It's kind of squatting. We (me and another snowmaker) have been fixing up the place in return for a free place to stay for the season. There's two other guys who stay there through their week and have homes off hill just to avoid the commute while working nights.
there's around 15 other cabins around the mountain which are in much better states, and are rented out on a three year lease with employees here. The mountain will order anything we need for big fixes within reason and we just take stuff from other jobs to make it work. for example I had to buy the fixtures and plumbing parts for the shower, but then have free infinite lengths of pipes from the plumbing dept here and the glass and base were just laying in another cabin that's not being used.
While we're making snow we don't do much, and then we're gone once the season's over, so it's pretty much just two guys working on it three months of the year max in our spare time.