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Working as a ski instructor can be cold, frustrating, and incredibly hard, but it’s still the best job I’ve ever had. I’ve been a ski instructor at Afton Alps for four years and I love it. Getting the job was no easy task. Then, the training process consists of four days straight of learning how to teach ski lessons.

At the end of the training you either get hired, or they say “thank you very much for your time, but we will not be needing you at Afton.”

Thankfully I got hired and began to teach lessons.

One of the best parts of being a ski instructor is the people you get to work with. Afton employes a lot of teenagers so it’s fun hanging out with other high schoolers and meeting new people.

But, teaching lessons is by far the best part of the job. I almost exclusively teach kids between the ages 4-9 and occasionally teach older kids. I also mainly teach beginner lessons but I also teach a few intermediate lessons.

Depending on the skill level of the kids in class, quite often I can only bring one kid safely down the hill at a time, but since taking the magic carpet back up the hill takes so long, I’ll run up the hill in ski boots to fetch the next kid. Doing this for eight kids can get a little tiring and annoying, especially because every time I get to the top of the hill, half the kids have fallen over and are eating snow. Nonetheless, it’s heartwarming to see little kids jump up and down when they hear “Who wants to go next?” then laugh the whole way down the hill.