Big Sky Bum Out
Where Have All the Ski Bums Gone?
With construction jobs gone, are local ski bums an endangered species?
By Guest Writer, 2-08-10
They’re not on the ski slopes. They’re not in the bars. Have all the ski bums left Big Sky?
“A lot of guys are skiing backcountry now because it’s free,” said John the physical therapist. “Also, a lot of them worked construction to support their skiing habits. Those jobs don’t exist any more.”
A footnote to the current recession is its effect on Big Sky’s ski bum culture—girls and guys who live to ski and will work for ski passes or at part-time jobs that permit time off on powder days.
The recession that began officially in 2007 has been annotated in great detail. Millions of jobs have been lost and many will never come back. Nearly 15 million Americans were unemployed in January. The housing and construction industry, especially hard hit, is continuing to lose jobs. According to the Montana Department of Labor’s monthly report, the construction industry in the state suffered a 10.5 percent job loss from November to December 2009, more than any other industry surveyed in the state, and a continuation of a downward trend that has afflicted the trade for more than a year.
The construction jobs that enabled the ski bum lifestyle during the boom years in Big Sky have gone with the wind, and as a consequence, the ski bums have scattered.
Erica, who owns her own business in Big Sky, considered the question of a ski bum exodus for a minute before answering. “I think there are fewer this season. You still see them at Milky’s and Choppers at night, but maybe not as many. Some of the employers who used to offer free ski passes to employees are no longer hiring as many or no longer giving free passes,” she pointed out.
But Robin, a teacher at Ophir Elementary School, disputed my theory. “The hard cores are still at Big Sky,” she said. “You see them in the tram line with ripped clothing patched with duct tape, and granola bars and sandwiches in their pockets.”
Just this past weekend, Robin said, a few “poachers” (skiers who attempt to load onto the lifts without ski passes) bolted out of the tram line when a liftie started checking passes.
“They may be underground, but they’re still around,” she argued.
Around perhaps, but not thriving. The ski bum culture is unique to ski resorts, mainly in the West. Having grown up in the South, I was familiar with the east coast counterpart—the indigenous Beach Bum Americanus—but my first exposure to the Big Sky species was shortly after I moved here, during the annual Dirtbag ball, which culminates with the traditional crowning of the Dirtbag King and Queen. The criteria for being anointed Dirtbag royalty: you must maintain a high profile in the tram line and you must drink a lot.
It was as if I were Margaret Mead and had just landed in a remote part of Micronesia. During the Dirtbag Ball, revelers wear traditional native costumes with bright plumage—a retro reference to the 1980s (big hair, one-piece ski suits with exaggerated shoulder pads)—and celebrate the ski bum culture with, of course, the traditional cans of beer.
Will the current economic diaspora mean the end of the ski bum culture as we know it? What will the ski resorts of the future be like without ski bums? Where did they all go? If they don’t return, the free spirits of powderdom will be gone. Let’s hope we’re not on that slippery slope.
The ski bums aged. The ones with the permanent seasonal USFS jobs are sitting in the sun living off the unemployment check until the fire season in the Southwest starts up in a month or so.
I also wonder if extreme piercing made extreme cold a pain.
Maybe they have all gone to Haiti to help, and to learn how to live on less. You know, gain Recession life skills. Visit the future, as it were.
Maybe they realized how rediculous and counterproductive it is to spend your life on the goverment ski program...minimal work building silly houses that are gobbling up Montana mixed in with occassional unemployment checks....or maybe when their parents' stock options took a hit they no longer had such an ideal fallback plan.
Comment By johnny on the spot, 2-08-10Good call Larry, those ski bums are real lowlifes, all living off the backs of their parents and the government. I am sure not a one of them has made a hard, conscious, choice about what they value, how they'd like to live their life, or what they can do with and without. ... Hell, I bet those lowlifes can't even spell "rediculous." Right Larry?
Comment By Ollie, 2-08-10As long as ramen and peanut butter sandwiches exist, the true ski bum will persist. I wouldn't think that any 'economy', good or bad, is completely peripheral to the ski-bum (the real ones, anyway). Besides, what does the economy have to do with the weather anywhoo?
As I recall, I skied the most when I was the poorest.
....hmmm....well gol dang....Curse you, Money!
Thanks for the correction mr. smarty pants. but this is a semi informal setting so you'll have to excuse my typo.
Just for the record, i've lived the ski-trout bum life. I get it. I know why people make those choices. Most of my friends still live it and they're great people. This has nothing to do with intelligence or lack thereof, but thanks for assuming that I meant that.
It's just funny, people can't see it objectively. The lifestyle gets so glorified all the time when really most of what it involves is hanging out, drinking, getting chiefed.....not that there's anything wrong with that... but a good portion of the world already has that figured out, so what makes a ski bum so special? they don't deserve to be lionized simply because they know how to live a laid back lifestyle.
The ski bum phenomenon in Montana died about the time Big Sky started hiriing Vietnamese lifties that didn't ski. Back in the 80s sometime.
Started dying before that in places like Aspen, Sun Valley as the real estate prices made living on wages offered impossible.
The trust funders will always be able to do the "year off" -- and there are certain seasonal jobs left that carry over, but the old cycle of work in the mill for the summer and carry over the winter is no more.
I have been working at ski areas for 25 years. The one thing I never noticed was the hiccups in the economy. Broke ass poor is broke ass poor.
Its been a great ride and I wouldn't have traded it for all the rice in Vietnam.
BTW Skinner, I habe been around the Really Big Sky for a looooong time. Boyne has hired South Africans and South Americans.
Vietnamese?
Nope.
Maybe all the ski bums should have been day traders or sold mortgage backed securities. Then they would have made something of themselves, right?
I'm thinking most of 'em are now teabagging it.
Comment By Got Priced Out, 2-09-10When minimum wage was $2.00 per hour a Big Mountain lift ticket cost $7.50.
Now with minimum wage at $7.00+, a Big Mountain ticket is $62.
BIG DIFFERENCE!
The ski industry got mixed up with an undesirable, wealthy crowd who has suddenly abandoned them, hence the new "we love our season passholders" drivel from management.
Hey, Fenske, good for you.
I managed to hang on until I was 35, I would never take it back although I'm paying for it now. I had the best gig, working in ski repair on split shifts and commercial construction in the summer with an epic, corn-o-graphic road trip every spring.
But I swear, I skied Pig Sty a couple of times in 82 and 83, (I'm amazed that my best day ever was there, Friday night got a dump with 2 feet at Bridger, so I "settled" for 12 inches of eight weight powder on the long roller bumps on that east side chair) and at least one name tag said Truong.
And Price nails another aspect. Wages didn't keep up. For those of us from normal America, unable to enjoy private subsidy of our addictions, there was a breaking point.
Not arguing about the costs. No siree.
Skiing at "Resorts" is too damn expensive. Gotta hit the ski areas, Disco and Lost Trail come to mind.
70.00 for a day of skiing is ridiculous.
Drop the prices and up the crowds a bit, it costs just as much to spin lifts if the mountain is busy as if it is empty.
Reduce the Mcmansions and put in some reasonable overnight lodging options.
Get rid of the Kobe beef burger and serve local beef burgers.
And don't even get me started on the costs of new gear. $ 1000 for a pair of skis?
If the ski industry doesn't adapt, it dies. That simple.
Anyone with half a brain can still skibum in high style without govt. help.....do you really think they buy day passes? Shit, I used to save money all winter on $5.50/hr.......be thrifty, use your brain, gear is practically free if you pay attention. Its nice to rip on the trustfunders, but most of them move back to Michigan and work for Daddy's company after a year or two.
People probably left Big Sky for a place where it snows! and where there is a fun and interesting community.....
You know it, Pete. My first yr in JH, I skied on a second-hand pair of K2s I bought for $50, found my fine used Lange boots in the garbage (someone must've got a brand new pair for xmas), and my snowpants were trash-treasures, too. Clipped tix at lunch in the parking lot, or signed up for one of the free company pass when I could get it, got the free wings on Mondays...
big ski areas are flush with castoffs, grub, and cheap beer if you know the terrain. I'm comforted that the folks who know how to take advantage of the cheap perks are still out there. Maybe its tougher than it used to be - i dunno. The motivation is still the same.
Right on, Peter,
I fueled on Ramen Cups poured before I changed to ski and snarfed on the lift. A cup of hot chocolate was a big indulgence. Resort food? Bwhahahaha.
And the snow....that's the thing that immediately turned me off to Pig Sty, and for that matter, SUN Valley. All that terrain and nothing on it. With the exception of that one epic day, every single time I went there I did more damage to my boards than the rest of the season elsewhere. Sun Valley was neat for the cruisers, but all those unskiable woods just broke my heart. As did the fact fur salons and art galleries outnumbered the ski shops.
Off Topic:
Why does everyone use "Bahaha" nowadays? Who laughs like that?? It annoys me.
.... I was going to comment on how I am an ex-ski bum who was never a trustfunder or government supported who eventually got a 9-5 job.... but everyone's posting the same shit. So I'll leave it at that.
Well, un-ed, I guess you have never rolled over your tips into the good stuff. When it starts flowing across your chest and you consider the truncated lives of normal people....
Yeah, it was worth it. And will always be.
Apparently NewWest's readership is a slew of washed-up bitter white folks once self-sufficient enough and self-determined enough to have lived life on their own terms, now convinced that they can't make it without succumbing to jobs and material needs they despise. (I would say this is valuable marketing information for NewWest, but as I write this it occurs to me that this is possibly an accurate depiction of the majority of Americans these days.)
Comment By jay, 2-10-10aptly yclept for sure...
Comment By UneducatedVoter, 2-10-10Well, it IS in fact titled "Where have all the ski bums gone"... so, good follow-up.
I WAS a ski-bum, but now I work for a resort as a full-time year-round employee. I guess I am not such the bum I once was (though, I was never on the govt ski team, or a trustfunder, so maybe I'm not legit). I do love my 9-5 though, and chose to get a better paying, more secure job to fund my recreational habits (skiing, gas, and ammo are all REALLY expensive now adays). So, I must be one of the few Americans who's not washed-up or bitter... I feel sorry for you all!
I utilized "bum" tactics to support a lifestyle from NM to CO. Worked part-time at a grocery store (i.e. food) and part time on the hill (i.e. pass), and in the summer's guided torts down river. Great life - ate "expired" food from g-store, packed my lunches and networked within the culture (i.e. gear and a "pro-form"). If one has a network of homies of like mind enveloped in the industry the bum lifestyle is possible in any economy - however, need "torts" with cash to come out and tip, etc..so perhaps this revenue source has dwindled amid gov't backed bailouts and a down economy...to those still dirtbaggin - git some, as fo sho there is more pow pow to go around...its all relative, back then I had no cash and no debt, now I have cash and a mortgage...still git out though - when I can...much love to all!!
Comment By horst, 2-13-10Almost every generation has had such deadbeats to add color to their existentialism.
Comment By Sam F, 4-06-10horst skiis in jeans.
Comment By horst, 4-06-10Skiing has just seemed like another waste of effort for effete punks.
Comment By Sam F, 4-06-10and... someone here is supposed to care what it "seemed" to you? Go continue reading your dictionary horsty, I can tell your in the e's.
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