Ski Town Top Jobs

Publication: Skiing Magazine

While shutting off his computer on a Friday afternoon, Stinger Hastings, Team Manager at an equipment leasing company in Tahoe City, CA., screams "An'-I'm-Out!". Simultaneously across town a weathered alarm clock takes the stare of Tommy Ross' bloodshot eyes. Half an hour later their paths cross on the road and the two friends salute with car horns blaring and arms waving out the windows. Later that night Stinger's commission check will find its way into Tommy's tip jar and thus is born the Great Ski Town Trickle Down.

The Trickle Down is every resort town's biggest coup. It allows people to choose their own equation of happiness: time multiplied by dollars per hour has to equal a minimum level of recreation and fresh air. Job options run the gamut and whether you're an ex-dotcommer or a societal runaway you can escape to the following glories. The list is arranged by the amount of motivation required.

1. Hot Shot Crew member - This takes you far from your little mountain town into hotter, smokier mountain towns. You witness wild animals escaping from the burning woods, 200-foot high trees crashing to the ground ablaze and you make great money. You unfortunately don't see any of your friends for six months but those are SUMMER months. If you're serious about skiing and have the craziness of a Navy Seal this could be your ticket. Hot Shots get unemployment checks during ski season and log in as many days as possible from November to May.

2. Business Owner - Hot tub pontoon boats. Full moon heli-bungee jumping. Submarine tours of Lake Tahoe. Ski townies are the kings of hatching ideas that never get farther than the bottom of a Budweiser keg.

The only yapping Megan Ahlburn tolerates any more is from her furry little clients. She started North Lake Tahoe Petsitters last February and now has 178 dogs who call her 'mom.' "The thought of working for someone else - I just can't do it again," says the former waitress, camp counselor and fire fighter. Flying the coop is a difficult venture, though. Before you test the waters, make sure that your pontoon boat can float.

3. Equipment Rep - He's the loud guy in the louder jacket flashing around the only thing as valuable as a season pass - a corporate credit card. His van is parked in front of the bar well past closing but it won't be there in the morning. The Rep spends countless weeks on the road driving 50 pairs of skis from demo to demo. "I'm a tech monkey," says Mike MacQuarrie while wrenching on an Atomic athlete's boards. But on the other side of the coin, he was instrumental in the R&D of Atomic's new high performance fat skis. He wants them to be called 'Beta Mac.'

4. Baker - The baker heads off to work at 4:30am and gets finished sometime just after sunrise. If you're a starver and not a survivor this job works because you have to eat your mistakes. There is no dress code and the pay is usually better than a lot of other jobs (especially ones on this list). If you can manage to stay awake, you'll log in some serious ski days, otherwise you'll never make it to the hill before 2:30pm. And there's a mysterious respectability to being a baker because nobody knows if it's a serious trade or a glorified hobby.

5. Snow Phone Reporter - You have to be out of your driveway at 5am, snow or shine. You open the Marketing office and figure out which lifts will spin based on illegible faxes from Ski Patrol and the Mountain Manager. Then you clear your throat and try to sound cheery while letting the world know that at your resort there's no such thing as ice and it's always snowing and always sunny. The benefits are substantial though. You have to be done at 8am, you get a full pass, and you know the ins and outs of the operating schedule each day.

6. Bartender - Although the most stereotyped, ski town bartenders are nonetheless raking in cash every weekend, measuring off-season vacations in terms of months and skiing at least five days a week. Everyone in the bar, and town for that matter, wants to be on the 'tender's good side. Life is almost free for the career barman who gets hooked up at every turn in appreciation for his strong cocktails and free beers. Some see it as the last curl of a downward spiral but it certainly is a good way to enjoy the ride. You should be OK if you keep an eye on your blackout frequency and never drive home from work.

7. Supermarket employee - To be honest, I truly have no idea why this job makes the list but I do know that it is absolutely necessary. You'll notice that the checkout lady and the fruit sorter have been proudly serving since the '70's. Holy longevity! Explanations wander through benefits, wages, etc. but the equation is completely thrown off by windowless breakrooms and shabby coats hung around for long shifts stocking the walk-in coolers. But there must be some mysterious thing that lures mountain folks into these jobs. Maybe like actually jumping into a pool and swimming with bow-legged women you never really know what it will be like 'til you try.

8. Pizza Deliverer - Tooling around town in someone else's car, getting invited into strangers' houses, time alone with your music, tips of all sizes, shapes and colors. Also, the rookie's schedule is almost as good as the veterans' because big money nights are random. You'll have enough food for all your roommates and you can ski every day usually through the afternoon. A few bad seeds have ruined the pot though. It's hard to overcome stereotypes created by pizza deliverers known to say, "Hey, is that YOUR room? Yeah? Man, I've done some freaky s__t in that room!"

9. Relief Operator - Surprisingly, the best on-mountain resort job is actually a slight variation of the worst: lift operator. The lift op is a factory worker with a mountain mural for walls. The Relief Operator is what you really want. Like a middle schooler with a permanent hall pass he skis on the clock and tallies first tracks with suspicious consistency. Jeff "Coolbreeze" Curry eased into 'RO' at Squaw on his first day as a lift op. Now selling finger paintings on Santa Monica Pier, Coolbreeze reflects, "It's great - all you do is give lift ops their lunch breaks. 'RO' really means that you ski all day and call the Safety Meetings."

10. Scraper - The most conniving of the entire ski town culture is the weasely Scraper. His possessions are few - ski gear, loose change, and a few bad jokes. His trade is cutthroat and challenging. Brave Sir Jones risks all friendships to scrape through a rentless ski season. He never calls his 'other buddies' to crash there. Beers disappear from your fridge, season passes are borrowed, he gets fired from the job you got him. Real pros leave behind a household gift that costs nothing but lingers as a reminder of their presence - laundry detergent or a huge roll of toilet paper.

Bonus Number 11. Drug Dealer - This one is hard to classify on the scale of motivation. There are two types of dealers - the kind who does drugs (low motivation) or the kind who doesn't do drugs (pretty motivated). Drug dealer is different than a standard business owner because drugs are illegal and you could go to jail just for doing a bang up job. Much like the bartender, the pusher is everyone's friend but he has to be more on the lookout for people trying to take advantage of him for his wares. But remember you are your own boss and there's something to be said for doing business on the hill.

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© 2001 alex west writing and photography