Settling in for Winter

With our decision made it was time to shift gears and make the necessary preparations for winter.  The first priority in this valley is to find housing.  Every local we talked to warned us of the affordable housing shortage so we set to work on finding a roof with four walls.

It turns out we had arrived at an ideal time.  We were in the shoulder season and town was mostly quiet.  The new crop of seasonal employees hadn't arrived yet because the mountain wouldn't open for another few weeks.  Our housing choices were not overwhelming but we were able to weed out the real dives and select a nice condo on the mountain.  It's a typical rental ski condo, fully furnished in a crappy 1970's decor, a stones throw from the lift and a partial view of the mountains around.  We could have stayed in town but our goal is to ski a lot this year and so the closer we are to a chairlift the better.

With warm accommodation secured we channeled energy into employment.  The vacation fund was dangerously low and we knew breaking even for the winter was the key to staying out of debt.  We each poked around our areas of previous professional employment but the engineering firms in town were not interested in seasonal work and Laurel didn't find good fit for her nursing background.  Plan B was the ski school.  With my previous experience they welcomed me with open arms and promised a minimum number of hours.  It wouldn't be much compared to prior salaries but it was stable work.  Laurel was also able to secure a position at the ski school.  The pay for both of us is variable, based on student numbers, return students and other factors, so we will just have to hope the financials balance.

In addition to on-hill employment we are both also working remote work options with prior employers from Seattle.  If we are successful it would be the ideal situation because we'd be living the mountain life but earning city salaries.  It is a big question mark because neither of our former employers has committed to anything yet but we are both making a big push to get them on-board.

Everything in Crested Butte was now lined up as well as could be expected for early November.  We had one final item to deal with; all of our winter gear was in Hood River.  This meant one more long road trip to end the season.  After a minor mechanical delay, the van decided it didn't like the negative temps and we had the water pump and seals replaced, we headed back in the general direction of the Northwest.

Knowing that the mountain wouldn't open for another few weeks we opted for the scenic route home.  This would get us one final dose of warmer desert weather before the long winter and aquatint us with some of the lesser known attractions south west of our new home.