I know this is a surfing forum, but I bet that there is a strong contingent of people on these boards who enjoy snowboarding in the winter around the many smaller ski resorts of the east coast as much as catching a few at the beach. I was thinking about working at one of the local hills in southern PA this winter but wanted to hear about others firsthand experience working at a ski resort in the winter before I really commit to taking an intructor certification course and goin to the job fair this nov... For you MD/PA people, I was considering Liberty or Whitetail, Liberty would be a little shorter drive...
Instructing is the equivalent of being the biggest kook in the lineup. Get something on the liberty park crew or roundtop.
yeah if you want to work at liberty, whitetail, or roundtop try to be on the park crew you probably don't want to be an instructor unless you like dealing with whiny kids who have no chance at being good at snowboarding I'm pretty sure that if you want to work at Liberty you have to go through training for a whole season.
If your gonna work at a mountain, park crew is the best. You get to set up the jumps/jibs and sesh them before anyone else does. However, you might have to work overnight. I have a friend that works parkcrew and sometimes he goes in at 10 pm and doesnt leave till 6 am. Whatever you do, don't be an instructor. Most mountains only pay you by the actual time that you are teaching lessons. I used to instruct and I'd be scheduled for a 4 hour shift, teach one lesson (1 hour), ride for like an hour, and sit around for 2 hours. I would only get paid for that one hour, so yea that last about two weeks haha. Being a liftee isn't too bad either. You actually get paid for the time you work and you get the free season pass (as you do with being an instructor), but you don't have to work hard at all...plus you can get baked while doin it
All good responses, thanks guys. The more I think about it, the less worthwhile I believe it would be. The drive to work would be about 1hour 45 min - 2 hours one way... with an suv that would add up fast. Plus, chances are every half-baked kid within a hour of any of the mountains have already applied for the park crew jobs or are returning employees. If I got to design park hits and layout that would be sick but I'm pretty sure those jobs aren't open... If we were talkin about tahoe or colorado, then I might be more open to ****ty job positions, but not Mercersburg PA. Anybody got ski trip plans this winter? Im headed to Northstar at Tahoe for a few days in January..
I know that roundtop is looking for good park crew guys. they are tired of dealing with stoners who never work so it might be worth exploring.
in response to this, i am proud to say i get high right before work every shift i have and so do a few others so if you say stoners never work then youre wrong
My dads drom CO so we go out to Breckenridge every year to ski, thats pretty sick. And yes I mean to ski
Be park crew at liberty. I have a friends that have done it and they dont do anything until the mountain (hill) is cleared out. They can just chill and do minor adjustments to features while the resort is open until 10
Same Breck is crazy. My favorite resort out there by far. Ive been to Copper, Aspen, Vail, Keystone, and a couple others. Breck has some of the sickest and biggest park features, yet they have the highest lift in North America to access double black+ bowls. Amazing. Last year i scored end of season with fresh pow every day.
