A Chalet Host Insider View – Why do a Ski-Season?

28 Jan A Chalet Host Insider View – Why do a Ski-Season?

Why am I doing this?

A question I asked myself over and over again before we came out to St Anton to do a season. I’m 37, surely I’m too old??? I fell in love with snowboarding at the grand old age of 30 and each snow holiday left me and my friends questioning, “Could we do this? Wouldn’t it be awesome to do a season….” and each year another one passed and we still had not taken the plunge.

In January 2014, we visited St Anton to celebrate Adelaide’s 30^th birthday and started seriously contemplating going for it. Over the summer, Adelaide and I started looking for jobs although I was still unsure I could do it. I have a house that I’ve been renovating, a stress free job that I enjoyed, a new healthy outdoor lifestyle, and had given a forever home to Diogie, a dog that I utterly adore. All in all, I was pretty content.

So, why am I doing this?

Last summer I met someone who had worked a season in St Anton and absolutely loved it, we kept in regular contact and she gave us loads of advice. She hadn’t worked for Kaluma Travel, but knew Andy B, (as it seems EVERYONE in St Anton does) and raved to us about what a great guy he was, how awesome the chalets were and what a good company Kaluma was. I was sold!

I researched Kaluma further, found some really positive reviews from previous employees and that was enough to convince me that working with Andy B and Kaluma was where I wanted to go.

So, 9 weeks in and here I am. Since I arrived, I have not questioned once why am I doing this!

I can say 100% that this is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Andy B is a great boss, Kaluma are a brilliant company, our chalets are stunning, St. Anton is a wonderful resort and our team are the best I’ve ever worked with! As one of our awesome team said on one of our first days, “I am having the best time!” This is a declaration that one of us utters at least once a day and could almost be our motto. I can’t stress enough about how fantastic a time I am having. Yes, we work hard, but the work is fun! I get paid to keep our beautiful Chalet Narnia gleaming (I like to think of it as paid exercise and I now consider myself quite the expert on cleaning windows whereas Sam is ‘Master of Beds’). I get to serve (and sometimes sample) the exquisite food created by Adelaide; anything made on the Big Green Egg BBQ is delicious, and her green tea salmon with coconut rice and wasabi greens is now up there with my cousin’s Christmas dinner as my favourite meal ever. I get to socialise with our lovely guests, work with a brilliant bunch of people, wake up every morning to a view over Narnia woods, and whilst cleaning the windows in the chalet, I get a beautiful view of Rendl homerun. Not forgetting the reason that it all started, I get to play on my board in the mountains!

Our guests have all been wonderful and been a massive part of making this experience even better. We’ve looked after families, corporate clients, and groups of friends. People have travelled to Chalet Narnia from Singapore, Australia, England, Abu Dhabi, Taiwan, Ireland and Holland. Each group have been fun, friendly and easy to look after and spend time with.

We get to take part in Après fun, going to lively places (KK anyone?) and despite my initial concerns about being too old and my lack of recent practice, I also survive our frequent visits to Bar Cuba by having a daily nap, brilliantly named Nap-rès!

I LOVE our chalet. It’s cosy and homely, yet spacious and beautiful. We have a hot tub and sauna (which we get to test now and again) a log fire, a projector for chilled evenings watching movies, I get to drive the Land Rover (the drive to Lech is stunning) the most breathtaking views and did I mention the Big Green Egg BBQ?!?

So why am I doing this?

Hmmm, maybe I’ll have to come back and do another season next year to answer that.

Lizzie