Skiing is one of my favorite past times, in fact it is my favorite outdoor activity bar-none. I daydream about skiing from the last ski day I get in the spring until the first one I get in the winter. Since I started skiing I've always had this pipe-dream of being on the ski-patrol. Paid skiing, saving the injured, and being the fastest bad-ass on the mountain what could be better right. By the time I was old enough to seriously consider professional shooshing as a vocation my financial obligations blocked me from my dream.
However, not being able to afford to wear the white-cross will never deter me from my goal of skiing for free. This year I have a new plan see. I'm going to volunteer for an Adaptive Ski Program. Many mountains have adaptive ski programs for people with a wide range disabilities. In most cases the program is a not-for-profit that exists separate from the resort itself. Adaptive skiers pay the resort for their lift ticket, like any other skier, then volunteers from the adaptive-skiing organization provide, equipment and instruction during lessons which last up to two hours.
In return for this service the non-profit gets to offer season passes to its volunteers, who receive no other compensation for their time. To protect against insurance liability problems the adaptive instructors are "hired" by the mountain and are on the payroll even though they never take a check. So allow though I may not be working for ski-patrol, I am at last working for the mountain.
In exchange for 18 days of volunteering; 6 days of clinics (instructor training), and 12 days of instructing (each day si about 7 hours), I'll receive 1 season pass (worth about $500) and 12 one day vouchers (worth about $60) which I can give to friends or family members.
At first I thought this to be a great deal, then I did the math...
Hourly Wage=Compensation Recieved/Hours Worked
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Compensation Received= $1220=$500+$720 (12 Vouchers @$60.00)
Hours Worked= 126 Hours (18 Days @ 7 hours)
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Hourly Wage= $1220/(126 hours)
Hourly Wage=$9.68/hour
...alright so I realize that $9.68 an hour isn't such a great deal after all. I was about to buy a season pass and skip the whole thing. Then I started thinking about how often I actually make it to the mountain when I don't have a season pass, maybe ten times a year, not as much as I'd like for sure. By volunteering I ensure that I will ski at least 12 times this year. Then I expect that I'll be skiing with who ever takes a voucher from me. Sorry folks you get them for being my ski buddy not just my friend. So thats likely to be at least 6 more days on the mountain.
Then the final thing that I have to figure into the value of this experience is less outwardly apparent. I'll be helping people, and getting to share in the joy they get from skiing maybe for the first time. Many of the people I will be working with will have never experienced anything like this. I'll get to feel good about myself that's gotta be worth something.
So maybe I won't be the rogue hero, the ski-god who lives on snow, and skis like a fiend, but I will be a hero to someone.
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Employee regulations prohibit me from discussing the resort at which I will be volunteering which is why the name of the mountain has been conspicuously left out
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