Who killed all the ski bums?

first_rodeoafter 7 years in the corporate grind, i can finally afford to get my wife and kids a season pass.

bitch tripped down the stairs and pulled a THALL and now "we" cant ski till feb.

WorkHardSkiPowThanks for the responses guys. I appreciate the conversation. On the note of cost of living, it works out to be about 10/day for room and board, which is subtracted out of your pay check. So that is approx 310/month for a roof over your head and all of your food. Yes I agree that the col is much higher in the greater salt lake valley, I don't think you could feed yourself at smith's for 310/month, let alone a place to sleep. If you would prefer to live in the valley, I can rent you a room for 1000/month within walking distance to a bus stop and smiths (please note my sarcasm, but that is quiet reasonable for living in the valley at this point, and possible if you want to live in the valley)

As for pay, we pay 11-15/hr depending on experience level. Feel free to complain that it is low, but again see the above paragraph, COL is extremely low.

And yes I agree capitalism killed the ski bum

WorkHardSkiPowHey guys,

I just want to know, what the hell has happened to the ski bums of the world? I work at one of the lodges in Alta and we are seriously hurting for good employees. And by good employees, I mean kids who are more passionate about skiing than anything else in their world. People who are willing to ski from opening bell until 5 mins before their shift starts. People who want to work their asses off all night, just to wake up the next day and skis their asses off the next whole day.

Seriously, we have on the hill housing, 3 meals a day, ski passes and hourly wages and it feels like we are pulling teeth trying to get employees to work for us. I wish I could be 22 again, ski 100+ days in the winter with the biggest responsibility in my life being to wash my ski socks every other week. Literally, just show up, work, eat, ski, sleep. Sounds fucking amazing!

We are having a killer start to the season snow wise, 75" base, almost 200" so far this year. Alta is skiing better than most resorts in the entire country right now and somehow no one wants to come out here to work and ski. This isn't some corporate ski town owned and run by people who don't ski, this is a family run lodge where everyone is stoked to ski. It isn't even January, if you came out next week, you would still have the opportunity to ski 110 days before the end of the ski season.

DM me if you want a job!

I know you guys are out there! Please come be a ski bum!!!

first_rodeoafter 7 years in the corporate grind, i can finally afford to get my wife and kids a season pass.

bitch tripped down the stairs and pulled a THALL and now "we" cant ski till feb.

DesertStixStart paying more than fast food restaurants. Or damn, I know fast food restaurants in my area starting at 17.50 right now. You seriously wondering why people don’t want to take jobs that pay insulting wages? And before anyone complains that it’s a labor of love and people don’t do it for the money, this is capitalist America. Everything revolves around the dollar so if you want something to change, put your money where your mouth is.

207If I work up there do I have to pony up a couple hundred bucks for a parking permit to Emporer Mike M***hn just for the privilege to park my car overnight at my place of employer? Or am I better off accepting I got shafted by money hungry ASL because times are changing?

WorkHardSkiPowI'd love to offer more than fast food restaurants, but unfortunately I have little to no control over how much people make here. I'm just here trying to spread the good word, I know living/working/skiing up here can be a very good thing. I've been doing it since 2008 and each year has been amazing!

first_rodeoafter 7 years in the corporate grind, i can finally afford to get my wife and kids a season pass.

bitch tripped down the stairs and pulled a THALL and now "we" cant ski till feb.

WorkHardSkiPowHey guys,

I just want to know, what the hell has happened to the ski bums of the world? I work at one of the lodges in Alta and we are seriously hurting for good employees. And by good employees, I mean kids who are more passionate about skiing than anything else in their world. People who are willing to ski from opening bell until 5 mins before their shift starts. People who want to work their asses off all night, just to wake up the next day and skis their asses off the next whole day.

Seriously, we have on the hill housing, 3 meals a day, ski passes and hourly wages and it feels like we are pulling teeth trying to get employees to work for us. I wish I could be 22 again, ski 100+ days in the winter with the biggest responsibility in my life being to wash my ski socks every other week. Literally, just show up, work, eat, ski, sleep. Sounds fucking amazing!

We are having a killer start to the season snow wise, 75" base, almost 200" so far this year. Alta is skiing better than most resorts in the entire country right now and somehow no one wants to come out here to work and ski. This isn't some corporate ski town owned and run by people who don't ski, this is a family run lodge where everyone is stoked to ski. It isn't even January, if you came out next week, you would still have the opportunity to ski 110 days before the end of the ski season.

DM me if you want a job!

I know you guys are out there! Please come be a ski bum!!!

WorkHardSkiPowNo clue on the parking. I feel like every week the parking situation changes up here. The only thing that has been constant since they first announced it is that it is a complete shit show unless you reserve your parking early!!!!

programmed_robotso lets say a newbie gets paid $11/hr and is working 35 hours a week. hourly*hours*number of weeks in a month = 11*35*4= 1540
accounting for rent
1540-310 = 1230.
you get $1230 every month for spending money. could be worse, from a financial stand point. i think this could be great for someone fresh outta HS who knows they wanna ski a bunch.

PackBombs22 is post college aged. Nobody wants to make Taco Bell money at that age no matter what the perks are. Cost of living is way higher than it used to be

Generally speaking, the problem isn’t due to lack of interest in skiing it’s due to resorts paying shit wages and expecting people to jump for joy at the opportunity alone.

MaimHelpI mean a few of my friends applied there but the mandatory vaccine was something they didn’t want to fuck with

WorkHardSkiPowThanks for the responses guys. I appreciate the conversation. On the note of cost of living, it works out to be about 10/day for room and board, which is subtracted out of your pay check. So that is approx 310/month for a roof over your head and all of your food. Yes I agree that the col is much higher in the greater salt lake valley, I don't think you could feed yourself at smith's for 310/month, let alone a place to sleep. If you would prefer to live in the valley, I can rent you a room for 1000/month within walking distance to a bus stop and smiths (please note my sarcasm, but that is quiet reasonable for living in the valley at this point, and possible if you want to live in the valley)

As for pay, we pay 11-15/hr depending on experience level. Feel free to complain that it is low, but again see the above paragraph, COL is extremely low.

And yes I agree capitalism killed the ski bum

PackBombsDid you purposely forget taxes or

WorkHardSkiPowThanks for the responses guys. I appreciate the conversation. On the note of cost of living, it works out to be about 10/day for room and board, which is subtracted out of your pay check. So that is approx 310/month for a roof over your head and all of your food. Yes I agree that the col is much higher in the greater salt lake valley, I don't think you could feed yourself at smith's for 310/month, let alone a place to sleep. If you would prefer to live in the valley, I can rent you a room for 1000/month within walking distance to a bus stop and smiths (please note my sarcasm, but that is quiet reasonable for living in the valley at this point, and possible if you want to live in the valley)

As for pay, we pay 11-15/hr depending on experience level. Feel free to complain that it is low, but again see the above paragraph, COL is extremely low.

And yes I agree capitalism killed the ski bum

bennwithtwonsthis actually comes out pretty close if you use real figures. $11/hr, working 40 hours a week (instead of 35) comes out to $22,880 annually, which after federal and UT taxes results in $19,145 net pay. Pro-rate that by 12 months and you get $1595/month. So take $310 from that and you get $1285 per month. If the housing deduction is pre-tax, that lowers your tax a bit, which means your actual take home pay would be slightly higher. If one worked OT during peak periods, which is common, take home pay would be even more. Perhaps the 6 months of the year working outside of the resorts would pay even better but then you'd be looking at (most likely) higher rent during those months as well, since finding a place for ~$300 a month is pretty tough, no matter where you are, so the net take home after all expenses might actually be worse. Lots of assumptions but I am sure there are some people who would be stoked to live on the hill and take home close to $1300 a month. If you have a cheap car (or no car payment at all) and low expenses, you could be more than fine. I bet lots of 18-25 'ski bums' are still on their parents health insurance and/or cell phone plans. If not, health insurance is heavily subsidized for people making less than $30k/year, so the price is reasonable. Lots to weigh there for the prospective employee for sure.

When I was 'ski bumming,' my priority was not wages - it was skiing. I worked as little as possible so I could ski as much as possible. I was not bringing home anywhere close to $1300 a month but i was only working weekends and holidays. i worked a huge amount during the summer to make that possible, though.

PeppermillRenoAlta is violating the Nuremberg code on its employees too? I know Vail is of course. Damn.

A ski bum has to fight with all the work from home people for housing now and boomers who are retiring and want to ski. Game done changed.

These hills just need to pimp out employee housing and hook it up and if they do their employees will never want to leave and move on. But unfortunately I'm sure their plan is to spend as little as possible and take everyones money and hope they can hire J1s again next year.

r00kieMaking the annual income argument isn't helping you. People, at least in the Great Lakes region, can walk into any factory without any sort resume or passed drug test and start making nearly 50k a year right now. No one in their right mind is going to take up a seasonal job out of area based on the very unimpressive numbers you are claiming in the current job market. If I were in HRs shoes, I would look for local people who need part time supplemental income. You got a lot of college students in your area and that is what they need. Give them flexible hours at a decent rate with a free pass and you'll have them stacked up. Or, tap into that semi retired crowd. Hill I worked at staffed a bunch of these guys just by giving them a reason to get out of their house and away from their wives 4 days a week.

TLDR, no one in their right mind is leaving their full time job and moving to Utah for the wages you're offering, get creative.

bennwithtwonsi wasn't making any argument for moving there, i was just crunching the numbers so people could see what it looked like based on the parameters being discussed.

Canis_lupusIt's interesting seeing NS members weigh in their experiences working for the ski industry. For me personally I feel resorts main attraction to working there is that "you'll be working in an industry you love" with the expectation that because you love skiing you'll love working at a resort. That may be true for some positions but it's usually gonna be similar to any other minimum wage job you might find outside the ski industry, the main difference being that you might get a season pass to make skiing easier.

Canis_lupusIt's interesting seeing NS members weigh in their experiences working for the ski industry. For me personally I feel resorts main attraction to working there is that "you'll be working in an industry you love" with the expectation that because you love skiing you'll love working at a resort. That may be true for some positions but it's usually gonna be similar to any other minimum wage job you might find outside the ski industry, the main difference being that you might get a season pass to make skiing easier.

r00kieThose parameters won't make anyone think its worth it. If housing is involved I assume you guys think a lot of your workforce is coming from out of area.

bennwithtwonshey guy, i don't live or work there. i am not involved with alta or any other ski resort's operations or hiring. someone made a comment about how much money an employee would net if working there at $11/hr (the minimum starting wage, apparently), so i just crunched some numbers for anyone interested in what that would look like. i am not advocating for anything, just providing information for anyone thinking about it