Perks

As cool as the job sounds, working as a ski patroller has a few drawbacks - I donÂ’t get paid much, the commute is a pain, especially since the Tercel has decided to pout until I cease my procrastination and pay attention to it, I work a lot of evenings which has led to the slow demise of my social life, and sometimes my office is really freaking cold and wet.

Of course, the perks of the job can be awesome.

Last weekend my boss and co-worker taught a fantastic entry level avalanche course for the patrol team. This meant that on Sunday, with the sun shining, we hiked/skinned up into the snowshoe park to play around with snow profiles, compression tests and rutschblock tests - not a bad day. The whole experience was great for someone like myself who wants to get out into the backcountry though to be honest, after barely scraping the surface of avalanche knowledge, hearing the stories about avalanche victims, and listening to my instructors say things like "in these conditions you should be safe, however you never know" there was a small voice in my head wondering "why do I want to do this again?".

But, after the day was done and I took the skins off my skiis to begin my descent home, after taking turns in powder and trees, that small voice was inaudiable - all I could hear was " wheeeeee!!!"

This could be an evolutionary flaw, but it sure is fun.