season work

morleyman200

Hi all

Me and my brother are looking to do a season maybe next summer hopefully for a full year.

Has anyone done a work season in a bike park? was thinking whistler or silverstar. Europe is appealing but neither of us can speak a word of French or Italian, so that screws that up.

I've been having a look on the web and it seems like you can be a guide, mechanic or a chalet boy.
I know if we go for the year, the summer we'd want to spend biking, downhill and trails. then in the summer move to skiing or snowboarding.

Just wondering if anyone has any experience in this field?

Tom

UH DH

Work hours are long, pay is shit and usually you only get one day off a week. Plus you need to watch out for companies that don't keep their end of the bargain up by promising liftpasses for all employees, then not providing them until halfway into the season.

It can be good if you socialise with the other people working, but most are there to party, so there's a good chance you'll end up having to carry some of the people you work with.

Basically, it can be an absolute nightmare, you'll come out of it stressed and tired, but it's well worth doing at least once, if only for the experience.

morleyman200

thanks for your response.

This sounds like my cup of tea, I'm 20 now, so looking to do it when i finish uni, so i may one of the ones being carried home!

Well the uplift part you can keep enforcing i imagine. In all honesty the pay isn't the main reason I want to do it, the main reason is to ride my bike and be in the best biking atmosphere there is, so yea the experience. One of my boxes i'd like to tick off.

what sort of jobs are there? was i on the correct lines? chalet boy etc? are there many bike guide jobs available? Also whats it like for the year? is it easy to swap over to the skiing and snowboarding side of the game?

Tom

hedache

The above reply by UH DH paints a bit of a negative picture of it imo.

I don't have experience of the summer but I've done a winter season before and absolutely loved it. One of the best things I've done. I'd do it again in a flash if I could.

You're right about working, you don't do it for the pay, it's just a means to an end. Many jobs come with a place to stay and lift pass/food if you're lucky so as long as you've got enough money to get by who cares.

Working in a chalet is probably the worst job in terms of time on the mountain as you do a lot of work in the day, and as above you might only get one day off. The obvious advantage though is that you will probably be provided with food and lodging. With other jobs you may have to arrange this yourself so you'll need a certain amount of cash to start with.

Evening work in bars/restaurants etc can be good as you get more time to yourself in the day. There is more choice in terms of work in the bigger resorts. I would imagine there are a lot of different opportunities somewhere like Whistler, but I guess it would be difficult getting a guiding job unless you know the place very well.

Unless you have arranged a job beforehand, it's essential to get to your resort early to enquire about work. As i said before, if you're doing it this way, you'll need a certain amount of money saved as back up.

Re. Europe, you don't need to speak the language. In Chamonix, where I was based, it is 60% English and Swedish during the winter season and everyone speaks English. Obviously it will help if you can speak the local lingo though and is def advantageous for certain jobs.

There is a lot of partying, but that's whole point. Work hard, play hard. The social aspect is massive and you'll meet a lot of new friends but this needn't impinge on getting the most out of your riding. I did over 100 days on the mountain and was always up early on powder days. It's up to you to make the most out of the experience.

I've only got experience of the winter, but I would imagine doing a summer season is similar in many ways. I'd say go for it, at your age I can almost guarantee you'll have a good time. I know a few people who've gone for a season and have yet to return years later!

UH DH

No to bike guiding. First you'd need to know all the trail networks off by heart. Apart from that, the French are dicks about holiday guides. To guide anywhere in France either bike or ski, you need the French qualifications which are very hard to get and require fluency in French. Then there was some weird rule about having to work from a company where the majority of the guides are French. They don't want people butting in on their stuff.