well. I just graduated high school, and am planning on working next to save for college, hoping to find a job that pays as well as yours.

From the sounds of it. I would really want to keep that job, but mountain towns are the shit. There’s nothing like having a short commute to the mountain on a pow day. I would be trying to figure out a way to work remotely. Have you read the book 5 hour work week? I would highly recommend it. Could you split your time between a mountain town, and Indiana. If you have some extra cash maybe you could house hack? As mentioned early I would definitely try and plan a winter sabbatical.

Also so if your in the Big Sky/Bridger bowl area this winter I would love to take some laps with you. Might be able to crash at my place as well.

.

**This post was edited on May 15th 2020 at 3:17:44am

RenoTahoeStunnaProps to a man with a plan.


I have a big crew of pals in Squamish who are geologists. After the depression I can def put you in touch

Thats where I'm going to school! Always looking for new homies to shred and talk life with.

Don't ever feel like you shouldn't do something because you're 'not good' at it. Everyone has varying degrees of skill on the hill, and we're all just in it for a good time. People who think they own the mountain because they ski somewhat well are usually just above okay and the good skiers don't act like that, they just ski and have fun with it.

skiindianaNot literally every weekend. I lived in NYC last year so it was a little further - if conditions were ripe I skied in Vermont but honestly the 6 hour drive is just as bad as the 4 hour flight. I also moved at the start of March so the last time I skied was at Breck (first time, not a place I go really) on the 1st of March. I didn't ski the following two weekends because of the move and because we had a trip to Jackson planned that never happened.

From when Abasin/Keystone opened to COVID I literally was not home for an entire weekend. I went to India for a week in December and didn't ski that 10ish days. Also had an Alta trip planned but was cancelled because my gf got sick. I was trying to hit 50 days and keep my job and girlfriend.

I fully recognize that I'm a crazy person - I flew to Seattle twice for a three day and a two day trip just because I discovered Crystal this year. It's all about normalizing it in the mind of my girlfriend. I'm not even that good of a skier I just love it. Obviously I'm not terrible since I go so much but it's not really justifiable.

Now that I'm in Dallas, it's 2 hours to Denver. I'll be there a lot this upcoming season.

**This post was edited on May 5th 2020 at 12:18:11am

**This post was edited on May 5th 2020 at 12:21:30am

skiindianaThis was my third season. Year 1: I skied 4 times. Year 2: 25 days. Year 3: 34 but was on track to hit 50 easy. I have fallen in love and I'm not sure what to do about it...

I don't live near mountains. I am lucky enough to have a good job (do not have parent money) that I can afford to basically fly anywhere, any weekend, and ski anywhere. I'm one of those awful people with Ikon and Epic. I'm the reason your parking lot is crowded.

Honestly though, I cannot stand not being in the mountains. Its pretty much all I think about and I feel like I'm making a mistake not just packing up and moving. More recently I have thought about going somewhere like Oregon, SLC, or very rural CO after my next season. Ideally I would just buy a very small house or shack-like situation and get a local job or start a small business with the intention to just self-sustain. Other than skiing I don't really have any luxuries. I drive an old Toyota I bought for cash. I don't have fancy clothes. I came from a lower-middle class family so that life is comfortable to me.

Is this crazy though? Have any of you actually done this before? Should I just accept my corporate life and realize I'm being wayyy too idealistic?

**This thread was edited on Apr 30th 2020 at 4:53:07pm

Not wayyy too idealistic, but you are most likely going to want to retire eventually, and being old and poor is a rough combo.

.

**This post was edited on May 15th 2020 at 3:12:19am

Give yourself a trial run up on Hood once it opens back up, if you can make it a few weeks there then you'll definitely love ski bumming

In 2011, I came across a thread on NS about an NS house in whistler. 5 of us ended up going there in November from all across the globe. 4 of them got a job with the mountain , I didn’t. Stayed on their couch in staff accom. for 1 night, ended up sleeping there for 6 months. One of the best times of my life.

skiindianaYeah, definitely said this in jest. One of the best things about starting as a total beginner skier and learning on your own is the feeling of constantly being able to challenge yourself while at the same time always having fun. I remember going down my first 'blue', it was absolutely just as fun as going down my first 'double black'. Conversely 'less challenging' stuff becomes more fun as you go too.

There are things I want to get better at, skiing deeper snow more gracefully in particular is goal for next season, but I genuinely love just being on the mountain and going down anything. I skied like 30k vertical two days in a row at Keystone when they had one run open at the start of the season - those were super fun days.

You have alot of get up and go.



my favorite thing is to be in a ski in ski out room/condo on your day off waking up at 11 am and looking out the window to see it dumping, and saying “hmm... i think ill go skiing”. Then getting lost on a remote powdery tree run all by yourself.

Going on vacations is obviously fun but getting to live where loads of people go for vacation and pick and choose the best powder days to go skiing is awesome too.

How much do you like your main job?

being able to fly anywhere, whenever, sounds like a massive perk.

If your truely unhappy in your job and your doing it just for the money then maybe your ski bum fantasy is more warranted.

But, for some people skiing gets to a point where they’re ready for something else. Lots of people are ready to ride the trails when spring hits cos they’ve already hit 60-70 days on resort. Are you prepared to do landscaping or retail or something during the summer for money.

you’ve got to be realistic with your expectations. You’ve skied for 3 years so your still in that honey moon phase where it’s just the most unreal fun, but truth is you might get sick of it in another 3 years. Injury or performance plateau can bum people out and force them away.

i think your best option would be to find away to work around your current job and maximise your days skiing. Can you work remotely? Is there an office On the west near the mountains? Can you satisfy your ski addiction with 30-40 days a year?

just my 2 cents

Young_pattyGive yourself a trial run up on Hood once it opens back up, if you can make it a few weeks there then you'll definitely love ski bumming

I think this is a bad example. At this time of year it's warm and sunsets around 7.

A lot different than sunset at 4:30 and never above freezing during winter.

Just saying the ski bum environment can be very different depending on the time of year.

i would say do it for at LEAST a season dude. save all your money for a full year and see if your employer will give you a leave of absence for a few months. a lot of good employers want to see good employees come back if they take some time off. also make sure you tell your employer at least a month to 2 months in advance (looks better then just dropping it on them last minute)

I worked at my place as a shop manager and worked non stop through spring to fall to afford being a ski bum at breck for a season. when i told my employer my plan they offered me to come back to work when i returned from breck.

DIRTYBUBBLEMaybe see if you can take a sabbatical next winter?

I would consider this.

I took the last two winters of college off, I went for 5 years, then ended up spending three more years in Tahoe. I am really glad I did it. But I also was able to retake a bunch of math courses, a lower division linear algebra, an upper division linear algebra and a real analysis course, over the summer and fall before my last winter in preparation for graduate school. I had some family money which allowed me to do this. If I had not been in that situation I think I would have done only one more winter after I graduated from college before going to work/grad school.

Being a ski bum is fun. However, it is expensive, hard to make money, and the ratio sucks. Some of the coolest people I knew in Tahoe were older locals who stayed and found a way to make things work, usually working their butts off all summer as contractors or something like that. But by the same token some of the most biter, unpleasant folks I have ever met have been older ski town locals.

I think testing it out with a sabbatical would be a good option. My last winter in Tahoe I knew a guy who was taking a winter off after working in the Bay area. Actually, I knew a couple of guys who were doing this. They were older than me, early 30's, I was 26 at the time. One was a software sales rep, another worked in finance. They both ended up going back to work, but they really enjoyed it. They were in positions where they could take a winter off, they had been in the work force for 8-10 years, before going back to the corpo casual world. If I were you I would try this. If you get to a situation where you want to leave your job you might be able to take 4 months off, then start looking in mid-winter with the goal of starting in June. But it depends on lots of factors, the economy, what you do......There is a whole lot to consider. Things are definitely upside down right now, so who knows how things will end up. If you do decide to take a winter off talk to headhunters and people in your industry, you REALLY want to be able to get back in.

I loved my ski bum days, but I don't really want to go back all THAT badly. I ski 35-40 days a year, most of them at Mammoth. It means a ton of driving, but my wife goes with me 75% of the time. I really love where I live, I get to surf a lot and I would have a great life without skiing. My wife and I don't have kids, and don't want them, which gives us freedom to enjoy ourselves.

I would also look into the possibility of moving to a city (Denver, Seattle...) close to great skiing. How tied down are you to where you live?

Honestly, I would do exactly what I did again, but I don't know that I would want to be a ski bum now. It has its perks, but in the end what I really loved about living in a mountain town was skiing. I would not want to live in Tahoe without skiing.

I can't tell you how many times my friends and I talk about our days in the mountains. We had a blast. But we are not jonesing to give everything up and move back. I REALLY would not be fired up to be single in the mountains. If you can take a sabbatical and make it work I would do it. One of my best friends, who I regularly skied with until he had kids, still regrets not doing a winter right after he graduated. But I would test the waters first. Being a ski bum was fun, but be aware of the pitfalls. From the outside it can look much more blissful than it actually is. I live in Newport Beach, which is very expensive. But Mammoth is pretty pricey too, check out zillow and look at real estate their. The difference is that it is much easier to find a high paying job in Newport than it is in Mammoth.

Is working park crew a good way to go?