APRIL 10, 2025 | FEATURES | By Kathryn Mahoney
The Freerider’s Union at Colorado College, a ski and snowboard club more commonly known as FUCC, make up nearly 40% of the entire Colorado College undergraduate population with its 838 members.
With so many skiers and riders, some students consider making a career out of it.
While some have chosen the more classically professional route, other CC alums have chosen the “ski bum” lifestyle.
Kathleen Roe is one of them.
Before graduation in 1987, she decided that she would “ski bum” for a year.
“We decided on Jackson, Wyoming,” she said, “and that was with a fellow CC graduate who ended up being my husband.”
Roe’s original plan for how long she would stay in Jackson Hole ended up changing. She stayed there for nearly four decades.
Living in a small, poorly insulated house, Roe lived the ski bum life from 1987 to 1988, getting by on tips from aprés ski cocktail waitressing, while skiing during the daytime. She began teaching skiing in 1988 for the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort (JHMR) and in 1989 decided to get her associate’s and then full certification for coaching skiing.
“I realized since I’m still here doing this, I better make it more legit”, she reflected, considering she “…studied as hard as I did in college for my ski instructing certification.”
The certification process at the time included an on-snow demonstration of skiing ability and a written exam on physics, body awareness, and kinesiology. Today, the process is similar but is done through outside programs, The Professional Ski Instructors of America and The American Association of Snowboard Instructors.
Roe took the full certification exam the following year in 1991. She explained that the choice to become certified was in part due to parental pressures.
Roe’s mother wanted her to have a “real career path” and even wrote in the Colorado College Bulletin, which CC sends to alumni, that Roe was the Ski School Director and the Assistant to the President of JHMR, a fictitious claim. However, JHMR promoted Roe in 2009 to director of the Ski School.
The ski bum lifestyle comes with its “perks” according to Roe, like free or discounted gear or tickets, and the opportunity to work and live in desired vacation towns.
Despite the perks, however, Roe said that she is “probably destined for a knee replacement, as many of [her] fellow workers have already had one or two.”
Along with injuries, the ski bum lifestyle is not always easy. Low pay, long hours, unstable housing, injuries and even deaths can complicate a career in the ski industry.
‘Part of the life’
One CC alum, Hilaree Nelson ’95, devoted her life to skiing and hiking, scaling mountains and even becoming the first woman to summit two 8000-meter peaks, Mount Everest and Mount Lhotse, in 24 hours in 2012.
Nelson’s life was cut short at 49 when she died in an avalanche while skiing in Nepal on Sep. 26, 2022. Caryn Maconi, Director of Executive Communications at CC, wrote a memorial piece about Nelson’s life in the CC Bulletin.
Nelson is one of many who have been killed in ski-related incidents.
The National Ski Areas Association reported at least 35 fatalities in American ski areas from the 2023-24 ski season. The main causes of the casualties were tree collisions and snow immersion.
“You lost people to work related incidents, so that was kind of a negative, but I don’t know that I ever looked at it as a con to the lifestyle because you got to share so much and you all loved so much, so it was sad, but part of the life,” Forest “Gage” Reichert, a JHMR ski instructor, said about losing coworkers and people like Nelson.
Reichert started his ski bum lifestyle after graduating from CC in 1986.
He moved to Vail and worked at Charlie’s T-Shirts where he skied during the mornings and reported to work by 1 p.m. Like many places of work around mountains, Charlie’s T-Shirts gave its younger workers free season passes to Vail Resort, so for young Reichert, the job was “the perfect opportunity to be in the mountains skiing.”
Reichert moved to Jackson Hole in 1993.
He worked as a ski instructor for JHMR while working other jobs, like landscaping and restaurant work, to make ends meet. He emphasized the importance of working in the summer months and saving money for the ski season.
“The financials were interesting,” Reichert said. “You had to have other work. You had to. You weren’t going to make a living teaching skiing.”
The costs of living in ski areas have risen since Reichert and Roe graduated from CC, especially in Jackson Hole.
In 2002, the Louis Dreyfus Property Group built the Four Seasons hotel at the mountain’s base, which increased tourism and, therefore, raised the costs of season passes. Today, a college student season pass costs $1,080.
“Kids come and they gravitate to working for someone who will give them a pass, and that’s where the ski instructors, the lifties, and all the other jobs at the mountain, that’s how they draw employees,” said Reichert. “The resort would never ever ever have near enough employees if they didn’t give you a pass.”
Reichert and Roe, both now retired, worked with and managed many college students who sought out the ski bum life. Both reported finding it difficult to keep the young workers focused.
“We had many firings on powder days when people didn’t show up and skipped work to go skiing,” Roe said.
According to Reichert, many college graduates who seek the ski bum lifestyle nowadays come to ski areas with three-to-four-year plans. They take time to network with clients; many young female ski instructors even find work nannying for clients in the off seasons; many get jobs for clients in the summer months.
Molly Broom, CC class of 2015, ski bummed out of college and is currently recovering from knee surgery she had on Feb. 10 after a fall working at JHMR in early January.
Before her injury, Broom worked summers in the food industry and worked for the Jackson Hole Land Trust, using her degree in geology to map out lands.
“One of the best things is the people I get to work with. They are just people that love skiing and are stoked they get to ski for their job,” Broom said. “It’s a fun group of people to be around.”
When asked what advice he would give young people looking to join the ski industry, Reichert said to approach the undertaking of a ski life with some money in the bank, a vehicle if possible, and that you need a kind personality to make it as an instructor.
Roe said that young people seeking the ski bum life need to be passionate about the work and accept that there are some aspects of life one must be prepared to give up due to the financial situation.
“I think I just need to be in the mountains while I’m young and mobile,” Elizabeth Spradlin, current CC student and FUCC member, said. “It’s scary to think about the future like that, but to ski and be paid is kinda the dream.”
One current Colorado College student had some thoughts on the ski bum lifestyle.
“I’d rather get bad pay and great snow,” said student and FUCC member Frances Hansot, “than be bored at some desk job all my life.”