Canada working winter season 14/15 wrap up/experiences/advice for others
This may be a little premature… BUT… the 14/15 season is wrapping up… So since it’s still fresh in your minds… I’d LOVE to hear some feedback from those of you who have lived and worked on the mountain resorts this season.
Please share feedback and experiences from the past season… and advice! Mountain/town vibes, crowds, nightlife, working, finding rent, staff housing, making friends, locals, expense of living, activities/sightseeing, pros/cons of certain mountains are all things I’d really like to know about!
I’d really like to hear about personal experiences working for four seasons whistler or big white specifically!
Personally I’m planning on heading over 15/16. Nothing like being over prepared haaha 
Cheers guys!
Hey Laure,
Not sure what job you want to do at the 4 seasons or if you already work for that hotel chain hence why you want to do it but personally I’d suggest sticking to your outdoor jobs (Lifty / Instructor / Park Crew) or a hospitality job (Waiter / Bar tender / Bar back / Food jobs where tips are possible like Pizza).
My reasoning for each:
1. Outdoors - You get to ride for work. It’s awesome, you don’t get over it.
2. Tips - You need money to live and tips are awesome. Especially if you work at somewhere like a steak house.
Family of 4 come in, spend $100 on 2 steaks and 2 kids meals and you get at least $10 straight into your wallet. It’s likely you do more than 10 tables a night. If the average is $10, you get $100 (minus maybe $20 for the kitchen staff) plus your $9.50 hourly wage (5 hours = another $40.) and you’re sitting pretty with $130 where most other jobs ended up with max $70-80.
Don’t get a housekeeping job unless you’re desperate. Most people in these types of jobs don’t even ski or board and are only in it for the money.
Now for what you actually asked.
I worked last season at Sun Peaks.
1. Mountain/town vibes
2nd largest resort in Canada behind Whistler. Village is much smaller though and doesn’t have any of the un-necessary stuff like Whistler does. Only a handful of hotels and most accom is self contained apartments. It’s super chilled and no place is more than 2km from the villiage (which is staff accom)
2. Crowds
Literally none. On the worst day of the season (Toonie day, where you can get a lift pass for $2 and a can of soup) the longest line was approx 3-5 minutes. However during peak season, Mid Burf (one of the chairlifts) can have a wait of up to an hour if everyone is getting on at the bottom. At that point, most people just walked to Crystal and didn’t come back.
3. Nightlife
There is 2 main places to go out. “Bottoms” and “The Club”. Bottoms is the main place. It’s privately owned, has a cool theme and everyone goes there. Tuesday night is Locals night where they had DJs and the place got crowded almost every week. They have 1 pool table (where you can play for free if you know how to dodge the machine) and have a bell above the bar where if you hit it, you buy a shot for everyone at the bar. If you’re touching the bar you get a free shot. Most of the time it was Fireball or Jager. They also have silent disco’s once a month on a Friday which is awesome fun. They have a party on the day after the last day of the season where all drinks are $3. They do this to get rid of any leftover alcohol.
The Club has their locals night on Thursdays. It’s less of an event and staff generally don’t bother after the first week. It’s not that great of a setup and drinks are way more expensive. It’s corp owned. However they do occasionally have live acts and a better dance floor. The Red and White Party is held there every year which is a fund raiser for ski patrol. Everyone wears red and white and goes mental.
4.Working
I was a Lifty and loved it. It can get boring at times and some of the managers were very biased on things (they didn’t really like the lifties on fixed grip lifts cause they didn’t think we kept things in order. Even though we were actually bumping lifts…)
Overall though, you got a few ride breaks every day and the ride down at the end of the day was a sea of blue jackets going down a long ass green run. Best part of the day by far.
5. Finding rent
I lived in Staff Accom so it wasn’t hard at all. If you wanted to rent in a house, get there early and start looking. Some people got stuck in the hostel which costs a bomb and you need to share rooms. Come January there is always some openings from all the people who get home sick or run out of money and decide to go home.
6. Staff housing
Was more than ample. There is 2 types. LSL and Whispering Pines. LSL is 4 bedroom apartments split into Male and Female apartments (so 12 apartments total, 3 for the Delta hotel staff, 3 Female and 6 Male). Each person gets their own room with a single bed, a chest of drawers and a hanging rail. The houses are a long room with kitchen / lounge and then there is a bathroom which has walk into 2 sinks, then a separate bath/shower and a separate toilet. Whispering Pines is the original Staff accom and is cheaper. However it’s 2 beds to a room, 1 kitchenette and a bathroom. (no oven). The top floor of Whispering Pines is couples territory, which has 2x double rooms and a kitchenette / loungeroom.
7. Making friends
I was the guy who knew everyone. I was there early and made a ton of friends. Rarely rode alone and always showed up at or hosted parties in Staff Accom. Make an effort to get to know people and you’ll love living at the mountain. The people who left the resort were often introverts who I didn’t even know some we met after they had booked their flights out and then they got involved and regretted their decisions.
8. Locals
The locals were awesome. 1 guy would come around to the lifties and bring lollies all the time. On Christmas, we got shortbread cookies and toblerones from another local and pre season the lady that owned the coffee shop took me to town so I could shop. It’s all about being nice and supporting the locals rather than being an ass and the locals hating you.
9. Expense of living
Staff accom was 475 per month. Beer is $35 a case / $5-7 at bottoms. Cheese is like $12 a block. (I like cheese…) It’s do-able on the wage you get if you don’t go crazy. I ended up using a bit of my savings but I also drank like 2 cases of beer a week and would buy coffee and lunch a lot hahahaha.
10. Activities/sightseeing
There is a few, snowmobiles, dog sleds, first tracks, tube park (free for staff) , bungie tramp (more for kids though), x country skiing.
11. Pros/cons of Sun Peaks
Pros:
- Large mountain, you won’t get bored. 3 very unique peaks.
- On hill staff accom at a good price
- Walkable distance to anywhere on the mountain. (2km from staff to the pub but someone generally has a car and everyone shares the dessy drives)
- Cheaper than Whistler for housing if you don’t want to live in staffies
- Interior “Champaign” powder (when it falls)
- Small enough that you know a good portion of staff
- Large enough that you can make more than 1 group of friends.
- Mountain High Pizza. It’s delicious!
Cons:
- Still a large mountain, everything tracks out easily. When we went to Manning Park, we rode till 2pm, still finding fresh tracks. Everything is chopped by 9:30 at SP.
- The Burf Chair. 22 minutes from bottom to top, which is the only lift that gives access to the best black terrain.
- Not as steep as a lot of mountains. The blacks aren’t really that hard and the few double blacks are in terrible positions and you don’t even care for them.
- Minimal off piste and easy to get lost. We had more people than a lot of resorts who ventured out of bounds and ended up stranded requiring helicopters to help them out. One of my mates had to leave his skis out there cause he took a wrong turn.
- Not as regular snow as most other mountains. On a good year it’s epic. On a bad year you can go a month without a dump (like we did) and end up on sheets of ice.
- Grooming, grooming everywhere. When we finally got some snow, the groomers would just run right over it on 75% of the runs and nobody would get to play in the freshies. We couldn’t even get a day on some of the runs which were still in good nick. If you’re a skiier who likes fast groomers, this is the mountain for you!
Hope that helps your decision
AWESOME reply! Some really great insight and info!
Thanks so much! I hadn’t even considered sun peaks but it sounds pretty sick! If an opportunity for me there arises, I’ll be sure to look into it! (I’ve emailed a lot of resorts just sussing out what’s the go for international applicants etc etc and sun peaks never replied :( )
Following the same headings to help make it easier…
My experience of Whistler
1. Mountain/Town vibes:
Its a tourist town, not just a ski town. This is a pro and a con, it makes it so much more than just a ski town with various other activities and different people coming and going but it can lack the small community feel at times. Being close to Van and Seattle you get a lot of weekenders which does add to the atmosphere of the place and it also means you can escape the bubble easily for a break and to see/experience more.
Two mountains! If you get sick of one after a couple days just go ride the other, then change back and be stoked all over again. In two seasons I was still riding new lines yesterday and I probably have a list of a dozen or more obvious things which I never got to do (partially because of this shitty season).
2. Crowds
It gets busy! Population of the town fluctuates in the order of 30-60k people throughout the year with up to 28k people on the mountains during peak periods. Saying that, this weekend was one of the best of the season and there was barely 7k. Lift lines can get a bit ridiculous at times like any resort but there is A LOT of terrain and its a long season (mid Nov - late May) so you just accept there are some days where you might not get the best of your favourite line. The quality of riders here is obscene, this will really push you to progress but it means even the 10 year olds are riding double blacks and dropping water falls. Just means to get the best out of the day it can be best to have a strategy. Lining up for an hour before the lift opens is often done and well worth the wait.
3. Nightlife
You will never be bored! Lots of pubs/bars/clubs each with their various nights and then house parties. Too extensive to detail but the size and nature of the town means it is likely you will plan you 1 or 2 nights off per week rather than nights out…
4. Working
Bar jobs are prized for the tips and the nighttime hours so therefore hard to get. Lots of mountain jobs going which are great as you get you pass and lots of discounts which can literally save you thousands over the season. Otherwise there are lots of hotels, restaurants, shops, cinema and various other activity tour groups (dog sled, zip line, snow mobile)
5. Finding Rent
Its been said in the other threads but this season it was hard and expensive for most! Be prepared to either get here early, settle for something pretty mediocre, get a mountain job and hope for staff accomm or just hope to get lucky. Based on this year, I would advise to be prepared to pay up to $800/month for shared rooms or $1200/month for private - yes this is the top end in the best locations but it is worth knowing.
6. Staff Housing
Disclaimer: I never lived in staff myself but spent enough time there to get the idea
Do not rely on this, there is not enough for all the workers for the mountain! Even many returning staff were turned away this year. If you are here early enough you should be able to find a room or just keep hassling them. Rent is about $330/month for shared bunk bed rooms to $550/month for a private. Typically 2 or 3 bedroom apartments with 4 people, small basic bathroom and kitchen (often no oven) and living area.
There are 3 locations, Glacier, Brio and Westside. Glacier has the most buildings and the rooms are the smallest and Westside is the furthest away where you ill need a bus pass (65/month or $300 for the season).
Major benefit of living in staff, particularly for your first season, is the people you are constantly surrounded by, Glacier is pretty much its own little sub-community of whistler. There will always be someone doing something and most people are in the same position as you, looking for new friends and good times.
7. Making Friends.
Easy - work mates, house mates, staff housing, apres, nights out… Even with a small amount of effort you should always be able to find a riding or drinking buddy. Again, everyone is here for the same reason which generally simplifies down to outdoor activities and getting fucked up in one of the most beautiful environments in the world.
8. Locals
Listen, learn and RESPECT those who have been here longer than you and the place they call home! It seems to be a pretty big deal here and rightfully so. Everyone can get a bit sick of the seasonaires who come for a short time and with little care about the place they are living.
Having said that, everyone is generally really friendly and all it requires is common sense and courtesy.
9. Living Expenses
See above for accomm. Drink specials roughly $16/jug, $4.50-$5.50 shots/singles. Cheese is expensive. El Furniture Warehouse (aka Furnies) has all food $5 all the time. WB staff meals are $7 every night which includes drinks. You can live quite comfortably relatively cheaply, just watch what and how much you consume on nights out.
10. Activities/Sightseeing.
So much to do. Lots of walking/hiking trails or cross country biking trails when they are clear of snow.
Vancouver, snow mobiles, dog sleds, bungee, Bounce (indoor trampoline place), cinema, tube park, Meadow Park Rec Centre, squash, indoor tennis, ice skating, indoor rock climbing, cat skiing (~$600), heli skiing (~$1200), golf courses in summer.
This may be a little premature… BUT… the 14/15 season is wrapping up… So since it’s still fresh in your minds… I’d LOVE to hear some feedback from those of you who have lived and worked on the mountain resorts this season.
Please share feedback and experiences from the past season… and advice! Mountain/town vibes, crowds, nightlife, working, finding rent, staff housing, making friends, locals, expense of living, activities/sightseeing, pros/cons of certain mountains are all things I’d really like to know about!
I’d really like to hear about personal experiences working for four seasons whistler or big white specifically!
Personally I’m planning on heading over 15/16. Nothing like being over prepared haaha
Cheers guys!
Welcome to Boardworld, Laure! 
If you’re on Facebook I’d encourage you to join these two groups we recently created: BW Community and BW Whistler.
I’ve spent several seasons living in Whistler and I worked as a snowboard instructor for a few of them. Whistler is an amazing place. It’s become like home. I’ve only ever worked as an instructor but I really did enjoy working for Whistler Blackcomb. It’s a great experience, you’ll make a ridiculous amount of friends, and it’s a lot of fun.
The town has it all… from bars, restaurants, clubs, shops, tourist attractions, and more. Whistler is quite multicultural with people from all over the world — international visitors, international workers, and there’s also a good amount of Canadians and Whistler locals.
The mountains are epic. There’s a reason people love riding here. WB is the biggest mountain resort in North America and there is a lot of terrain for all ability levels, and a vast amount of backcountry. When it’s good, Whistler is hard to beat.
The location is pretty sweet too, being so close to Vancouver. It makes travelling quite easy.
Also check out the Whistler thread to see what we get up to: https://www.boardworld.com.au/forums/viewthread/17908
I’ve been to Big White twice (never worked there). It’s a really cool little town. A lot quieter than Whistler (good or bad thing). The mountain has some really good terrain and the snow quality can be very good. You’re a little bit further away from civilisation when compared to Whistler.
Cheers for the info on whistler guys!
I’ll jump on facey and Suss those groups out 
AWESOME reply! Some really great insight and info!
Thanks so much! I hadn’t even considered sun peaks but it sounds pretty sick! If an opportunity for me there arises, I’ll be sure to look into it! (I’ve emailed a lot of resorts just sussing out what’s the go for international applicants etc etc and sun peaks never replied :( )
Most of the managers are in off season and probably either don’t get as much work or just don’t care as much. I’d wait till they start applications in August / September and apply for as many mountains you can and then take the one you like the most. Whistler would be amazing but you’ll need to be there for the job fair rather than getting a job here and then moving over.