Ski-job warmth in tough times

Among the skiers hitting the slopes of Aspen this winter, you will find an investment banker, an information technology specialist and an international marketing manager. But since the recession hit, they have all been working under slightly different titles: ski school lesson salesman, chairlift monitor and waitress at a vegetarian restaurant, respectively.

"If you're just looking and living on unemployment and you're just depressed, you should definitely move out here," said Blake Robinson, the former information technology worker, who was laid off by Netflix in Portland, Oregon.

Robinson has an undergraduate degree in international business and an MBA but instead of job hunting he is working as a chairlift gate monitor for the Aspen Skiing Co. In exchange, he gets $12.25 (Dh45) an hour, a share in a rent-subsidised two-bedroom apartment and, most important, an unlimited ski pass.

Meet the newest wave of ski enthusiasts: stoked to be in the mountains, uncertain about the future, probably overqualified and, once again, American.

For more than a decade, many of the people operating lifts and ladling soup at restaurants in Aspen and other resorts had come from Australia, Europe and South America. In the US, the popularity of moving to a ski town after college or between jobs had waned.

"As the economy continued to heat up, it was tougher to attract domestic employees," said Jim Laing, vice-president of human resources for the Aspen Skiing Co. "They weren't even graduating before they would get jobs, so the era of taking a season off before you got into the real world ended, at least temporarily."

High and snow

But high unemployment in the US, coupled with policy changes that make it more difficult for seasonal foreign workers to get visas, has brought about the return of the ski enthusiast. Recent college graduates, laid-off young professionals and resort residents who have also lost jobs have jumped at the opportunity to park cars and sell lift tickets here and in other Rocky Mountain resorts.

According to Laing, 26 per cent of the Aspen Skiing Co's seasonal staff has been from outside the US in previous seasons but this year, it's just 15 per cent.

Scott Horn, chief administration officer for Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in Wyoming, said there was a significant increase in the number of recent college graduates who work there.

"With the economy, they can't find any jobs in a cubicle making $50,000 (Dh183,645) a year, so they want to go to a ski resort,'" he said.

Vail Ski Resort in Colorado saw the same shift, hiring 60 per cent fewer foreign workers this season compared to two years ago. "The trends were based on the pond we were fishing in," said Mark R. Gasta, head of human resources for the Vail Resorts Management Co, who said the company had increased its recruiting at colleges.

Gwyn Gordon Knowlton, an owner of Gwyn's High Alpine restaurant on Snowmass, said last year, 45 per cent of her employees were foreigners, compared with only 8 per cent this year. "When unemployment is up, people get frustrated and they're saying, ‘I might as well start researching what I want to do but have fun, get to ski and enjoy myself rather than just living in the city being miserable, not having a job and not knowing what to do.'"

Indeed, the prospect of running out of money in a city or moving back home with parents has prompted twentysomethings from around the country to ride out the recession in Aspen — if not exactly enjoying the luxuries the town offers tourists, at least partaking of the scenery and cheap skiing.

Some newcomers weren't pursuing the ski enthusiast dream — because they had never had the dream. Nate McDonald, 31, said he went into an immediate panic when he lost his teaching job at Port St Joe High School in Florida. But after four months of living in Aspen, working at D&E Ski and Snowboard Shop and waiting tables at Hickory House Ribs, he has decided that being laid off was the best thing that happened to him.

"I would have taught and coached for the rest of my life until the time I retired," McDonald said. "Now I can come out here and play around for two or three years."

Down the slope

Some transplants, however, are much more ambivalent about their latest career detour. Rachel Geddes moved to Snowmass last year after working for the American Red Cross in a white-collar job. "My mum is a vice-president of a company, my dad's a surgeon and I work in a ticketing office," she said, adding that the embarrassment was tough to get over at first.

Other downsides include going back to an hourly wage.

"I can't buy designer shoes; that's not going to happen anymore," she said.

Between the quaint streets of Aspen and its mountains, people wonder what there could be to complain about. For starters, there is the cost of living. The streets are lined with luxury stores such as Louis Vuitton and Prada, and for half of the 1,000 seasonal employees whose housing isn't subsidised by the ski company, monthly rents can run to $800 (Dh2,938).

"This is a real tough place to be any kind of enthusiast," said Mike Danziger. "It's an expensive place to live."

Danziger spent two years as an associate analyst in equity research for a boutique investment bank in San Francisco before he was laid off in May 2008.

These days? He sells private ski school lessons. Now in his second season at Snowmass, Danziger is more than ready to get back to a finance job. "I like it here but this isn't the career path where I would like to go," he said.

Amy Faulconer was laid off from the international marketing department of National Geographic magazine recently. "I'm waitressing at a restaurant," she said.

The other night was so slow at the Escape bistro where she works that Faulconer took home only $7 (Dh26) in tips. But she appreciates that at least she has a mountain view, something she lacked at her office job at National Geographic.

She would like to eventually work in microfinance but like many of the newest ski enthusiasts, she is unsure what will happen in April, after the lifts close.