Land Your Dream Job: Moving Mountains
For 16 years Chris “Gunny” Gunnarson and his Snow Park Technologies team have circled the globe building sick terrain parks for top athletes. Here’s how they do it.
For 16 years Chris “Gunny” Gunnarson and his Snow Park Technologies team have circled the globe building sick terrain parks for top athletes. Here’s how to make serious cash shoveling snow—even in spring!
Photographed by Tom Zikas
Photographed by Tom Zikas
Take Plan B
Photographed by Tom Zikas
Andrew Erath: “If you can’t be a pro athlete, get into this. Most of the guys at SPT were or wanted to be professional snowboarders or skiers. With this job you still get to have that lifestyle of working on the slopes and riding during your downtime.”
Take It Easy
Photographed by Tom Zikas
Gunny: “It’s been said that
we shape frozen water so people can play on plastic toys, and that’s true. It’s awesome to have a job traveling the world—through the States in winter to New Zealand in summer—making people happy with things you have built.”
Be Ready For Overtime
Photographed by Tom Zikas
Gunny: “The parks we create for the X Games take roughly 25 days to build. A halfpipe alone can take 12 to 15 days, which sounds like a long time to be shoveling snow, but
you have to realize we’re pushing 15 million gallons
of water on a halfpipe.”
Operate Machinery
Photographed by Tom Zikas
Chris Castaneda: “This job
is similar to construction,
but with snow. Learn how to work a Sno-Cat. When building jibs, you have to be comfortable with a welding torch. And for final adjustments, we go straight at the snow with chain saws.”
Photographed by Chris Wellhausen
Check out SPT in action on their new reality show, Mountain Movers, premiering May 9 at 8 p.m. EDT on Nat Geo.
Want more sports? Check out How To Do Yoga with Diamond Dallas Page and 13 Things You Never Knew About Mascots.
Read This Next
