On 13 November, 1999, I stepped onto United Airlines flight 69 out of Sydney bound for Los Angeles, uncertain of what the next six months would hold. I had been to the United States before, in 1995 as an exchange student. I attended Mount Union Area High School in Pennsylvania as a senior, but this time it was different! It was going to be a bigger challenge. For the first time in my life, I was going to be totally independent.
In July of 1999, I was at a crossroads in my life. I had just finished a job contract and broken up with my long-term girlfriend. I was 21. I needed a challenge, I needed change. My love for the United States mixed with my passion for the outdoors and snowboarding left me no choice. I knew what I wanted and I was on a mission to get it. I started by adjusting my schedule in Melbourne, Australia, to U.S. time, staying up at night to call American resorts during office hours and sleep during the day. It only took a few days to find Okemo Mountain Resort, Vt. I hardly knew anything about the actual resort; it was the people I spoke with and the New England culture that drove me to fall instantly in love.
Before I knew it, I was getting off a bus in Ludlow, Vt. It was a bright sunny day and I remember looking up at Okemo and thinking to myself, “I’ve bloody done it!”
I had worked with Okemo representatives on the phone to arrange staying in a house with eight New Zealanders. Being the only Aussie with eight “Kiwis” was both fun and challenging, but it was one of the best experiences of the season. I consider each one of those guys a close friend and I keep in contact with them to this day. Living in downtown Ludlow, we quickly learned to battle Vermont’s unique wildlife, often chasing away stray cats and smelly skunks with whatever was at hand.
Over the first few days, Okemo ran us all through intense training in lift operations. I applied myself to the task and remember hoping that the rest of the season would hold as much excitement and adventure as the first week—it did. Within two weeks, I was promoted to lift foreman of A Quad. I now managed the entire lift and a group of three to six people. This added a bit of adventure to the experience and for the first few days the thought of managing the busy base quad was fairly intimidating. However, within several weeks it became second nature.
A typical day for me began at 6 a.m., I would wake and have breakfast with some of the other guys in the house. We would jump in our borrowed Chevy truck and drive up the access road in the freezing darkness. As a lift foreman, I started work an hour before other lift operator staff. It was my responsibility to start the lift, run tests, conduct safety checks and take care of other tasks. During the day, I would manage all employees working on the lift, whilst also working through my individual duties. My chores, for example, included loading chairs as well as gate keeping, checking tickets and crowd control.
Once the day ended, most employees gathered outside the Sitting Bull Bar at the base to catch up on the day and enjoy each other’s company. Sometimes we would go inside for a while, but just as often, and because our house had an international flavor, our local friends would come over to relax, chat and maybe have dinner together. Then later in the evening, another group of friends would fill the house for a few drinks or just to say g’day. Every night we would have visitors at the house. With nine of us living there, it only took a few visitors before we had ourselves a party!
Most employees in the lift operations department worked five full days and had two days off. For me, this meant plenty of time for free snowboarding. It was always greatly rewarding after a hard week of work.
But what made the experience so special for me were the wonderful people and new friends that I met at Okemo.
Once the season ended, we all went our separate ways. I returned to Australia and started a multi-media firm. Even though my passion lay in working at Okemo, the thought of creating a successful business attracted me. Things developed quickly and before I knew it there were five people working in the office. But things developed quickly on another front as well. My Kiwi friends and some people I had regaled with my experiences in the U.S. were leaving to head back to Okemo for the winter season. My sister and best friend were two of them. The temptation to drop everything I had created and return to Okemo was great. However, the stability of a year-round career got the better of me. I stayed in Australia for the season.
That was about a year ago and as I sit writing this, I’m singing a different tune.
Okemo is in my blood: the experience, the lifestyle, the people, the culture. I could not justify letting it all go to sit here behind a desk day after day. So I am returning for the 2001-2002 winter season to work in lift operations and leaving the firm my partner and I started in his hands. I’ve had a change of heart and want to develop my career in the ski industry. I can think of no better place to do that than at Okemo.
