Our employees are critical to your experience at Goldminer’s Daughter Lodge. We begin the hiring process before the previous season ends and spend the summer and fall rounding out the roster. Fortunately, we have a great group of repeat employees and recruit new employees each year that often meet and exceed our expectations.
Today, we’d like to introduce you to Abigail Taylor, one of this year’s standouts. Abigail is somewhat of a professional seasonal employee. Beginning in 2013, she began spending her summers working for Outward Bound. Over the years, she’s tried an assortment of winter gigs, typically trying something new each year. She came to Alta for the 2016-17 season and worked at a different lodge. For the 2017-18 winter season, she contemplated working in a different resort town altogether but quickly realized that there wasn’t an experience that would compare to living and working in Alta. In short, there isn’t anywhere you can live and work practically on the mountain and have your meals included.
Abigail, like several Alta area employees, didn’t come to Alta as a lifelong skier. She was born and raised in Toccoa, Georgia, a tiny town in the northeastern corner of the state; it’s so small she hesitated to tell me the name of it. At 12 or 13, she skied once or twice in the North Carolina mountains. Ten years later, she found herself as an employee at a lodge in Alta. Armed with a few friends, she taught herself the basics of skiing and progressed quickly. Abigail recently conquered Alta’s Main Chute. She humbly mentioned she was a fairly athletic person and learned by watching.
A while later in the conversation, Abigail happened to mention that she biked across the country (4,700 miles) last summer with a friend from college. Upon further digging, it turns out she biked with good friend Seth as a part of the Pack It Out initiative. Seth had spent the previous two summers hiking two of America’s longest through hikes (Appalachian Trail & Pacific Crest Trail) with the goal of cleaning trails. In 2017, Seth and Abigail continued the initiative on bikes. See what I mean by standout?
We knew Abigail was impressive before she set foot at the Lodge. What we didn’t know was that her work ethic mirrored her athletic prowess. Early this season, while awaiting the opening of the ski season, Abigail quickly became our go-to for all of the random things that needed to be completed. Abigail works in both the Café and Saloon and happily helps with art projects or anything else we ask of her. She enjoys working and being involved in different areas of the lodge.
With her experience at a neighbor lodge, we wanted to know how Goldminer’s compared. She feels GMD understands that ski time is a priority for employees. She also notes the housing is much bigger for employees at GMD and was pretty happy with the amount of time employees have to eat their meals. She feels the employees at GMD are a little more down to earth than other lodge employees she’s met. After spending many seasons working seasonal employment, Abigail is somewhat of an expert at quickly assessing a community culture and knowing where she fits in. She feels the Alta community is incredibly welcoming to all types of people. She encourages future potential employees to know what they are getting into before packing up and moving to Alta. Save some money before you come. You probably won’t get rich while working in Alta, but you will have an incredible experience!
If you see this redhead in the Saloon or Café, we encourage you to strike up a conversation. She may be young, be she’s already lived an incredible life and likely has even more remarkable stories up her sleeve.
Thanks Abigail for going above and beyond, daily.
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