How to Get a Staff Ski Pass for Your Season

A staff ski pass is one of the most valuable perks of doing a season. Worth anywhere from £400 to £1,500 at retail depending on the resort and duration, it's often worth more than a month's wages. But "you'll get a ski pass" is one of those things that gets said during recruitment without much detail — and the specifics matter a lot.

Here's how staff passes actually work.

What is a staff ski pass?

A lift pass that gives resort employees access to the ski area, typically at no cost or heavily subsidised. It's issued for the duration of your contract and is tied to your employment — it usually doesn't carry over if you leave early, and in some cases has to be physically handed back.

The pass gives you access to lifts during resort opening hours. What it doesn't always cover: ski hire, ski school, or access to terrain parks with separate day charges. Check before assuming.

Who provides it — and why it matters

This is where people get caught out. The lift company (the entity that actually operates the mountain) and your employer are often two different organisations.

Resort operators and lift companies — Vail Resorts, Compagnie du Mont Blanc, Savoie Mont Blanc, Skistar and similar — operate the lifts directly. If you work for one of these companies (as a lift operator, ski patrol, resort host, etc.), a pass is typically written into your employment package as standard.

Third-party employers — hotels, restaurants, tour operators, chalets, rental shops — don't operate the lifts. They have to buy or arrange staff passes from the lift company at a commercial partner rate. Whether they do this, and what quality of pass they arrange, varies enormously between employers and between resorts. Some third-party employers provide a full-area pass as a matter of course. Others provide a limited pass (certain zones only, no weekends). A few provide nothing and leave you to sort it yourself.

UK chalet companies — operators like Crystal, Inghams, and Mark Warner typically include a ski pass in their package — it's a headline selling point of the chalet host role. This is usually a genuine full-area pass, but confirm which area it covers (some resorts with linked domains only cover one side), and whether ski school access or discounted lessons are included.

Six questions to ask before accepting any job offer

These sound obvious. Almost nobody asks them before signing.

1. Is a ski pass included in the package?
2. Which pass exactly — full ski area, or limited zones?
3. Is it provided free or deducted from your wages?
4. Does it include ski school access or teaching rates?
5. When does it start — day one of your contract, or after a probation period?
6. What happens to it if you leave early or are dismissed?

Getting vague answers to any of these is a red flag worth probing before you accept.

When your employer doesn't provide a pass

Some employers — particularly in smaller resorts, or non-ski businesses like hotels or supermarkets in resort towns — simply don't provide a pass. Your options:

Negotiate. If you have a competing offer that includes a pass, say so. Some employers will add one if they know it's the deciding factor for hiring you, especially mid-season when they're struggling to fill roles.

Buy a season pass yourself. Most resorts sell season passes to anyone at retail. Expensive — typically £600–1,200 depending on the resort — but gives you unlimited access with no strings attached. Worth calculating against your salary before deciding a job is worth it without one.

Use the resort's resident or worker discount scheme. This is different from an employer-provided pass and is often overlooked. Most large resorts — particularly in France and Austria — offer a discounted season pass available to any person who can prove local employment or residency. You apply directly at the lift company's office or ticket window with an employment letter and a local address. The discount is usually significant (often 40–60% off retail), and you own the pass yourself, not your employer. Ask the lift company directly; your employer may not even know this exists.

The Vail Resorts Epic Pass benefit

If you work for Vail Resorts — which operates Whistler Blackcomb, Breckenridge, Park City, Keystone, Beaver Creek, Stowe, and others — the employee pass program gives discounted or free access to the full Epic Pass network. This is a genuinely substantial benefit. Working at Breckenridge and spending your days off at Keystone or Vail, covered by the same pass, is the kind of flexibility that single-resort employees don't have. If you're deciding between a Vail property and an independent resort, factor this in.

Staff passes and ski instruction

If you hold a ski or snowboard instructor qualification, check carefully whether your staff pass grants teaching rights. Most lift passes do not permit you to teach guests on the mountain as a freelancer — that requires a separate commercial authorisation from the resort or ski school. Teaching without that authorisation, even with a valid lift pass, is a contract violation at most resorts and grounds for dismissal. If you want to freelance teach on your days off, clarify this explicitly with both your employer and the ski school before you start.

The bottom line

A staff pass is worth £400–1,500 of real value. Treat it like a salary line, because that's what it is. Ask the specific questions before you accept the job. If the answers are vague, push for clarity in writing — "ski pass included" in a contract means nothing if it turns out to be a limited three-day-per-week pass that doesn't cover the top half of the mountain.