A new anonymous memoir of a colourful time in the author’s life, working as a seasonaire whilst trying to make it as a pro skier, has been published.
The Secret Ski Seasonaire is described by its publishers as, “as a no-holds-barred narrative memoir of time spent in the Alps in the mid-2000s on a quest to become a sponsored freestyle skier.”
The author provides an incriminatingly honest account of the absurd, debauched, yet beautifully utopian world of the seasonaire.
On the hill, The Secret Ski Seasonaire (TSSS) makes most of the common errors of the newbie ski area employee. Those includes heading out with no gear and no idea into the unknown where he rides avalanche-prone death-slopes with brazen youthful confidence.
Barefaced recklessness is displayed in the snowpark as he launches himself backwards from massive kickers while attempting to take on the best in the business.
Off the hill, TSSS is way out of his social depth in the company of spoilt rich kids, despotic managers, wild Swedish party girls, do-gooders and middle-aged drifters.
His book provides a powerful cautionary tale on the potential dark side of seasonaire life, where living in squalid conditions with less respectable ‘ski bums’ can irredeemably blur the lines of morality.
It also details the range of devastating events that can occur in the alpine world: avalanches, snowpark accidents, piste-rage, balcony falls, bullying, gang-fuelled crime, mental decline and the very worst manifestation of ‘sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll’ culture, if you’re not prepared and end up with the wrong people.
The Secret Ski Seasonaire was a hardcore skier in his young 20s, but called time on his skiing 15 years ago, aged 23.
“This jarringly honest and rip-roaringly entertaining book is the perfect de-glamorisation of ski season life in the mid-2000s. It will resonate with anyone who has spent time in the mountains,” the publishers say.
