Basecamp Confidential: I’m a Lifty at a Big-Name Ski Resort

At the top of the ski resort food chain, you’ve got the ski patrollers and instructors, the sharp-eyed managers, and the goggle-tanned moneybags in the C-suite. And at the very bottom? You’ve got the lifties.

Lift operators are glorified alpine life guards. They have two main tasks: keep the launch pads clear of snow, and stop the lift if anyone gets sucked into a chair. You can become a lifty with zero prior experience, and you can do the job blazed out of your gord—which attracts a wide range of characters, from trade school-dropouts to retirees.

When shit hits the fan, your lifty could save your life. But when things go smoothly, the crew is mostly left to their own devices—and the minimal supervision leaves a lot of room for gossiping, flirting, getting high, and blasting EDM in the high-speed quad line. It’s no way to get rich, but it’s not a bad life. A second-season lifty at a pricey Western ski resort shares what it’s like to be the life of the party.

The Gig at a Glance

Occupation
Lift Operator

Age
23

Years in the business
2

Salary
$20 an hour ($13,000 to $15,000 per season)

How Hard Is It to Get Hired?

Honestly, not that hard. The interview was very minimal. Basically: Can you lift 50 pounds, and can you work in cold conditions? My interviewer asked if I could move out to the mountain by a certain date, and when I said yes, and he said, “You’re hired.” I later found out my boss had hired 50 people in the span of an hour.

Does the Job Attract a Lot of Weirdos?

Oh yeah. There’s this one guy in management who we call Tweaker Jim. There’s another guy I worked with who did no snow work and also refused to converse. He just stood there silent the whole time. So yeah. Lots of characters.

Most people are in their twenties, and they just graduated from college or trade school, or they don’t know what else to do with their lives. Some people are in their sixties, and they’re retired and just want a free pass. So there’s a range. The one thing we all have in common is that everyone wants to ski.

Given the Small, Intense Work Environment—Do People Butt Heads?

For the most part, it’s a tight-knit community, but things get cliquey. Ski patrol is like the cool kids. They don’t say hi to us in the morning, even when we say hi to them. They think they’re the shit.

Then we have this manager everyone hates. She calls her employees names, and she yells at people to do their snow work in a certain way, even though she’s never been a lifty. She’s low-key openly racist, and she once fired a bunch of people on the spot during training because they had minor injuries. They’d all just moved here to work, and she sent them home. She’s on a major power trip. Word on the street is that she just got this job through her friends, but she’s not qualified for it at all.

We have a code word for her, and anytime we see her coming, we call all the other lifts over the radio and warn them, Paul Revere style.

What’s the Inter-Lifty Drama Like?

The gossip mill is very active. The problem is that you have a bunch of 20-year-olds, and half of them date and break up. I had a partner last season who cheated on me. We were out of state together when I found out, and I made him fly home, and by the time he landed, everyone back in town already knew about it. But now we’re both back this year, and we have to work together. Fortunatel,y all the people who make the schedule are my friends.

Are Lifties as High as They Seem?

Yes. We’re not allowed to smoke on the job, but everyone who smokes casually at home also does it while they’re working. That’s probably 50 percent of the lifties. So if you think someone is high, they definitely are.

Are There Shenanigans?

One of the guys pooped in a paper bag at his lift last season because he didn’t get a bathroom break in time. He could have stopped the lift and run into the woods, but he just found a bag and kept the lift running.

Stupid stuff like that happens on shift, but after work, the lifties are the life of the party. In the winter, you can walk into any bar and see 50 of your friends there. We also had a rail jam, where we set up a bunch of jumps in my friend’s backyard. The guys did backflips, and then we all played rage cage in the garage.

At the end of the season, the girls did a topless run, and then we gave out lifty awards—things like “Highest Lifty,” “Crustiest Butt,” and “Most Likely to Show Up to Work Hungover.”

Can You Pay the Rent?

I make $20 an hour for about four months. They don’t let us work overtime because they don’t want to pay overtime. Sometimes it’s cool, but a lot of us are struggling for money, and being allowed to go over would be nice.

Last year I was in employee housing, which was a two-bed hotel room with no kitchen that I shared with another person. I was paying $875 a month with utilities for half a room. I basically broke even. I think I started the season with $4,000 in my bank account and walked out of the season with $4,800. But then I spent that $800 to go to Hawaii.

Is It Hard to Find Housing in a Resort Town?

It’s fairly difficult. I had a bunch of friends from the winter who left employee housing and then were basically homeless. Some ended up camping for a few months, which is fine because in the summer you can just shower in the river. But in the winter, it gets tough. I have friends who aren’t coming back this season because they couldn’t find housing they could afford.

What’s the Hardest Part of Your Job?

It gets down to -20 degrees Fahrenheit on the mountain. In that kind of weather, I have to wear two pairs of socks and stick hand warmers in my boots. It can also be hard work. We do 15-minute-on, 15-minute-off rotations at the bottom of the lift, and on heavy snow days, you’re shoveling all day. It’s exhausting.

What’s the Best Part of Your Job?

The customers are so nice. I worked Christmas and Thanksgiving last year, and the locals brought us candy. For the most part, people are stoked to ski, and we get to make their day.

But the main thing is that I feel really cared about by the people I work with, and I really care about them. The biggest reason I came back this season was because of the community. It was so nice to move to a town I’d never been to and immediately have a family.

As told to Corey Buhay. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity, as well as to preserve the source’s anonymity.