 Poster: A snowHead
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| Dave of the Marmottes wrote: |
| Weathercam wrote: |
The seasonaires part of the site is written by those that it's aimed at, a younger demographic, and will almost be in a satirical anarchic tone, maybe it should come with a health warning to those who might be upset by their antics  |
Yeah - I don't buy that, it's not properly satirical or anarchic it's a couple of filler pieces per winter. Not a patch on the the former Belle de Neige which was utterly authentic, biting and very funny (although probably a lot due to a talented writer) |
You're having a laugh, this was from Belle De Neige' s last blog post and twas always the same shite full of F's* and C'words*
Cants* that ski in jeans
Nothing much doing on the good slopes of the Alps at the moment, if snow reports are to be believed. And if the snow reports are saying no snow, then there really must be feck* all, because usually, they lie through their teeth to stop poor unfortunate souls from canceling their holidays.
And as for you...my little over-enthusiastic, bright-eyed, bushy tailed chalet bitches, I'm sure life has been delightful, with your first week guests languishing in a crestfallen heap on your chalet couch whinging at you because there's no snow. Like you can do something about it. Like you're some kind of all-powerful genie that can conjure a blizzard out of your back bottom.
If this season turns out to be a still birth, I'm gonna lose my poo-poo. For a start I just splashed out a whole load of moular on a new ski jacket, and if I don't get to wear it then the full on toddler tantrum is getting whopped out. Toys out of pram. Fecking* yard sale.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Actually, I think that's quite funny - self-deprecating, in an entertaing way.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| pam w wrote: |
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it just reeks of seasonnaire entitlement
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Quite. Sure, some slope users are ill-mannered and so, no doubt, are some seasonnaires especially those who after one season of cleaning bogs and waiting for late flights in Geneva airport know they are a "pro in an extreme sport" who despises anyone who doesn't wear their goggles right. |
That was my reaction as well. Condescension and immaturity reeking through it.
p.s. I also think Belle de neige is funny and better written.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Retirement I guess, 20 seasons deep now, I don't think I could stop!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Weathercam wrote: |
You're having a laugh, this was from Belle De Neige' s last blog post and twas always the same shite full of F's* and C'words*
[/i] |
Well admittedly it was better in the original but there is no denying a certain style and "voice" comes through and over time her blog certainly gave an insight into the seasonaire lifestyle above the odd random post bemoaning billies and the fights the writer has had with them - for starters not really any self deprecation comes through or indeed point. Your daughter's article was fine.
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RobinS
Thanks, I am booked with Mountain Sun @ Kronplatz in December, where are you located?
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Journalism is purely a horses for courses type of thing. You either like it or you don't. I used to like the Torygraph but I don't now, I sometimes like the Guardian, I used to read RAD in the 80s, MTB in the 90s, Whitelines in the 00's. if you were 18yr you would probably find the blog funny. Don't be too critical if you don't like it. It's for fun (unlike the drivel in the mainstream press).
I generally find most seasonaires I meet to be idiots, but then I am not 18/19 anymore and a lot seasonaires are. All teenagers have a sense of entitlement.....or maybe you don't remember? 
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@emwmarine, which one is that?
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Never mind I found it - wish I hadn't now
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@Hurtle, was wondering when you'd turn up, so predictable
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@gazza330, We are at Chalet Mazot, Les Coches (La Plagne).
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You know it makes sense.
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@Weathercam,
I'm sure you can understand that other people may take different views on those articles?
Based on reading them, I do have a question though for the seasonaires on here - do you actually get to ski more than once a week? Guess that is kind of job dependent?
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| stuarth wrote: |
@Weathercam,
I'm sure you can understand that other people may take different views on those articles?
Based on reading them, I do have a question though for the seasonaires on here - do you actually get to ski more than once a week? Guess that is kind of job dependent? |
In my first season I was a rep for Crystal. If I had wanted to I could have skied most weeks for 4 full days and 2 half days. Admittedly one or two of those days were ski guiding, before it was banned for tour ops. And if you had guest issues that may take some time, though typically it tended to be out of ski time. A standard week was:
Saturday: Transfer day/lift pass delivery. Ridiculously busy, 16-18 hour days were fairly normal, 24 hour days were not out of the question. Skiing was banned by the company on transfer days (not that you had a chance to do so in any case).
Sunday: Morning, purchase and distribute remaining lift passes, ensure ski school goes off ok, usually finish by 9-930. Every 1 in 2 weeks, ski guiding 10-2, then 2.30 was resort team post-transfer meeting. 630pm welcome meeting and meet guests. If not guiding it was common to get out for just a couple of hours (or catch up on sleep if transfer day had been especially horrendous).
That was the worst of the week, very easy to have racked up 30 hours of "work" over two days. Then reps would be allocated with 2 or 3 set things to do for the rest of the week; ski away day (escort guest from les Arcs to Tignes for the day; but you got to ski when there, obviously); evening mountain meal; ski guiding (Monday & Wednesday were full days); take guests to bobsleigh in La Plagne; bar crawl. Tuesday or Wednesday was a day off, but if you had no other "set" work and no guest issues you could just get on the mountain on the other days too, it would be rare to not be able to. Plus we always had a mobile phone with us and so could get called off to sort out issues ad hoc, but this was pretty rare (especially as the week went on). I typically popped to guest's accommodation / hotel reception a couple of evenings between 6 and 730 or so, but that was just to show face and head off any problems. Thursday evening was visiting all guests and ensuring they all had departure details; Friday afternoon was resort team pre-departure meeting. Other bits and pieces through the week that had to be done, but none that truly impinged on ski time.
Basically, if you really put a shift in on Saturday and Sunday, plus maybe Monday morning if anything was still to be done, you had done pretty much all you needed to do apart from the set work you had and any guest issues that arose, which like I say were rare outside of ski time.
The hours were long, 50 hours plus every single week. But I still count it as the easiest and most enjoyable job I've ever done.
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Poster: A snowHead
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That style altitude website is really really awful. The author comes across as having some major issues. If she hates the people who pay here wages so much then maybe she should find a cleaning/waitress job elsewhere...
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| KenX wrote: |
| My first season was in Zermatt at the age of 30, I went there for a 2 week holiday and stayed there for 8 years......... |
That's amazing. My friend did something similar went out to see his girlfriend for a week and didnt come back. He'd never been skiing before and had to be given all the stuff he'd need. Still doing seasons 15 years on.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I did two seasons, 5 years apart. After the second one, we wanted to live out here full time but I didn't want to swap my job (which I love) for a ski/ chalet job, so we came home and I moved jobs to an international firm and badgered them until they allowed me to transfer to Geneva and live here full time 
And for driving - your employer should do your Swiss registration and you either need 2 years professional driving or a go on an advance driving ROSPA course or get a d1 license. Most transfer companies will help you arrange qualification.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Read the article. Enjoyable and informative. Wish I had the opportunity to do a season when I was young but it did not seem possible as had to get a profession and earn a living (why in retrospect?). My first chalet was with Bladon Lines and all the chalet staff were sloanies.
Fortunately having put the graft in those early years am pensionable within the year and ski as many times as I wish without worrying about the cost (shame the wife limits me to four weeks). Would still love to do a season but getting a ski apartment has been denied.
Have been to the MountainSun chalet Mazot in Les Coches. Interesting arrangement of a twin chalet (upstairs and downstairs) and a young 30ish couple running it. The drivers came from Tignes which seemed onerous. I skied with the couple every afternoon (I did an ESF off-piste course in the morning) and I believe they escaped 11ish and returned at 4. Some nights we ate in separate dining rooms and others in the larger one. Good area of Paradski. Quiet apres ski.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| TheGeneralist wrote: |
| That style altitude website is really really awful. The author comes across as having some major issues. If she hates the people who pay here wages so much then maybe she should find a cleaning/waitress job elsewhere... |
That's unfair. If you didn't realise it's weathercam's site, btw. Look, I agree about the Jerry article - that particular writer comes across as an idiot, and the "have a good holiday pal, I live live here" line from someone who spent a couple of months there made me cringe. However there are plenty of interesting articles on there too - like the one in the OP - and weathercam has clearly put a lot of effort into it.
Last edited by You'll need to Register first of course. on Sat 19-11-16 14:02; edited 1 time in total
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@clarky999, thanks.
Though to put the record straight it's my OH's & daughters site - she put's all the time and effort into it - I'm just the website designer / tech dude who scribbles the occasional feature on gear & touring as well as cycling as we have the TDF and Etape next year.
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My 3 seasons (a scary long time ago now) are responsible for who I am now.
I'm not sure that's entirely a good thing.
- and some of my best and most enduring friendships.
I wouldn't have missed them for the world.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| under a new name wrote: |
My 3 seasons (a scary long time ago now) are responsible for who I am now.
I'm not sure that's entirely a good thing.
- and some of my best and most enduring friendships.
I wouldn't have missed them for the world. |
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My sentiments exactly. |
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I mostly avoided falling into the category of the stereotypical 'seasonaire'. While I worked for a major tour operator*, I was getting more rides on the first bin of the Midi than most locals.
Very difficult to go from that to an office job in the UK. However, I saw no route to any form of career satisfaction/long term financial prosperity in Chamonix, so made the decision to move back to the UK, train up and bide my time until I can go back on my own terms.
*Did manage to get myself onto the homepage of said tour operator. Hint, established by a Walter Ingham in 1934!)
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Some quite young 'older' seasonaires here. I was 54 when I did my first ski season. I'm now embarking on my first American ski season aged 65, will turn 66 in January. I have done 9 seasons in the European Alps, predominately Austria (love it), 1 France (don't love it), 1 Switzerland (ambivalent) and part seasons in Canada, (loved that too). There is no reason why someone with the right attitude and willingness to stay open minded shouldn't do a ski season and love it. Missed last season to take some ski holidays myself, 5 in total but it'an expensive business skiing on your own money. Much better to do it at someone else's expence! As for the OP question---no I don't think we ever 'grow up'.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@Old Man Of Lech, being only a few years younger than you, I'd be interested to know what sort of work you've found over those seasons and particularly those in Canada and the upcoming one in the states
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@Old Man Of Lech, you Sir are a classic "Geezernaire"
Chapeau !!
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You know it makes sense.
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| Dav wrote: |
| Saturday: Transfer day/lift pass delivery. Ridiculously busy, 16-18 hour days were fairly normal, 24 hour days were not out of the question. Skiing was banned by the company on transfer days (not that you had a chance to do so in any case).. |
You should have worked a Swiss resort like St Moritz, so far from Zurich airport that the first guests didn't drag their sorry asses into Dodge until the early evening, that's if they even made it as the last trains leave early evening and the dash from Airport to U-Bahn to the crack den that is Zurich station often was far too much. Sometimes baggage would arrive in their hotel 24 hours in advance of the guest thanks to the SBB. So you normally have until around 4pm to ski before checking that the sleigh rides had arrived at the station to take the VIP guests up to the Eagle's Lair Hotel surrounded by a stench of horse fart and flies, or seeing if old Miguel's clapped out faded metallic blue Mercedes taxi hadn't broken down to take the other guests to the "Garni Hotel Rene Viktoria" down in Dorf.
As for ski guiding, talk to the Ski Club of Great Britain rep, yah, he'll sort you out. He's only been airlifted off the Corvatsch twice this season. Apres? No we're far too up market for that; here it's a cup of Chamomile and early doors - unless you are a season worker when it was a mad party till chucking out time in the Schweizerhof cellar bar. To be honest very few of the guests wanted Apres, most were more interested in Polo on the Moritzersee or ski joring - which, as best as I could tell, was being dragged around on a part frozen lake by a horse on a monoski. It was the human on the monoski not the 'orse, of course.
Last edited by You know it makes sense. on Sun 20-11-16 14:14; edited 1 time in total
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| clarky999 wrote: |
| ... I agree about the Jerry article - that particular writer comes across as an idiot, and the "have a good holiday pal, I live live here" line from someone who spent a couple of months there made me cringe.... . |
Interesting, but you're right - a nasty aggressive idiot. I hope they used their real name as that should help prospective employers understand the suitability of the individual. Perhaps it was made up/ ironic/ a caricature. The idea of seasonal workers "living here" is so clearly bogus, as is the idea of privilege based on that or anything else.
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Poster: A snowHead
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What exactly qualifies one for the title 'seasonaire'? I did my first proper season last year at age 56, having retired the year before. No work, just a rented apartment, a season pass and as many Swiss francs as my pension would allow. Despite the snow being pretty scarce early in the season, it was enough to convince me to seek out a year-round apartment.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@davidof, 
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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@nickH, I originally applied to be a Rep for a UK TO. They in their wisdom chose to offer me a hotel/resort managers job. They had reviewed my CV which listed a good number of years in management & business positions, which they felt suited me more to this kind of role. I was happy to accept. All my roles have been this kind of position. Resort, Hotel or Chalet manager. Except a few weeks when I came back from Canada and I took a Chauffeur role for the last weeks of a season in France for a very high end Boutique Chalet business. I was in Canada because my partner's job took her to Edmonton for a year, I was given an open visa on the back of her's. I worked as a 'tour guide' for a local bus company going either to Lake Louise or Marmot each weekend, and I taught skiing at Sunridge Ski hill in Edmonton afternoons & evenings. (I have a CSIA level2). I'm in the US now to manage some Very high end chalets for a local company here. They sponsored me for a H2B visa, which was approved about a week ago. Though it is a very long winded exercise involving much form filling and visits to the US consulate to be interviewed.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| telford_mike wrote: |
| What exactly qualifies one for the title 'seasonaire'? I did my first proper season last year at age 56, having retired the year before. No work, just a rented apartment, a season pass and as many Swiss francs as my pension would allow. Despite the snow being pretty scarce early in the season, it was enough to convince me to seek out a year-round apartment. |
My plan as soon as SWMBO retires- so about 2019/20 ish. We started skiing Jan 15 at ages 58/54.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Thanks, @Old Man Of Lech, very interesting ( and excuse my nosiness) . Definitely not the sort of positions my background would allow, but great for one of yours. Have a superb time in the states !!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@telford_mike, you too are a "Geezernaire" and @Charliegolf, you'll be one too soon
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@Weathercam, One has hopes! 
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| TheGeneralist wrote: |
| That style altitude website is really really awful. The author comes across as having some major issues. If she hates the people who pay here wages so much then maybe she should find a cleaning/waitress job elsewhere... |
Blimey.
I did a selection of menial jobs during sixth form and university and one of the things that kept teams going was bitching about the people we served/worked for. Pre-blog time so thankfully we just did our bitching in the pub.
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I cane to Queenstown to do one season because I didn't have anything better to do and did ten seasons in a row and a couple in Taos working on the snow then stupidly moved to the city to follow a woman. Seventeen years later moved back with a new (and far better) woman and a real job. Nine years on still living the dream in the mountains and skiing two or three days per week in the season. About half of the team I worked with have either returned or never left. So plenty of skiing left for this old dog.
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FAQ
