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June, 2025

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Being an Aging Freeskier

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TahoeGuru
Posts: 117 - Karma: 3,830
Sucks!

To all the kids out there living it up:

Enjoy it! I currently reside in the wonderful city of San Francisco, in an office, indoors, working at an advertisement firm. Even with that I find myself daydreaming about pow blowers, the chutes @ Kirkwood & perfectly groomed in runs. Like they say, you never realize how good you have it until you lose it.

In the end, skiing is all that matters. I know that now. Fuck work. Fuck $. Fuck image.

Give me a beat up 4runner, a nice quiver and some decent amount of snow and i'll be happy. I'll be back on the hill permanently hopefully sooner rather than later.
12 years ago
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TheBigApple
Posts: 1169 - Karma: 488
Just do it man, no time like the present. Pussy!
12 years ago
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Miomo
Posts: 4302 - Karma: 14,137
I hate threads like this.
If you want to start a blog, then there's plenty of websites out there.

There's no conversation to be had around what you just posted.
12 years ago
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BananaTrampoline
Posts: 22 - Karma: 127
I hate comments like this.
if you want to be a dick, then do it somewhere else.

There's nothing good to come of what you just posted.


But yeah, just do it OP, go ski!
12 years ago
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TheButterHashira
Posts: 9691 - Karma: 1,702
Word to it.
12 years ago
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JAHpow
Posts: 7282 - Karma: 17,194
Start looking for a new advertisement job in the mountains.
12 years ago
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hippy.
Posts: 3106 - Karma: 14,374
OP go skiing with your friends call in sick, take off days, or just skip work..Buy a new setup! If skiing is your dreams than chase them!
12 years ago
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Rusticles
Posts: 2180 - Karma: 1,337
Yeah it's tough. Especially with a family.

To you young kids. Move to the mountains and enjoy it, Go out everyday you can until you are no longer interested. The older you get the more you realize that money and career stability can be achieved at a later date.
12 years ago
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SKI.ING
Posts: 2695 - Karma: 2,536
How young/old we talking?

12 years ago
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SimplyClean
Posts: 556 - Karma: 1,754
I'm in the same boat...have a full time office job after college needing to pay off student loans. Now that it is ski season, I am literally thinking about it all day looking at the Rockies outside my window and counting down the days to the weekend so I can go ski. I envy people that can do it every day but most people have different priorities than others. However, that just makes me cherish every day I'm out there on my skis even more.
12 years ago
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HaydenLaBrie
Posts: 563 - Karma: 397
do it bro! no time like the present! live it up!
12 years ago
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VerticalDrop
Posts: 324 - Karma: 4,479
I graduated from the University of Cincinnati in April and vowed to never get a job where I have to work a 9-5 in a cubicle and wear a suit and tie. So far I'm making it! Never settle!
12 years ago
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Rusticles
Posts: 2180 - Karma: 1,337
I just entered my thirty's. I still have friends still changing their careers and figuring their lives out.
If i could do it again I would have put a little less into the career in my early twenty's and more into skiing.

hindsight is twenty twenty though, I guess it worked out okay.
12 years ago
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CaderTots
Posts: 488 - Karma: 34
The shock of work after college blows.  You just have to find the right job that allows to find a balance you can be comfortable with.  There are a lot of careers/companies that are very flexible when it comes to balancing your work and life.  I was lucky enough to find a job that allowed 22 personal days a year and I just blew them all in the winter chasing pow.  Combining that vacation time with weekends makes for a pretty solid ski season.  There are many jobs like that out there.  You just have to look hard and avoid getting stuck in a rut.  No doubt there will be some days from time to time when you will feel like you are still missing out. Days when your friends are sending videos of the amazing pow day that was supposed to be a 3 inch storm and it ended up being 18.  If you find the balance to make you happy, while still making a good living you are in an ideal situation.  While your friends who are still bartending in mountian towns, now in their early 30's, are complaining about having to buy season passes and what not, your hard work will have you going on heli-trips and south american ski trips.  Then feelings of missing out will be then coming from the other direction.  No digs on those who choose that life, but you have to decide what you want from YOUR life and make the best decision for you.  The old guy has spoken...
12 years ago
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freestyler540
Posts: 13238 - Karma: 20,486
Im 26. I built my entire life around being able to ski. I hated school, paperwork and getting up at 6am to go somewere I dont want to be. Seasonal jobs are the ones you want to go after. You can work super hard and make enough to live off your savings for the winter. When the money or the snow dries up, go back to work.

The downer to this is no injuries are permitted. If I get hurt, I cant go back to work and cant make money. You will have to find a balance between risk, ability and confidence.
12 years ago
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OregonDead
Posts: 7097 - Karma: 26,829
SF has got to be tough. I have to work full time + overtime a lot and I live 80 miles from the mountain. This makes for a lot of time on the road but it's worth it to have a good job. The reality is I have better gear and can afford to ski more than I ever could when I had more free time. Keep at it with your career and maybe you can figure something out. There are lots of flights to Reno. If you could get to the point where you can afford the plane tickets you could probably even do Mt. Rose as a day trip.
12 years ago
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Mr.Huck
Posts: 6096 - Karma: 14,903
I feel your pain. Just make sure you don't develop the dreaded CCB's or Corporate Cubicle Butt. When you move away from the mountains it seems like you have to work 3 times as hard to stay ski ready.
12 years ago
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SimplyClean
Posts: 556 - Karma: 1,754
This, is exactly how I feel and am luckily still very happy where I'm at. As you said, the level of disposable income while working professionally compared to a ski town allows you to save for that sick heli trip that you've always dreamed of, and have something reliable for the future when others will probably struggle or be behind.
12 years ago
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lanks
Posts: 12544 - Karma: 74
Hey man, that's real talk.

Three years back, I bought a beat up 1990 4Runner, parlayed my university degree into a low wage resort job at Mount Seymour, and had a beauty park, and pow setup.

Most consistently fulfilling year of my life, social/professional development be damned. Shred either pow or park every day? I'd go back to that in an instant if it were doable.
12 years ago
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bigbromskier
Posts: 1175 - Karma: 330
i'm 25, a year out of college, and have been working seasonally since I graduated last december. it's sick, I have 29 days skiing so far, even though it's an abysmal snow year. I have a pretty solid idea of what I want to do career-wise later on, but that stuff's always gonna be there, especially cause I could still pass as an 18 year old.

no real hurry to do the grad school/career route. it's more of being able to stay passionate about skiing and my other hobbies so I feel fulfilled. true happiness is about staying fulfilled with your passions and being surrounded by good people. sometimes money's tough, but as long as the necessities are taken care of, it's just money. when that's not enough and I need more intellectual/academic stimulation, then it's time to go back to doing what everyone else does.

I'd recommend it to anyone who feels happiness from being on skis, no matter the conditions.
12 years ago
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simmers
Posts: 1004 - Karma: 397
Have you considered trying skiercross?
12 years ago
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N.L.
Posts: 2420 - Karma: 2,749
just wait. it only gets worse. and worse. until getting to check out a single video is the highlight of the week.
12 years ago
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UncleGerry
Posts: 1291 - Karma: 1,378
My current situation is somewhat like this.

Graduated college in NH about 5 years ago, did a shit ton of skiing while at school, week and weekends, it was sick.

Moved to Breck right out of college, then moved to Tahoe for another 4 years after that. I got jobs on the mountain, ski'd everyday, and my life was one big party for the last few years.

However, I began to realize that I was 26 years old, had a couple of racked up credit cards, and I was living paycheck to paycheck/still asking my parents for the occasional help in making rent. I moved to Boston this past fall, got a job that doesn't involve a cubicle and allows me to work from home/on the road, and still get up to the mountains pretty frequently here back in my roots.

I'm a firm believer in being a ski bum for a certain period of time while you're young, but realizing, at some point, that you need to focus on some bigger responsibilities in life. (i.e. not being a bartender until you're 60, getting paid on ski town wages, and having a strong financial foundation that you can build a family on at some point)

Life's all about a healthy balance of work and play my friends.
12 years ago
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Andcz
Posts: 81 - Karma: 568
I dont want to grow up...
12 years ago
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Bensun
Posts: 480 - Karma: 1,654
OP although i am a college freshman, like u i lived near sf and it is a solid drive. with sports and school it made it hard for me to hit the slopes.i feel ur pain but i heard their building a snowflex park in sf. ( i dont know if u like park or a shitty substiute for a mountain but thought it wud help0. dont feel bad this season was terrible- no snow. i only got 11 days so far
12 years ago
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SunburntSquad
Posts: 293 - Karma: 496
you got that right.

fuck...
12 years ago
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raull
Posts: 384 - Karma: 2,232
i just graduated and am purposefully looking for a boring finance cubicle job right now..does this mean im gay?
12 years ago
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casual
Posts: 6712 - Karma: 6,753
comeback post of the century.
12 years ago
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CaptainObvious.
Posts: 5713 - Karma: 20,652
Here's a perspective that hasn't been shared. I always thought I wanted to be a ski bum. I was big sky bound after college. I met a girl and my dream evolved. I didn't abandon my passion, and I didn't give anything up. My dream really did evolve. I moved from tahoe to denver and was sick of waiting tables to scrape together a ski pass. I started in on my career dreams. I found a 'boring 9-5 cubicle job' and discovered that I loved it. I found that it wasn't like the movies (go figure), but rather an ass ton of people like me. I found ski buddies, new friends. I took on every single one of my bills and stopped living check to check at 23. I started saving aggressively and put myself in a financially secure place. I got a new cube job and moved up in roles. I'm now 26, married to that girl, work in a cube, love my job, have a ton of fun working at a financial company, and I'm playin hookey tomorrow to lap the park at keystone. Everyones dream is different, and it might change. Do what will get you stoked about waking up tomorrow, whatever that is.
12 years ago
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CaderTots
Posts: 488 - Karma: 34
Which firm are you at?
12 years ago
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Static
Posts: 8598 - Karma: 3,972
if you can afford to take a ski vacation you probably have enough brains to make it in a ski resort town, sack up and move
12 years ago
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alexg1687
Posts: 1505 - Karma: 1,582
I'm 26 and feeling pretty damn old now. Maybe the day will come when I'm too old to wear a beanie and goggles under my helmet and wear bright outerwear.....but today is not that day.

(If you have any tips on when that day is please let me know...)
12 years ago
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TheClap.
Posts: 21685 - Karma: 4,254
And hessss back
12 years ago
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Microcosm
Posts: 4765 - Karma: 153
I was thinking about this the other day and I concluded.. fuck that. I think some people around me felt that suddenly they're at a point where they need to put on this impression to others that they're mature or whatever. To me that doesn't mean giving up your style or whatever it is that makes you, you. No need to buy this bland, expensive shit to impress nobody. It's like high school never ended, better fit in! lol. In the orkplace things may be different, but on your own time.. pleaase
12 years ago
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doGelyst
Posts: 2494 - Karma: 523
Get ur priorities straight.

29......10 of which doing park crew.
Bouncing off being paid absolute shit, but I have a girl, comfy place to live, nice tv and vidya games.......good to go. And $ for beer.
12 years ago
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TheClap.
Posts: 21685 - Karma: 4,254
Hell ya son, solid post
12 years ago
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freeskibum82
Posts: 6355 - Karma: 5,056
I think we can all agree that Candide is showing us that aging doesnt affect skiing ability.
12 years ago
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rubenl
Posts: 16 - Karma: 38
What if i told you and all the young bucks out there, that you can Find something you love, and combine it with your passion. What I'm doing right now is studying physical therapy, i absolutely love it. Physical therapy is something you can do every where and any where. My dream is to graduate and move to the mountains, and work and live there. Will I be able to ski 7 days a week, most definitely not, but 2 -3 days a week is not bad at all. Still earning some good money, and living out my passion. I personally belief it's all about choice making. You're the captain of your own life, so you better start steering it to the direction you want to go to!

Wish you guys all the best of luck with the decision making
12 years ago
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brizz
Posts: 1051 - Karma: 74

Oh boy is this the old guy blog thread, maybe I need this too… Guess I have the opposite 1st world problem. Moving away from a ski town shortly and am partly excited for new adventures and partly scared out of my mind. I had a sweet job at a startup 6 miles from the lifts that paid me probably more than I deserved and was able to ski 70 to 100 days a year for 5+ years. The job finally went belly up. I have a job i don't like and am pretty sure I’m quitting tomorrow. I still live in a ski town but now am a weekend warrior which is weird. I love the mountains and ski, fish or mtb every chance I have, but it feels like less of a priority in life. Maybe I’m taking it for granted, but I’m realizing I have seen my family a handful of times in last 6 years and haven’t even meet my new nephews. Wife and I also want to start a fam and I think my priorities will change when that happen. Though it was just me but watching my single friends my age struggling with making just enough to live on while getting older in a ski town, drinking every night and taking their turn banging the new crop of 20 year old waitresses in town (which is retarded how can that get old?). So its off to the flatlands where I’ll get paid again, visit new places to ski, and see/have family. Life is a ride to be enjoyed, if it sucks we a packing up and moving on again to somewhere warm and tropical.   

12 years ago
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EastShoreDrive
Posts: 188 - Karma: 862
The one nice part about being an "aging freeskier" is I can finally afford to buy all the gear and shit I want. I would definitely give it up to get the last 10 years of my life back but it is at least one positive to getting older. It isn't all bad.

My plan is to bust my ass now so I can take a week long trip to Retallack every year in my 40's.
12 years ago
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Substitute
Posts: 1378 - Karma: 2,275
Dildos... Let the dude talk to people who share the same passion you weasel cunt
12 years ago
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Dhane
Posts: 3866 - Karma: 1,722
yea.


sounds like your a schmuck man. no pity. to bad you chased that almighty dollar. i bet that snow looks reallll good out your cubicle window.




boring is a choice man. those khakis and and car sure as shit didn't buy themselves
12 years ago
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TheGreenBastard
Posts: 215 - Karma: 135
you sold out
12 years ago
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theblackrod
Posts: 2162 - Karma: 575
Killing it. that is awesome.
12 years ago
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quixotic
Posts: 6937 - Karma: 2,980
quit your job and get a new one. I graduated two years ago and I'm working for min wage in tahoe now. the pay sucks, the skiing every day thing doesn't. save up some money in SF then move wherever you want for a winter or two or ten. it's never too late!
12 years ago
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UncleGerry
Posts: 1291 - Karma: 1,378
This is a prime example of what I hated in ski towns that I lived in.

There are the type of people who feel the need to justify their decision of living in a ski town and working minimum wage in order to "live the dream, bro!"... "Another day in paradise, maan!" was a typical photo caption or Facebook status that was constantly used by douchebags who lived in Tahoe/Breck who felt the need to demonstrate and justify their life choice to others. Sure, the view is sick, but you're pouring drinks/serving people as a living in vacation land, and that sucks.

And down the road, the selfish decision to stick around in a ski town is now affecting their family because their kids are going to Local Ski Town High School, being degenerates, and the parents have no financial foundation to do anything besides buy season passes for the family every year at the local mountain and visit the local watering hole everyday. Paying for your kids college? Fuck that, living the dream is more important, we made that decision long ago! Leaving the ski town bubble and going on family vacations? Forget it, we have paradise here, man! To me, ski towns have the potential to be a dangerous vortex to a lot of people.

As a bunch of people, including myself, previously stated in this thread, you can go about "living the dream" in your own way. It doesn't have to be full on, "I'm raw, bro!", ski bum lifestyle. Think about the bigger picture, it won't mean you are a "sell out" who is chasing the almighty dollar. Sometimes you need to grow the fuck up.
12 years ago
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tskilz
Posts: 179 - Karma: 2
Skiing is more fun when you get older. Keep your day job and just keep skiing.
12 years ago
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freeskibum82
Posts: 6355 - Karma: 5,056
and you get to buy new equipment all the time because you make money!

and you get to buy food and beer in the lodge because you make money!

and you get to spend money in the industry you can about because you make money!

im perfectly happy working and then skiing when im not working!
12 years ago
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Huck_Norris
Posts: 11487 - Karma: 18,627
Lots of good stuff in here, but I just wanted to add one thing. Just because you grow up and make good money doesn't mean you need to stop chasing your dreams, or that having a good job means you'll have to give up your ambitions in any sense of the meaning. "Doing it right" means allowing yourself room to be who you need to be. Sure, if you go work in a cubicle it may interfere, but that's far from your only option. If you haven't already, consider trades work. I am a welder and shop manager and have built my skills up to the point where I do mostly military, aerospace, oil/gas industrial production, certified or government contracts and even nuke sub work, etc. It's all production deadline based so as long as I can get the work done on time, it really doesn't matter when I take off to ski pow.

My skills have also gotten me a ton of work at my home hill. Hell, this year I made a bunch of money repairing pipeline for them during the summer, got my pass built right into my compensation and got my whole winter share house paid for by it too.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that there are so many ways to make money and make your way through life, don't feel like you have to do anything because you see everyone else doing it. You can absolutely create a business and be your own boss and build a situation where you can decide that yes, today is a pow day and you have no boss so fuck it! Your path is for you to decide! Find that balance that works for you, devise a plan, figure out what is really important to you and go from there. If you build your life around what makes you happy, you'll be happy. If you build it around what other people think success is, you'll be forever bound to that infinite struggle. I know sooo many people who are now stuck on that slippery slope- miserable, stuck and unfulfilled. Don't be those people.
12 years ago
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Huck_Norris
Posts: 11487 - Karma: 18,627
Agreed that finding balance that works for you is key. I do not however share your disdain for ski bums. That's their prerogative, fuck ya if you can't or don't appreciate their plan. That's their balance. Who are we to say its ok or not? In their minds they're millionaires, not to mention I know plenty of people who have a waitstaff career and are totally cool with it. Shit man, if you're good the money is awesome and the hours are freakin' sweet!
12 years ago
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TimRiley
Posts: 1873 - Karma: 1,327
I'm married with two kids. My wife and I decided to work and save money out of college rather than moving to a ski town. After progressing our careers, we now have more flexibility with our jobs, have a second home on the ski hill, and average 50-60 days a season. Just because you work hard, doesn't mean you can't play hard too. I don't believe one lifestyle is better than the other. Whatever path you choose, just make sure you're happy.
12 years ago
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