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695,000 winter sports jobs at stake due to climate change

ski diva

Administrator
Staff member
Skis.com has produced an infographic series "Changing Conditions: How Climate Change Will Affect the Ski Industry" about the role that winter sports plays in our nation’s economy, using data from Protect Our Winters’ 2018 Economic Report.

I'll let the numbers speak for themselves:

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SallyCat

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Side note, but I don't see how a resort in the eastern US can survive without snowmaking, which is insanely expensive. I'm frankly surprised more small resorts haven't shuttered due simply to operational costs.

From the economic perspective of visitor numbers, it is a rare large ski resort that doesn't have green-season activities these days. The de rigueur offerings seem to be zip lines, high-ropes courses, Segway tours, and wedding venues. Those are generally one-time-use sorts of activities, though, not the sort of things that bring people in for long vacations or serial visits. I think the recent explosion of mountain bike trail networks (both DH and XC) demonstrates a recognition of the need to provide activities that will draw visitors to the region for ongoing access to outdoor recreation in the increasingly-long warmer season.

And yet, the work is still seasonal. Even an employee who works winter and summer for a resort will get laid off for six weeks in April and May so that they do not become eligible for benefits. That is a problem, too (obviously not just in the snowsports industry). I'd be curious, for example, to know how many of those 10,000 ski/snowboard jobs are ft/with benefits.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
And yet, the work is still seasonal. Even an employee who works winter and summer for a resort will get laid off for six weeks in April and May so that they do not become eligible for benefits. That is a problem, too (obviously not just in the snowsports industry). I'd be curious, for example, to know how many of those 10,000 ski/snowboard jobs are ft/with benefits.
At Massanutten, I think are an increasing number of jobs that are year-round and full time. It's been around for close to 50 years. There is a lot of prep work that goes on between the end of ski season and the beginning of bike season. Being a timeshare resort, there are activities all the time that require staff even when there are a lot of empty units. The indoor waterpark, zipline, adventure park and so on are open in the shoulder season weeks during the spring and late fall. That's when special deals and weekend events are inserted into the calendar.

All the Boyne resorts made the move to 4-season operations a while back. In addition to ski resorts, Boyne has 11 golf courses.
 

SallyCat

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
That's a positive trend. Up here it seems that there are far more resort jobs in the winter than the summer, and it's the winter ski resort work that draws people to the region. That means that those job-loss stats will be devastating.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
That's a positive trend. Up here it seems that there are far more resort jobs in the winter than the summer, and it's the winter ski resort work that draws people to the region. That means that those job-loss stats will be devastating.
The irony is that every time a ski resort proposes building a zipline or alpine slide or other non-skiing activity that might take a little land away from ski terrain, there are skiers/boarders who think it's silly and a waste of money. They want the ski resorts to upgrade lifts instead. But it's the summer time revenue-generating activities that can mean the difference in a profit or a loss during a low snow year.

Several of the mountain bike instructors at Massanutten are ski patrollers or ski instructors during the ski season. One advantage Massanutten has is a local labor pool who are from the local town (Elkton) or city (Harrisonburg), so they don't have to rely on people who come in for just a season or two from other places, or even other countries.

I thought the towns in VT are filled with tourists during the summer. Do the seasonal ski resort jobs pay better than what can be found in the summer?
 

santacruz skier

Angel Diva
I was going to ask the question how well are the Massanutten instructors paid? Is it minimum wage or hopefully better? Do they get benefits ? Can one afford to work full time for a ski resort at low wages?
 

SallyCat

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Accompany this with a grain of salt because it is anecdotal based on what I've been told: Vermont gets summer tourists, but their activities are more dispersed than in the winter, so the resorts don't see as much concentrated traffic in the green season. I think also (from what I'm told) that lots of people will come for the winter to do the ski-bum thing, but not as many young people come for summer work.

I've had a very easy time finding work on account of a labor shortage for customer-service/outdoor recreation jobs in the summer.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
I was going to ask the question how well are the Massanutten instructors paid? Is it minimum wage or hopefully better? Do they get benefits ? Can one afford to work full time for a ski resort at low wages?
Don't really know about instructor pay. They are a very small percentage of the total labor force, even if they are some of the most visible. My comments above are more about lifties, lifeguards at the indoor waterpark, food service, and other staff required to keep the resort functioning year round.

Some instructors and ski patrol have more than one role at the resort, which means they have a year round job. Massanutten slows down in the early spring (March, April) and late fall (Nov) but never shuts down completely. The busiest months are June, July, August. But remember that Mnut is in VA, not VT.

Trying to book a timeshare unit in a ski resort is one way I can tell whether winter or summer is the more popular season. Although it's not the whole story because people who bought a timeshare fixed-week during ski season usually want to use their week on a regular basis. That means they were willing to pay the higher maintenance fees typically associated with a destination ski resort.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
I've had a very easy time finding work on account of a labor shortage for customer-service/outdoor recreation jobs in the summer.
Noticed that Bachelor in Oregon has summer jobs open on their website. Mostly more basic that can be done by high schoolers, but also includes a few management positions.

Massanutten always seems to be looking for staff. A couple years ago, Mnut became an ESOP. That's probably very unusual in the ski industry. Bottom line is that the ski slopes are only a part of the overall business, even though that was the first reason to create the resort in the 1970s. Building or improving other functions such as golf and the indoor/outdoor waterpark were higher priority for a couple decades before major capital investments were made in improvements were made for snowsports.

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