What is the best college ski town?

[schindlerpiste]

I have a buddy who goes there M. Tech). His take is that the hills are steep, the snow is very good, it is a cold as a witches tit, and it's all about riding a sled up there. Miles upon miles of trails for sleds.
He lasted 2 years, and high-tailed it out of there.

[NWFlow]

... enjoy an immersive education, get fucked up a little bit, and ski.

Pick two of those three. That's attainable. You'll start getting stretched thin with all three, and from what I witnessed skiing is what falls by the wayside if you want to finish (i.e. people who finish school but really want to party miss out on a bunch of skiing). This was the best advice I got heading into undergrad. YMMV.

I'd also actually say if you financially can go to school now via scholarships or parents, just go and get it done. If I'd taken a year to ski I'm not sure I ever would have gone.

[wordbird]

It's a lot harder to be a zoomer ski bum and make ends meet in a ski town these days than the 80s or or the 90s, or even a decade ago. Probably not a bad idea to do it anyway to get in state tuition if you are from a flatland or right coast state, or your parents can't sponsor you with an extra $100k. Maybe even take two if you have an epiphany in the first year, and decide to switch up the state and the school. Ignore any east coast advice, it's not worth it to re-arrange your life this early like that for east coast skiing. All the schools have been mentioned here, maybe add flagstaff and Washingotn's junior colleges if you got the right program and are okay with going to a second tier school(also maybe there is a central valley school in California within an hour of good skiing?). Whatever you do, don't go to WSU for skiing.

Also fuck off JONG

[406]

Pick two of those three.

I managed all 3 just fine at University of Montana. Helped to live 15 min from the lift and everything runs on hangover time :-). OP, no stress on applying, they take everyone. Good amount of upper class SE kids attending with disappointed parents, so you should fit in.

Really, I don't think you can go wrong with any of the Big Sky conference schools. Depends on what you want to study and recreation preference.

I also agree good idea to get school done and then take a year off(or before). I wish I would have done a semester abroad.

[yeahman]

Lot of tongue in cheek in our comments but.

For better or for worse, Bozeman is not close to what it was when I moved to Montana in 91 or even when I moved to town in 2006. In those halcyon days you basically knew everyone.

There are trade offs but the rate of expansion is disconcerting.

Saw an interesting chart the other day re population growth in Bozeman over the decades. Looks like the 1980-1990 were the golden years! Only 4.7% growth. But the real takeaway is that the population has basically doubled since 2000.

1870: 168
1880: 894 +432.1%
1890: 2,143 +139.7%
1900: 3,419 +59.5%
1910: 5,187 +51.7%
1920: 6,183 +19.2%
1930: 6,855 +10.9%
1940: 8,665 +26.4%
1950: 11,325 +30.7%
1960: 13,361 +18.0%
1970: 18,670 +39.7%
1980: 21,645 +15.9%
1990: 22,660 +4.7%
2000: 27,509 +21.4%
2010: 37,280 +35.5%
Estimate. 2019: 49,831 +33.7%

[californiagrown]

)Whatever you do, don't go to WSU for skiing.

That's actually where I got into skiing. Was passingly interested going in, addicted when I left. 7+hr roundtrip to schweitzer 25 times per year was good training for the 7+hr roundtrip to kwood from SF that I endured for the first 5 years after school.

[Toadman]

Wie ist deiner Deutsch?


https://www.uibk.ac.at/

[Peruvian]

Seattle

Middlebury

Dartmouth

Dartmouth, Mass.?

[wordbird]

That's actually where I got into skiing. Was passingly interested going in, addicted when I left. 7+hr roundtrip to schweitzer 25 times per year was good training for the 7+hr roundtrip to kwood from SF that I endured for the first 5 years after school.

To be fair to Pullman, it's not a bad town, that was just my Husky bias showing. I actually learned to snowboard at Bluewood/WP as a teenager, spent high school years in the tri. Schweitzer is a nice hill, but hell of a drive for anybody past Spokane. I have mostly bad memories with that range, never got to hit it in good conditions. I Actually tried to to tour the other side of the range from one of the lake roads going in during a spring break, but every road we scouted on Saturday night of had a foot+ plowed in pile from the lake highway, so we decided to go home rather than spend an extra 3 hours or so on the approach in addition to 3/4k vf day on Sunday before school began.

Lookout pass area on other hand :you rock:

[Bronic]

UU, MSU, WS (gunnison) and Reno are probably the best options in the US if skiing is the only priority. But living in SLC and Reno isn't all that attractive for many reasons, and Bozeman/Gunni are cold.

People love to hate it and I'm biased but Boulder is the complete package. I did undergrad there and skied 100+ days every year, partied my ass off, and came away with a degree I use in my career now. Nothing beat dawn patrol laps at Berthoud and coming back to flip flops and booty shorts all over campus cause it was still 60 degrees and sunny in Boulder. Climbing and biking year round doesn't suck either

[AmmergauerTele]

Go to Europe. University of Innsbruck, Austria. Learn German.....get this ski pass: https://www.tyrol.com/things-to-do/s...kiing/ski-pass

90 ski areas, skiing is right next to Innsbruck.

[Smoova]

Dartmouth, Mass.?

Hanover, NH*

*I’m an idiot

[schindlerpiste]

or is it N.H.? WOW!

[Peruvian]

Hanover, NH*

*I’m an idiot

I just assumed you were a Yawgoon.

[blackalps]

Saw an interesting chart the other day re population growth in Bozeman over the decades. Looks like the 1980-1990 were the golden years! Only 4.7% growth. But the real takeaway is that the population has basically doubled since 2000.

1870: 168
1880: 894 +432.1%
1890: 2,143 +139.7%
1900: 3,419 +59.5%
1910: 5,187 +51.7%
1920: 6,183 +19.2%
1930: 6,855 +10.9%
1940: 8,665 +26.4%
1950: 11,325 +30.7%
1960: 13,361 +18.0%
1970: 18,670 +39.7%
1980: 21,645 +15.9%
1990: 22,660 +4.7%
2000: 27,509 +21.4%
2010: 37,280 +35.5%
Estimate. 2019: 49,831 +33.7%

432% growth, man those Bozemanites must have been pissed in 1880.

[blackalps]

This is happening every where out west. I am in Golden CO it is crazy how much it has changed since we moved here 15 years ago but the last 5 is the most dramatic change.

Even though Golden is so close to Denver 15 years ago you did know just about everyone. It was a small town. One of the best secrets on the Front Range. Now it is looking more and more like Boulder.

I lived in Golden last year. It still feels like everyone knows everyone, especially if you work in downtown. but it is getting more Boulder by the day. wish all those fucking street buskers and crystal worshippers would stay up in Boulder. I loved it but wanted to live alone. Even on a pretty decent salary, I actually had to move back into Denver to afford that. I tried living out in the mountains off of 70 out past Idaho Springs, but commuting in on 70 every day in the winter was the pits.

[The SnowShow]

Golden is awesome IMO. 25 mtns closer to skiing than Denver, great almost year-round mountain biking/hiking right out of town, cool river with bike path, cycling up Lookout Mtn, kayaking, climbing and fly fishing just up the canyon, close to Red Rocks, close to Boulder, close to Denver but hidden away with a cool downtown. Home of one of the top engineering schools and NREL. Lots of ugly sprawl though.

[Smoova]

I just assumed you were a Yawgoon.

Heh, no, sorry - Thing 1 is being recruited by coaches at both and I sometimes mix them up.

[steadieflow]

I lived in Golden last year. It still feels like everyone knows everyone, especially if you work in downtown. but it is getting more Boulder by the day. wish all those fucking street buskers and crystal worshippers would stay up in Boulder. I loved it but wanted to live alone. Even on a pretty decent salary, I actually had to move back into Denver to afford that. I tried living out in the mountains off of 70 out past Idaho Springs, but commuting in on 70 every day in the winter was the pits.

Yeah it is still a smallish community but can’t even compare it to when we moved here. So many more rentals now making town more transient in general. There are good things with the growth too. Dining and bar choices are vastly better now. Businesses are thriving even with COVID town is doing pretty well.

We still love it not planning on going anywhere. It has gotten crazy expensive. We bought in 8 months after moving here. Traded up to a house about 5 years ago. Trying to buy or even rent now is nuts. People are paying more to rent an apartment then our mortgage is. Things are now selling for around $400 per square foot. Not everything but the market is supporting that now.

[blackalps]

Yeah it is still a smallish community but can’t even compare it to when we moved here. So many more rentals now making town more transient in general. There are good things with the growth too. Dining and bar choices are vastly better now. Businesses are thriving even with COVID town is doing pretty well.

We still love it not planning on going anywhere. It has gotten crazy expensive. We bought in 8 months after moving here. Traded up to a house about 5 years ago. Trying to buy or even rent now is nuts. People are paying more to rent an apartment then our mortgage is. Things are now selling for around $400 per square foot. Not everything but the market is supporting that now.

yeah it's impossible to buy in Golden on a single income now unless you make a lot of money. I haven't looked lately but a year or two ago, there wasn't a single place you could buy in either zip code for under $400k. If it wasn't so expensive, I'd be happy living there for the foreseeable future, as long as I could have my weekends in the middle of the week. Even being in Golden, you have to be on 70 before 6am on weekend if you want it to take less than two hours to get to skiing. Also dating in Golden sucks, you basically have to date in Denver or Boulder and then have a commute to get to your girlfriend or vice versa. and even then, there's far more men then women in Menver so the odds aren't in your favor if you aren't super fit and wealthy. but the skiing and biking and hiking and offroading access from Golden is great, the sunny days are great, and not being insanely far from a city and a real airport is not bad.

Bozeman on the other hand, I went and spent a few days there about a month ago and really didn't care for it. Maybe it was just because I was there on really wildfire-smokey days, but...I kind of hated the vibe. Everyone I dealt with in person was super unfriendly. I found Whitefish to be much more friendly.

[BobbyBill]

Bozeman on the other hand, I went and spent a few days there about a month ago and really didn't care for it. Maybe it was just because I was there on really wildfire-smokey days, but...I kind of hated the vibe. Everyone I dealt with in person was super unfriendly. I found Whitefish to be much more friendly.

Spread the word!

[splitlit]

I feel your dilemma. I averaged 50 days of skiing/year over my 5 years, on top of the women, liquor and weed. In retrospect, I feel the skiing is what kept me on the rails. Good luck!

[Bobcat Sig]

Bozeman on the other hand, I went and spent a few days there about a month ago and really didn't care for it. Maybe it was just because I was there on really wildfire-smokey days, but...I kind of hated the vibe. Everyone I dealt with in person was super unfriendly. I found Whitefish to be much more friendly.

That's because no one there is from there. And all the transplants that arrived after them are pissed at the population explosion.

Spread the word!

lulz

[pyromaniacman129]

That's because no one there is from there. And all the transplants that arrived after them are pissed at the population explosion.

lulz

Was in Bozangeles from 2011-2016. Shenanigans were much better had in the beginning when it didn't take 45min to get from campus to the N end of 19th ave.
I'd bitch all day about how bozeman sucks now, but in reality would still love to live there in a heartbeat. It's not what it was when i was younger spending time out there or when i first started college there, but i was also younger, dumber and more naive about everything around me.
My favorite was the colorado kids telling me to get out of Montana because i wasn't local (family from Butte, but i grew up out of state and never claimed to be a local)...
The fun bars we'd go to in the triangle are now packed full of dickbags in cuffed carhartt overalls and chacos bitching about god knows what and the $3.50 pitchers of peebs are long gone, but its still a bitchin city.
It'll pop eventually. Biggest mistake is taking it for granted and leaving. Moving back is 10x harder than figuring it out when you're already there.
Would tell anyone to go to MSU. It ain't that cold. Buy a jacket.
Move to bozeman, spend a year skiing and working nights. Get residency. Pay <$10k a year for tuition for an awesome engineering school (ME here) and spend 5 years having fun.

Also if you have the gram, follow @hipstersofbozeman. Lotsa gold.

[RootSkier]

432% growth, man those Bozemanites must have been pissed in 1880.

Town really went to shit around 1890. Fucking transplants.

(Don't come to Missoula; go to Bozeman with all the cool kids. Or Boulder, because driving 1+ hours to ski is A++. Plus weed is legal there.)