Advice For Mountain Life

Other than being in the mountains, what are your goals? You looking to do this for a season, year, or long term? What education and work experience do you have? There's a lot of ways to grind it out, but depending on your situation and goals you could do it more comfortably than the ski winter and raft summer grind.

r00kieOther than being in the mountains, what are your goals? You looking to do this for a season, year, or long term? What education and work experience do you have? There's a lot of ways to grind it out, but depending on your situation and goals you could do it more comfortably than the ski winter and raft summer grind.

I'm not scared of the struggle. Not interested in the whole settle down to get a "white picket fence" lifestyle. I want the dirt. Just trying to hear from others who have lived the struggle all for the glory of skiing.
Currently a freshman in a state college but this remote learning situation isn't cutting it for me. Have plenty of experience as a chef at a high end seafood spot, 45 ish hours per week there. Now have experience at a mountain from one season.
The goal is to be a true ski bum, to be free to do as I please.

ScrewyI'm not scared of the struggle. Not interested in the whole settle down to get a "white picket fence" lifestyle. I want the dirt. Just trying to hear from others who have lived the struggle all for the glory of skiing.
Currently a freshman in a state college but this remote learning situation isn't cutting it for me. Have plenty of experience as a chef at a high end seafood spot, 45 ish hours per week there. Now have experience at a mountain from one season.
The goal is to be a true ski bum, to be free to do as I please.

Gotcha. Your goals are veey different from mine there. Perhaps some folks with more experience with the 'ski bum' grind can weigh in such as @theabortionator

Don't mean to single you out borty, just mind blanking on who else on here has some experience in the industry and parks specifically.

r00kieGotcha. Your goals are veey different from mine there. Perhaps some folks with more experience with the 'ski bum' grind can weigh in such as @theabortionator

Don't mean to single you out borty, just mind blanking on who else on here has some experience in the industry and parks specifically.

All good.

Yo OP, that's dope youre into parks. What mtn are you working at? I dont want to say things are necessarily better out west but theres bigger mtns, more snowfall and some cool opportunities and good skiing.

Honestly mtns like loon big bouoders park(rip), etc have been on point with anything else for years. The east coast rips.

But yeah man try it out. I would say really try and get a job with a goid park program thats stable or growing. You can learn a lot. I def got pulled into a couple of places where i felt I wasted my season because the parks were clearly dying.


But there are so many places. Also if you really like parks do some ride alongs and get in a cat.

Also for year round work you have things like mtn bike parks in the summer(which i dont really do) and if you've got some experience you can hit the southern hem and do NZ or australia. Or try and get on at hood.


It's all what you're into and stuff but it can be pretty cool of youre passionate.

If you got a car that can do doordash/ubereats it can be a decent way to sustain somewhat of an income in the off season. Whenever I bum around the US I always make sure that I keep enough cash to make it to a major metro so that I can turn the app on and make a few hundred bucks. I'd go make $500 over 2-3 days and peace out for a few weeks, rinse and repeat. Manage to sustain myself for months at time doing this method.

theabortionatorAll good.

Yo OP, that's dope youre into parks. What mtn are you working at? I dont want to say things are necessarily better out west but theres bigger mtns, more snowfall and some cool opportunities and good skiing.

Honestly mtns like loon big bouoders park(rip), etc have been on point with anything else for years. The east coast rips.

But yeah man try it out. I would say really try and get a job with a goid park program thats stable or growing. You can learn a lot. I def got pulled into a couple of places where i felt I wasted my season because the parks were clearly dying.


But there are so many places. Also if you really like parks do some ride alongs and get in a cat.

Also for year round work you have things like mtn bike parks in the summer(which i dont really do) and if you've got some experience you can hit the southern hem and do NZ or australia. Or try and get on at hood.


It's all what you're into and stuff but it can be pretty cool of youre passionate.

Thank you so much for the reply, I really appreciate your thoughts.
Def considering a different mountain like loon, the mountain I was at (attitash) suffered hard from vail ownership and lack of care to the park. Nice rails but no jumps whatsoever.
I was so antsy to get a ride along in a cat but never worked out.

guelah_papyrusIf you got a car that can do doordash/ubereats it can be a decent way to sustain somewhat of an income in the off season. Whenever I bum around the US I always make sure that I keep enough cash to make it to a major metro so that I can turn the app on and make a few hundred bucks. I'd go make $500 over 2-3 days and peace out for a few weeks, rinse and repeat. Manage to sustain myself for months at time doing this method.

Damn, never thought of this. Thanks for the wisdom. Def might have to give this a shot and see what it's all about

ScrewyThank you so much for the reply, I really appreciate your thoughts.
Def considering a different mountain like loon, the mountain I was at (attitash) suffered hard from vail ownership and lack of care to the park. Nice rails but no jumps whatsoever.
I was so antsy to get a ride along in a cat but never worked out.

Damn yeqh attitash had a good park sometimes. They seemed like the best park in the area recently. I worked at cranmore a decade ago.

As far as the cat thing it can be tough. If you really like the ski industry snownaking is a sick job. It sucks, its fun, it suck, but you learn some stuff and usually a good way to move into a cat. Talk to grooming manager or other cat ops in that period. Get some time roding along maybe some stick time. Then hopefully when the snowmaking season ends you can groom for the season.

Also though vaik sucks some of the big mtns like vail hire rookies atraight up amevery year. Not a ton of spots but can be worth apllying to get 2 aeasons in and then get a park job at a better mtn or something.

Honestly day crew is sick though. I learned a lot about parks in general and got pretty mean with a rake and shovel.

Just pick up skills whenever you can. Maybe somebody needs to hunp in the si syeer and cleer the shop lot. Nobody want's to do it because they're busy or whatever. Volunteer for that shit and learn something.

Idk pick up whatever skills you can along the way. Welding and operation skills are pretty useful in the workforce outside of the ski industry as well as life in general.

Idk i worked at a bunch of shitty places or had a good thing going and mtn went bankrupt, or got fucked for hours, or was told Id be in a cst and it wasn't happening.

There's no 100% legit road map. Some times decisions and moves pan out, sometimes they don't. Just try to find a good spot that matches what you want and learn what you can while you're there.


Also running cats kind if sucks too. Its great, you can have a huge impact on the parks in a shift, mive so much more snow than you csn with a rake, but you're working nights and shit.

I like it though. I'm pretty locked in. Trying to learn as much as I can and keep improving. Bummed im missing this and last years southern hemisphere winter but hopefully next year ill be back in that.

theabortionatorDamn yeqh attitash had a good park sometimes. They seemed like the best park in the area recently. I worked at cranmore a decade ago.

As far as the cat thing it can be tough. If you really like the ski industry snownaking is a sick job. It sucks, its fun, it suck, but you learn some stuff and usually a good way to move into a cat. Talk to grooming manager or other cat ops in that period. Get some time roding along maybe some stick time. Then hopefully when the snowmaking season ends you can groom for the season.

Also though vaik sucks some of the big mtns like vail hire rookies atraight up amevery year. Not a ton of spots but can be worth apllying to get 2 aeasons in and then get a park job at a better mtn or something.

Honestly day crew is sick though. I learned a lot about parks in general and got pretty mean with a rake and shovel.

Just pick up skills whenever you can. Maybe somebody needs to hunp in the si syeer and cleer the shop lot. Nobody want's to do it because they're busy or whatever. Volunteer for that shit and learn something.

Idk pick up whatever skills you can along the way. Welding and operation skills are pretty useful in the workforce outside of the ski industry as well as life in general.

Idk i worked at a bunch of shitty places or had a good thing going and mtn went bankrupt, or got fucked for hours, or was told Id be in a cst and it wasn't happening.

There's no 100% legit road map. Some times decisions and moves pan out, sometimes they don't. Just try to find a good spot that matches what you want and learn what you can while you're there.


Also running cats kind if sucks too. Its great, you can have a huge impact on the parks in a shift, mive so much more snow than you csn with a rake, but you're working nights and shit.

I like it though. I'm pretty locked in. Trying to learn as much as I can and keep improving. Bummed im missing this and last years southern hemisphere winter but hopefully next year ill be back in that.

Yea day crew wasn't a bad gig at all. Got a good dose of knowledge on how things operate around the mountain. Some of the homies were snowmakers and they basically told me the same info. A few of them even worked at cranmore too!
I feel ya on the travel, would be otherworldly to get down and experience a back to back winter. I've been real interested in metal work and welding ever since I started helping my brother by putting a lift on his jeep. Seems like endless possiblities from there.
How did you begin welding/metal work?

ScrewyYea day crew wasn't a bad gig at all. Got a good dose of knowledge on how things operate around the mountain. Some of the homies were snowmakers and they basically told me the same info. A few of them even worked at cranmore too!
I feel ya on the travel, would be otherworldly to get down and experience a back to back winter. I've been real interested in metal work and welding ever since I started helping my brother by putting a lift on his jeep. Seems like endless possiblities from there.
How did you begin welding/metal work?

Got donations to buy a bunch of steel at a tiny mtn in 2012. Guy was supposed to weld them if i cu5 him and showed him how it went together. Steel came. Unloaded it, was just sitting there. I had piece cut but welding wasn't happening. Just started learning.

Asked for some help and got some pretty horrible advice but once I unlearned that i started to figure it out. Built a bunch of rails there and at other mtns. I don't have any certs but i honestly don't want to weld for a living. Just cool to know you can. Its come up randomly. I got caled out of the park on a pow day at a southern hem mtn ended up needing to weld something for the plow and some other thngs. Wasn't there to weld other than rebuilding rail fleet but we needed to clear the roads and it was helpful to have that skill.

I haven't gotten to weld much in the last few years but were doing a big rail build at crystal for next year. Building a bunch if beginner boxes and rails and a few bigger features that we don't have. Will be cool to get back into it.

Snowmaking ia pretty chill though. You become good friends sometimes working bulllshit hours. Def go to a mtn that has snowmobiles though. Some mtns do weird shit and you have to walk everywhere.

Southern hem is cool. I've done 4 seasons. I like the back to back winters. And once i start going again csn soible up on lmtime in a cat to keep improving.

Also different ski areas have different trails, equipment, snow type, etc. So you csn learn a lot going between different mtns.

Always keep a decent relationship eith the place as much as possible and leave in a good spot. The ski industry is small. People that burn bridges have less opportunities. There's a lot of mtns out there, but it's better to keep good references even if you move on to another mtn.