Ski Hack: Work Remotely from Europe to Ski More!

It seems like most skiers and snowboarders don t live near a ski resort. If that s true for you, what can you do to get more days on the mountain? This is what worked for me. During the pandemic, I spent a lot of time in the summer working remotely at my parents house. I didn t use any vacation time. That made me think, "Maybe I can do the same with skiing." I can go somewhere, work remotely during my normal work day, and ski outside of working hours. I live on the east coast of the U.S., so Europe is the perfect location. Because it s six hours ahead, I can essentially flip my normal work day. Most of us wake up, go to work, and then have down time before going to sleep. In Europe, you can wake up and have the downtime at the beginning of your day, while everyone back home is still sleeping. You can use that earlier downtime to ski or board. Then, when you end your day on the mountain, you go back to your accommodations and work remotely during the late afternoon and evening. I went to Europe for 3 weeks, spending a week at each of Zermatt and Verbier in Switzerland, and Les 3 Vallees in France. There were 14 working days during that period. I worked for 6 days, which amounted to slightly less than half of my working time there. I used vacation time for the remaining days. It worked out perfectly. Some tips I used that made a big difference: 1) Stay As Close To The Mountain As Possible. This is important if you want to maximize your time on the mountain. My work day starts at 9 am. That s 3 pm in the Alps. If you choose accommodations that require you to drive 20 minutes to the mountain in the morning, you re going to have to quit that much earlier to get back in time to start work. I was about a 7 minute walk from the gondola in Zermatt and a 3 minute walk in Verbier, so it helped me stay on the mountain longer each day. 2) Organize Your Living Space Well. It was much easier to come back and jump right into the work day by having specific areas of my living space designated for working, storing ski clothes, eating, etc. No need to spend time moving things around or cleaning up before a video call. 3) Plan Dinners Ahead Of Time. This was key. There was no time to cook or go to a restaurant to eat, which you might normally do on a ski or snowboard vacation, because it was the work day. Instead, I prepared some meals on the weekend so that I could just pull them out at meal time, or made frozen dinners that I had bought at the grocery store. 4) Think Of Additional Time Savers. In Zermatt, I rented a ski locker at the base of the gondola so that I didn t have to carry my skis and walk in my ski boots back and forth to my apartment. This was a big help when trying to get back in time to start work. In Verbier, I was only steps from the gondola, so no need to rent a locker.