Skippress - Index

Skippress - SkiPress US Vol.7 No.3 - Index

BAD DAD
‘Send Your Daughter
to Work Work’ Decade
2 WESTERN SECTION
Decade BY
DAVID GOODMAN
SOME POP! DAVID GOODMAN WANTS HIS OWN DEAR DAUGHTER TO GROW UP TO BE A…
Parents dream big: they want an Ivy League education for their precious ones, followed by marriage into a blueblood
family, and then everybody sails off into the sunset.
Ski bums think much bigger than that. For my teenage daughter, I’m thinkin’... chambermaid. That’s right, I want her
to clean people’s rooms and serve burgers… at the bottom of the Collins Chairlift at Alta. That way, yours truly scores
a place to crash within minutes of the lifts, in perpetuity. Or until she gets fi red.
I spent two winters talking to and skiing with the ski-bum maids and waiters who work and live at two of Alta’s legendary
lodges, Goldminer’s Daughter and Rustler Lodge. Here is some of the wisdom they shared about what many consider to
be the best job in skierdom:
Trainer Mahun, 59, Cook and Server
at GMD since 1979
Why Alta? When I came in ’79, it was the only place with good snow
at Thanksgiving. It was fate.
What do you like doing most here? Shooting big guns. When I’m not
at GMD, I’m on the gun crew shooting avalanches.
Anything to avoid here? There’s two things you don’t bring to Alta: your
girlfriend and your VW van. Because neither one is gonna make it
through the season.
Advice to others? Come out and have the best time of your life and
tell it to your grandkids.
Leisa Jesser, 28, Bartender,
GMD since 2004
Home: Shrewsbury, Vermont
Why Alta: I followed my two sisters here.
Dangers of Alta? If you are addicted to powder, alcohol or drugs, this
place would be heaven and hell for you.
Your perfect day: Stormride all day. Then, like snapping your fi ngers,
it’s a bluebird day, everything opens and you ski your favorite runs.
Photos: David Goodman
Trainer Mahun
Leisa Jesser