Advice on moving west

S

shrEddie

Active member
so i just finished 2 years of college and decided to take a year off to move out west and ski. right now i think i want to go to colorado. i thikn i just got a job with the vail college program which would give me a job, housing and a pass. this is great, but i kind of want to just get an apartment on craigslist and look for a job once im there. this just seems much more adventurous and fun in my mind. i also think it would let me ski more. so i have some questions.

what is employee housing like at breck and vail? i have alot of friends who have said they want to come out and stay with me and ride, but would this be possible in employee housing?

do you think i could get a job or good apartment in the summit county area if i didnt do the vail resorts thing?

any other advice from people who have done it, or people who live in this area would be GREATLY appreciated.

I realize this should probably be in regionals,but it will get read alot more here and i am gonna have to decide which i want to do soon
 
already gave this advice to one person today, but you should consider Tahoe. You could find a cheap room or apartment and live with some ski bums. Your also close enough to the SF bay area for concerts, events, ect. Not really sure about jobs but I'm sure if you start your search early you could land something at a resort or shop. Tahoes got such a chill vibe, amazing skiing in and out of bounds and as I said in the last thread, weed will hopefully be legal this November! Just my $.02
 
Man, im thinking of doing the same thing. I really want to do it at Mammoth though. From what i have experienced in my efforts to get there is that starting is defiantly the hardest part. Best of luck
 
I've lived in Breck for over a year and can not currently see myself living anywhere else. Don't go to Tahoe. We get more snow, we have better vibes, and way more skiers (tahoe can be full of rude SBers. Been there done that.) Employee housing at Breck is actually really decent. My boyfriend lived in a spacious two bedroom apartment with one other roommate. My bf had two beds in his bedroom so I stayed over night all the time and his roommate always had his two best friends from Boulder staying over. It can be noisy at times but there's always fun parties.

It's super hard to find a year-round job in Breck, or Summit County for that matter... but it's easy to find a seasonal job as a lifty. There is also free buses that travel constantly through out Summit County which is totaly convenient. Breck is a super easy town to move to because it's small and everyone is so chill and friendly. it's easy to make friends, easy to party, the cops are chill.... It's all around the funnest town I have ever lived in. And I've lived in a lot of sick places in my life.

If you wanna meet some people pm me and I'll send you my facebook page. I can help out if you have any other questions, too.

AND... we're supposed to have La Nina this year. Weather reports for last season were dead on, so everyone is expecting BIG THINGS! Get stoked and get out here.

Hope that helps!!
 
P.S. Pop in to the Colorado Regionals... there's also a ton of people who will be willing to help you out there!!
 
I would say move to Utah. Unless your set on CO. If you want to ride alot of park, move to Summit County. best parks by far.
 
Wow. Cool advice. It's "expensive" because you get what you pay for. Me and my roommate lived directly across the street from the gondola in an awesome apartment and it was $950 a month including cable, wifi and all utilities. We could walk ANYWHERE in Breckenridge and had a million dollar view of Breckenridge outside our big living room window.

I now live in a brand new mansion on Boreas Pass with stainless steal appliances, granite counter tops, leather furniture, flat screen tvs. I have my own bedroom/bathroom/walk-in closet. We have a heated garage and a hot tub. I pay $600 a month and live with three other girls.

And that's all I have to say about that.
 
maybe, but most college students couldn't afford that...not saying colorado's shitty, I wish I lived there.
 
Eddie, I would go Salt Lake. Awesome living in a city and as long as you have a car the access is obviously close. Much better chance of finding a job. Not too expensive to live. And if you end up wanting to finish school it's easy to take some classes at the U.

Plus, no one from Liberty/Roundtop/Wisp has ever moved out to Summit, always Salt Lake. Seems to be working out well for them
 
Well he's talking about working and not going to school... and CMC is a pretty cheap college anyway, so it makes it easier to spend more on rent.

I have a lot of friends who live in Park City/ Salt Lake who love it a lot, but I personally could never live there. Each to their own though. Utah is another option... but I'd still say come to Summit County. ;-) Plus, Park City is super ugly in the winter... Summit always has that green! I know that sounds weird but all the brown is really depressing to me. Haha!
 
Main thing is the more you want it and the more motivated you are, the better chance you have. I have talked to a lot of friends who were "thinking" about doing it, but they never made the decision and came out here. If you want it bad enough, thats all you need and you will find yourself where you want to be.
 
Tahoe is legit. Mammoth isn't far. Ocean isn't far. And If it's snow amounts your after, it pukes in Tahoe. Housing is reasonable, totally depends on location.
 
but really, Summit is cool too. A huge population of like minded people and ski bums, very cool vibes.
 
For skiing's sake, I'd say fuck it and move to Jackson, or Bozeman, Mt if I were you. Skiing quality there is so choice.

If you want to live near a big city though, Portland, Seattle, Reno, Salt Lake City are all fantastic choices to live, get a legit job, and ski. My personal pick out of the lot of them would be Portland though... such a legit spot, and hood gets so much snow.
 
Hahaha. What a joke. Somebody spent some time at Northstar? or Heavenly?

Go to Kirkwood, Alpine, or Squaw Valley. Then tell me who gets more snow, and that there are just rude snowboarders filling up the spots...
 
just go to portland, go to Portland state university. get a fusion pass and pay $30 bucks to ride the bus up 2 times a week. School check, skiing check, life goals= complete.
 
I work for Vail as a smurf in the wintertime, so here's some things from my experiences:
Employee housing: Lived there last winter, but I only stayed there past December because my roommate moved out after I fought him when we were drunk, resulting in me having my own room for 350/month. A lot of employees live in TR, so there are always parties, but the place is a shithole (we had a mouse named Chad that lived with us all winter) and you may or may not get along with your roommates (I had 2 good ones and 1 douche). Convenience is excellent, because you can hop on the free bus and be at work in 10-15 minutes (you can also do this from non-employee housing, too). If your friends are on board, I'm sure it would be better, but it really is rolling the dice. You will save about 1500 bucks over the course of the winter on housing.
However, Vail did just build a brand new employee housing spot right at the base of the Eagle Bahn, but I know nothing about it.
As for getting a job, unless you secure one in October or early November for the winter, you might be SOL for a solid FT gig but there are always plenty of PT gigs around like serving, retail shops and shit. More stressful than adventurous.
As for the quality of the snow, Vail has a lot of acreage and the park last year was the best it's ever been, and is very easy to lap. The Beav is right next door and Breck/Keystone/A-Basin are all less than an hour away. The backcountry and sidecountry are both very nice out of Vail, The Beav, and Vail Pass, just to name a few. You're only like 90 minutes from Aspen if you want to go see the X Games and the World Cup comes to The Beav early season. Lots to do!
 
....the concerts thing is true.

park city has people come through, but its almost as if the groups are doing a "ski town tour" and you aren't necessarily going to have the chance to see deadmau5....or STS9...or whatever you are in to.

I've seen some of the most documented discussion on backcountry skiing ever all about the lake tahoe area. like specifically where to park, where to get to the trails up, and where to skin up, topo maps....

I want to just buy a cheap 4x4 truck, put a twin mattress in the back and a topper and just move around (craigslist, newschoolers,teton gravity your way in to places to live / shower when you can). It would just be expensive in the sense that i would have to pay for gas, and lift tickets to all the areas i would want to ski at. and i would like to venture around the west, so i can get a taste of it all, and not just ski the hell out of one specific location.

i figure a ski season is about 5 months max of skiing worth skiing. give or take. thats not even half a year. thats just a 5 month break of traveling across the western united states / canada and skiing everything that you ever wanted to ski while you are a young stallion with strong loins....loins that can conquer 14,000ft tall peaks.

LOINS

 
Let me just say this much about Tahoe after living there on both bad and good years...

even on a bad snow season, you're going to have the best time of your life...
 
I wouldn't listen to anything this person has to say. The snow thing is a blatant lie. There are absolutely no girls in summit county.
 
The average high in January in Tahoe is 41F. The average low is 15F. This is the coldest month of the year.
This just screams of melt-freeze. Even in the coldest month of the year. Spring like conditions will be prevalent.
Tahoe gets dumped on with snow, no question there. But if your looking to ski powder, you'd better be skiing it as it's falling, because it's not going to remain favorable once it's on the ground for long. Especially once the sun comes out.
I've never skied there, but I would love to visit during a storm. Great lifts and BC there but timing is pretty critical. Similar to most coastal areas.
Outside of the skiing, Tahoe would be nice. Probably one of the few places that I would consider moving to.
Do your research, visit some places you are interested in, then make your own educated decision on where you would like to live.
 
What part of Tahoe is 41F the average high in January? That sounds like total bullshit to me haha. Maybe in April? even March? but January? No way dude. Tahoe resorts are never that warm until spring.

Timing isn't absolutely critical to tell you the truth... least not in the backcountry. At resorts? Yes, because there are a lot of people in Tahoe that hunt pow, and they're going to get tracked out pretty fast - least at the bigger places... just like any other big resort anywhere. That's just a given.

However, like I said, you can venture out into some rad sidecountry/backcountry at some of the resorts, and as long as youre on a north-facing slope, with some decent snowpack? you're going to have some pretty epic conditions even a few days after it dumps.
 
hood doesnt really have all that great of terrain though, which is a big issue if you are looking for lots of steeps and cliffs.
 
snowboarders are just rude there because they are noobs for the most part. northstars park is pretty epic dude.
 
I wasnt talking about the park... I was talking about the clientele...

That said, even at Northstar they are not even that rude... shit... stay out of the n00b lanes and you'll never deal with lame people most of the time anyways...

Northstar and Heave dont get as much snow though, i'll say that much.
 
41F - wiki, weather.com, CA department of water resources. all confirm 41F.
Sure, it's up and down, and can get balls cold, usually it gets very cold at night, low of 15F avg in January. It also gets pretty warm to, record high of 60F in Jan. Sun must be pretty strong there.
Lots of variability.
 
Where in Lake Tahoe is this average taken from?

If it's taken from either of the airports, then that's not a very accurate reading for the mountains... You're not skiing at 6000 feet all day. You're skiing at 7-10k...

 
Either way. Your claims that there is a lot of freeze-melt is a bunch of bull. It simply doesn't get that 'warm' for long enough to make a lick of difference... especially in the middle of winter when the daylight window is much shorter.
Am I saying it never happens? No. But is it definitely the case? absolutely not. In the springtime does it happen? You bet. After March, there is a lot more sunbaked snow... but that's not a situation limited to Tahoe...
Anyways.... Any season in Tahoe that resembles last year in any way, is a good season... Seriously. Last year was THE year for Tahoe.
 
thanks guys for all the responses. if you had to say who gets better snow between tahoe area, or strictly summit county, who would win? the parks in both places will be more than good enough for me
 
That's slightly *higher* quality powder.
Colorado gets drier snow. However, California's snow tends to stick better on steeper, more gnarly terrain.
 
41 F average high in Tahoe for Jan??? that doesn't sound right. When I lived there ( a far below average season) about 75% of January was 35 degress or colder and it dipped into the negatives several times at night. AND THAT WAS AT LAKE LEVEL 6200' Tahoe is fun, great vibes. I've never done Portland but then again I'm not a big fan of big cities. I could definitely see myself in Oregon though, pretty chill from the times I've visited. I'd probably shoot for some where on the outskirts of Portland, close to Hood. Good luck!
 
Pretty affordable if you do it right. Live in Truckee, Kings Beach or South Lake with a couple roomies, and you'll be able to do it for like... 3-4 hundred a month + whatever else. I did that before, and it worked real good. Just get a job at one of the mountains which is a cinch. If you show up, you keep your job.
You can even live in one of the hostels for pretty cheap... I have friends who basically just lived in the squaw valley hostel last year... 50 footsteps from the slopes for 10$ a day (so, 280-310$ a month depending on if its February or January haha) Just gotta buy your own food, and clean up after yourself and you're legit. Plus you meet a lot of cool people to shred with who always have chronic layin around if you're into that.
 
well its looking like i would rather go to tahoe. i sent someone on craigslist an email last night about a house.

does anyone have any advice or knowledge about getting jobs in the tahoe area. the house i emailed about was in south lake tahoe so probably around there. i really want t try and find an afternoon/night job so i can ski erryday

thanks
 
Work at one of the resorts, Heavenly's the closest... there are tons of restaurants in town you can serve or host at... retail shops to work at... bellhop at a hotel... valet cars... janitor at one of the casinos, or just about anywhere... pretty much any typical job you can think of is available to do there.

You could very well have to work 3 or 4 days a week, and then ski the other 3 or 4 days, anyway....
 
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