What do ski instructors do? A day in the life of a ski instructor.

If you’re planning a ski season, you’re probably trying to decide which career path to go down, or your job hunting for the perfect opportunity to enjoy the snow, perhaps you're considering becoming a ski instructor? Maybe you're a curious student wanting to know what it's like to be on the other side of the lesson?

Although it may seem obvious at first, yes, a ski instructor instructs people how to ski, but what do we actually do? Do we have time for anything else? What does our daily routine look like? Being an instructor up the mountain isn't always the sunny exciting holiday career it’s cracked up to be and I’d like to share my personal experience so that you can make more of an informed decision as to whether it's for you.

My daily routine as a ski instructor:

• Wake up between 6.30 and 7 am depending on the accommodation location and lesson start time, this can change a little.

• 10 -30 mins of yoga, stretch and a cup of tea

• Eat or gather ingredients for breakfast to eat up the mountain.

• Get dressed into ski gear and trainers (and shower when necessary)

• 7am Leave the house for the bus stop.

• 7.15am Travel to the ski hill on staff bus

• 8am have hot drink and/or breakfast with friends in staff room

• 8.30- 8.55am rest and put boots, jacket, helmet and gloves on. This is also a good time to scrape skis or board if waxed previous day. This is also a time when managers will slot a meeting in with us if the schedule involves a slightly different holiday or school group or changes to logistical planning on the mountain that day. A few select instructors in new Zealand will also be asked to setup the meeting area and flags at this time.

• 8.55am go to private line up for morning private lessons. At NZski if you don’t have a private lesson we often have instructor training or just some fun warmup laps before group lessons start.

• 9.45am group lesson line-up. This is when the instructors help to direct students to the correct lesson level as well as helping children say goodbye to their parents.

• 10am group lessons start and the fun begins!

• 12 noon Lunch time. Sometimes we have our lunch inside at the staff room. Staff meal options are available for good prices, occasionally I'll bring a fresh salad or leftovers from the night before and when I'm being really lazy or feel like a treat I might go up to the Cafe and grab a pie or chicken and chips.

• 12-1.30 Private lessons are sometimes possible at this time so instructors can go for laps, join a short lunchtime training or relax over lunch if they are not called for a lesson.

• 1.30-3.30 after noon group lesson line up.

• 3.30-4 The mountain is still open and lifts are running. At NZski often group training laps are offered for those who don’t have afternoon lessons (1.30-3.30) and sometimes a quick clinic is also put on for the last 30 mins of the day to get some quick feedback on your park tricks or some tech and teach idea brainstorming. Either way I'll be doing the last few blasts at the end of the day to blow off some steam and/or continue the fun. We often use this last 30 mins to have a fun few laps on the terrain we may not have had the chance to ski during the day due to teaching lower or higher level lessons.

• 4.30 We have two options at this time depending on the day of the week. At Coronet Peak, night ski is on several evenings a week and instructors get this loaded onto their pass for free. NZski have recently also started to offer nightski training sessions which are awesome when you have an exam looming or a skill you’re so close to nailing. Night skiing at Coronet often involves pizza and burgers, a few beers, a chance to socialize with friends who work in other departments or at The Remarkables that you don’t get to spend time with as often. It’s ski time off the clock that you can ski whatever, however with whomever you like, which if you want to see other places and do non-ski related activities on your day off, night ski is an awesome opportunity to get the most out of your day.

If we decide not to stay for night-ski, it’s time to catch a ride with colleague or get the bus back to town. Quite often there are a good few who are keen for a beer before they head home, and sometimes it’s a home first for beers kinda afternoon, especially when you think you’ll be keen for more than one. Sometimes it's a straight home to nap before dinner. Other times it might be a quick change and out to chill in the spring sun before dinner.

Three to four times a week I try to get my arse to the gym. During my previous seasons, the gym I chose to be a member of was conveniently located near to a bus stop on the way home so I could go straight from work. I also have friends who prefer to wake up earlier exercise before work, and drive up themselves arriving in time for 9am private line ups. I think this is an excellent idea and i'm working on building the drive to do that, for now i prefer light yoga in the morning and working out in the afternoon and use it as a way to recenter my mind after a day of teaching and training.

Some evenings a week a few of us love to meet up after work for non-ski activities such as climbing, trampolining, swimming frisby golf and when its warmer, long boarding at the local pump track. Again this opens up our days off for a trip to a mountain we don’t work at or to the club fields.

On a quiet night I like to sleep at 10pm. On more social nights we could be awake until the early hours, even with work the next day. So it’s important to know your own body and limits. Being tired when skiing and taking responsibility for nervous and or young learners on busy, potentially dangerous mountains can be really risky and no fun. Life as a ski instructor is definitely better when you look after yourself and #knowyourlimits

Then we wake up and do it all again the next day. #eat,sleep,ski, repeat

The gaps

Instructors spend lots of time filling in gaps in their schedule (bad weather days, low business level days etc). I do this with the gym, walks, food shopping, watching my favorite netflix shows, reading a good book, speaking to family and friends, checking out the latest fashion in the local shops and all sorts more. You’ll have plenty of time to do all of these things so don’t give them priority when you’re invited to do something more exciting.

The caveats in the teaching day

In New Zealand and most likely in many other ski resorts around the world too, it is common to not teach a full day of lessons every day and of course most companies pay ski instructors only for the hours that we are teaching. This means no lesson = no pay. In many companies we are also expected to turn up to line-ups (waiting to be assigned students to teach) even when we aren't booked on to teach a lesson just in case there are last minute lessons or groups need spitting or shuffling around, private lessons are also always a possibility last minute too. So there is potential for quite a few minutes spent working without being paid depending on the company's policy for mountain rate (more or less minimum wage) paid activities. The ski schools in general are really good at putting on regular and last minute clinics with trainers to work on technique, try new things or help with anything exam related too for those instructors who didn't end up getting a lesson. There is always an opportunity to better yourself on the mountain even if it's not an organized session. Sometimes there are even opportunities to get extra work with other departments when you're not needed in the ski school. This also applies to before lessons start early in the morning and on night skis and is totally dependent on the ski school. For instance in Japan at GoSnow, this is not possible aside from helpi g run the gosnow magic carpets. Whereas the guys in rentals and food and beverage in New Zealand sometimes need a few willing hands to help in the extra busy periods.

I really hope that this little excerpt of my routine has given you a clear picture of what an instructor's daily life might look like. It can sometimes feel quite organized and we know what to expect in advance when at other times it can be very spontaneous, changeable and occasionally chaotic. It certainly helps to be flexible and the type of person who works well in Changing environments.

For more up to date info and insites into my life follow the ski nomad on Instagram @the_ski_nomad

Your personal ski instructor, The Ski Nomad