The Perks and the Bummers

We have been working in Lake Louise for about a month now!

What all of us have noticed is that each department has different perks. For all those out there who are looking at coming to work here and have ALL those options the Working Holiday Club give you, we would like to make it a little easier for your decision making. Keep in mind that these can definitely change next winter season.

Photo by Chris Moseley

Food & Beverage
Perks

• Free food and drink - if the expiry or best before date is passed, and your manager gives you the ok, you can take them home for yourself. This includes unsold food like pizza, popcorn, steamed milk (coffee/hot chocolate), cookies baked the day prior, muesli bars made the day prior, pastries, etc. 
• The 7am start or a 10am start - The 7 am start means you will finish at 3:30pm, it gives you maybe time for 2-3 runs in the afternoon. If you start at 10, you will finish at 6:30pm but you get a sleep in and you also have a whole hour to play with before you start work. 
• Its SO much fun! We have some awesome managers who realise that our work can be a bit overwhelming and busy, so as long as we are working, we are allowed to chat to each other and have a bit of fun. Gill and I often dance behind our counters - its not only fun for us but the customer sees it as happy employees.

Bummers

• Its busy - yes your day will go fast but you will have times where you are flat out standing behind the counter for hours. Thats not so bad but it does exhaust you really fast.
• No ride breaks - we don't get any ride breaks. Even if you work at Temple (the cafeteria on top of the mountain) you need to catch a lift up, walk there and catch a lift down. While you're on the clock, you cannot ride -- I will mention that they have reasons for this due to previous staff.
• Long hours and only a half hour break. Every shift you work goes for 8.5 hours. Its not that bad but I do miss split shifts and half day shifts.

Guest Services

Perks

• Indoors and outdoors - You get a bit of everything! You might be mountain greeting, in the switchboard room answering calls or on ticket sales. This changes up a lot so you're not always stuck doing the same ole thing all the time.
• Split shifts - You might get lucky and have a split shift, starting the day as a mountain greeter, getting something like a 2-4 hour break and then having a shift in the switchboard room. So you get a bit more time to ride.
• $10 - for every person you catch "doing the dirty" on the mountain - using someone else's lift ticket, having a youth pass and being over 18, etc, you get $10 for catching them out!

Bummers

• Not always the greatest of fun - I have heard from friends that it can be very boring sometimes, that they are under strict rules (no drinks allowed for example) and that it wasn't what they expected.
• The cold - it is about to get freezing here and for those of you who aren't so keen on the cold, you will be out in it mountain greeting some days--- then again, this could be a huge positive for others who love the cold! Just keep in mind that for 2 months it will get to the -30's.
• The customers - We all get them of course but unfortunately for Guest Services, they get the good customers and the ones that are complaining and aren't so friendly.

Lifties

Perks

• Ride Breaks - Yes, as a liftie you will get ride breaks! You can only ride the green runs but hey, thats better than nothing! You also get longer and more breaks than other departments!
• Fresh air - the air might be brisk but your outside all the time, that can be a huge perk! It is cold though so its not really for the faint hearted, those who smoke heavily or anyone who considers themselves a summer person.
• Good hours - you have early starts or late starts and also on occasion an early finish. The hours are good though, sometimes you can be working 10 hour days ---- lots of money!

Bummers

• Shovelling snow - its forever snowing and someone needs to shovel it. This will tire your entire body and doing it in the cold feels worse. 
• It gets lonely - You are working by yourself a lot of the time and find yourself bored and wanting someone to talk to. 
• No toilets! If you have a weak bladder, you don't want this job. You will be working for hours before having a toilet break! Let's jus say that peeing in bottles is something they allow and take seriously.

Snowmakers

Perks

• Shift work! Four days working, three days off. You will have board time for sure!! Also, working days or nights. If you're on night shift, more time to board in the day.
• Plenty of time to ski or board!
• Guaranteed work at the start of the season!

Bummers

• Night shift in the cold has gotta suck! Frost bite has and will continue to happen.
• Coming home when your friends are off to work - visa versa - going to work when your friends are going out.
• Its a lot of hard work and unfortunately your job ends sooner than others during the season.
• If you're in a relationship, not the best position for you!

Servers

Perks

• Tips - and you get to keep them to! So you make a lot more money on the side!
• Late starts - Because the restaurants don't open till late, you get a bit of a sleep in or first tracks.
• Always kept busy - You will have a lot of fun but also you will be kept busy so your shifts go by quickly.

Bummers

• Late to finish - you will have late nights! That is expected though in a server position.
• It is a serious fast passed industry, it includes serving at weddings and other events, its fun but very rushed.
• Limited transportation - because you finish late you need to call security to drive you home.

Rentals

Perks

• You have free rentals! If you want to learn how to ski or snowboard you have free rentals for YOURSELF (not partners or friends) -- thats pretty awesome!
• Repairs gives you a discount - because you guys are working in close quarters, you make friends quickly and you get a discount on repairs.
• Ride breaks - yes, rentals gets ride breaks to! Again, strictly green runs!
• Its a lot of fun.

Bummers

• Can have some boring moments when its not so busy.
• Messy work scrubbing down boots, skis and boards.

Retail 

Perks

• Indoors and relaxed - it always looks relaxed in the retail shop and you don't need to go outside.

Bummers

• Its another position that can be boring at times.
• Random, but its next to the woman's bathroom and if anything is wrong in there, customers complain to retail.
• Again, no ride breaks.

These are really just a few of the HEAPS of positions available at Lake Louise and are some we have heard about and seen first hand. All the positions here have many positives, I would really like working anywhere here!! But just in case you're looking to work here and if you have no idea of what position to apply for, I really hope this helped. Feel free to comment if you have any questions about the positions and maybe we can find out for you first hand from people who are in the position now. 

If I had to choose though, it would be otherwise Food and Beverage or Rentals. Colin's top choices are Trail Crew or Liftie. 

First Tracks

First tracks starts with opening weekend, Friday 8th of November. Jess was rostered on to work however I had the whole weekend off because we only had 1 lift in operation. The same night we had the season opening party at the Lodge of Ten Peaks which was a staff only event.

Unfortunately Jess was exhausted from a full week of work and decided to stay in for the party, not to mention we didn't leave Chucktown until 11pm and she started at 7am the following morning. So for all intensive purposes I volunteered to party on and see what the night would hold, unfortunately we were all vastly disappointed thinking we would have been better off drinking in the common room. Over priced drinks, bad music, and a few raffles which nobody knew anything about. Seemed like we would have been better off drinking in the common room to be honest.

I didn't make it up the mountain until Monday, Jess and I both had Sunday off however opted to venture to Banff and do some groceries and most importantly eat Chili's! It did not disappoint, it was a lovely restaurant compared to what we were expecting from Australian experiences.

With one lift open I rode up the mountain with Scott while Jess worked hard down in the cafeteria. We hadn't had fresh snow and I wasn't expecting it to be that good in all honesty, I was surprised to say the least! When Perisher opened one run, it was a 2minute ride down the lift line, here though was a different story. It was a longer run, although it was marked as a green (Beginner) run it seemed like a blue (Intermediate) run in parts and was an enjoyable ride with an incredibly beautiful view of Lake Louise. That was my first tracks, so now I will let Jess share hers.

Today was AMAZEBALLS!

First day off in a bit, first day to actually do something awesome! I must say, I really amped myself up for today, every customer I saw yesterday during my shift was asking if I had been up the mountain yet and I had to say no, I was keen to change that! Colin told me though that he was working! It was so disappointing! I am terrified of getting off chair lifts and I was in the mind set that I couldn't do it without my amazing safety net Colin to catch me and look after me when I fall. So I figured I would go up and practice on the bunny hill.

I was very lucky to have my day off line up with Bonnie's!! So even though I slept in and caught the last bus up, Bonnie was there! We went to the bunny hill first and it was so icey! The man made snow is just so bad!! After 5 seconds of riding down and hating it, I said "Screw this shit, lets go up the top!" and to be 100% honest with you, I wasn't too nervous! I was filled with confidence! Bonnie knew my previous bad experiences with chair lifts and was the perfect person with me, she kept my mind off it and I came off fine, I did catch an edge and fall at the end but I made it to the top relatively fine! I was so excited!

We took the first run slowly, stopping every now and then when I stacked it and when we wanted to take some photos! A perfect blue bird day at first! I was riding in a dry ride, didn't need a big puffy jacket at all even though it was apparently -5 degrees. I was so excited to do a full run, the first one took us probably an hour. Because only the one run has been open we just repeated it which was perfect because I really needed to practice and build my confidence up again. I did 5 runs total and by the end of the day, on my last run I was linking my turns, riding switch and riding on the flat of my board! It was perfect, I can now ride chair lifts confidently as well, I didn't fall after the first time! I am really incredibly happy with how my first day boarding went! I did stack a few times but I put that down to pushing myself hard to do well!

I couldn't of done it without Bonnie! She was with me all day supporting me and being über patient with me! I honestly have never been able to snowboard with anyone without Colin, so I was really happy to have an awesome girl friend around!

Perfect first day of snowboarding!!