How to be a Colorado ski bum

The ski bum is a rare breed of mountain dweller, celebrated rather than reviled for a lifestyle anathema to the American Way: having no job, few dollars and fewer responsibilities, and skiing or snowboarding all the time.
Many skiers toil at jobs for decades, making payments on that ski condo they visit one week a year and dreaming of the day they can retire and ski all the time. But 60-year-old knees don’t ski like 30-year-old knees, so by the time of retirement, the days of ripping black diamonds all day may be over.
The ski bum recognizes this irony and wants to ski now and every day the snow is good, career, fiscal stability and family relationships be damned. But it’s not as simple as quitting your job and using your last paycheck to buy a ski pass. Successful ski-bumming takes planning, so from one ski bum to (maybe) another, here is the guide to joining our ranks and having the best winter of your life.

Work your tail off in summer

The ski bum has little use for the warmer months of Colorado, short they may be compared to long mountain winters. Resist the urge to buy a new mountain bike or take an expensive vacation. Have work lined up before the ski areas shut down in spring and save every penny you can. Many ski bums spend summers building forest trails, guiding tourists down rivers or constructing ski condos.

Move close to the mountains

Sure, you can see the mountains from the Front Range, but on a powder day when Interstate 70 is shut down, the slopes might as well be a million miles away. Start looking for a place to live in the mountains and you’ll ski many more days. But ski towns are notoriously expensive, so unless you want to share a one-bedroom fleabag with three roommates, consider living one or two towns over from the ski area.

Make connections

The ski bum’s currency is favors, so make friends in as many ski towns and at as many mountains as possible. It used to be you had to actually meet someone and ski with them, but those days are long gone. Social media is a great way to make connections so that, when Steamboat gets a huge storm but your local hill gets skunked, you can have a sofa to sleep on — or a floor if the sofa is already taken. The website Couchsurfing is another great resource for the ski bum. Just be sure to reciprocate when it’s your mountain getting all the snow.

Buy a pass with travel options

Powder is the ski bum’s raison d’etre, the reason their life revolves around winter, but not every storm brings the same snow to every mountain. Now more than ever, multi-mountain season passes give the ski bum ample opportunities to chase the powder wherever it falls.

Quit your job in November

No ski bum should have a day job, especially one that requires working weekdays, these being the best days to ski. So take the plunge. It’s one heck of a toboggan ride.

If you must have a job, get one on the mountain

Ski resort employees usually get a free ski pass, so if you find yourself rubbing your last two quarters together while you try to sleep in a frozen car in a ski-area parking lot, maybe it’s time to find part-time work as a ski instructor or lift attendant. Another great option, one practiced by ski bums since time immemorial, is to work nights at a bar or restaurant — because the ski bum never needs more than 5 hours of sleep.

Obsess about the weather forecast

When’s it going to snow again? Will the biggest snow fall on the Tetons, Aspen or Taos? It’s too late to get first tracks when the resort posts the overnight snow total and you’re four hours away, so the ski bum needs to plan in advance. A great resource for skiers is OpenSnow.com, founded by Boulder meteorologist Joel Gratz, who does a great job predicting which storm will most favor which region of the state, nation and world. The National Weather Service is another resource. Hint: If you see weather warnings in pink, that means you probably want to head that way.

Don’t eat on the mountain

This goes without saying, since meals at ski areas, especially the mega-resorts, can be ridiculously expensive. So while the family on vacation will drop $100 on lunch in the upper lodge, the ski bum is chowing down on beef jerky or a sandwich in the warming hut or parking lot.

Ski the smaller ski areas

No matter where you’re skiing, you can still only make one turn at a time, so do you really need to be at Vail or Breckenridge spending $200 on a lift ticket? Why not drive a little farther and ski Monarch Mountain, where you can get a $57 lift ticket by showing any ski pass? Or go to Wolf Creek in southern Colorado, with $76 lift tickets and “local appreciation days” when everyone’s a local.