# Possibly moving to Denver



## linvillegorge (Jul 6, 2009)

Sorry, CO is no longer accepting applications. We're all full. 

On a serious note, Denver's just another city. Denverites are all about it, but it's nothing special. Then again, my opinion of cities is that if you've seen one you've seen 'em all, so take that with a grain of salt.

The first thing you need to understand is that Denver is NOT in the mountains! That's the thing that shocks most people on their first trip here. They land at DIA and are like WTF?! If you're at DIA, you might as well be in Nebraska. This time of year, there's a decent chance you won't even be able to see the mountains from DIA. The drive to the mountains from downtown Denver isn't too bad, but if you're east of Denver, it can start getting pretty taxing. Most areas in Denver to Breck in the hour to hour and fifteen minutes without traffic. That figure gets blown all to hell on the weekends. Traffic on I-70 getting to and from the weekends can be BRUTAL. Once you learn how to navigate the maze of frontage roads, it's a big help, but lots of people are getting to know them now and they're getting pretty packed as well. Your best bet for day trips is to get an EARLY start, be on first chair and back on I-70 by 2pm. If you do that, you'll miss the heaviest traffic.


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## baseline6 (Mar 12, 2009)

well if I wanted to move into the mountains id move to durango. Im picking denver because my gf is a city rat and wont move out of 30 miles from a mall. but dude a hour witout traffic possibly 2 with traffic sounds nice. I wake up at 4am to be at my mtn. By 8am I leave at 2 to get home by 6 I speand around $50 on gas each trip. So traffic sounds good to me haha. Not to mention the quality riding I get isnt anywhere near what you get at breck. are mtn is small and the park is a joke


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## linvillegorge (Jul 6, 2009)

baseline6 said:


> well if I wanted to move into the mountains id move to durango. Im picking denver because my gf is a city rat and wont move out of 30 miles from a mall. but dude a hour witout traffic *possibly 2 with traffic sounds nice*. I wake up at 4am to be at my mtn. By 8am I leave at 2 to get home by 6 I speand around $50 on gas each trip. So traffic sounds good to me haha. Not to mention the quality riding I get isnt anywhere near what you get at breck. are mtn is small and the park is a joke


You're not understanding the gravity of the situation at hand. On busy weekends, the traffic can be BRUTAL! I'm talking ridiculous traffic. Sit and watch a movie in the car type traffic.


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## baseline6 (Mar 12, 2009)

linvillegorge said:


> You're not understanding the gravity of the situation at hand. On busy weekends, the traffic can be BRUTAL! I'm talking ridiculous traffic. Sit and watch a movie in the car type traffic.


Dude im used to going out with my gf saturday night coming home at 2 then leaving by 4 sometimes 5 my buddys drive up while I crash and I drive home 4 hours there and 4 hours back. Do you know how bad a car smells after 8 hours of shred then hopping in a car with 5 guys for 4 hours? Id gladly welcome traffic. im sooo tired of spending 8 hours in the car everytime I snowboard.


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## BurtonAvenger (Aug 14, 2007)

HAHA 2 hour with traffic yeah right. I know people that leave at 8 a.m. and don't make it up till noon or 1 and going down is a whole other story. I say move to Golden so you're a bit closer. Plus Denver sucks fuck that place my theory is anything east of Loveland Pass is Kansas.


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## linvillegorge (Jul 6, 2009)

BurtonAvenger said:


> HAHA 2 hour with traffic yeah right. I know people that leave at 8 a.m. and don't make it up till noon or 1 and going down is a whole other story. I say move to Golden so you're a bit closer. Plus Denver sucks fuck that place my theory is anything east of Loveland Pass is Kansas.


I don't know. Lots of cool shit between Loveland Pass and Lookout Mountain, but for sure once you get east of there, you're fucked.

I think the whole Denver area is just a massive tease. There are those big beautiful mountain RIGHT THERE and yet there you are, stuck on the fucking plains. That's why I love Evergreen. Close enough to work pretty much anywhere in Denver and far enough away to forget it exists once I get home.


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## killclimbz (Aug 10, 2007)

I agree the further West you can live will make the drive easier. Golden is a good option, it's getting overpriced though. 

You can expect about a 90 minute drive up to the resorts on average. That is if you can get your ass moving at the right time. Leaving at 8am is not the right time for sure. You're going to be sitting in traffic for hours. I'm usually getting my first turns by 8am. A lot of the traffic problems are going to be based on where you choose to go too. Going to Summit County or Vail is a poor choice on a Sunday if you are planning on heading back to Denver that day. Anywhere West of the tunnel is a bad choice. Generally speaking it's around a two hour drive on those days if you are east of the Eisenhower tunnel. If you are West of it, 3-5 hours is not uncommon. This is all weekend related of course.

Downtown Denver is a sweet area, not sure where you are talking about downtown. Definitely a good vibe in several of the neighborhoods. If you are really moving into Downtown, that can be a fun urban setting without a doubt. Great restaurants and bars, lot's of things going on there. The skatepark is very good there too.


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## burritosandsnow (Nov 22, 2008)

the reason people think they will move to the mtns of Denver is because the state of Colorado has a tourism budget of over 20 million dollars to fool you into thinking its so ... yes the resorts there are world class but really the denver/resort situation is very similar to the mad rush of weekenders in southern California ... theres only one place in the U.S. that has a population of a million plus within minutes of world class resorts and thats Salt Lake City (more specifically the tri valley area of Ogden/Salt Lake/Provo).. after that you have Denver, Portland, Reno/Sacramento, and Socal with drives of 60 minutes on a good day to a few hours when its a shit show. 

Denver is a nice place, even though I havent been there since uhh jeez 2001 just dont think you are living slopeside by going to Denver. The thing that really sets SLC apart is that you can do a half day at work and still get in a half day on the hill EASILY. This comes in handy for unexpected pow days when you can make the "I got a doctor appt and wont be in until after lunch" call to work.


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## baseline6 (Mar 12, 2009)

Believe me SLC would be right at the top of my list bro but I live next to mesa which happens to be the 2nd largest morman city behind SLC. I cant deal with LDS mormans anymore then what I already have been dealing with man. Im not a anti morman but having them knock on your door every sunday trying to convert me is enough. Not to mention In Utah they make it as hard as possible to get your drink on. then they have no NFL team? I can make sacrifices but no NFL team is a no go. I'm more stoked on moving to downtown Denver because of the urban scene killclimbz was talking about. I know Denver is no snowboarding mecca but anything with a close high speed lifts and dependable annual snowfall is a upgrade to my current shred situation. I'm just hoping to get better days in then what I've been getting...the GF wants a Skyrise condo downtown but shes paying for it so I'm moving where she does haha so not a bad deal entirely. hey I board mostly during the week anyway.... I work for Tmobile so my weekends are always spent at work is traffic that bad Tuesday-Thursday? I'm going to be working for Tmobile when i get up there so I'd imagine my work my schedule would be the same


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## BurtonAvenger (Aug 14, 2007)

Those days traffic will be fine except. Thanksgiving week, 18th of December till the 3rd of January, end of January beginning of February, Spring Break, and of course Presidents/MLK weekends.


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## burritosandsnow (Nov 22, 2008)

baseline6 said:


> Believe me SLC would be right at the top of my list bro but I live next to mesa which happens to be the 2nd largest morman city behind SLC. I cant deal with LDS mormans anymore then what I already have been dealing with man. Im not a anti morman but having them knock on your door every sunday trying to convert me is enough. Not to mention In Utah they make it as hard as possible to get your drink on. then they have no NFL team? I can make sacrifices but no NFL team is a no go. I'm more stoked on moving to downtown Denver because of the urban scene killclimbz was talking about. I know Denver is no snowboarding mecca but anything with a close high speed lifts and dependable annual snowfall is a upgrade to my current shred situation. I'm just hoping to get better days in then what I've been getting...the GF wants a Skyrise condo downtown but shes paying for it so I'm moving where she does haha so not a bad deal entirely. hey I board mostly during the week anyway.... I work for Tmobile so my weekends are always spent at work is traffic that bad Tuesday-Thursday? I'm going to be working for Tmobile when i get up there so I'd imagine my work my schedule would be the same


haha its cool you dont have to defend not liking mormons. theres always some sect somewhere whether its jehovahs witnesses or the baptists or whomever .. im not mormon either in fact at last count 45% of the state is non mormon.. its actually easier here to be non mormon cause they know if youre not they arent gonna turn you lmao! .. yeah the football thing is a roadblock ( and tbh the mormon thing will probably prevent one from ever coming here)... oh and we fixed all the drinking stuff .. well except you still have to go to the state store for full % beer but all the bar stuff has been done away with ... yay!

denvers still sick .. i do like their downtown for sure.. and now youll be a quick hop away from easy shred trips to slc or even jackson hole ... good luck


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## snowvols (Apr 16, 2008)

I went to some trash bar Saturday and they only had 3.2% I was pissed about that the only beer they had that was normal was Sam Adams at 5 a piece. This was in Sandy though so are bars in downton SLC carry normal beer?


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## linvillegorge (Jul 6, 2009)

When are you planning to move?


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## baseline6 (Mar 12, 2009)

Well I cant do it over the winter because im already signed up for fall classes but if all goes well then hopefully sometime next summer. It would be great if I could get up there this winter but I need to buy a AWD car or truck before I move up there. The whole plan hinges on my gf finish up nursing in time my plan is to finish up my associates at a local Community College. i wanna get my BA at University of colorado at boulder. I dont want to move to boulder though either


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## killclimbz (Aug 10, 2007)

Denver not a mecca? Ask that of the other 200K people going up to ride for a day on the weekend...

But yeah, it's a little bit of a drive. For bc riders, it's pretty easy to do a dawn patrol and be at the job by 9 or 10am depending on how motivated you are. Tons of options, and as mentioned, getting to other shred destinations is pretty easy from D-town.


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## JustLove (Jul 2, 2010)

Well it sounds like you're already pretty set on denver..... which is ok, however I'm still not convinced that you fully understand what you're getting into with the traffic thing. You are going to still be in the same situation you are leaving really. Not only is it going to cost the same driving straight up the mtn from denver, but now you have to pay to ride it out for a season. So really, just expect the same conditions you have now but slightly better having bigger and more mtns to ride. I'm with Borritos & Snow! If you going to ride, SLC is far better of an experience. I ride hard....so after 4hrs I'm usually busted up. That makes 1/2 days great. Also, a great point with pow days. My buddy in SLC last yr had over 100days. He said at least 1/2 were pow days where it dumped in the morning and he rode all afternoon hitting cliffs. Ask anyone from denver if they put up these numbers. I'm from St. Louis, so it's easier to drive up to CO before a storm kicks. However, SLC....just can't beat it!


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## killclimbz (Aug 10, 2007)

Traffic thing is not an issue during the week. Which the OP already stated he's a mid week rider. Not too mention, if you leave early it's not a problem either. I've been stuck in LCC for over 45 minutes to get to Snowbird. Probably why I like the Northern areas better, less traffic. Regardless if you are not lazy, traffic is rarely a problem either. As far as pow days go, I had a bad season last year. 34 days of riding and 34 pow days. Normally I am a 50+ day a year rider and 90% of those are pow days.


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## lisevolution (Sep 20, 2007)

I've thought about moving to both Denver and SLC recently. Denver really is kind of a pita as far as getting to the mountains goes though. From someone who's seen this traffic first hand and purposely takes his trips out there mid-week I can say it's torture the entire time on I-70. SLC is definitely the better city as far as mountain access and snow quality goes but I can see the LDS getting super annoying. There is a party scene in SLC though especially now that they've loosened the reigns on the bar scene. I had an epic night out last season when I was there and I lived in NYC for years so I definitely know what an epic night out is ;-) It's a tough call but if you're riding mid-week, outside of holiday weeks like Killclimbz said you're straight traffic wise and the mountains are pretty open. Keep in mind though that you're looking at Summit County mountains within reasonable distance. Vail/Beaver Creek is about another hour or two from there, Aspen/Snowmass and other couple and so on.


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## linvillegorge (Jul 6, 2009)

If it takes you an hour or two to get to Vail from Summit County without traffic, you're doing something wrong.


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## Milo303 (Apr 6, 2009)

I'm not giving away my secrets but I very rarely hit traffic going up, and sometimes hit it for a second coming down but even that's rare unless it's dumping and theirs a wreck. 

A trick I will give is that the people of Denver are like clock work.... You can expect the exact same time schedules from them religiously.


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## linvillegorge (Jul 6, 2009)

Yeah, the traffic is pretty predictable. My secret is living in Evergreen and going to Loveland. Pretty simple.


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## Tarzanman (Dec 20, 2008)

Move to Boulder and become a rich hippie.


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