How far away from a ski resort would you be willing to live?

[Posaune]

I've never lived over 1:20 from skiing so I can't really answer the OP's question. I will drive that distance gladly which is how far my house is from Mt. Baker. My cabin is 2:00 from my house, but :20 from Stevens Pass, so a multi day visit there evens things out.

 

[Monique]

Living a few hours away makes it easy to talk yourself out of going or at least cherry picking your days as much as possible.

So true. I find it's much easier to motivate for a night time two hour drive than for an early morning two (or much more) hour drive.

 

[BS Slarver]

Wasn’t willing to drive or fly any longer to ski. Old zip code was 11 miles from Plattekill - moved to Big Sky so it’s 5 minutes to the lift.

Their going to have to pry my cold trashed skis from my hands when I pass and spread my ashes on lone peak cause I’m not leaving.

 

[Michael R.]

At this point...45 minutes. I've gotten spoiled!

 

[Big J]

“Willing” is a weird term. I’ve lived in places where the nearest skiing was a 700 mile drive. But I was “willing” because I was being paid a metric crap ton. I now live an hour from a decent ski hill (Eldora: 1600’ vert) and 2 hours from some world class mountains (Winter Park, Copper, Breck, Keystone). Of course, I’d want to live closer still if I skied weekends or holidays.

My endgame is to retire to the mountains in about 5 years, leaving them only on holidays to go to the beach/city, when I can pay for my trip by renting out my home.

Nice endgame. I lived up Golden Gate Canyon for 10 years that was about 45 minutes from Eldora and skied there once. I skied the entire front range as well. Very nice area for a good skier to live. I volunteer patroled Keystone as well.

 

[John Webb]

I’m fine with 1 hr from SugarBowl or Boreal
1 and 1/4 hr from Squaw or Alpine.

 

[Kneale Brownson]

Wasn’t willing to drive or fly any longer to ski. Old zip code was 11 miles from Plattekill - moved to Big Sky so it’s 5 minutes to the lift.

Their going to have to pry my cold trashed skis from my hands when I pass and spread my ashes on lone peak cause I’m not leaving.

My thoughts EXACTLY when I moved to Breckenridge nine years ago after wintering here the first two and returning to Michigan summers. But then my body started failing me (https://www.pugski.com/threads/where-air.14334/) so I'm looking for a place to LIVE close to a place to SKI, and I'm finding that likely ski candidates are nowhere near the five minute drive I now have

 

[BS Slarver]

^^ @Kneale Brownson - BS town meadows is 5990’ so maybe we should be on your list ?
The mountain town here has blossomed into a year round community of all ages.
The valley below is closer to 5000’ but your drive would be closer to 10 minutes

 

[Kneale Brownson]

Yeah, maybe I could afford a room in one of those multi-million-dollar mansions.

 

[Monique]

Honestly, I see the question kind of in reverse. If I had to move farther away from skiing for my job, how would that impact my skiing? If I couldn't afford or chose not to pay for a condo in the mountains, how often would I ski?

...

I think we all adapt to the situation we have. So right now, I would say, I wouldn't want to have a nighttime commute of more than 2 hours (typical case), and I wouldn't want to have to drive more than 10-15 minutes. But who knows what I'd really tolerate? And push come to shove, maybe I'd even ski less often. (Heresy!)

I've decided not to have a condo next season, so I guess was prescient in my "Honestly ..." quote. When I wrote that post, the idea of not having a condo was really inconceivable. I felt panicked. Now ... different story. I think next season will be all quality, not quantity. My co-worker will only ski weekdays. I thought he was nuts last year. Now I've seen the light.

 

[Daves not here]

I live 1 hour door to door from our house to our place at the ski hill. Very spoiled. I have found that if I have to drive up each time - mostly on weekends - then i don't ski as much. But with getting a place I find myself going up and skiing more. If I could figure out the "only ski during weekdays" - I would be all set - but this thing called work keeps getting in my way.

 

[Kneale Brownson]

Yeah, I've only skied weekends when it was for work for maybe the last 20 years.

 

[David Chaus]

I live 1 hour door to door from our house to our place at the ski hill. Very spoiled. I have found that if I have to drive up each time - mostly on weekends - then i don't ski as much. But with getting a place I find myself going up and skiing more. If I could figure out the "only ski during weekdays" - I would be all set - but this thing called work keeps getting in my way.

I’m jealous. If you live in CDA and ski/have a place at Schweitzer, you have it easy driving to the mountain from home. It’s not I-70 from the front range, not Tahoe, not Hwy 2 to Stevens. Hwy 95 from CDA to Sandpoint is a pretty mellow drive without major backups, and has no real elevation gain. Even the 7 hairpin turns up the Schweitzer Mt Road is not a horrible experience.

 

[bushpilot]

I have lived 40 minutes from sugarbush which was an easy thing to do on a daily basis. I currently live 30 minutes from a small local hill but regularly travel 3 hours to ski at Bachelor. Close to any hill is nice but close enough for weekend trips to larger better hills is more important for me.

 

[Goose]

I think the question should be...….how close would we like to live to our skiing? And an even better question would to ask just where (ski wise) in the country (or world) would we like to live?

If my life ties weren't keeping me to the general area where they have kept me all my life, Id been somewhere out west in ski country many years ago. And fwiw even for the beauty in the summers too.

Id like to be within 20 minutes or less to skiing. That way I'd have season pass, and all I would need is minimal spare time to ski almost at will (during that spare time). Even if only at times a couple hrs were available it would be no big deal to just go and get it in and know id be returning often. The 1:45 drive to my closest hill imo requires just a bit too much planning for my liking. Not to mention making the effort all to hit a small hill with the weekend zoo. That's not exactly the most motivating thing. I mean its not like Im pulling into the parking lot of a Heavenly , or a Big sky, or a Breck, etc... But that said...its what I got and living close (within 20 to my small hills) vs the drive I now make would be a whole lot better (at least for skiing).

 

[Kneale Brownson]

I could deal with the seven turns. But not the hour to get to them.

 

[Daves not here]

I’m jealous. If you live in CDA and ski/have a place at Schweitzer, you have it easy driving to the mountain from home. It’s not I-70 from the front range, not Tahoe, not Hwy 2 to Stevens. Hwy 95 from CDA to Sandpoint is a pretty mellow drive without major backups, and has no real elevation gain. Even the 7 hairpin turns up the Schweitzer Mt Road is not a horrible experience.

Even better - I live in Hayden so a little closer than CDA. . Yes - we are lucky and spoiled. Had a place a for about a decade. The mellow drive @ 65mph is perfect for clearing the head before getting to the mountain. Far enough away to feel like a get away and close enough that you can go back and get something if you forgot it.

 

[Monique]

If my life ties weren't keeping me to the general area where they have kept me all my life, Id been somewhere out west in ski country many years ago. And fwiw even for the beauty in the summers too.

"Come for the winters; stay for the summers." Heard that many times. Summers in the mountains are special.

 

[David Chaus]

And that’s why you would want to live in Sandpoint rather than Couer d Alene.

20 minutes up the road. You can even take the shuttle up and down.

 

[noncrazycanuck]

in the PNW we are all pretty used to drives and and booting up in the parking lot- most places are day ski areas
so if your looking for the ideal place I think its best to consider one which has the most areas within our typical PNW drive times.
Golden is best place in B.C.
still reasonable priced underdeveloped town
15 min to Kicking Horse and well under 2 hr to Revelstoke Lake Louise Sunshine Norquay and Panorama
in summer (high season) closest none restricted B.C town to Yoho and Banff,
as an investment potential look at what has happened in Canmore on the Alberta side of the park.