Which seasonal jobs allow the most time on the mountain?

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Powerchamp

New member
Planning to head to Whistler for the season. As the title asks which jobs allow you to spend the most time on the mountain.

On a side note, does anyone know how hard it is to find seasonal winter work in Whistler?
 
ski patrol or ski instructor? if your talking about time off work i had a buddy who worked night shifts from like 4-12 or something and he skied from 9-3 so if you can maybe work at a bar?
 
13712614:B.Gillis said:
Do you want a job that allows you to ski at work? Or do you want a job that allows you to ski all day and work after? Personally I wouldn't recommend any job that requires you to work during operating hours if you really want to get the most out of skiing. Yah if you work lift ops/patrol/park crew you can ride on the clock occasionally but it's not as often as you'd like and most of those jobs pay like shit. Get an afternoon/night job, find a busy restaurant and wait/bus tables or you can work an evening job at something like a hotel. These jobs allow you to ski all morning on your own time without having to worry about being on the clock still.
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This is good advice. I would advise against ski instructing. It is fun, but you will teach 5 days and ski two, which is not worth it. I worked nights and instructed part-time, one or two days a week at most, I would not have wanted to teach full-time. Only teach full-time if you really want to be a ski instructor, if you want to ski for yourself do something at night.
 
I worked as a dishwasher/prepchef in Whistler for 8 months. Got free food, free beer, tip every second friday AND I got to ski every day since I only worked nightshifts. It was pimp like chug would say.
 
13712614:B.Gillis said:
Personally I wouldn't recommend any job that requires you to work during operating hours if you really want to get the most out of skiing. Yah if you work lift ops/patrol/park crew you can ride on the clock occasionally but it's not as often as you'd like and most of those jobs pay like shit. Get an afternoon/night job, find a busy restaurant and wait/bus tables or you can work an evening job at something like a hotel. These jobs allow you to ski all morning on your own time without having to worry about being on the clock still.
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I second this. Restaurants and hotels where you can works evenings/nights are the way forward if you want lots of genuinely free ski time.
 
13713213:minihef said:
I second this. Restaurants and hotels where you can works evenings/nights are the way forward if you want lots of genuinely free ski time.
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This this this. You generally work late but man its nice getting laps in before a shift + a few midweek days off to fuck around elsewhere. Plenty of time to ski and you can still work 40hrs/week or more.
 
13712614:B.Gillis said:
Do you want a job that allows you to ski at work? Or do you want a job that allows you to ski all day and work after? Personally I wouldn't recommend any job that requires you to work during operating hours if you really want to get the most out of skiing. Yah if you work lift ops/patrol/park crew you can ride on the clock occasionally but it's not as often as you'd like and most of those jobs pay like shit. Get an afternoon/night job, find a busy restaurant and wait/bus tables or you can work an evening job at something like a hotel. These jobs allow you to ski all morning on your own time without having to worry about being on the clock still.
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This. I've never worked at whistler but based on my seasonal experiences this guy is spot on.

Ski instructing blows, you may occasionally teach some experts/ski tit deep pow but you are always skiing with "guests" and most of the time you will find yourself on intermediate terrain. Kids can be chill, but 11/10 times you would rather be skiing for yourself guaranteed.

Typically lift ops guys will get an hour to ski in the morning and maybe one more in the afternoon. And again, you're on the clock.

Park crew is the best on hill/operations job imaginable. (disclaimer, I worked at a pretty laid back EC park) but basically we did an AM/PM rake run to open up the parks and occasionally helped set up a comp. We did some really fun night builds hauling new features up and riding the forks of the cat. Other than that pretty much took "quality control laps" aka shredded or found somewhere to chill. preferably the woods. As incredible as that experience was, it was still operations pay, which is not great no matter where you are.

If you want to soul shred everyday, you should walk into every upscale looking restaurant you can find in the whistler village and drop off a resume. I don't really know if the tips work the same in Canada, but I bet you still do ok. Even if you don't have prior service industry experience, start as a busboy/food runner and you will make a decent living, which is hard to do in most ski towns. You will have every day of every week of the winter to ski however, whenever, and wherever you please.
 
I worked graveyards at a resort hotel and had first tracks every morning. The hours were tough at first but then I loved it. Worked from 11pm-7am, free breakfast and almost always first gondola in the morning. You give up your evening ski town parting a bit but it was worth it, got 125 days in that year.
 
13714946:MailMan said:
Get in shape, get on a fire crew, fight fires all summer, ski all winter.

I call it the bum theorem.
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There were guys I knew in Tahoe who did this. It works if you are willing to risk your life.

If the OP is serious about staying in the mountains I would advise learning a trade. Carpenters and contractors can earn a decent living. The guys I knew who did this worked their butts off in the summer and had enough time in the winter to ski almost everyday with at most a part-time ski instructing job. I also knew some people who were roofers who made good money. They worked in the winter but only 2-3 days a week so lots of ski time and if it was boot deep or better they did not work. If the OP is only doing one season I would give the advice I gave before, and others have given, and advise working at night. Even if he only wants to do one season he should work as much as possible in the summer to save up money.
 
I started working a shift at wegmans that is 4am-9am five days a week. I plan on getting out at nine and skiing all day every day this winter
 
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