Job Opportunity in Alaska/Climbing out West

[Willy]

This summer I have a job lined up working for a Salmon Cannery in Alaska. The deal when you're hired is the company fly's you out of Seattle for free and pays for your food and housing while you are there. The season is between 3-5 weeks long starting June 22nd during which you're working ridiculous hours for a low wage but at the end of the month you end up with a paycheck over three grand. I originally intended to fly out to Seattle myself but I recently started trying to find others who would want to go and split fuel for the drive and take a few weeks before/after working to climb at some places in the area like possibly Ten Sleep in Wyoming. haven't fully planned everything out but I'm located in Cincinnati and if this sparks your interest send me a personal message for more info and check out the link to the company. http://www.akgen.com/employment/naknek.asp

[nik]

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[Artsay]

Nice! When I was in college, so many folks from Athens, Georgia went to Alaska. It was "the thing to do". I lived there about a year, never did the cannery work but waited tables in Valdez and made boocoos of money, enough to pay my college and living expenses for a year. I always urge college kids to work summers out there because it's just so beautiful and there are tons of tourist jobs that pay big bucks. Plus, you can snowboard almost year round and it's a great scene with great people.

Make sure to take some time to enjoy the state while you're there! My favorite places are Valdez and the McCarthy/Kennicot area (Wrangell-Saint Elias are gorgeous). There's a cool, annual bluegrass festival in Talkeetna (by Denali) in the summer and if you're ever out there in the winter make sure to see the world ice carving festival in Fairbanks (un-freakin-believable). The climbing in Alasks takes some serious hiking to get to but there's some pretty good, easy access climbing at Hatcher Pass outside of Palmer.

If you can, treat yourself to a sea kayaking trip in the Prince William Sound and some sort of glacier hike (with a guide).

Have fun!!!

[Willy]

I unfortunately won't get much of a chance to tour since I won't have a means of transportation or really any time to do anything besides work and sleep. If the salmon season is slow I may get to do some hiking around Naknek. Thanks for all the recommendations of cool places to visit though! If I enjoy this summer I'll certainly go back. What exactly are some of the touristy jobs you mentioned?

[Artsay]

Any service job like waiting tables, bartending, bellhop....you will make a pretty decent wage for these jobs in Alaska PLUS tips.

When I waited tables there (15+ years ago) I think I was paid $8 plus tips (compared to about $2/hr in Georgia). It looks like the waiter wage in Alaska is now up to $11/hr and about $13 for bartenders and bellhops. http://live.laborstats.alaska.gov/wage/ ... 1&a=000000
I shared a house with 4 other friends and saved $20K pretty quickly. Tourists pour into these port towns and Valdez is hoppin' in the summer. The hardest part is finding a place to live but once you know folks there and they know you, it's so small that you get hooked up with everything pretty quickly (job and house).

But everything is more expensive in Alaska too. Younger folk have it easier because they don't mind sharing a room with 1 or 2 other people just to bring down the monthly rent per person.

Another interesting fact is that every Alaskan resident gets a yearly dividend, looks like it's currently $1,174. So a family of four gets a check this year for about $5000! Folks joke and say it's the governments way of buying you a sanity ticket to Hawaii in the winter (when suicide rates are at their highest) so that you'll come back and be a resident the rest of the year.

Alaska is a unique place. And FYI, there are tons of cheap cars for sale everywhere there. Just buy one and sell it when you leave!

[Spikeddem]

Ten Sleep is better than the Gorge.