Working seasonally keeps things fresh. After wrapping up my first summer/fall with NCOBS, I was super excited to have a chill "offseason" so to speak. It was my childhood dream to spend a whole winter skiing, and I finally found myself in the life stage to make that happen. It is important to understand that I am my father's daughter. He is an OG skier. I was put on skis at 4 and picked up snowboarding at 8. The highlight of every winter growing up was a ski trip to Killington, VT with my dad and sister. When thinking about my upbringing on skis, and in the outdoors in general, I am coming to realize how lucky I am. I can only hope to raise a few young shredders like my dad did. During college I spent a month in Breckenridge, CO in my sophomore year winter break and a month in Killington, VT in my junior year winter break. Those tastes of ski bum life left me wanting more. So following my first season at OB, I decided to make the move to Big Sky, MT. Here's why I chose Big Sky. First, it is massive. Behind Whistler Blackcomb in Canada and Park City in Utah, Big Sky is the 3rd largest ski resort in North America. Second, and perhaps more importantly, despite its size, Big Sky sees way less visitors than other top ski resorts. There are no lift lines. Third, Big Sky has lift accessible backcountry skiing, also called sidecountry. This is a new area of skiing that I am looking to break into, Big Sky is the perfect place to start. I am working this winter. I got a job in the resort's main rental shop. I decided to do this instead of ski instructing because honestly I wanted to be inside for this offseason. Every morning when I arrive at the mountain and it's in the single digits I thank myself for making this decision. I really enjoy working in the shop, the people are awesome and I've been able to learn a lot about skis. I switch between working four positions at the shop: cashier, ski tech, boot fitter, and demo. I work 4 days per week. On my days off, I can take out demo skis and boards for free. Because I am shopping for new skis and board, this has been one of my favorite perks so far. Some other perks I enjoy are having a locker and ski storage like 100 feet from the slopes as well as having a free seasons pass. All things considered it's a pretty sweet deal and shaping up to be an awesome winter. A seen in the photos above, the shop is very high tech and aesthetic. Customers follow a 4 step process from filling out an online form, to cashier, to boots, to ski tech. Its a super efficient and logical system that makes me very happy. I spend a lot of time at the mountain each day, but when that time is up I head to my gym which I think is the coolest place on earth. Briefly, for context, I live in Bozeman and take a bus to the mountain each day. Bozeman is a legitimate city, and I'm so glad I live there because I have access to less expensive groceries and a really sweet gym. The gym is called Spire. Spire is a climbing gym, but also has yoga classes and workout equipment. Between climbing, yoga, and cardio, I find myself occupied at Spire 4 to 5 days per week. The first photo above doesn't even show a quarter of the gym. It is huge, with lots of top rope and auto-belay climbing, lead climbing, and bouldering. Even if I go for cardio and not to climb, I get to do the stairmaster while watching people climb. Coolest place ever. For more photos of this awesome facility click here. Here are some other random/ cool things I've been able to do since moving to Montana: Snow biking! To add some flavor to skiing and snowboarding, I tried out the snow bikes. The rental shop is starting to rent these bad boys out, so for a few weeks the employees got to test ride them. Snow biking is super easy to pick up and a ton of fun. There are definitely some logistical challenges as far as riding the chairlifts and what terrain they are good on, but overall it's a great addition to ski life. Hot springs! Perks of living an hour from Yellowstone. Pictured above is a natural hot spring on the Boiling River in Yellowstone National Park. I went here on Christmas Eve with some friends and it was super cool! It was better than any hot tub I'd ever been in because the water was so clean and the surrounding natural landscape was breathtaking.
That's all for my first month in Montana. Skiing, climbing, yoga, cardio. That's my type of winter! Stay tuned for further updates on more skiing and adventures. In the mean time, bundle up and stay warm out there... it's going to be a snowy winter! |
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