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The Dartmouth
July 27, 2025 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Off-term ski bums pursue the powder

Jesse Dudley '08 carves fresh powder in Alta during a term away from Dartmouth. Skiing, for some, has become an alternative to hunting for ultra-competitive corporate internships to fill their terms off campus.
Jesse Dudley '08 carves fresh powder in Alta during a term away from Dartmouth. Skiing, for some, has become an alternative to hunting for ultra-competitive corporate internships to fill their terms off campus.

Tom Runcie '07 and another member of the Class of 2007 -- who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he thinks employers don't exactly prefer ski bums -- lived in Alta, Utah, last winter in order to take advantage of West Coast skiing.

"I skied 102 days straight: every single day I was there," he said.

Runcie spent the rest of his time working as a waiter but made sure he finished serving breakfast by the time the ski lifts opened and that he did not begin serving dinner until the lifts closed.

The experience brought Runcie's friend into contact with many ski bums who differ from the typical Dartmouth student.

"It's a weird combination of people who were ski bums post-college and then people who are just from a different segment of society, never planned to go to school or anything and they had a pretty interesting perspective on things. I thought it was refreshing to see a different point of view from what we see at Dartmouth," he said.

On the other hand, Scott Limbird '09, who is spending this term in Keystone, Colo., as a ski teacher with Parker Reed '09 and Elisse Lockhart '09, said the ski-bum lifestyle was not that different from life at college.

"[Keystone] is a really cool place to be. It's like Dartmouth without classes," he said. "Substitute skiing for classes and add a bit more pot."

By working only 30 hours a week, Runcie said that he "got poor" but that the skiing made it worthwhile.

"[Backcountry skiing] was really an eye-opening experience -- really cool just to be out in the mountains alone or with a couple of people -- basically your fate in your own hands," Runcie said.

Both Runcie and his friend said that their respective landlords were major drug suppliers for the area, but the two students had limited housing options given their budgets.

"My landlord was basically the drug dealer for the entire mountain so we had pounds of weed and drugs at the house. Twice a week or so I would get up in the morning and there would be naked girls running around the house coked out of their minds," said the senior who, perhaps understandably, wished to remain anonymous.

Giancarlo Nucci '07 and Andrew Loe '06 took their off terms last winter to teach snowboarding in Jackson Hole, Wyo. Nucci said that his salary provided him with just enough money to live on -- a fact he said would dissuade him from further ski-bumming -- but he still gained exposure to very different people and experiences.

"You just have to appreciate the experience for different reasons. I sent a blitz out that was a picture of the mountains the morning after hiking up and going out of bounds, and the title was 'Morning View.' [My friends] blitzed back a picture of cubicles," Nucci said.

Runcie's experiences ski-bumming enabled him to preview the type of lifestyle he hopes to have after college.

"I'm definitely considering getting a patrol job or any other sort of job [on the slopes], have that job at least for a year or two, and hopefully end up with a job where I can ski 50 to 100 days a year," he said.

Other students, though, said that ski-bumming was not something they foresaw for their future. Going into it, Runcie's friend was considering ski-bumming longer term, but realized that the lifestyle was not for him.

"The skiing was excellent but I was a little bit antsy to feel like I was doing something real at the end of it," he said.