Advice on Gap Year

Honey_Badger

Honey_Badger

Member
I know there are already 1000 + threads on this but I am sort of in a tricky situation. I already deffered from CU Boulder from 2018 to 2019. I am from DC and was originally planning on rooming with my cousin and 2 of his friends who all already live in Boulder. We were going to room in Boulder and ski on the weekends. Recently 1 of the friends flaked, but we adjusted and found another place. I set up a showing for the house for my cousin and his friend. They both didnt make it and I found out about it recently. My cousin said his dad would not sign the lease yet because he did not have enough cash saved up. He had a job that payed well for a highschooler but the hours were shit, and he is getting a new job. I am now stuck in a situation where I could say that I want to go live in the mountains(Breck or Keystone) for the year, or I could be patient and hold on a bit longer.

TLDR: Should Op try to live and work in Boulder or a mountain town in Colorado? Also if you need another roommate just let me know i might decide to hold out, but options are always nice to have.
 
13934259:DirtYStylE said:
Find a place that charges rent by the month
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We have its just the security deposit and his dad’s unwillingness to sign due to my cousin’s lack of money. Thank you for the reply
 
Boulder wouldn't be the best option to be a ski bum imo. Apply to a ski area, get into employee housing, make friends with a bunch of other 18-20somethings, profit....

Also you're going to school in Boulder so you'll be living there for a good chunk of the next 4 or 5 years. Go somewhere's random and ski bum or travel.

Honestly do whatever you want, but that's my advice.

Also people will flake out. I've had plenty of strangers to best friends flake out on things. If you still want to do it, it's doable. Look for rooms for rent on CL where people already have a house and need a roommate. Also can look into a studio but that might be out of your budget. Remember that you're 18 and don't have a bunch of rental experience. Some places will pass on you simply because they don't want their place trashed, and first time away from home people will sometimes destroy properties.

A bunch of ski areas have employee housing where you'll either have a 2-4 br apartment, or have a 1 or 2 br with 2 people in each room like a dorm. Things can be close quarters but you'll be able to ski a lot, make a few bucks, have a place to live, and meet a bunch of degenerates to hike, party, or get in legal trouble with.
 
13934260:Honey_Badger said:
We have its just the security deposit and his dad’s unwillingness to sign due to my cousin’s lack of money. Thank you for the reply
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Convince him or get someone else to sign it
 
13934260:Honey_Badger said:
We have its just the security deposit and his dad’s unwillingness to sign due to my cousin’s lack of money. Thank you for the reply
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Having to depend on other people can fuck this situation up for you. There's no guarantee he's going to even end up going, even if he says he is. I was supposed to move to AK or CA with different friends after high school. I didn't bail but everyone else did and I stayed in the Northeast for a while.

Hell even this last fall I was looking for a place. Locked down a place where housing is difficult. A dope place for a great price. Still couldn't get 2 other people on the lease together without somebody bailing. I looked for a room instead and found one right away.

You will find in life that a lot of people are full of shit. They'll talk about things they're gonna do, but it's shit they think about doing, or wish they were doing, but will never follow through. People can be flaky fucks. Wanting to be living with your friends is sensible, but shit seems like it's already going south and you're not even there yet.
 
13934261:theabortionator said:
Boulder wouldn't be the best option to be a ski bum imo. Apply to a ski area, get into employee housing, make friends with a bunch of other 18-20somethings, profit....

Also you're going to school in Boulder so you'll be living there for a good chunk of the next 4 or 5 years. Go somewhere's random and ski bum or travel.

Honestly do whatever you want, but that's my advice.

Also people will flake out. I've had plenty of strangers to best friends flake out on things. If you still want to do it, it's doable. Look for rooms for rent on CL where people already have a house and need a roommate. Also can look into a studio but that might be out of your budget. Remember that you're 18 and don't have a bunch of rental experience. Some places will pass on you simply because they don't want their place trashed, and first time away from home people will sometimes destroy properties.

A bunch of ski areas have employee housing where you'll either have a 2-4 br apartment, or have a 1 or 2 br with 2 people in each room like a dorm. Things can be close quarters but you'll be able to ski a lot, make a few bucks, have a place to live, and meet a bunch of degenerates to hike, party, or get in legal trouble with.
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It seems that you have vast amounts of knowledge about this subject. Where would i sign up for a resort job and what type of job would you reccomend? What website was CL? Thank you for your reply.
 
13934264:Honey_Badger said:
It seems that you have vast amounts of knowledge about this subject. Where would i sign up for a resort job and what type of job would you reccomend? What website was CL? Thank you for your reply.
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Some jobs are already up, the rest will be going up in the next 2 and a half months. You can apply through the individual website or find the bulk of them on sites likehttps://www.indeed.com orhttps://www.simplyhired.com/

CL is Craigslist.https://boulder.craigslist.org/search/apa Good for buying selling shit, finding jobs, finding apartments. Also it's set up regionally so easy to find things in specific areas. Also if you're dead set on boulder, might not be bad to join one of the facebook classified groups. I know summit has "One mans junk summit" but not sure what the groups are in Boulder.

What job you want depends on you. Being a lifty or ticket scanner isn't glamorous but getting a pass and being able to ski and party with the peoples in the mountains is dope. Those jobs are easy as there will always be a need. Ski instructing is pretty solid but the bigger resorts are sometimes requiring level 1 or at least previous experience.

One of my buddies was a lifty 2 years ago at breck. Got him to apply for snowmaking last year. He loved that, and then was able to move into grooming mid season. He's grooming full time next year.

Sometimes pick up part time work at restaurants to get deals on or free food/drinks and a couple extra bucks to live off.

Idk, just some options. You can ski el dora, but even that's farther than I want to drive on the reg. There's something dope about being less than 20 min to good skiing.

Also are you bringing a car or relying on public transport? That matters in terms of location. Some places have free county wide buses, some places have nothing.

Also
https://jobs.vailresortscareers.com/
https://www.coolworks.com/
 
13934265:theabortionator said:
Some jobs are already up, the rest will be going up in the next 2 and a half months. You can apply through the individual website or find the bulk of them on sites likehttps://www.indeed.com orhttps://www.simplyhired.com/

CL is Craigslist.https://boulder.craigslist.org/search/apa Good for buying selling shit, finding jobs, finding apartments. Also it's set up regionally so easy to find things in specific areas. Also if you're dead set on boulder, might not be bad to join one of the facebook classified groups. I know summit has "One mans junk summit" but not sure what the groups are in Boulder.

What job you want depends on you. Being a lifty or ticket scanner isn't glamorous but getting a pass and being able to ski and party with the peoples in the mountains is dope. Those jobs are easy as there will always be a need. Ski instructing is pretty solid but the bigger resorts are sometimes requiring level 1 or at least previous experience.

One of my buddies was a lifty 2 years ago at breck. Got him to apply for snowmaking last year. He loved that, and then was able to move into grooming mid season. He's grooming full time next year.

Sometimes pick up part time work at restaurants to get deals on or free food/drinks and a couple extra bucks to live off.

Idk, just some options. You can ski el dora, but even that's farther than I want to drive on the reg. There's something dope about being less than 20 min to good skiing.

Also are you bringing a car or relying on public transport? That matters in terms of location. Some places have free county wide buses, some places have nothing.

Also
https://jobs.vailresortscareers.com/
https://www.coolworks.com/
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Oh so CL was craigslist, I didnt know that. I will probably look into those jobs in breck but what do you do during the offseason and preseason for work and living places because im planning on driving out soon rather than in the middle of november. Thank you for the advice again.
 
Sorry for the double but i would use public transit as i dont have a car. And i would either rely on others if I lived in Boulder or find a ski bus to go skiing,
 
13934266:Honey_Badger said:
Oh so CL was craigslist, I didnt know that. I will probably look into those jobs in breck but what do you do during the offseason and preseason for work and living places because im planning on driving out soon rather than in the middle of november. Thank you for the advice again.
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Depends. Early season snowmaking get's people out there before lifty/ski instructor jobs start but it's still kind of late. There are some general labor/maintenance jobs that get posts. Painting, fixing shit, whatever. There are jobs on the mtn bike courses for the summer/getting things ready in the spring. Terrain park work fixing up park features.

Most people generally just rock the ski area work from oct/nov- april. Then look for other work in the spring. Everything from restaurant work to rafting guides to landscaping/construction stuff.

Some people hate working at ski areas, some people love it. If you dig skiing and want to get out west, it can be a good start give you a job, pass, place to live, and make it easy to meet some peoples. Worth looking into.
 
Thank you for the info man. Do people usually stay in employee housing year round or not really? Because i would think i would have trouble finding a place to work and stay for only the fall and the spring after the ski season is done.
 
13934270:Honey_Badger said:
Thank you for the info man. Do people usually stay in employee housing year round or not really? Because i would think i would have trouble finding a place to work and stay for only the fall and the spring after the ski season is done.
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Most places you have the option to stay over the summer. It's actually easier to get the housing in the summer a lot of spots since they don't have the huge work for to house. Some places even open it up to non employees vs being strictly employee housing in the winter. In mtn towns getting winter housing is the problem general, summer is usually pretty easy. That's why a lot of places do year leases so they don't have an empty apt for the summer.

Summit county is pretty shot for living at this point but doable. All kind of comes down to location, amount of housing, and how many people are trying to live/work there.
 
(1 Move to said location.

(2 Find a cave.

(3 Move into your new home.

(4 Make it feel more homely.

(5 Get a part-time job.

(6 Ski on your days off.

(7 Party hard.

(8 Eat only ramen noodles and hot dogs for 12 months.

**This post was edited on Jul 27th 2018 at 12:03:55pm
 
13934263:theabortionator said:
You will find in life that a lot of people are full of shit. They'll talk about things they're gonna do, but it's shit they think about doing, or wish they were doing, but will never follow through. People can be flaky fucks. Wanting to be living with your friends is sensible, but shit seems like it's already going south and you're not even there yet.
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This was a life lesson for me. Never trust anyone on their word and always be ready to do stuff on your own. I recommend head out in the summer with a tent and sleeping bag, enough money for food and a prepayed ticket home if things dont work out. Expectations and reality never seem to go hand and hand...
 
I get the idea of wanting to move out right now but it would be a bit difficult with it being mid season. If your cool camping out and not living in a house then you could make it work. Van life in a mini van is pretty cheap.

I would say apply everywhere resorts wise and see where you can get offers.

Colorado is cool but there is MT, UT, CA, OR, WA. There is tons of places to spend a full year where you can get housing.

Another good seasonal job site is https://www.coolworks.com/help-wanted-now

They have some good job links for winter, summer and current job offers.
 
Your pals will let you down doesn't sound like they will be signing a lease with you I'd go bump lifts somewhere rad then go to school in a year.
 
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