I'll speak from experience here, and shed some light into some of it.
If you want to be a big mountain rider and be sponsored for it, you'll need to be up there for most of the season. It's not just the skiing, the the people skills too, you have to sell your company. You can't just get a deal, then become a weekend warrior.
In the past, I used to ski for Kicking Horse Resort, and I was up there every day loving it. My contract required me to help out at hill events (not just their big mountain event), we also had photo shoots (best part imo). It was awesome. Two years of hill skiing for free, just up there everyday making a good image for the hill, along with travelling to the local big mountain comps to show off "The Horses Finest".
I ended up moving away from Golden, which meant becoming a weekend warrior, and out for Christmas break. In my team managers eyes, it wasn't worth it for a sponsorship.
So it's something to commit to. Companies out there are starting to get tired of giving people gear and getting nothing in return from it. And a weekly edit to the company won't help much.
So my tip for wanting to be sponsored is get exposure. Meet reps, make friends, do competitions, photo shoots for advertisements/magazines.
Companies want to see their product out there in the world, not just on some kid who's flawless.