Snow season bar jobs?

Right am off to do a ski season this winter, want to go to france thinking either tignes or corcheval/meribal/val T - anyone got any mates/aquaintences running bars out there that i might apply for work with? i've got plenty of past bar experience - just struggling to find advertisment for bar work in the independant bars.

Any help would be hugely appreciated thanks.x

get a job as a chalet host, do that for a month, if you dont like it, woull probably know of a job in a bar going by then, but you will ahve to move, give back your pass, etc!

bonus is that as a chalet host you get accomodation, ski hire, ski pass and food for your trouble but less time to ski, but you are a lot more secure, and over the course of a season skiing 11-4 is enough!

go for a more remote/smaller resort and you'll probably just have a rep as your line manager so wil get a an easier ride in terms of work load, oh and try and get the smallest chalet possible, should avoid having to live in the chalet, and again should be less work as cooking for 6 = less work than cooking for 12!

already looked at chalet hosting but would much rather just work in a bar - stress free life of showing up, pulling pints, frying chips and washing glasses appeals alot more than having to worry about guests/cleaning/shopping/baking etc.

got enough money put aside to cover a few weeks (and more) of unemployment out there while looking for bar work , thought i had something lined up but have been let down...

You need to get out there early. All the resort jobs are typically gone by November, unless you've arranged something beforehand.

In my experience, working in a bar in a big ski resort equals going to sleep no earlier than 4 am every day, getting up too late/hungover to shred, and having alcohol poisoning at least 3 times in six months - you will have fun, but if your main aim is to hit the slopes, its about the worst job out there. Also dont go near any bar run by Mark Warner if you want to have anything resembling a life.

Also looking after guests is the better option if you want to avoid clearing up - the scene of devastation left in most bars when the lights go up at the end of the evening makes cleaning a chalet loo look like the best job in the world.

+1 for the host but perfect jobs is freestyle coach...

Spend the day in the park or go build some off piste kicker and take the wannabes out with a few beers, call a blood wagon by midday and off you trot.

if you can parlez the lingo, it might be worth looking into a rental shop job..

a couple of days off a week but then the majority of the days that you will be working are split shifts - you dish out the gear in the morning, then have 4/5 hours off to ski/ride and then you're back at work to collect the equipment..

easy easy easy work and a lot of time out on the hill

check out pleisure holidays, guy called pete, runs a sweet little bar/snowboard lodgings in courchevel 1550 really nice bloke looks after his staff well.

http://www.pleisure.co.uk/

Emailed Pete pleisure holidays thanks.

Ski shop could be good - don't have a huge ammount of french, but did it for gcse and did quite well, but that was a long time ago. reckon i'd pick it up quick enough though. any suggestions for ski shop companies to contact?

not sure if i'm quite freestlye coach material, more of a laid back powder cruiser than spin and flip doctor...

pm me. Friend of mine is about to leave for meribel managing an hotel out there. She is not a dick either!

check out pleisure holidays, guy called pete, runs a sweet little bar/snowboard lodgings in courchevel 1550 really nice bloke looks after his staff well.

http://www.pleisure.co.uk/

+1

I used to work for them and they're a great company to work for. Everyone rides and is all about getting time on the hill.

Bar jobs are too social if you want riding time, you won't get first tracks very often if you finish work at 4am every night (which you will)

They might have some jobs left check the website and drop them a line.

Be prepared to work your balls off and snowboard whilst still drunk from the night before (that's after getting up at 7am to start work) HAPPY DAYS

just heard back from pete, all pleisures jobs are filled...!

any other ideas anyone?

Worth giving these guys a call seeing if you can get a job as a park shaper for the upcoming season: Great resort, great park, and you get lots of cool Vans Gear, get to spend all your time on the slopes etc, the team there all looked like they were having a good time :)
http://www.vans-penken-park.com/en/100325/100499/contact_vans_penken_park_stefan_plattner_e-mail.html

Worth giving these guys a call seeing if you can get a job as a park shaper for the upcoming season: Great resort, great park, and you get lots of cool Vans Gear, get to spend all your time on the slopes etc, the team there all looked like they were having a good time :)
http://www.vans-penken-park.com/en/100325/100499/contact_vans_penken_park_stefan_plattner_e-mail.html

Was there for snowbombing earlier this year, it is a sick sick park... huge.

Have you looked on Natives?

http://www.natives.co.uk/skijobs/default.htm

Yeah looked on natives beofre and been looking again, alot of the jobs on there are with the big ski companies, would prefe to work somewhere cool and independant rather in a hotel bar - may be past the point for being picky though! Just applied for a job search on natives...

Get ready for hanging around with a load of pricks with more money than sense...

(that one's going out to CrazyJames)

check out dragon lodge http://www.dragonlodge.com/

or ski val, family run bizo

Was there for snowbombing earlier this year, it is a sick sick park... huge.

Indeed it is awesome :)

Get ready for hanging around with a load of pricks with more money than sense...

(that one's going out to CrazyJames)

Love you to Skully baby ;)

Try John @ Dragon Lodge, they're a good bunch too.

Natives is very generic and recruits people called Zara and Rupert who need to find somekind of job in Verbier darling... Join up if they sound like your people (easily identified with rugby jerseys and ugg boots)

@ CrazyJames Not sure why you'd suggest being a shaper unless you could ride the park really really well? and speak German? and drive a snowcat? Good job if you can tho...the bar at the bottom of the park does a mean beer and pizza too.

You don't need to drive a snowcat to shape the Vans park, most of the park staff work on it by hand. And speaking German isnt essential, either - there's all kind of nationalities who work on it

anyone else ride the awesome little valley that runs down the back of the big gondola and brings you down that narrow track behind the penken park? started a sweet ass avalanche when I was there - and went back the next day to see half valley had avalanched..

yeh as I said not so into riding park so might not be best suited to the park shaper job, i don't really fancy spending the winter with rupert either, although zara sounds like filth... any other suggestions? emailed dragon lodge too...

You don't need to drive a snowcat to shape the Vans park, most of the park staff work on it by hand. And speaking German isnt essential, either - there's all kind of nationalities who work on it

Nice, didn't know that...

If you dont want to meet Rupert and Zsara, you had better cross Meribel and Courcheval off your list, as they are entirely populated by them! Tignes has a better cross section of society and some good nights out, but it looks like somone dumped Tower Hamlets on the side of the mountain. Val Thorens is pretty much entirely populated by Scandies on their gap years, and french chavs on weekend breaks, and is not somewhere i would want to do a season - i did 2 seasons in Meribel, and 2 in Val D Isere, and 3 in Colorado, and also lived for a bit over on the Swiss side of Portes De Soleil.

Personaly if i were you i would go for Morzine in the Portes De Soleil, a lot of the top Brits and European Snowboarders are based there, freeriding is epic, parks are awesome, and its a proper town with a good scene. Also only an hour or so from Geneva.

Having said that Meribel is a great place to do a season too, although there are a lot of public schoolies, most of them are there to shred, rather than just spank daddies money, unlike Val D Isere where they are more interested in getting pissed than skiing/boarding. I t has one of the best Saisonaire communities out in the alps, and has some epic terain over the 3 valleys.

I never had a proper job during any of my seasons - the ones in Europe i funded by having a car out there, and doing transfers - pretty much only worked on Saturday and Sunday, and would make charge 250 euros for a trip to Geneva and 200 to Lyon which undercut the cabbies, always making sure i had a fare each way, so 2 trips a weekend with 4 fares made me about 800 euros a week - i came back in profit each season. I was pretty hooked up in the resorts, so never had a problem as someone always had a mate/parents etc etc who needed picking up, or reps would get me to tke punters who had got too pissed and missed their coaches.

Local cabbies didnt like it if you cut into their business,(i know a couple of lads whose legs were broken by local cabbies when they openly touted for business) but as long as you only did it for tour companies and mates it was alright.

What did you do for accomodation VinylVillain? That does sound like an awesome setup you had there.

I think at the end of it if there's good snow and a few sound people I'm gonna have a wicked time wherever i am... mainly good snow. the 3 valleys had such a large area, but then heard good things about tignes - at this point though if I could sort out work somewhere i think i'd head to wherever that was. If i can't am just gonna roll the dice and fly out.