Snow penises, psychopathic managers, guests tipping with cannabis: The highs and lows of ski season

As a travel writer who writes regularly about ski holidays, I’ll typically spend a decent chunk of every winter being wined and dined by tour operators keen to showcase their newest slope-side hotel. 

And, as someone who spent several winters working as a hotel host in various European ski resorts, I can’t resist the occasional interrogation of the hotel employee pouring my wine or the housekeeper cleaning my room. 

Not simply because of a curiosity relating to whether their experiences differ from mine but for nostalgic reasons and because, despite the downsides, the months I spent working in ski resorts were amongst the best of my life.

Don’t get me wrong – it’s hard work for low pay. During my first season, I earned €50 a week, and my fellow season workers included alcoholic chefs and tyrannical managers. 

But then there are the upsides – the free lift pass, the endless days flying down untouched pistes and the sense of camaraderie that comes with uprooting your life and spending an entire winter with a bunch of strangers who are highly likely to become friends for life.

However, that shared togetherness amongst staff at the lower links of the food chain doesn’t typically extend to management. 

My first ski season was in the Italian resort of Courmayeur. My hotel manager was a former banker who had suffered a nervous breakdown and decided to shun the urgent psychiatric treatment she clearly needed in favour of doing her first working ski season - despite hating Italy, snow and quite possibly all human beings. 

She immediately installed herself in one of the swankiest guest bedrooms while the rest of us were confined to staff bedrooms in the basement. To be clear, as a season worker you get used to basement bedrooms – but