Day 11: Silverstar

So today was my first day out skiing, luckily it had warmed up from the -25 temperatures of the past few days and was a balmy -7 outside. The cold weather had brought meters of new snow, which was banked up around our driveway.
The ski rental shop is staffed by a range of friendly young skiers from all around the world. A lot of Australians and a few Kiwis work here, as well as plenty of Canadians. As part of my next Northern Hemisphere adventure I've been thinking about doing the ski bum thing for a season or two, working on the mountain and skiing powder on your days off.
My skiing has definitely slipped since I haven't been able to get out much in the past couple of years. Luckily my Dad is an amazing skier and he has been helping me out a lot. I enjoy skiing because it's technical, and always challenging both mentally and physically. Sometimes you have to do things that seem counter-intuitive, like leaning forward for stability rather than sitting back. Similar to riding in that respect, constant awareness of what your body is doing and that constant goal of smooth, effortless technique.

The snow here is not even comparable to home; it's deep, soft and covers your skis and boots. There are wide groomed runs, a massive terrain park, 2 racetracks, crosscountry trails, and pockets of thigh-deep powder which sprays up as you snake between the trees.The trails go on forever including one that is 8km long, there are several lifts with no queues, the village is awesome and you could easily spend a couple of days skiing and never cross your tracks. As Dad said, why would you spend so much money skiing in New Zealand when you could just come here? Personally I would rather save that money and ski here every couple of years. This resort is a massive playground, and even cooler than I remembered it..

I'll add more photos later. My camera does not handle the cold very well and tends to turn itself off after a few pictures.

I came in early because I was still exhausted, and my whole body already aches especially my legs and back. Guess it was a good workout.

That night I decided to go down to the village and see what was happening; there are 4 bars and a club up here and it was Saturday night. Unfortunately the club is closed but I found Long John's pub which seemed to be the hangout of choice for the under-30s. As soon as I sat down by the bar, the bartender and his friend struck up a conversation about working here, the lifestyle and why they've been ski bums for several years. Later a group of Aussies arrived, who also work on the mountain - in the ski repair shop, in bars, in the office and doing ski patrol. As one of them said, you don't have to be a lifty to work on the skifield. Jobs seem plentiful here, and if you work for the resort you get a free season pass. The cheapest accommodation option is to rent a house with a group of friends, and a lot of people come by themselves so it's easy to meet people. Everyone who comes here to work is wanting to ski, meet people and have fun. You don't make money, but you cover your costs and get to live and breathe the mountain for 3 months straight - they don't even go down to Vernon much apart from grocery shopping.
The drinks, conversation and jokes flowed and I listened to their stories of one-in-a-lifetime powder, planned ski trips to Japan, road trips to Vancouver, Australia Day parties, heliskiing and how to get jobs. And constantly people they knew came over to say hi, I was definitely in the minority as a visitor not a 'local'.
I'm definitely sold, and I'm going to go talk to HR tomorrow.