Dream jobs: Skiing, eating, hanging out with guests….

Peter, pictured centre

Look away now if you’re prone to avoid job envy because we reckon Peter Stewart and Tom Sumner will make you insanely jealous when you read about what they call ‘work’ and we call having the time of their lives and getting paid for it.

Tom is Mark Warner’s head winter host at Chalet Hotel Le Val d’Isere, which means he gets to ski all day – except when he’s having lunch.

Peter, now Ski Club membership executive, spent last winter as a ski event manager then resort manager for Flexiski, which basically meant he spent all day on the slopes of Courchevel and later Val d’Isere, hanging out with corporate groups and guests and having fun.

Peter: Actually, admin also took up a fair bit of my time because all activities and services booked through the company would need to be processed and invoiced, which would usually take around an hour a day. I used to harp on about this to the hotel hosts, who would spend four hours a day doing housekeeping and then complain about how glamorous my position was, but it wasn’t just a case of having expensive mountain lunches bought for you every day…well, not always.

Shame. So how much time a day did you spend skiing, Peter?  All guests were offered the option of a two-hour orientation so I would usually be on the mountain with guests for at least the morning. If I was booked for a full day’s leading, I would be out from the first to the last lift.

And Tom? I ski with my guests four-and- a- half days a week from 09:15 to 16:30 with a stop for lunch in some of the best restaurants on the mountain. When I’m not hosting you’ll find me back on the slopes or at après.

You must have been a good skier, Peter?  I did have lots of skiing experience. Training took place in Tignes, run by a British ski school and covered the basics of mountain safety. The instructors also covered some hints and tips for leading such as clarity of directions, regularity of stops and ideas to structure a full day of skiing with guests.

How about you Tom? I’ve skied since I was a nipper but have never taken it too seriously.  During University I was the ski society representative. The training  involved some classroom time, a First Aid course and  a few days on  the Tignes Glacier.

Did you ever lose any guests, accidentally or on purpose Peter? One guest did manage to get separated from the other four people I was leading on one occasion. Luckily I could see where she was headed and told the group to continue to the next lift while I sped after her and joined the rest as quickly as I could.

Tom? Yes John, back in ’98….. Why, have you seen him?

Were any of your guests difficult Peter? On the whole most guests were great but I would occasionally encounter the odd moany guest who would complain about the condition of the pistes as if I had an influence on the weather. Equally if poor weather meant the resort was largely closed, I would have to deal with disgruntled guests who would complain about not being able to get out on the mountain.

So did you have the best job in the resort? When chatting with teenage guest who were toying with the idea of doing a season post or pre-university, I would proclaim that I wouldn’t swap my job for anybody else’s in resort. I had the most sociable hours as I would usually be finished by around 7pm. I also had plenty of mountain time and socializing with big groups of guests was often great fun, with some tremendous lunches bought for me as well!

Tom? Everyone comes on a ski season to ski all day everyday, and  that’s exactly what I’m doing. I’m making the most of my ski pass with different groups of varied abilities.

So you’d definitely recommend it to others Peter? I constantly recommend this job to anybody who will listen – it was the best seven months of my life!

Would you Tom? Nope, you won’t like this job, it’s mine.