Resort Worker Stories

Deer Valley and then PC's lodging departments.

Guest services and then front desk agent stuff over at PC. Left a lot to be desired tbh. Spent the whole season understaffed and working more + way later than I was told and wasn't making as much as I thought I was with how many hours I was working a week, so I quit in march and went skiing the rest of the year. Never went back to working on a front desk. Now I spend winters coaching and skiing around with kids. Much more fun.

DeebieSkeebiesDeer Valley and then PC's lodging departments.

Guest services and then front desk agent stuff over at PC. Left a lot to be desired tbh. Spent the whole season understaffed and working more + way later than I was told and wasn't making as much as I thought I was with how many hours I was working a week, so I quit in march and went skiing the rest of the year. Never went back to working on a front desk. Now I spend winters coaching and skiing around with kids. Much more fun.

Sounds pretty bad, but I was hoping for like funny/disturbing/random stories of encounters people have witnessed or been part of.

At lake

one quiet day, I was riding up the carpet with a kid I was teaching and the operator tried to throw a snow ball down at another lifty. Instead pegs a tall old guy without goggles or helmet right in the face.

Happens the snow school director was on the slope with his kids on a day off. needless to say, he was fired pretty much on the spot.

ajbskiSounds pretty bad, but I was hoping for like funny/disturbing/random stories of encounters people have witnessed or been part of.

At lake

one quiet day, I was riding up the carpet with a kid I was teaching and the operator tried to throw a snow ball down at another lifty. Instead pegs a tall old guy without goggles or helmet right in the face.

Happens the snow school director was on the slope with his kids on a day off. needless to say, he was fired pretty much on the spot.

lol damn. Thats bad.

I do have some bad war stories. During the OEC course one year for patrollers at the resort I was working at, they were holding it in one of the adjacent conference rooms. This dude comes running into the lobby all like "Wheres your bathroom?, rushes in there, comes back out, and comes up to me and is like "Im so sorry dude. I shit all over the stall floor in there. I was too late." I felt bad for the dude and called housekeeping.

2nd one that was actually sad was having to help this mom and her kids move rooms after her husband got hammered and started in on some alleged domestic abuse. Cops got called and everything, saw the guy leave in handcuffs and saw a really sad family. Wasn't cool.

Woodward Copper.

2017-2020

everyone who I liked got fired, including some household names for all of us as far as the industry goes.


I worked in a horrible environment, groups of 20+ occasionally, to a level where learning anything for the students was near impossible to achieve.

aggressive management which did not at any point have your back.


the few who remained after me left quickly after.

I was honestly close to blowing them up on here many times, but held back for fear of losing my job and connections in the industry.


They certainly threatened to get us black balled.


We had people fired for showing up 3 minutes to early, fired for showing up 2 minutes late. No warnings, no consideration that they controlled that staffs employee housing. No nothing. A pathetic excuse for an employer all winter every winter.


Now that I’m gone I feel free in saying FUCK THAT PLACE.


Summer camp was a different animal and I felt somewhat supported while there.


The pay was poverty wages and honestly I would have been better off financially working at a local gas station but it’s what we all signed up for.

Feels good to say it out loud.

Park groomer at Northstar, 2017 ish. Vail got rid of the breakfast burritos at big springs lodge. I still remember that fateful day when I heard the news.


But for real, worked at ski areas for a while. Might post some stuff depending on what I feel like sharing or seems like it might be interesting.

The power going off when you have the whole snowmaking system fired up at pretty much max capacity is always a fun one. People threatening to beat each other with a wrench in the shop yard.9 person brawl in the parkat an east coast mountain right before we closed once. A SAR for a girl first day who kicked her board over and chased it down into the abyss pretty much down steep trails that were close, didn't tell anyone. People followed random board tracks and found her board about 100 yards down and not her for another hours.

Idk pretty much the usually. Generally things aren't too fucked but everything is generally a little bit fucked.

Timberline.. rental shop, park crew. Liftie. Dishwasher. Parking lot. Janitor . I was a skeezy stoner kid so yeah. Had fun but I got what I put in it

Copper . Liftie. And one day inner tube. Copper treated me really good. The one day I helped with tubes they all kept talking about the tips and such and I busted my ass and when I came time for us to close up they told me I wasn't gonna get tips since I was just covering and a bunch of them laughed at me so I went and grabbed a ten out of the big tip jar and left grabbed some smokes and came back the next day for my normal lift gig


Anthony lakes. Ski skool. I still.do.it part time for the pass and letters. It's also fun. But last year was fucked. Understaffed and over worked. Any day I was up I taught the entire time. Also help cook and bump chairs when they really need it but I love the small ski hill so I'm willing to help it keep going

ndyeWe had people fired for showing up 3 minutes to early,...No warnings

bro what???

mfs is smoking crack

It was a toxic environment

FruitBootProbro what???

mfs is smoking crack

I was a ski instructor in Australia. This is last year (2020) just after covid hit. We were understaffed and there were a lot of uncertainties.
One kid was fresh out of college and had a Canadian accent (despite being Aussie?). He knew the ski school director liked him and he knew he could get away with stuff. First, he complains and threatens to go to the Ombudsman (work regulatory agency) about his living conditions and makes up all this stuff. So they put him in the guest hotel. Next, he gets caught running up the General Manager’s charge account at the bar. He should have been fired then BUT he played dumb. THEN he gets worried the Queensland border is going to close (we were in New South Wales) so he puts in his 2 week notice. One day during lineup, he lies down on the magic carpet. Head lifty and maintenance (nicest guy ever) tells him he can’t do that. He says “shut up. I can”. Ski school director pulls him out of lineup and fires him on the spot.
Apparently, the resort owner lived in the top of the hotel overlooking the resort and saw the whole thing. Got on the phone with the lifty, heard what he said and had the director fire him on the spot.

That kid was on a mission to see how quickly he could get fired.

Been ski school and a lifty at Targhee. It was fun (managed to get fired from ski school), made some good friends, and learned a lot about myself. But being in the industry isn't financially or mentally sustainable for me, and I'm glad I'm no longer working for resorts.