Meet Alyssa Horsefield, a young ski instructor who is harnessing her instructing abilities to teach in four different countries to date.
Alyssa and I met in June of 2016, when we were both ski instructing at Perisher, Australia. Every time I saw her teach, I was impressed by how much fun her class was having--and how she took her job seriously, but not herself.
After our season at Perisher, I went back to the states for uni (as they call it in 'Straya), and Alyssa went on to teach in Canada and then Switzerland. Alyssa had so much on-the-ground info to share about the international ski industry, as well as how ski instructing helped her grow as a person.
Lastly, she gives her advice to aspiring global ski instructors--skip ahead if you want, for this and 3 key takeaways.
Alyssa (right) and me (left) taking a really obnoxious bathroom selfie at "The Banj" (short for Banjo's) in Jindabyne, Australia.
Alyssa and I are in the middle. She has the black helmet, and we're the ones cheesing the hardest. The supervisors took us out of line-up to stomp and snow-plow down the powder on the kid's run, because the groomer was broken. We'd never been more jazzed to see something broken XD
CA (me): You’ve ski instructed in Japan, Australia, Canada, and Switzerland. Which ski schools and how many seasons in each?
AH (Alyssa Horsefield): I went straight from high school to Japan for the 2015-16 season, and then I went straight back to Australia with you, then Canada for the 16-17 season, then Australia again, and now I’m here in Switzerland. The place I worked at in Japan is called GoSnow Gondola Snowsports in Niseko, it’s pretty new. I was supposed to go to uni after high school, but then I got to Japan and I loooved the kids and how fun they were. I was like, "No way you can do that, just ski instruct all year long." So I said, "Bye uni, I’m not doing that now."
Then at the end of my first Australia season, everyone was like, "Come to Canada!" So I was in Lake Louise for that season. The transport from Banff to the hill wasn't regular, so we would arrive earlier than we started and wait awhile after we finished to go home. On kid's side, we’d work four hours: two in the morning, two in the afternoon.
The company I work for in Switzerland is called Viamonde, and we have three different bases we work out of: Anzère, Saas Fee, and Siviez. I actually only work with school groups, so I wake them up at 7 in the morning, have breakfast with them, have a normal day of skiing, with après after that,
dinner at 6:30, then night skiing and then we put them back to bed at 10. It’s like being a winter camp counselor; we stay in the hotels with them, so we’re not just ski instructors, we do it all.
Overall, Japan was my favorite season, it was just so much fun and everybody was always having a great time. But Canada was the most beautiful country; the people were amazing! It was really, really cold, but we were surrounded by the Rockies, and there were always these inversions where the clouds were lower than us, and sun dogs, where the rainbows were in a circle around the sun.
CA: Which ski school was the hardest to get into?
AH: Australia and Japan were both really easy. I got my APSI level 1 when I was 16, and then randomly applied to teach in Japan when I was 18. The job interview for Go Snow was super relaxed and the interviewer was really friendly, so it wasn't a stressful situation.
When I applied to Canada, I told them I was currently doing the level 2 course and exam, and he said, “You have the job anyway, but it’d be really good if you had your level 2,” and then I got it and I was soo relieved.
A guy I know from Perisher actually helped get me this job here in Switzerland-- he put in a good word for me. But getting the job here was the hardest because I was only 20 and they said they only employ 21 and over, so I was lucky I got a interview. It was the strictest I’ve ever done, it was super serious, it took almost an hour.
Sun dog in Canada.
The first thing she asked was, "If you could describe yourself in three words, what would they be?" and it was 10 o'clock in Perisher, and I was so stressed and tired! She asked me all these scenarios about what I would do if things went wrong in my class, and then she actually emailed all of my references on my resume and waited to hear back from them before she employed me. A month later, she emailed me telling me I got the job, but only for two months. Then I got an email maybe two weeks before I was coming out here, asking if I could come early, and stay till April. I booked my flight a week before I came.
In Japan, even parking lots are a sight to see-- if their backdrop is Mt. Yotei, that is.
CA: What kind of visas/certifications did you need for each country?
AH: Getting the Japan visa was really stressful, because you can’t say it's for a job. It’s called a working holiday visa, but they really only want you to go travel. Everyone who wants to work there is in the same boat. I went into immigration at the embassy in Sydney, having filled out the paperwork, and they sent me away the first time cuz I didn’t have a bank statement. It was stressful because I was lying the whole time, because if you say yes to having a job you won’t get a visa.
The visa for Lake Louise was also really stressful; the application was all online, but there were all these different forms you had to fill in and send away. It took them a really long time to get back to me—I sent in my visa forms maybe towards the middle of the Perisher season, and I didn’t get approved till the end of October, three weeks before I was supposed to start work. So the flights ended up being $1,400 AUD ($1,090 USD) one way.
This visa in Switzerland was the easiest, 'cuz the company does it all for you. This is one of the only schools Australians can work in there, so the company pays for my visa, but they take a portion out of my paycheck for it.
I got my level 2 in Australia at the end of my first season there. I don’t know if I actually needed my level 2 for Switzerland; there’s a few people here with only their level 1's. I got my adaptive cert in Australia too; I taught lots of people with cerebral palsy and down syndrome, and they were some of the funnest lessons I’ve ever taught, just super nice funny people, super cute, we sang and danced skiing down the hill, and they liked me a lot.
CA: What were some of the biggest cultural differences?
AH: There’ve always been Australians in every place that I work at, actually, it’s mainly Australians and British. Everyone was like, “Oh you’ll miss home,” but it’s not too different. Canada kind of reminded me of Australia 'cause the culture there is similar to the culture at home.
In Japan, there was a big culture difference when we went out and explored, but living at Niseko was like living in a little mini Australia. Niseko was a party town, with a big night life scene. There were always people going out—it was mental. There were 20 of us living in this one big house; it was really family oriented, and people were over all the time.
End of season kid's team at Perisher--Alyssa is perched on top the ice, third right.
CA: Any tips for balancing being professional and having fun?
AH: I find it’s the hardest here in Switzerland, 'cause I’m living and working with the kids, and some are 15 and 16 years old, so you get to be friends with them, but working with teens is harder than little kids. When they start walking over you, that’s when you’ve gotta put on your teacher voice, and then they’re like, “Shit, Alyssa’s mad.” I’ve definitely gotten more scary, 'cause I didn’t have a teacher voice first couple of seasons.
Alyssa (right) and a co-worker at Anzère Resort, southeast Switzerland. In 2012, The Telegraph wondered if Anzère was the greenest resort in the world, although a 2017 post by Iglu Ski said this award actually goes to Saas Fee--it's car free!
CA: What are you most excited about in your work?
AH: This week I’m teaching kids from Uganda, and it’s their first time ever to see snow--some of them didn’t know what snow was--I was like, “Oh my god, that’s sooo cute!”
I think it’s super cool teaching here because usually we only get to see kids for one day, but here we get the same 7-9 kids all week and we get to see them improve so much, which is awesome. We get to know the kids really well and then we’ve got better rapport with them, rather than getting them thrown on us knowing nothing about them.
And the teachers here come with a list of medical info for the kids, so I know about these things going in. I think knowing that helps manage the class, especially with people with ADHD and autism, so that you can kind of help them get ready and like mentally prepared at breakfast.
CA: Do you have any tips for talking to parents at the end of the day?
AH: I actually love talking to parents at the end of the day about how awesome their kids are and how much they’ve improved. I have trouble telling them about misbehaving though, and telling them stuff that’s hard to hear is really stressful when there are lots of people around. So I try to talk to them one on one, you know, using good eye contact and with my goggles off. And I never say anything bad about the kids, but I ask them how the kids normally are at home, and if this behavior is super uncommon. And usually the parents apologize. But sometimes when the parents are in denial, I have to be like, “I’m really sorry, but this is what your child did today, I think you need to sit down and maybe ask them why they’re acting this way, because there’s always some reason a kid is upset about something.”
Once, I had this one girl who had anger management issues, but her dad didn’t tell me. So we were skiing down when she fell over and couldn’t get back up.
She started kicking me and punching and biting me, and I didn’t know that she had these issues, so I was so confused when I was trying to handle the situation. I wasn’t angry, 'cause I don’t like yelling at kids, but if I’d known, I wouldn’t’ve tried to push her so much during the day.
The hardest thing was telling the dad at the end of the day, “I don’t mind teaching any person under the sun, but if someone has a medical issue, I’ve got to know--like, your child punched and kicked me today, and if I’d known what she had, I could’ve handled it better.”
This is the kind of fun you can look forward to if you become a ski instructor ;)
CA: What are some of the biggest things you’ve learned from ski instructing and traveling? What’s the best thing about ski instructing abroad?
AH: I’ve grown up a lot more. When I go home, all my friends are at uni doing the same normal thing, and they all say they can’t believe what I’m doing. I reckon I’ve got the experience now so that I can get myself anywhere, and I can get myself out too and be fine. I’m not scared anymore; I used to be super shy, and couldn’t talk in front of people. I came to Switzerland not knowing anyone and I didn’t really know what the job was. I never would never in a million years have done that two years ago.
You meet so many people in this job, and everyone is super happy, chill, super positive, and loves skiing. And it’s easier to try new things when you’ve got people like that supporting you the whole time, because you go back home and nobody really gets skiing. Ski instructing made me get out of my comfort zone; I had to teach adults in Japan, they didn’t give me a choice. I didn’t want to at first because I questioned how much I knew about skiing, I thought, “Fuck, I can’t teach a technical lesson.”
My first adult lesson was a private lesson, whole day, and I was super nervous—terrified, you know, having anxiety, because I used to stress a lot, but this lesson ended up being so much fun—I got him down his first black run. One of my hardest lessons was this lady, she fell and cried and took her skis off, and the hardest thing was encouraging her to get up. I thought to myself, “If I keep pushing her, maybe she’ll either get up, or never ski again.” But I told her, “You’ve got this girl,” over and over, and we had a bit of a life chat sitting down. I said, “I don’t care what other people are thinking, and you shouldn’t care either,” so I started skiing backwards and holding her hands, and I made up a little song I’d sing through the turns: “123, all the way across, bring ‘em together and up, and push and 123 and up!" I’d count to three so she’d come all the way across the hill, then extend and stand up, then push on the downhill ski again and she wasn’t allowed to turn except when I said “and.” Giving her a rhythm helped her keep turning without thinking about it, and my nice singsong voice was calming I guess.
Alyssa, just bein' her joyful self.
CA: What’s your best class management technique?
AH: I love teaching 3 and 4 year olds, cuz I feel like I’m a kid still so I can be more fun. This year I made up all these magical things about the rain to motivate them. So on rainy days, I’d sit down on the magic carpet and sing and play with them, then we’d all high five each other when we got to the top, and I’d give them gummy bears if they’d do a run.
Sometimes we’d be sitting on the magic carpet with no skis on, because they’d get blown off sideways if they stood up.
We talked about Frozen a lot with the big storms, about how it always gets better at the end--we sing Let It Go, and I tell them the wind doesn’t matter, it’s just fun snow. It was easy to convince them about the rain; we cut holes in plastic bin bags and put them on over their heads and tied them around their waists because it stops the rain from soaking in, and then they got to penguin slide down the hill.
And I never talk about skiing as skiing, everything’s either like, “We’ve got a big beach ball between our legs!” or “We’re sitting on a big elephant so we gotta keep our legs apart!” or "Our skis aren’t allowed to kiss!" And when they’re learning snowplow, I tell them to make it an ice cream cone, because you can ask them what their favorite ice cream is, and then say, “Alright, get your skis close together at the tips so the ice cream doesn’t fall out, but open them up reaaally wide in the back to get all the ice cream in there, there ya go, now make it bigger! Where’s all the ice cream?”
One of the hardest things is having to tell a kid they’re moving down a level, so I try to make it a positive thing, like, “You’ll improve better over here, so you’re gonna go with this instructor, who’s super awesome,” and then I talk to that instructor about it and they help make it an exciting transition instead of a sad one.
I find with the older kids, they all need to have some role, some responsibility; they don’t like following you in a line all the time, so after I get to know them, I get them to take turns skiing us down and telling us what kind of turns to do or what the snow’s like on the run. We have jokes where if someone skis around me they have to do ten push-ups.
CA: What’s next for you?
AH: I’ve already got my contract for Perisher next season. But now I know so many people everywhere, I’m just gonna go visit them before the next season starts. Every season I’ve done, I have connections to people from past seasons; it’s such a small word you all connect. I finish working the 7th of April, and then me and my best friend Charlotte are gonna go to this music festival called Snowbombing in Austria. After that, we’re gonna keep traveling around Europe and meet my mum and sis in Greece for my 21st birthday. If I didn’t do this season, all this would never have happened!
After Perisher, I don’t know what’s next—I’m really torn—I could go back to uni as mature aged, but I still don’t know what I wanna do. I may come back to Switzerland, ‘cause you can get as many visas as you want, but the work’s really stressful, so I wanna see how I feel after this season.
The view of Saas Fee, from neighboring resort Saas Grund.
CA: If you had any advice for someone inexperienced wanting to do what you did, what would it be? Which would you recommend to ski instructors for their first international experience?
AH: I found that Japan was the coolest first season I could ever imagine; there were a lot of new people, it wasn’t just me, and they let me shadow lessons. In the first week you’ll make soooo many new friends; everyone is English speaking so there are no cultural barriers. Although I did teach two lessons where we couldn’t understand each other, one student spoke only French and one spoke only Chinese.
Basically, if you’re a happy, positive person who wants to be surrounded by like-minded people who always push you to get better, don’t be scared--go for it! Just apply for the job and try it out, and if you don’t like it you can always do something different.
And just constantly remind yourself to not stress about stuff so much, 'cause you’ll get there and realize you were stressing about nothing. When I feel myself getting stressed, I remind myself it doesn’t matter if we get down late as long as we’re all safe and happy. I don’t care if we only learn one thing if my class feels really happy all the time.
I convinced my oldest friend this season to get her level 1, because she was shy and stressed at uni, so I told her, “Ski instructing will be so good for your confidence and for growing as a person.” 'Cause right now I’m like, “Yeah I got this, I ain't scared of Switzerland.” In Canada, at one point I had 84 cents in my bank account for three days and I was like, “You know, what it’ll be fine, I’ll make it work.” It’s still stressful sometimes, but then I look at the mountains and I’m like “Wow, I’m in fucking Switzerland.” Sometimes I tell my kids, “Guys, pause, and stop stressing about whatever it is you’re stressing about, and let’s just ski and have fun.”
Sometimes it's hard not to smile while skiing. The only problem is, it tends to make your teeth cold.
Here are my 3 key takeaways from the interview:
1. Get used to uncertainty, flying by the seat of your pants, and not being able to buy tickets until weeks before you’re supposed to be in a country. People with dad-like tendencies such as getting to the airport 5 hours before departure may have a hard time with this.
2. If you want this life, you're gonna need to exercise your faith muscle. It takes a lot of trust in yourself to be ok with season to season uncertainty. And if you don't have a lot of faith in yourself right now, that's ok! Because the best way to build those things up is to challenge yourself. And whether you succeed or fail spectacularly, you'll realize that either way, you're still here on this earth, still learning and growing. Action is the best way to build confidence.
3. Whenever you're stressed, take a step back and look at things from a bigger perspective. (This can be a bit hard when eight crying kids are flailing about on the ground around you, but try to do it anyway). Remember why you're doing what you're doing.