The State of the Nation

The past week and a half here at the chalet seems to have been very busy. To begin,we arrived on the 9th of December and the first order of business for me was to find a job on the ski hill. I was pretty worried after talking with the human resources guy on the first day; he told me that there were currently no job openings at the hill, and that my best chance for a job would be in January when the "house cleaning" of the different departments usually occurs. As luck would have it I got a call that same afternoon asking if I would be willing to begin work the next day in the "Public Services" department.

I can't honestly say that working in "Public Services" is my dream job, as the department is the result of the amalgamation of the custodial and security staff. Security guards with mops, wonderful. The weird and wonderful reality of this marriage of departments is that the supervisor is the only one there who deals with security issues, and most of my day is spent shoveling snow and replacing empty rolls of paper towel in the bathrooms. So I really have nothing to do with security, and I have to do very little actual cleaning. Bizarre, but I'm not complaining. Working on the hill has some perks too; I get a seasons lift pass, I get discounts on any thing I buy at the hill (food, clothes, etc.), and I get three day weekends too.

Once I had the full time employment thing figured out it was time for Ashley and I to get the chalet ready for the first guests. This all went pretty smoothly, but between working away in the chalet and working at the hill the days seemed to fly by.

Yesterday we finally got the chance to go snowboarding. The conditions were really good, certainly one of the best day of resort skiing that I've had in a long time. The snow was falling quite heavily, so there were fresh tracks to be had all over the place.

Today It was back to work again though, one set of guests left and some new ones came in. Of course there was more snow to shovel as well. The next week and a half will be the busiest time of the season for both of the jobs here, but we seem to be settling in and figuring out what we have to do. It looks like we'll have a great winter out here though, with many more days like yesterday!

After a great snowy day of riding.
(I had Paul stand outside while I got the camera so that I could get this photo without his beard melting first!)

This photo and the next one were taken for Christolla, who could not believe that snow could pile up taller than a person. However, outside of our lodge it most certainly has!

Shoveling in the snow; It's a game that cant be won.