I'm on the precipice of becoming a 'real person' since I am graduating from school this spring, and I am looking for a way to start picking more high-altitude climbing experience in the Sierra Crest before I am resigned to being a desk monkey for a year. The hope is that I can continue adding onto the experience I have built up already and maybe put it towards certification with the AMGA in the future (that obviously being secondary to just being a safer,more experienced climber). I was hoping to spend a few months (summer into fall) in the Owens Valley area, but I would need to be able to sustain myself. Does anyone know where I could look into seasonal work in the area... if there's any real possibility for that at all? Just really need to have enough to not starve while I'm out there... and maybe the occasional piece of gear, ha.

Eh, not ultimately worried about desk monkey-ing. Just thought I'd try to get a tiny bit of 'living the dream' out in the mountains before I have to become a responsible member of normal society, ha. Perhaps 'twas a stupid question to be leaving here.

Steve1215 wrote:-i dunno...working a few months at McDonald's might make that "desk monkey" thing start to look real good
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Working concrete was a great job.... and convinced me to go to school, now am a "desk monkey" with the $$$ to go climbing when I want... Good trade? Yeah...

It can be tough to find a job in the Eastern Sierra, but if you look hard enough, you will find a job. If you work hard enough the jobs will find you.

You might even find some good work, then some good friends, and good places to live. Before you know it, you'll be starting your own business, and maybe a family. That's how things roll in the mountains.

Since you are thinking of coming here for the summer and fall, I suggest looking around Mammoth, June Lake, or Lee Vining. The Owens Valley is just too damn hot in the summer. Might also be easier to find work in Mammoth, because Bishop folks tend to hang onto their jobs forever. Tourism has been picking up this year, so there are jobs again. Construction is picking up a little too.

The best way to find work is to walk around and ask for work. Most jobs never get listed in any paper or online. Just ask at the places you would like to work, ask you friends, ask everybody.

Oh yeah. One more thing.

This area is full of people who came for a little while and never left. You might find that the 'Real Life' thing is right here.

What about mowing The Chief's lawn for the summer?

If you're willing to compromise a bit on being right in the High Sierra, you could look into work in Reno, which is a decent sized city but close to Tahoe climbing, hiking, skiing etc. and is a straight shot down 395 to the big mountains. Or of course go the other direction to LA.

RE fast food - My first job in college was at a DC Beltway consulting firm that was studying the survivability of tactical and theater nuclear forces in the Europe in a potential war with the (then) Soviet Union (I was good with computers, physics and math). It paid pretty well for a college kid but some of the work was seriously disturbing. I sometimes wished I had worked in food service like my younger brother - at least he didn't come home from work worrying about whether his college career would be cut short by WW III.

Hell with it. I'll just keep it simple and go there.

Well, it looks like I dug myself a fun hole with this one . Now on to the next part... nuking my own thread from orbit ha...