If you are looking for a winter job abroad and have ski experience, then why not work at a ski camp! There are opportunities in multiple countries to work at a ski camp as an instructor or in another role. My friend Sarah spent a winter season working as a ski instructor at a ski camp in Switzerland and had a wonderful experience. To get some more information about what it's like to live and work as a ski instructor at a ski camp, I sat down with her to learn about the ins and outs of the job. To find out the requirements to work at a ski camp, where you can work, details of the job, and more, keep on reading.
Photo Credit: Matt Foster
Q: Can you give an overview of your experience working as a ski instructor at a ski camp in Switzerland?
A: I was in Switzerland for about 4 months and I worked there for 3 months. I worked at Viamonde, at a ski camp, in the little town of Saas-Fee which is a tiny little village with the ski area just up [the hill]. The kids [we taught ranged] from elementary to high school and they were all [groups from] English international schools. [Each group was] there for 5 days and for a lot of the kids it was more like a vacation. We skied with kids all day. It was suppose to be ski lessons but I usually had an advanced group so I just skied with them and taught them some things.
Overall it was a positive experience. It was really nice to live and work in Switzerland and be able to afford living in Switzerland. I met some of my best friends there. It was really tiring though because it was a 24/7 job.
Q: How did you find a job at a ski camp abroad?
A: I worked at a summer camp in Switzerland called Village Camps. I learned about that camp from my mom's friend. That camp was a [summer] outdoor camp in Switzerland and Viamonde’s [ski camp] is a branch off of if. [The other people I worked with] just googled ski camps [to find the job].
Q: What was the application process like to work at a ski camp?
A: I had to print the application, hand write it out, and mail it in. You had to send in a passport copy and passport photos too. [When everything was submitted] they reached out to me. Then I had a zoom interview. [The forms you need to submit are still the same, but you can apply online.]
Q: What VISA did you need to work at a ski camp in Switzerland?
A: It’s called a Schengen VISA. The [company] sponsors your VISA and they do the VISA process for you. You have to pay about $200 [in VISA fees].
Q: Was there a language barrier while working in Switzerland?
A: No. All the schools we worked with were international schools and a lot of them were English schools. There was one school from France that didn’t speak a lot of English, but you are just skiing with them so you don’t need to communicate super well.
Photo Credit: Greg Rosenke
Q: What experience do you need to work at a ski camp abroad?
A: You need experience teaching skiing, and some type of certification, like a level one [instructor certification]. They will only hire people with ski certifications. Experience as a camp counselor or something [along those lines] is great too.
Q: What is your personal experience as a ski instructor?
A: I worked for two years at Mt. Baker while in college and I worked for a year at Taos. They paid for my [ski instructor] certification. I have a PSIA certification. Then I worked in Switzerland at the ski camp and came back to work at Mt. Baker again this past winter.
Q: How can someone get a ski instructor certification?
A: Any ski resort job [in the USA] will take people who don’t know how to ski well and put you on beginner lessons. You can get [a certification] by working at ski resorts like Taos or Big Sky and they will pay you back if you pass your certification, or sometimes they just pay for your certificate. Taos has amazing education opportunities for people who want to get certified, they have the best ski school I have ever seen ever.
Q: What was the breakdown of the other ski camp staff and their experience?
A: Everyone ranged in age from 20-35. A lot of them were from the UK, one girl from Canada, one girl from the Czech Republic, one from Italy, and [me and] my partner from the USA. Everyone there had some type of skiing certificate. A lot of people had a level one and level two certificate, I just had a level one. I loved everyone I worked with.
Q: Are there any non-ski instructor jobs at ski camps?
A: Yes. At Viamonde there is housekeeping, which they will hire anybody for, and it’s a really good gig. There is also cooks and kitchen staff. [You just have to search and see what’s available.]
Photo Credit: Lex Valishvili
Q: What was instructor training for ski camp like?
A: There was about two or three days of training. We went through the beginner progression once but not super in depth. Most of the training was just mountain tours because groups can add on day excursions to visit other resorts. I had a group that was going to ski at 4 Vallees which is the big ski resort in Switzerland, and a group that was going to ski at Anzere. So a lot of our training days were going to a ski resort and skiing the whole mountain to try and get the runs down.
Q: What was your work schedule like?
A: The [school groups] were there for five days. I usually had a week off [in between groups]. So, I would have a week off and then a group would come, another week off, another group would come… I only worked two weeks in a row one time. One of those weeks I actually did housekeeping because they didn’t have a group for me. The rooms are cleaned every day for the kids, so we did room cleaning.
Q: What was a day in the life of a ski camp instructor like?
A: You wake up, probably at 7:00am. If you’re on wake up duty, you wake all the kids up. Everyone is downstairs eating by 8:00am. You come to breakfast ready to go ski, eat breakfast, and make sandwiches [for lunch]. You’re out the door at 9:00am. We catch the bus and should be skiing by 9:30/10:00am. Then you ski till 12:00pm, have an hour lunch, and ski again at 1:00pm. Everyone needs to be back down at 4:00pm. You have dinner at 5:30pm which is downtime and after dinner is an evening activity from 6:00-10:00pm. [For evening activities] we did a snowshoe hike, there was an avalanche course night, camp games, etc… Then you wake up and repeat for 5 days. Some nights you are off from the activity but not every night. It was a 24/7 job, so 70 hours a week.
Q: What did you do in your free time?
A: When we staid [in town] we skied around the area. They let us borrow snowboards if we wanted. We did a hut tour one day; next to the ski area there is another valley and you can skin up to this backcountry emergency shelter with a bunk bed in it and we all slept there for a night. I also traveled a lot. We went to Italy for a week, and France, and the Czech Republic.
Photo Credit: Tobias Doering
Q: What was room and board like while living at the ski camp?
A: They took [room and board] out of my paycheck. Housing was a hotel. [I got my own room, but the kids were staying in the same building]. The housing was interesting because we moved rooms a lot and we slept in bunk beds. We had to move rooms a lot depending on how many kids there were and how many kids they had to fit into each room.
The food was really good. There is a chef and she does the whole menu. For breakfast it was something hot everyday, they had fresh bread everyday, lunch was a packed sandwich for skiing, and dinner was something new every night. They had this really good salad bar too. You ate with the kids and there was one counselor per table.
Q: What was the pay for a ski instructor? Were you able to save money?
A: I got paid 500 a week in Swiss francs. Francs equal more in US dollars, so 500 francs was almost $600 US dollars. The schools can tip, some schools tip more than others. One school gave us 200 francs. I spent a lot of it on travel. [If you wanted to save] you would go to a converter and get it all [converted into your home currency].
Q: What were the pros and cons of working at a ski camp abroad?
A: Pros for the job; free skiing, free food, hanging out with kids all day, the people you meet, a season pass to the area, there are some work sponsored ski trips we went on just for fun, and lots of knowledge and connections from other people who live in different countries. I met some of my best friends, I loved walking downstairs and seeing all my friends at breakfast [since we all lived together]. When I got home I was really sad because I didn’t see them anymore.
The biggest downsides of the job… during the week you definitely got tired from working so much. But, I can’t think of any other downsides.
Q: Were there any work related cultural differences you had to get used to?
A: It was a bit more relaxed [regarding] what you did with the kids. Maybe at a ski camp in the states you have to follow a specific progression and safety [regulations,] but it was really up to us what we wanted to do and as long as the kids were having fun and were safe we could do whatever we wanted. [Other than that] I don’t think there were any big cultural differences.
Photo Credit: Alessio Soggetti
Q: What were the pros and cons of living in Switzerland?
A: Pros of living abroad... I think the food quality was really good, there was fresh bread every morning. You get to live in a place you wouldn’t normally live. I was living in this tiny Swiss town that the buildings are from the 1700s, and under everybody’s house was a barn full of sheep… so just living in a different [environment].
The downsides of living abroad… things are just different and it is hard to get used to at first. I definitely got a little homesick. Even though we technically had a home we kept moving rooms so it didn’t really feel homey. We lived out of a backpack, but I think if we had a room (they are working on getting better rooms for employees) it would have been much better.
Q: What kind of gear should you bring with you to work at a ski camp?
A: You can rent stuff but I brought all my own gear because I like the skis I ski on. I brought two different kinds of skis, [downhill skis] and touring skis which are uphill skis. I didn’t have a pair of carving skis and at that resort they have huge groomers you can carve on so having a pair of carving skis would have been nice.
Q: Would you work as a ski instructor at a ski camp abroad again?
A: I would work at a different ski camp in a different area so I could go somewhere new. [I would] not work in the same place unless all my friends went back because they were the best part. [But,] I would recommend working at Viamonde. Be prepared for long hours at work and being tired, but it's really fun.
Conclusion
Working at a ski camp is a great way to get a job as a ski instructor abroad. Thank you to Sarah for sitting down with me to share her experience so that other's can learn about these opportunities. If you have worked as a ski instructor abroad, or at a ski camp abroad, please share your experience in the comments below!
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