John Marshall: Former Ski Bum

          John is the head custodian at my high school. Every once in a while I would notice that he was wearing an Alta shirt. My advisor told me that he used to be a ski bum and that I should talk to him for my project. Following her advise, I asked him about his experiences with skiing one day in the hall. At the time, I did not realize that my custodial manager was the perfect interview source that I could ask for for this project.
          Hearing about John's winters, one would have no idea that he works a full-time job that does not involve skiing. On most weekends, he heads up to Sunday River for day trips, and if he wants to go further North and stay overnight, he stays in "the skiers' quarters" for $100/night at Sugarloaf. With two beds and a shower, John heads up with a friend and pays $50/night to stay in Maine for the weekend. Unfortunately, the inn that has the skiers' quarters is very small, with four tiny rooms, so a room is not always guaranteed. Fortunately, most people don't know about it. When he gets a room at the skiers' quarters (which he usually does, due to his connections there), he uses his New England Pass to ski at Sunday River or Sugarloaf. It is a $900 pass that allows you to ski at Loon, Sunday River, and Sugarloaf, as well as a few mountains out West that are managed by the same corporation. He used money from working full-time to pay for that pass. If he is not skiing at one of those three mountains, he's at some other mountain North of Massachusetts. During the week, he works full-time at Parker Charter School, and works nights at Wachusett Mountain, a local ski area. He has a job in their ski shop, waxing and maintaining skis. Having that job gets him discounted ski equipment and free skiing at Wachusett Mountain. Most of the time, he isn't able to ski at Wachusett because when he is there, he is working. Regardless of not skiing Wachusett during the week, this season he skied an estimated 60 days.
          Aside from weekend trips, John takes one big trip every year; it's tradition for him. This past year, he went to Big Sky, Montana. Coincidentally, the New England Pass works at Big Sky as well, so he saved about $80/day on lift tickets. The amount that he saved by having a season pass paid for about half of the total price of the pass. He went for six days with two other skiers that he travels with every year. Last year they went to Steamboat, and next year it's between Jackson Hole and Utah. He mentioned that he could get rooms for $50/night in Utah, and it's all about keeping the prices low, since everything is so overpriced in the ski industry as it is. Next year, he also wants to take some time off during the summer to head down to Chile, where it will be winter and the resorts will be open. Luckily, it is cheaper to ski and stay overnight in Chile, but the lengthy flight bumps the price up quite a bit.
          All this is nothing compared to what he's already done. The winter of 1978, just after he had graduated college, he packed up everything he needed into a '71 Chevy Nova and headed to Vail. His alternative was to stay in Massachusetts and work on his father's farm, and he really did not want to do that. A friend of his was living in Vail, so he decided to go join him in being a ski bum. Once he got out there, he sold the Nova for $200. Quickly, he picked up a job washing dishes at night, and he loved it. They paid him, let him ski all day, and let him eat for free. He got a room in a dorm-style building for $100/night, which was a fair amount of money at that time. Vail was not too built up at the time, but still built up enough for them to charge you a solid fee to stay overnight. This also meant that there were not many options for places to sleep, so if you find a room that you can afford, you take it. He paid $195 for a season pass and skied everyday from the time he woke up until 2 in the afternoon, when he had to go wash dishes. John made lots of friends when he was staying at Vail, who would all wake up with him and shred all day. Come April, he had to start thinking about heading home. He sold his skis and equipment, and hitched a ride home. It took him a week, since he zig-zagged all over the country, but he got home safe and sound. After making those connections, he went back the next year and did the exact same thing.
          While John admits that because of the incredible growth of the ski industry, it is more expensive to be a ski bum these days, he strongly believes that being a ski bum is easy. There are always jobs in resort towns, and you can always pile into a house with 12 guys living there already. As long as you're really willing to be a ski bum, you can still be a ski bum.