People that dropped everything and moved to a ski town, what is your experience?

Timby

Timby

Member
i am 20, in undergrad for a double major in polisci and secondary ed. i go to an urban college in the midwest so its not the most ski friendly environment, plus i commute so i dont have much of a social life besides my girl. i'm thinking of jumping ship in like a year to go to a college that i would actually enjoy being at, living on campus and being close to a proper mountain. i have plans of law school but that will be something i have to consider a couple years down the line. i don't like being here and want to go somewhere where my hobbies would be supported, aka skiing. i went to tahoe during spring break and i loved it, the area and the people. i would like to hear some testimonies from y'all before i become a ski bum. any feedback is appreciated as i am still figuring out what my intentions really are, thanks.
 
I took a quarter off from my university to live with homies in salt lake last winter and it was so sick. Me and my roommates worked as lifties and other random jobs and we spent 3 months getting the most out of our ski season. College is a great time to do stuff like this cause there are pre-set chunks of time where you can fuck off for a while then come back the next quarter and it’s like nothing changed.. definitely a privelage to just do random shit for a while but it’s so worth it if you can make it happen. We got a 3 month fully furnished airbnb rental for like 700/month per person (def not cheap but manageable) and it worked out super well. Definitely send it dude, and dm me if you have any more questions
 
I’ve gained a strong dependency on drugs, alcohol, and tobacco but now I’m a ripping skier

Oh yeah, if you do it make sure that you have health insurance
 
I didn't "drop everything and become a ski bum" but I did make my college selection based on ability to ski... I went to MSU in Bozeman Montana my freshman year and got 2 days in at Big Sky every week. I then moved to Bend Oregon and enrolled in OSU: Cascades because Mt. Bachelor is 25-30 minutes from town and got 2-3 days in a week depending on how much school work I could get done (awesome class schedules there, usually only had class 3 days a week with a full schedule).

The biggest problem you're going to encounter is finding a solid group of friends. It helps if you're enrolled in school or happen to find cool co-workers, but it can be tough moving to a new area with no connections. If your credits transfer and you've got the financial ability I'd say make the move somewhere you can follow your hobbies while still maintaining financial stability.

Or make a short term sacrifice, bang out your degree and then (or while in school) move somewhere utilizing that degree to get experience at a law firm before applying for law school.
 
14425875:ZappaStache said:
I’ve gained a strong dependency on drugs, alcohol, and tobacco but now I’m a ripping skier

Oh yeah, if you do it make sure that you have health insurance
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How do you afford/get health insurance without a full time job now?
 
I graduated high school in the Midwest, packed my life up that fall in my 2006 Toyota Corolla, and drove all the way to Salt Lake City. All I do for work is doordash for like 3 hours each night and I can pay my $720 rent. I’ve become such a better skier in the park and out of bounds, met so many crazy people, and have had so many cool ass experiences. Do it before it’s too late or you’ll regret it!!!!
 
Either go for a year and then plan to go back to school or do what you gotta do and move to a ski town and make it count. Also, buy a house as soon as you can. If the ski town is reasonable to buy at do that, if it's completely insane to buy at the ski hill, buy somewhere else and rent it out. Either way, buy quickly, don't wait til you're done being a bum. Rent can subsidize your bum life.
 
14425882:Quaggy said:
I didn't "drop everything and become a ski bum" but I did make my college selection based on ability to ski...The biggest problem you're going to encounter is finding a solid group of friends. It helps if you're enrolled in school or happen to find cool co-workers, but it can be tough moving to a new area with no connections. If your credits transfer and you've got the financial ability I'd say make the move somewhere you can follow your hobbies while still maintaining financial stability.

Or make a short term sacrifice, bang out your degree and then (or while in school) move somewhere utilizing that degree to get experience at a law firm before applying for law school.
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Thats exactly my opinion. Well put bud!

Thats the approach I took to my career; get the education and learning curve early, land a career, then form your career around skiing. Its so nice to be stable with money and enjoy the mountains. There is much more freedom than worrying about food and rent.

Making decent connections are so difficult, but ya gotta be patient. The thrill of being out there will be strong; use that time to make friends and see which ones stick around. Get out there as much as possible because the novelty will wear off. It took me a few years to calm down and become more of a local.

All my extra imput will be plan it out well if your gonna throw yourself into a new environment on your own.
 
Aww shit here we go-

IMO, prioritize an education/professional life that will let you maximize your time and enjoyment with your hobby/passion.

Is there a school near the Cascades, Rockies, or Tahoe that has a program that is both interesting to you, as well as transferable to? If it’s as easy as a seamless transfer at no significant additional cost/loans, that would be an awesome scenario. For example, I know UW is well-ranked and would put you
 
14425982:Yukon_Cornelius said:
Aww shit here we go-

IMO, prioritize an education/professional life that will let you maximize your time and enjoyment with your hobby/passion.

Is there a school near the Cascades, Rockies, or Tahoe that has a program that is both interesting to you, as well as transferable to? If it’s as easy as a seamless transfer at no significant additional cost/loans, that would be an awesome scenario. For example, I know UW is well-ranked and would put you
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Damn I wrote a novel and it chopped it all off. Maybe for the better
 
I'd probably try and come up with a plan that involved working way more the summer/fall months if you just show up without one I assume you'll be working too much to ski a lot at the resorts or some other related biz. You got to live somewhere though why not?
 
Time only ticks one way, you're dying everyday. Don't hold back from what it is you want to do, as long as you keep working hard towards your future (whatever you want that to be). Don't let anyone make you feel bad about it. Wife and I picked up and moved to the mountains and we will never move back. Changed our lives, it's beautiful here.
 
Probably gonna be an unpopular opinion but I wish I would've grinded out a degree before moving to a ski town. When the pow days started coming I would skip "just one" day of classes, but then when the next day is supposed to be twice as deep as the prior day there's no way I'm missing the actual good day, and so on until it turned into all skiing and no school. I have a few friends my age who got their degree, worked a big kid job for like one year to get themselves set and then came to the mountains with a bag to spend on rent and partying without a care. Again, this is my personal experience with my own poor self control but it is definitely not easy to focus on school and other "voluntary" responsibilities when skiing is the alternative...
 
Although I don't live in a ski town, I do ski the entire winter, (most years.) I work six days for 8-9 months out of the year and scrimp and save constantly so that I can afford to ski all winter. My tiny bedroom is a ski storage room now. I trip over boots and poles whenever I walk anywhere, my bed is full of wax shavings, I live from one trip at my local dry slope to another during the summer, and count down the days till December, every day, all summer long. My entire life is now skiing, its all there is, skiing, skiing, SKIING, whether I like it or not! It's not an option anymore! It's all there is anymore! Don't do it! Save yourself! It's too late for me! Don't let yourself get hopelessly addicted like I did, there's no turning back once you become a ski bum, none! Save yourselves!!!!!!!!
 
14425882:Quaggy said:
I didn't "drop everything and become a ski bum" but I did make my college selection based on ability to ski... I went to MSU in Bozeman Montana my freshman year and got 2 days in at Big Sky every week. I then moved to Bend Oregon and enrolled in OSU: Cascades because Mt. Bachelor is 25-30 minutes from town and got 2-3 days in a week depending on how much school work I could get done (awesome class schedules there, usually only had class 3 days a week with a full schedule).

The biggest problem you're going to encounter is finding a solid group of friends. It helps if you're enrolled in school or happen to find cool co-workers, but it can be tough moving to a new area with no connections. If your credits transfer and you've got the financial ability I'd say make the move somewhere you can follow your hobbies while still maintaining financial stability.

Or make a short term sacrifice, bang out your degree and then (or while in school) move somewhere utilizing that degree to get experience at a law firm before applying for law school.
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This honestly sounds like a really good idea, what was your major at OSU?
 
Strap in for this one, kids. I am 28 years old, and am almost 2 years removed from ski bum life. I went to college in Boston and got my degree BEFORE I lived my ski bum dream. After graduation, I immediately moved to Sugarloaf for the summer, and ultimately the next 5 years... I may have never left if it wasn't for COVID shutting everything down. My experience was unique being at the same east coast resort I had grown up skiing at and had also worked for as an instructor part time since high school.

Overall, it was an amazing experience I wouldn't trade for anything. Made some of my best friends and had some of the coolest experiences. I didn't approach it the right way though. I had dreams of making a life out of it, which proved to be foolish. You'll find a lot of the people who have made a life out of it either didn't have any other (better) options for one reason or another, and some of people in these towns have some real issues: alcoholism (not the funny college kind), drug problems (again not the funny college kind), and injuries that have kept them off the hill since they were 35-40. When I thought it was what I wanted, I was always making noise trying to "work my way up" to a "real job" at the resort which amounted to me beating my head off a wall for 5 years. Don't bother. Approach it like a temporary thing and you're there to have fun and fuck off. And get out of there after a couple years at most.

The ski bum life will give you some of the highest highs you can/will ever experience: Mid week pow days, perfectly manicured parks with nobody in them, no lines, and good times with homies. It will also hit you with some of the lowest lows: being too broke to afford basic necessities in the shoulder seasons, injuries, and all the BS that comes with working a low level job at a resort (way too much to get into here). "Don't crap where you eat" is impossible when working at a ski resort.

I now sit at a desk all day for work. Its tough to take after getting paid minimum wage to have fun for so long (even though I'm making almost 3x what I made at the resort). I often wonder if my time there ruined my ability to work in a setting like the one I currently find myself in (seems like lawyer-ing could have a similar effect). I had some buddies who started ski bumming with me but left after a year and they are now way "further ahead" in their lives than I am and better adjusted to working in an office.

If I could do it again, I would try to do it before I graduated. You have less on your plate at that point, even though its a tougher sell to the parents. Then graduate and work some remote job with some flexibility that lets you live kinda near a resort and ski all the time anyways.
 
My first college was in a ski town. It was super fun but I felt like I was just wasting money by having one foot in class and the other in a ski boot. Wasn't skiing enough, wasn't learning enough either.

So I transferred to a better, yet somehow less expensive school in NY and pounded out my degree. The skiing sucked there, and that motivated me to finish school on time so I could get back to skiing on real mountains ASAP. Worked out just fine- been skiing my ass off since I graduated in 2008.
 
14426170:bbridge said:
This honestly sounds like a really good idea, what was your major at OSU?
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Was a biology major with chemistry minor. Almost a brand new campus with small classes, my largest class had 37 students and my smallest had 8. I recommend it to anyone looking to ski, hike, fish, kayak, mountain bike, rock climb... and whatever else you wanna do, you can do it in Bend Oregon.

Except frats... if you're looking for that whole "frat life" experience you won't find it here as everyone just kinda mingles at parties 'n whatever.

Housing can be expensive out here tho!!

**This post was edited on Apr 13th 2022 at 5:26:37pm
 
Alot of colleges offer health insurance too. Mines like $1400 a year, and it's a full year not just while schools in session.

14425905:yavone said:
How do you afford/get health insurance without a full time job now?
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Honestly best decision of my life. Really depends on your situation though. I was failing out of college and struggling with substance abuse issues (which have the potential to be escalated in ski towns). Got out of the unhealthy environment I was in and now have an actual decent paying job in the industry and get to do what I love (ski) close to 100 days a year. It’s definitely not easy establishing yourself, finding work and housing that’s actually sustainable in the long term but if you can make it happen it’s great. If you got any questions feel free to hit me up although I’m sure ton of others on NS have similar experiences.
 
14426174:Mainah said:
Strap in for this one, kids. I am 28 years old, and am almost 2 years removed from ski bum life. I went to college in Boston and got my degree BEFORE I lived my ski bum dream. After graduation, I immediately moved to Sugarloaf for the summer, and ultimately the next 5 years... I may have never left if it wasn't for COVID shutting everything down. My experience was unique being at the same east coast resort I had grown up skiing at and had also worked for as an instructor part time since high school.

Overall, it was an amazing experience I wouldn't trade for anything. Made some of my best friends and had some of the coolest experiences. I didn't approach it the right way though. I had dreams of making a life out of it, which proved to be foolish. You'll find a lot of the people who have made a life out of it either didn't have any other (better) options for one reason or another, and some of people in these towns have some real issues: alcoholism (not the funny college kind), drug problems (again not the funny college kind), and injuries that have kept them off the hill since they were 35-40. When I thought it was what I wanted, I was always making noise trying to "work my way up" to a "real job" at the resort which amounted to me beating my head off a wall for 5 years. Don't bother. Approach it like a temporary thing and you're there to have fun and fuck off. And get out of there after a couple years at most.

The ski bum life will give you some of the highest highs you can/will ever experience: Mid week pow days, perfectly manicured parks with nobody in them, no lines, and good times with homies. It will also hit you with some of the lowest lows: being too broke to afford basic necessities in the shoulder seasons, injuries, and all the BS that comes with working a low level job at a resort (way too much to get into here). "Don't crap where you eat" is impossible when working at a ski resort.

I now sit at a desk all day for work. Its tough to take after getting paid minimum wage to have fun for so long (even though I'm making almost 3x what I made at the resort). I often wonder if my time there ruined my ability to work in a setting like the one I currently find myself in (seems like lawyer-ing could have a similar effect). I had some buddies who started ski bumming with me but left after a year and they are now way "further ahead" in their lives than I am and better adjusted to working in an office.

If I could do it again, I would try to do it before I graduated. You have less on your plate at that point, even though its a tougher sell to the parents. Then graduate and work some remote job with some flexibility that lets you live kinda near a resort and ski all the time anyways.
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I think a big part making the “ski-bum” lifestyle work is finding employment outside the resort but still in the area. Don’t know how it is in the NE but here in the Rockies there’s tons of employment opportunities that don’t require you to work for shitty vail resorts, pay 2-3x the amount, and still offer a ski pass. Makes the not shitting where you eat part a lot easier. Unless you score a better paying job at the resort (lift maintenance or upper level management for example) it’s just not reasonable to do it anything but short term.
 
After many many nights contemplating it, I never actually dropped everything to ski. Instead I did whatever it took to ski every weekend at home in Vermont, finished college on Long Island (I fucking hate LI) and aggressively pursued remote work, finally following my gf in moving west.

I'm 25 now and just about finally live comfortably in a ski town. I don't know if I made the right move or not. I am very happy where I am now, but looking back at 18-23 I wonder If I would've been better going to UofU or somewhere like that.

Whatever you do, I think you should move to/close to a ski town eventually. It really is just better living by the mountains.
 
14426180:CallMeAl said:
My first college was in a ski town. It was super fun but I felt like I was just wasting money by having one foot in class and the other in a ski boot. Wasn't skiing enough, wasn't learning enough either.

So I transferred to a better, yet somehow less expensive school in NY and pounded out my degree. The skiing sucked there, and that motivated me to finish school on time so I could get back to skiing on real mountains ASAP. Worked out just fine- been skiing my ass off since I graduated in 2008.
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What do u do for work now? Ski related that is stable or just get by so u can ski?
 
I'm in sales.

I worked in ski shops growing up, so I kept doing that when I got back out west after college for all of the obvious reasons besides money. I eventually worked my way up to buyer/manager, moonlighting as a freelance writer and magazine editor. That all paid decent enough, but after working in ski shops for 17 years and writing what felt like the same story about skiing over and over, I got bored, started my own agency, and became a sales rep in the ski industry.

Did that for 4 years, then my wife (who I met at that school in NY) and I decided to have a kid so I closed my agency last year and took a job in the outdoor industry (not skiing) that offers more stability for our family and a pretty good quality of life.

Those years right after college were some of the most fun of my life- even more than college (and I had a lot of fun there too); degree out of the way, not many expenses or responsibilities, making lots of new friends at the hill/in the shop, and 8 or 9 consecutive 100+ day seasons.

Don't rush into anything. Make a plan that includes and end goal (skiing) with measurable benchmarks for success along the way (graduating, etc.). The mountains aren't going anywhere.
 
topic:Timby said:
i am 20, in undergrad for a double major in polisci and secondary ed. i go to an urban college in the midwest so its not the most ski friendly environment, plus i commute so i dont have much of a social life besides my girl. i'm thinking of jumping ship in like a year to go to a college that i would actually enjoy being at, living on campus and being close to a proper mountain. i have plans of law school but that will be something i have to consider a couple years down the line. i don't like being here and want to go somewhere where my hobbies would be supported, aka skiing. i went to tahoe during spring break and i loved it, the area and the people. i would like to hear some testimonies from y'all before i become a ski bum. any feedback is appreciated as i am still figuring out what my intentions really are, thanks.
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Forget girls for a while ? unless you 6 ft and up. If you’re confident you don’t care that much about money or nice things I’d say send it!
 
At age 20 as a junior in college in Michigan, I took the winter semester off and moved to Copper Mountain, Colorado. I chose Copper mainly because of "The Edge," their dorm-style employee housing a stone's throw from the lift that was affordable with rent coming right out of your paycheck. That first winter became another--in those two seasons I was a liftie, line cook, kids ski instructor, and was on a banquets set-up crew. I also made a whole lot of awesome friends from all over the world who I'm still close with years later. I wouldn't trade those seasons for anything. After returning to Michigan to finish college and grad school, I made my way back west to Utah--met my wife and started a family here and am now living a little bit more grown up version of the ski bum life.

In the lift shack that first season I started keeping a journal of my experiences, which ended up leading to a novel very loosely inspired by that first season at Copper. It's called Ski Bum. If anybody's interested in giving it a read, check it out from your library, or get it here:https://colinclancy.net
 
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