Ski Season - How To Travel Long-Term As A Couple
Quick Overview
Ideal Age: 18 - 30
Who For?
Gap Year Couples - Younger couples that love being outdoors - Couples seeking adventure
How Much?
(Based on approximate UK costs)
Visas: £100-200
Winter Gear: £300-£1500 (dependent on your budget - can easily get a whole second-hand set-up for around £300 if you’re savvy)
How Long?
Average 4-6 months, depending on the winter season
Where?
Europe; Canada; USA; Japan; Australia; New Zealand (Worldwide possibilities)
You’re a couple looking to travel together for longer than a quick weekend getaway, but you’re struggling to find a suitable option? We have you covered.
Welcome to a 5-part Blog Series showcasing the most viable options for couples looking to put the pandemic-dominated world behind them and have memories to last a lifetime.
In part 1 of this blog series, we highlighted summer camp as a great option for couples to travel long-term. Summer camps are an excellent option for those looking to have an extended adventure over the summer without having to spend a lot of money to do so.
In part 2, we will be introducing ski seasons - what they are, where to do them, and why they are an excellent long-term travel option for couples.
In part 3, we suggest how to travel long-term as a couple by backpacking. The most traditional form of long-term travel and certainly one of the most enjoyable.
Ski Season Overview
Working a ski season is a brilliant way for couples to earn money while travelling long-term. When done smartly, it’s possible to bounce from winter season to winter season, following the snow around the globe.
If you’re looking for a challenge and a chance to do something extraordinary, then a ski season will undoubtedly be right up your street.
A ‘ski season’ is when you work at a ski resort for 4-6 months to help cater for the influx of tourists, guests and visitors that flock to the slopes every winter.
You get to live and work in the mountains, surrounding yourself with hundreds of young travellers who want to earn money to fund their adrenaline-fuelled hobby.
Your reward for working so hard during the week is the chance to let loose at the weekends and experience the thrill of having a ski hill right on your doorstep.
It’s an incredible feeling when you can roll out of bed, climb into your winter gear, and head straight to the slopes for a day full of adventure and excitement.
As a couple, working a ski season is a brilliant way to introduce yourself to the thought of long-term travel. You can spend up to 6 months in an incredible environment, being self-sustained, with the chance of exploring further afield once the snow begins to melt at the end of Spring.
You could bury down for the winter in the peaks of the Canadian Rockies before heading south to enjoy the sandy beaches of the Caribbean in the summertime. How about a winter in the powder capital of the world, Japan, before a South East Asia backpacking experience in the summer?
The Gondola at Lake Louise Ski Resort
What couples is working a ski season ideal for?
Working a ski season, wherever it is in the world, is a tremendous long-term travel option for any couple who is looking for work to sustain their travelling lifestyle without being tied down to a tedious office job back at home.
Ski Season work is also great for couples on a gap year. The reality of working a ski season on your gap year is that you’re never going to want to return home again - you’ll begin the cycle of gap year after gap year, and before you know it, you’ll be 25 and all of your friends will be wondering if you’ll ever return home again. It sounds like a pretty good lifestyle to us!
Working a ski season can be challenging and physically demanding at times, so as a couple, you both need to be adventure-seeking and willing to push boundaries together. Remember, though, it’s important to recognise when you should push each other to try that new run and when you should give each other a rest. In our guide on how to survive your next trip as a couple, we walk you through some of the scenarios we faced during our ski season and how we were able to push each other’s comfort zones.
Quite simply, working a ski season is a terrific idea for any couples that are looking for adventure and to get a taste for long-term travel. Who knows, it might just become your new way of life.
Ice-climbing in Maligne Canyon, Jasper
Winter Walks in Lake Louise
What types of ski season jobs are available for couples?
The types of jobs available when working a ski season are endless. Any job you could do back at home, within reason, could be done during your ski season.
Hospitality sector jobs naturally dominate the ski season career landscape as ski resorts need many seasonal workers every year to cater for the mass influx of guests and visitors to the slopes. However, don’t think you are limited to this.
Ski Resorts around the globe are surrounded by infrastructure and towns that rely on seasonal workers to survive. You could find yourselves working in a cinema, at a swimming pool or in a local shop - all jobs you could easily find back home, but working them in a mountain resort town is all the more special.
A quintessential ski season job in Europe, for example, would have to be working in a Ski Chalet or lodge. Chalet hosting is very popular in the European Alps, in particular. Here, you work as part of a team and ‘run’ the chalet and cater for guests staying at the chalet in any given week. The hours can be long and exhausting, but typically, you will be paid well and have plenty of free time to explore the mountain during the day.
In North America, chalets are less popular, but there are still plenty of opportunities to work within the hospitality sector. Working in a hotel, whether it’s a front-of-house job that deals with guests or a behind-the-scenes job such as a room attendant, is a great way to secure a job during your ski season.
In Australia and New Zealand, the ski hills tend to be much smaller than those in Europe and North America, and the options for jobs reflect this. There will be a modest number of jobs available at the ski hill itself, but most jobs will be found in the bars, restaurants, shops and cafes in the towns surrounding the ski hills.
Here’s a brief overview of some of the jobs you could expect to find during the ski season:
Ski Season Jobs on the Mountain
Ski/Snowboard Instructor
Kids Club/Daycare Supervisor
Ski Lift Attendant
Sales Roles
Gondola Operator
Snow-maker
Guest Services
Shuttle Bus Driver
Storeroom Attendant
Ski Season Jobs in Resort Towns
Retail Roles
Waitressing
Bar Work
Cleaning/Maintenance
Roles within Hotels - Front desk; concierge; room attendants etc.
Cooks
Stewarding/Dishwashing
Cashiers
Baristas
All the available jobs at the Banff Ski Hiring Fair
How we worked our ski season as a couple:
We worked the 2019/2020 ski season in Lake Louise, Canada - arguably the best year of our lives!
We had always wanted to work a ski season, so we started researching the best and most practical places to work a ski season. We were both set on going further afield than the French Alps but were limited to English-speaking countries - so we settled with Canada.
We then went through the hassle of applying for a Canadian Working Holiday Visa. A process we weren’t able to complete until the very end of the summer while away in New York. In our first timer’s guide to working a ski season in Canada, we walk you through every step of the visa application process, as well as outlining how to find ski season jobs in Canada.
We’d settled on a country; now we needed to find where to work. We looked on Facebook at several different ski season groups for Canada and saw an advertisement for ‘Banff Ski Hiring Fair’. We confess that we’d never heard of Banff before this, but as soon as we googled it, we knew it was where we wanted to be for the year.
Arriving in Calgary, we hopped on a bus to Banff and headed straight for the fair. Within a matter of weeks after arriving in Canada, we were settled into our staff accommodation at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise - securing jobs as Resort Activities Attendants.
Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise
Essentially the role was split into three parts - working in the ski rental shop, working in the health club and facilitating the kids’ camp at the hotel. It was a perfect job for us - it was hugely varied, so it never felt repetitive. As a little bonus, the working hours were also varied, meaning the days where we didn’t start work until 3 pm could be spent at the ski hill, enjoying all the 4200 square acres of skiable terrain that Lake Louise Ski Resort has to offer.
Unfortunately, a pesky global shutdown ended our ski season a little early - we had to retreat from the slopes in the middle of March, so we were denied a whole 2 months of Spring riding.
In the grand scheme of things, missing out on a couple of months of snowboarding was just an inconvenience. After all, people have lost far more than that during those unprecedented times. We were lucky enough to have lived and worked in Lake Louise in the depths of winter, and there aren’t too many people who are fortunate enough to say that.
On the frozen lake at Lake Louise
First steps you should take to travel long-term as a couple by working a ski season:
1. Find the country where you want to work your ski season
Sounds simple, right? You’ve got a world of possibilities out there - perhaps a quintessential European Alps vibe is what you’re looking for? Maybe you want something completely different and want to head to Chile? Why not follow the powder to Niseko, Japan?
2. Look into the visa Process
Particularly given the current travelling climate, this step is crucial. Working holiday visas worldwide are constantly adapting and changing. Research the up-to-date visa process before settling on where you want to work.
3. Search ski resorts and towns where you’d like to live
The last step is the easiest part. Once you’ve settled on the country you want to work in and had a good look into the visa process, it’s time to choose the location in that country you want to work. Typing ‘Best Ski Resorts in *Country*’ into Google is usually a good start.
Remember, though, the best ski resorts, in terms of skiing conditions, may not necessarily be the best in terms of standard of work and living. Read reviews from people who have worked ski seasons there, and don’t just follow the tourist’s advice. After all, you’re not going to be a tourist there; you’re going to be there to live and work.
4. Buy your ticket and hit the slopes
It is that simple once you’ve done all the complex parts above. Just remember that unlike an ordinary holiday, you’re going to be travelling for a long time, so learning some vital packing tips for long-term travel is probably going to help you out somewhat. On top of that, knowing what to buy for your first ski season is going to benefit you in the long run.
Early morning views at Lake Louise Ski Resort
Hopefully this article has inspired you to work a ski season with your partner. Working a ski season as a couple is a great introduction to long-term travel.
If you’re feeling brave and want to truly embrace the long-term travel life, perhaps you could string together summers working at summer camp and winters working a ski season.
You may just find yourself travelling long-term for years to come.
In this article, we outline exactly how to become a ski instructor this winter season courtesy of The Winter Sports Company.