This seemed like a great idea when I was back in the UK stuck in the Kitchen 'why not go be a Chalet Manager and ski for 6 months in the highest ski resort in the French Alps'. Surely it would be skiing in the morning Après-ski in the afternoon a bit of work at night. I learnt fast this was a more challenging role than I had done before.
The training course was fantastic giving me all the skills I needed to succeed in my role as a Chalet Manager. It was also a massive reality check to the other tasks I would be required to do. staff training, chalet checks, health and safety checks, ordering stock, dealing with suppliers, deliveries, budgets, stock takes, dealing with guests, and whole lot more that cant be specified as your job covers just about everything.
Arriving in the resort I felt confident and motivated and was ready for the first guests to arrive. During the first week I was surprised at how much work I had on from phone calls, to meetings, ordering and e-mails and soon felt very overwhelmed. I knew I had all the skills I needed to do the job I just didn’t think there were enough hours in the day to complete them and when would I get to go skiing?
I brought up my concerns with my managers and they provided the support I needed and said "give it a week" and so I did. Who would have thought what a difference a week would make? I had set myself a routine to complete all my tasks. My team also found their routine and became less reliant on me. Every week in the job it seemed to become less stressful and tasks took less time. Within a few weeks I seemed to have a lot more time and was enjoying my skiing. I ski hosted on 3 days of the week taking the guests round the 3 valleys which was great showing the guests the best runs, the shortest lift queues and the best spots for lunch. This was the highlight of my season and produced such a good relationship with the guests that commented on how it made their holiday.
You can have very long and very stressful days but all this is soon forgotten when as soon as you put your skis on and head up the mountain.
The support, the training, and the staff were so good I am heading back for another season in a bigger role to challenge myself again.