 Poster: A snowHead
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I'm busy so may not be around very much during the day but let's set this one off and see what people think.
So, for quite some time now I've been day dreaming about doing a season. Inspired by a pal who started hs 12 month round-the-world trip with a 3 month sojourn in Whislter, my aim has been to just ski rather than getting a job. Find a flat, probably some where in the Tarentaise, and ski from january till march - the theory being that the owner can then rent out the flat for the lucrative christmas and easter breaks, while we still get a solid 12 week stint. However of late I've been checking out prices for rentals and have been somewhat flabbergasted, even when I consider that the prices I've seen are for full season rental - I'd obviously not budgeted enough as the rental alone come to almost as much as my "off the top of my head" figures I'd worked out for the whole of the season!
So my thoughts turned naturally to working - I'm lucky enough to have a friend working as a ski guide this season and having skiied with him, I'm fairly happy that I could work as a ski guide (we're talking ski hosting purely on piste here, not UIAGFM guiding!). I really wouldn't be interested in working as a chalet host or anything though - my aim is to maximise slope time, so it would be either ski host or nothing. This would dramatically reduce costs as most jobs (as far as I can see) will offer accomodation and lift pass as part of the package, as well as paying me enough for spends - meaning I'd not need to save nearly as much in the time leading up to the trip.
The factor that makes a huge difference in all this is Mrs NBT. Obviously I'd not do a season in the alps without her - it was bad enough last week when she was too poorly to make the holiday we'd booked (I only went as there were 3 booked on the trip, if I'd dropped out it would have left Phil on his own which wouldn't have been fair - but I digress), so we couldn't even consider her not coming. If I'm not working then all is fine and dandy, as we can ski where and when we like - but what if I'm working. What then? The aim would also be for Mrs NBT to ski, so how could we acheive this? Any thoughts / suggestions? Any experience of doing a season? Any experience of emplying ski hosts? Any experience of employees bringing along ther partners for the season? What else do I need to theink about? DO I need other skills (on our trip last year the ski host offered guiding on 3 days and did ski servicing in the evenings) etc etc
over to you chaps and chapesses
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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nbt, one thing to consider about ski hosting- you are at the mercy of your punters, you may or may not get to ski where you want to.What does the company expect you to do on the days you aren't guiding, you may have airport transfers etc. Evening bar jobs maximise your ski time more.
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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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If you can afford not to don't work.
In the Tarentaise, you haven't exactly chosen a budget area! Why not look somewhere a bit less fasionable? I did a season a few years back and got a flat in a town called Allemont for EUR300 per month. It wasn't great but it had 4 walls and a roof which didn't leak and everything worked. In 15mins you could drive up to the Alpe d'Huez lift system; 40mins to La Grave; 10mins to Bourg d'Oisans for grocery shopping, post office, newsagent etc and 30-40mins to Grenoble for the "big city". So round there might be worth investigating or maybe somewhere like Briancon which has direct access to Serre Chevalier lifts; lots of other really good skiing nearby and is a pretty nice town in its own right.
I'd echo Helen Beaumont's comment and then some. I looked into ski hosting and got put off it and I am SO GLAD I did. The one thing I missed was the ready made social network you get from working. On the other hand, I was able to go on ski mountaineering courses and trips in Italy, Switzerland and other parts of France which I would never have been able to do if I was working. I was able to pop home for a good friend's stag do and wedding which I would never have been able to do. I was able to pursue a BASI badge too.
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It might be worth taking a car with you so you can take a place a bit out of town that's much cheaper than in resort. This also gives you the advantage of being able to 'hop off' to other resorts in the area when you happen to know that friends are visiting them. With snowHeads at your disposal, it should be easy enough to find people to hook up with in the daytime.
On the other hand, in resort you have a network of people made up of mostly season workers, with more or less locals depending on the particular resort. After you've been there for a week, people start to acknowledge you differently as they realise you're not here-and-gone in 7 days. I guess it's like that camera trick where they keep the subject stationary in the middle of the room and everything moves in a blurr around them: the local community starts to come into focus against the blur holiday makers passing through.
Perhaps you could save more money by doing a deal to give up a couple of weeks in Feb too: after the New Year week they tend to be the highest earners and the slopes are at their busiest. Good excuse for a little 'holiday' back in the UK?
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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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I did two seasons not working in Val Thorens and would also recommend not working if you can possibly avoid it! Yes, the rent was a big chunk (and the ski pass etc.. that is normally provided by a job) but it was great to be able to do as I pleased, all the time, having worked long and hard to be able to take that time off. I topped up my funds while there doing the odd transfer rep work etc..., which wasn't too hard to come by but did kill skiing on Saturdays which is the best day of all to be out on the slopes!
From an owners point of view, I wouldn't be that turned on my someone offering me 3 months only. It's the whole season or not as I don't get in to weekly rentals at all, no interest but many other owners may think your offer is a good one.
Also suggest looking at cheaper areas to rent if on a budget - it's an armpit but Moutiers is cheap(er) than resort and you can drive to lots of resorts then. Bourg St Maurice and no doubt countless other valley towns will be worth a look.
Don't work if you don't have to because it really is a great oppurtunity to please yourself for a little while!
Plus as someone else said, you can go on other holidays during your season, if the snow is bad or the oppurtunity arises for whatever reason - I went to Las Vegas and Rome mid seasons and in the April had a couple of days at the beach in Italy which was only 3 hours drive!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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| nbt wrote: |
| ... To work or Not to work, that is the question.... |
Or, in Hamlet's original words:
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To ski or not to ski, that is the question;
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The boots and inners of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a piste of troubles,
And by opposing, end them. To die, to apres-ski; etc. etc. |
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All god points so far. Just to give a bit more detail, if we're not wkring we'll drive down and as we really like the tarentaise have been considering either BSM or Peisey-vallandry - easy access to les arcs / la plagne and easy to drive to espace killy / 3v / la rosiers etc, although day passes for these places will soon become expensive! The ideal would be to tay in resprt though as we would more easily get to know the network of other people out there for the season
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Season passes generally give discounts or free days at other resorts, but not sure about Tarentaise ones.
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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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My season in the snow - 1974-5 - was spent on Cairngorm, living in Newtonmore - which is 40 minutes away, down the Spey Valley. We had good-to-excellent snow cover from December to May, which wasn't unusual thirty years ago but sadly isn't the norm nowadays.
In terms of the experience, I'd definitely recommend working the season ... so long as you have a sensible number of hours (and, of course, regular days) off. Those non-working days and hours feel so special. Admittedly I was on the mountain every day, not stuck in a building.
I was working as an unqualified instructor (not something that exists nowadays), finishing the season with the BASI course and exam (which is also done in a more lengthy format now). Qualifying to teach skiing is the way to go (in my view) if you'd enjoy the thrill of putting the public on planks. Human sliders are generally good fun to be with, barring the occasional nightmare!
If I wanted to bum a season in the 21st century and didn't want to be an instructor I'd do evening work, or work on the hill. The most magical time of the day is the early morning, so anything that captures those moments (after an overnight blizzard) is a pre-requisite.
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| nbt wrote: |
| The factor that makes a huge difference in all this is Mrs NBT. Obviously I'd not do a season in the alps without her - it was bad enough last week when she was too poorly to make the holiday we'd booked (I only went as there were 3 booked on the trip, if I'd dropped out it would have left Phil on his own which wouldn't have been fair - but I digress), |
Right - yeah - very thoughtful of you, to keep poor old Phil company... 
As to the question... I've always stuck by the theory that the one sure way to turn something you love, into something you hate, is to do it for a living.
Worked for me - I HATE ARCHITECTURE
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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My Paradiski pass gives me 4 days free skiing (2 days in 3V, 2 days in EK), and then after that day passes in the other Espace Olympic resorts costs €10 per day (I think, yet to test this).
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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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Ah but, does it get you on the Vanoise Express?
You decided about next week yet?
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| Kramer wrote: |
Ah but, does it get you on the Vanoise Express?
You decided about next week yet? |
Only if I use it as a zipwire!
It doesn't look like I'm going to get up to Val as I have lessons or shadowing in Les Arcs on Sunday and Courchevel on Monday and Tuesday. Sorry, would have liked to meet up, especially if we get a bit of fresh snow tomorrow (although no sign of it yet).
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You know it makes sense.
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rob@rar,
Hi Rob are you coming to watch the downhill tomorrow?
I will be in the finish area trying to gain free access to hospitality 
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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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stewart woodward, depends on the weather. If it's cloudy or snowy we'll probably stay here as there's a fair chance it will get cancelled postponed until Sunday I guess. I'll look out for you if we make the trip. Would like to see the course on the Face.
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Poster: A snowHead
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rob@rar,
Watched final practice today, pretty impressive. Boddie was fastest. Good performance from Finley Mickel finished 27th from a start number of 48.
Weather clear up here at the moment although snow forecast for tonight. No doubt all the ski instructors in Val D are hoping that it does not snow tonight as they will get called out to slide the course through the night 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Yes, Mark Jones mentioned this on my L1 course. Said he hated slipping it, but was obliged to help on the day. Will they do this at night 
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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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| rob@rar wrote: |
| Will they do this at night |
Yes, anything to make sure the race happens after all the work & money already invested and the world wide resort coverage.
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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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| Quote: |
| ski from january till march - the theory being that the owner can then rent out the flat for the lucrative christmas and easter breaks, |
a flawed assumption here. The lucrative time is not Christmas and Easter but the 4 weeks of the French school holidays, early Feb/early March. Masses of apartments are empty at Christmas and Easter, which are neither here nor there for many French ski businesses. New Year, and February holidays, are far more crucial. If you would rent from early Jan until the vacances scolaire, and then from early March till the end of the season, you could be in with a chance of a lower rent. Any rent which includes those 4 weeks when everyone makes their money is bound to be expensive.
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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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| stewart woodward wrote: |
| rob@rar wrote: |
| Will they do this at night |
Yes, anything to make sure the race happens after all the work & money already invested and the world wide resort coverage. |
Slipping the Face at night must be "interesting"!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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bug off with yer chat about shadowing!
pam w, thanks for that, it's interesting and useful unlike the private conversation between the other posters that had me all excited about the number of posts  Not being an apartment owner it never would have occurred to me.
red 27, You too make a good point that has already come up in conversation. Not sure what would happen in those circumstances 
Helen Beaumont, I'm not 100% sure what the job of ski host entails - as I said above, the ski hosting in Le corbier was only for three days, I have no idea what the ski host did for the other days, although as the hotel had it's own stock of hire boots and skis I guess he spent transfer day with a waxing iron. Not too bothered about the fact that I'll have to ski where the clients want to when I'm working - it's all skiing, and if they want to stick to blues then I can work on technique - javelin turns and teapots and the like 
nightshift and admin, I like the idea of a "holiday" in the middle but not for the UK, more possibly to discover more of france or somewhere else, e.g. pop over to Pau and show Mrs NBT where I used to live, maybe grab a day or two in one of the local resorts - then again, would we really want to be emptying the whole apartment at that point
But the idea of not working is stil very attractive - it;s just the cost that's prohibitive.
Quick (fag packet) sums had me costing a 3 month "season" at around £4,500 - that would be apartment rent, lift pass, food and mortgage at home. Looking at the resorts we have in mind (all in france - I speak french fluently but we want to be in a fairly anglo-friendly resort as Mrs NBT's french isn't quite so good), a seasonal let on a studio is around £5k though! Any apartment owners / seasonnaires care to bandy some figures around? PMs more then welcome and treated in the strictest confidence if you would prefer your finances to remain relatively private. That reminds me, I must PM people such as BernardC, George1 and Johhnyboy to get their views...
Ahhh decisions, decisions. Thankfully I don;t have to make one right now, in fact it's still all a fag packet dream. If I do go though, I'll expect lots of visits from snowheads old and new
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nbt, sorry 
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If you are under 25 -- work.
Go on the L every night. Lots of young fillies up for the ride.
If you are over 25 -- don't work.
Save £5k / US$10k. Or bang it on plastic. Or get a cheap loan. Get a grip. Stop fretting. Rent an apartment. Ski or board every day. Get a Hollywood tan.
Enjoy.
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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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It's been quite some time since I was 25, and I was brought up to believe that you should buty nothing on credit - unless you can afford to pay for it in cash, you can't afford it. The only exceptions have been the house (and related kitchen refit) and the first car I bought myself. It's been a fairly good rule to live by as there've been things I've desperately wanted and saved up to buy, only to realise once I had the money that I didn;t in fact want them after all
anyway I digress. any more for any more?
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The world has moved on.
You only live once.
Some creditcards will lend you thousands at 3% interest rate for a year. That is practically free money.
Get a flexible friend.
Head for the slopes. Get a megatan. Come back a hero.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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nbt, I'm kinda doing it this year .. but then I work how & when I feel like but nothing 'in resort' , and I cant ski every day anyways ..... You'll get more than a studio for £4000 ...... Id chose location first and then work at 'accomodation'
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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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Anymore for anymore... hmmm
I don't know what to add, a quick summing up of the cost of my season and my experience so far...
Cost:
Lift Pass: €990
Rent: £1660 + £240 deposit
New skis: £250 (obviously not essential, but who can resist?)
Food: approx €20 a week, shopping in bourg, buying for 6 people, so €120 a week for 6, but the food isnt exactly gourmet.....
Socialising (most nights...): €15-20 a night depending on desire for kebab at 3am...
so far I think I have spend about £3500, and I have abaout £600 left to last me the rest of the season. Next year I am going to try sort out a job as a ski tech, I managed it this season for a whole 3 days.
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| george_1 wrote: |
Cost:
Lift Pass: €990
Rent: £1660 + £240 deposit
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but how many is that split between? or is it per person, and if so how many in the flat? £1660 for the season is actually less than my fag packet sums, but if there's 6 of you in a studio apartment it'd probably work out more expensive for just the two of us!
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You know it makes sense.
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. You can get a SC one for less than 600 euros if you buy before 1st December, and local taxpayers get it even cheaper.
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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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Whitegold, have you been on the ale? he's married FFS 
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Poster: A snowHead
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nbt, thats per person, in quite a large place for the area, we still have 2 sofas free, and have guests over for a few days quite regularly. Bensley (another snowhead) has a place of his own which cost him double what we pay each (its advertised for 2 people, a couple as there is only one double bed!), but it is one room and one bathroom, kitchen facilities are s**t and the bath is one of those sit in bath type things...
Helen Beaumont, I could've been rebated €400 if I hadnt lost my job!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Whitegold, you are, as ever, a complete twerp.
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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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george_1,
Told you it was a good price
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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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george_1, 20 euros a week for food? Is your mother worrying about whether you're getting enough vitamins? nbt, you could probably do it cheaper if you went somewhere on one of the big lift passes, maybe Evasion Mont Blanc. Many give a discount for buying before end November. You could probably find a more reasonably rental in St Gervais, or one of the satellites, than in the 3V and all told you'd have a more interesting range of skiing. If you vacated for the February holidays, which are insanely crowded anyway, you could probably get a much cheaper rental.
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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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pam w, you can easily eat healthily for 20€ a week, it just isn't very interesting.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Mmm, stable diet of Raclette, Tartiflette and Lardon Pasta.
Haha.
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Don't be silly. That's what skiing's for. 
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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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Spikyhedgehog, there's vitamins in skiing? Amazing!
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FAQ
