well, i tried the real world...

Cool thread, I love reading about different approaches to getting what we all want (lots of free time and job we can deal with). I'm lucky to have worked in the woods since I was 18, got a college edumacation and kept on working in the woods. Finally fell into a lifestyle I love. Contract trail builder for 5-6 mos, usually working 8 on and 6 off. Groom nordic trails and help with avy education for snowmobilers part time through the winter. With my schedule I'm able to ski 5-7 days a week most of the time. Did the fire thing for years and fucking hated it, that much stupidity each year is not healthy (no offense to you fire guys out there, the bureaucracy drove me fucking nuts!).
So many different paths to happiness...

only 15 days till snowbird opens!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! then we ski every day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cars all packed, hitting the road at 6am tomorrow. See you JONGS in JH

Also, if any of you JH mags feel like hiring meatspicy, I assure you that in spite of my occasional juvenile TGR shit slinging, I am a highly competent and qualified professional.

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Originally Posted by meatspicy

Cars all packed, hitting the road at 6am tomorrow. See you JONGS in JH

Also, if any of you JH mags feel like hiring meatspicy, I assure you that in spite of my occasional juvenile TGR shit slinging, I am a highly competent and qualified dental professional.

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FIFY

Congrats - enjoy the drive.

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Originally Posted by meatspicy

Cars all packed, hitting the road at 6am tomorrow. See you JONGS in JH

Also, if any of you JH mags feel like hiring meatspicy, I assure you that in spite of my occasional juvenile TGR shit slinging, I am a highly competent and qualified professional.

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What are you looking to do?

I've been working for a startup website doing finance and ops for the past year. Before that I was a business ops analyst/office bitch.

I used to fit boots when I lived in JH, but I'm looking to stay on my new track if possible.

I'll keep my eyes and ears open.

After living in Vail for the last 4-5 years, I made the move to Denver and joined the real world. Been here for 9 months so far, working in investment banking. I refuse to change my location on TGR because there hasn't been a pow day yet and I haven't given up on the dream yet. Who knows, maybe I'll be back by next weekend.

Between the lack of skiing, the long hours, and this thread....pretty sure I fucked up. I just don't have the mentality to be a weekend warrior. Really want that real job in the mountains, just not sure how to make that happen.

Just to echo spicymeat, if you're looking for someone competant for a real job in a ski town, you let me know. I've got a series 7/63 and am the best snowboarder on the mountain.

Really great thread, lots of the comments here echo my sentiments perfectly

soooooo..any you nurse folks have any contacts/networking/advice for my girlfriend who just graduated and is looking for a job in SLC?

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Originally Posted by Puffin

After living in Vail for the last 4-5 years, I made the move to Denver and joined the real world. Been here for 9 months so far, working in investment banking. I refuse to change my location on TGR because there hasn't been a pow day yet and I haven't given up on the dream yet. Who knows, maybe I'll be back by next weekend.

Between the lack of skiing, the long hours, and this thread....pretty sure I fucked up. I just don't have the mentality to be a weekend warrior. Really want that real job in the mountains, just not sure how to make that happen.

Just to echo spicymeat, if you're looking for someone competant for a real job in a ski town, you let me know. I've got a series 7/63 and am the best snowboarder on the mountain.

Really great thread, lots of the comments here echo my sentiments perfectly

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Where are you doing investment banking? I can tell you that when it snows, the grind of working a corporate job in Denver doesn't seem all that bad...

I tried an ostrich burger the other day, not too bad. I have a job, wife, kids, sometimes I work, sometimes I ski, but pretty much 100% of the time, I'm happy.

Whatever it is you do, do it with passion.

I left it too...found a girl, then had a kid. Now I feel really stuck. I miss it. Maybe someday I can uproot the whole family and move em back out.

Z it was good to see you at the Bash. I have some general advice and some info on Denver area...

After graduating high school in New England I moved to Colorado to ski "real" mountains. I found a job and great place to live a couple of blocks from the lifts. I had good fiends to ski with and I was loving life. This was 1975.

Problem was I left a girl that I couldn't get out of my head. I gave in and went back. I went to college, eventually married the girl and we had two great kids. I also had a reasonably succesful career in technology (developer->manager->director->VP->CTO->COO). I'm now an umemployed has-been at 55.

Going back to "reality" allowed me to have a life where I made good bucks and saw a large part of the world. I was able to raise a family in comfort and position the kids to get great educations (kids who want to go skiing with dad on their time off). The bad news is most of my jobs had lots of stress and bullshit politics. My advice to anyone going this route is to do your own business. The guys I know who did are much better off than I and didn't work any harder. If you're going to give up a big part of your life to work best to be in control of what you get back.

I always wondered how life would have been if I stayed. My youngest heads off to college next fall and I'm in process of convincing my wife to try a new life in the mountains. Will we fit into the community, find friends and some type of work? Don't know but I have to give it a try before full blown geezerdom sets in.

As others have said there probably isn't a "right" answer here. Hopefully life gives us more than one chance.

Here2day, Uprooting is hard in any case. Sounds like you have a good perspective, it is not always about what what you want, but making sure everyone in the family finds something that makes them happy. Raised to a power when there are kids involved.

Good luck w/ the next chapter.

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who wants nothing more with my life than skiing.
Now how to make that happen...

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Originally Posted by stuckathuntermtn

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who wants nothing more with my life than skiing.

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What a shallow existence. No hiking or fishing or mountaineering or partying? Sheesh.

Well, yeah. Bike, hike, float, drink, occasionally fuck a bitch.
Call me shallow.

Sent from my DROID2

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Originally Posted by stuckathuntermtn

Well, yeah. Bike, hike, float, drink, occasionally fuck a bitch.
Call me shallow.

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:eek: Is that you or the little black pup in your avatar that does this "bi*** ****ing"?

For the non-nurses, I've always wondered about jobs you can do remotely "from anywhere" which seems to be a pipe dream but perhaps becoming slightly more common these days. Business, finance, consulting, technology type of gigs. I'd guess most of them require significant time in the real world until you're experienced and important enough to be able to pull in employment and decent money without the face time.

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Originally Posted by powski3

For the non-nurses, I've always wondered about jobs you can do remotely "from anywhere" which seems to be a pipe dream but perhaps becoming slightly more common these days. Business, finance, consulting, technology type of gigs. I'd guess most of them require significant time in the real world until you're experienced and important enough to be able to pull in employment and decent money without the face time.

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I know of several consultants who have gone this route. When I was in hospitality they were always bringing in consultants on 3 month contracts through the busy season as group services managers and the like during the busy seasons. Bank a quick 30k then off to the beach/snow/etc.

To bad they were all 50 year old has beens, but thats the route right there.

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Originally Posted by powski3

For the non-nurses, I've always wondered about jobs you can do remotely "from anywhere" which seems to be a pipe dream but perhaps becoming slightly more common these days. Business, finance, consulting, technology type of gigs. I'd guess most of them require significant time in the real world until you're experienced and important enough to be able to pull in employment and decent money without the face time.

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A few peers (project managers) on the same team as me do that. Work remotely and travel sometimes (<25%). They're on point and have solid experience though, I'm a noob at the current position. But yeah, develop rapport with the company and client base then you have flexibility. This is airline SaaS so 95% of client interaction is virtual anyway.

They are not part time though. Maybe you could work out a part time position with half pay, reduced benefits. But you'd have to be buds with sr. mgmt to pull that off.

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Originally Posted by powski3

For the non-nurses, I've always wondered about jobs you can do remotely "from anywhere" which seems to be a pipe dream but perhaps becoming slightly more common these days. Business, finance, consulting, technology type of gigs. I'd guess most of them require significant time in the real world until you're experienced and important enough to be able to pull in employment and decent money without the face time.

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in 1995, i was working at a healthcare IT company in boston, fresh outta college. i could tell right away that living my entire life in beantown chasing the dream of post grad degrees, $$$$$$ salary and 'early retirement' was for the birds. I wanted to LIVE WHILE I'M YOUNG!

i got a part time job at REI and within a couple yrs, some REI coworkers moved to Utah. next thing ya know, they're like 'You gotta check this place out!'. I went out for a visit in 98 and was blown away. after shredding untracked pow for a weekend, all i could tell them was "i'm moving here".

Immediately upon returning home to boston after this epic utah vacation, i began scheming about moving. how could i get a "work-anywhere" gig and move out there? i ended up finding the perfect company and called the president and told him i wanted to work for him. i asked him what i needed to do and he gave me a list of skills to build. i went to work, literally, became a programmer at the existing firm, busted ass to learn as much as possible.

Long story kinda long, I called him back in a year and got the work at home gig in '99 and haven't looked back. It took me a solid year to believe i could hold the job and shake the daily fears that i'd be fired anytime now - small company, lots of work to do and i felt ineffective. After my 1 year anniversary, i said fuckit and moved to SLC. BEST MOVE EVAR! while my job duties, roles and responsibilities have changed drastically over the years, my commitment to the gig and to skiing hasn't. this year, we bought a place in the heart of the wasatch and gonna give it a go at 8700'. the wife does indeed drive down the canyon to the research park area 3x/week and she's growing weary of it, but it's not a show stopper yet. gonna need to find her a work at home job next!

cliff notes: Dream up an idea, do research, make a plan, execute and reap rewards.

here's one of my favorite quotes, via Branch Rickey:
"Luck is the residue of design"

rockon peeps!

luck or fortune is a fickle bitch - she will just as soon shit you out as shine you up!!!!!!

opportunity arises from the path, and, if you are wise enough to recognize its worth, you seize it!!!!

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Originally Posted by powski3

For the non-nurses, I've always wondered about jobs you can do remotely "from anywhere" which seems to be a pipe dream but perhaps becoming slightly more common these days. Business, finance, consulting, technology type of gigs. I'd guess most of them require significant time in the real world until you're experienced and important enough to be able to pull in employment and decent money without the face time.

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This is the route I have pursued. My job title says "Economist," but in other organizations it might say "Consultant" or "Statistical Analyst" or "Quantitative Financial Analyst." Basically, I crunch numbers by dialing into a server that isn't even hosted on site where I work now anyways. This is supposed to be my last season working "back East" before I return to ski country for keeps.

This is season 4 since I left the full-time skid life in Montana, and I think this is about as quick a turn-around as you can hope for to return to ski country and live the dream. The upside, though, is that the trend in this line of work seems to be more and more focused on going "virtual office" style. I know that over at Deloitte, for example, they have eliminated permanent offices for anyone below the Partner level, at least at the local office.