Winter job recommendations for skill building?

Yeww!

Looking to see if anyone has any recommendations for seasonal work to get the most mileage for skiing/mountaineering.

I'm fresh off a 30-day glacial mountaineering course and have my WFR and Avy I. Still have time to get my WEMT if ski patrol is the number one recommendation, however, I'm curious if people have other thoughts on how to play in the snow for work.

Let me know what you think, thanks!

I like gas stations. A million to burn thru in every climb town - complete with a low standard for employees so time on the clock can easily be spent baked. 

Liftie?

Assuming you want to improve ski skills: Find out minimum hrs/days to score a lift ticket at a resort. Do only this and get another  gig for money, based on what you can tolerate/will give you midweek time to shred. Ski a shit ton in the winter, make friends and start climbing and touring in the spring. 

Either ski patrol (which can be hard to get into at any good mountains, as it’s prestigious and requires actual skiing skills) or ski instructing. You can walk on as an instructor with little to no ski skill, but you’ll be teaching first-time kiddos so you’d better be prepared for that. The real benefit is that you can access free training for PSIA certs. That style of “ski instructor skiing” isn’t directly useful for backcountry skiing most of the time, but it’ll iron out your basic technique and get you time on the mountain. When you have free ski days, find the raddest terrain you can and ski it hard! Bonus points if you get a restaurant job at night so you can work less on the hill, get free food, still make rent, access the aforementioned training, and get as many free ski days as possible. If you’re skiing less than 120 days in the season you’re blowing it as a ski bum. 

Honestly, don’t be a liftie/ticket checker/ops/anything else on the mountain if you actually want time to build skills. Oh, and get a decent set of backcountry partners ASAP.

What kinda skills?  Backcountry skiing?  Ice?  

Become a snocat operator and work nights.  Every day is free to play!  Chairlift laps=quick skill progression and networking bc pards.   

Snowmaking sucks--dont do that.   

Daycrew drinks decaf.  

Most every resort has employee housing to offer, that fills up fast.   Research locations, apply early, get dept managers email and stay in touch every week telling em why youre a responsible, smart, hardworker.  And tell em you want to work there for years and years to come.

Shoveling roofs. Gets you comfortable on steep and exposed snow, digging in it (eventually a valuable alpine skill) and gets you strong AF! Tends to pay well + you get extra opportunities to test out all your layering & glove systems

Find a company that allows you to shadow other guides while having a part time job and down practice time. You´ll be practicing skills every day, looking at scenarios (risk management from an WEMT stand point) & only practice/study will get you to master level