The dirtbag life

This post inspired by the guy advertising for a belay slave:

What's the most interesting or off-beat or demeaning job you've ever taken to earn money for a climbing trip (or earning money to avoid getting a "real job")?

I'll go first:

Most off-beat: Getting paid $275 a weekend to dress up as Yukon Jack and ski up at various Tahoe resorts, extolling the virtues of said liquor. The company provided full-length fur coat, fur hat, and fake beard- I looked just like ol' Yuke himself as depicted on the bottle.

Most fun and crazy: Working for a summer with Rich Bechler for his dad at Plastics Unlimited. We made all sorts of plexiglass shop displays. Every day just getting covered in plastic shavings- dust control was non-existent. Every light fixture was covered in plastic dust- looked like a snow storm had just passed through and dumped 10 inches of fresh powder. If the bay doors were open the breeze would cause little blizzards of plastic. Each week we put in 48 hours in three and a half days, bouldered down at Glencoe those evenings, then spent the other half of the week at DL. Oh the tales I could tell about that summer!

Who's next??

For me it would have to be the very start to my climbing addiction. I was taken out climbing for the first time (1999) and had more fun than any other experience at that time. I decided to pawn my car for 500$ and a mountain bike. Road it to the nearest gear shop and bought a set of petzel draws and a set of nuts. Then road directly to the cliff. I have been working here and there ever since but, the pattern seems to always end up like that in some fashion.

Matt