CaptainObvious.As per usual, everytime this topic comes up it just turns into epic battles of hyperbole.
OP, you should 100% do it. It is going to be an experience and it sounds like you've been in Maryland your whole life. Make the move, feel the pain, and grow. You won't regret it.
As you've seen in the many dramatic posts here, Denver is overhyped and if you've bought into an idealistic version of living in the mile high, you might be disappointed. I've been here for 12 years and always been a weekend warrior. I'm on the road by 6am on Saturday and I miss the traffic, but it means chilling in your car for an hour at the hill. I get first-ish chair and I'm driving home by 2pm, no exceptions. If you push it any further than that your drive is hours (unless you literally stick around until 8 or 9). I hit some traffic on the way home, but it tacks on maybe another 30 min to my normal 90 min drive. If you're used to an easy trip up like I was, it gets very taxing. So if you're planning to live in the metro and ski literally every weekend, you might be let down by how much of your life you spend in the car. That being said, there are LOTS of people who go in on condos for the season with friends, or do other solutions to sleep at the hill and cut it early on Sunday - which is also a great way to make friends.
The hard truth is that for the past 8 years or so Denver has been seen as the Mecca for the young and adventurous. This means tons of people have moved here. A lot of companies relocated their large employee bases to Denver from 2012-2019, which brought jobs, people, and coincidentally a lot of people who were living in an extremely cost-inflated area (SF, New York, LA, etc.). All of these factors combine into the whirlwind that is our strangled housing market that's bumped rent, competition, etc. And yes, the homeless problem has gotten worse, but people who act like it's something unique to Denver haven't ever been to a big city. It didn't used to be a problem, but we've literally added over 100k people to the city of Denver in the past decade. The status has changed.
All that being said, living here is great. You just have to understand that your hobbies and passions are the exact same reason many others came. You wanna mountain bike in the summer? Hell yeah, but get there early and do some research on where is the best to go. You want to hike a 14er? Yup, so does the rest of the city checking off their bucket lists. You can have the time of your life out here, but it takes a little more work than it used to and a little more work than a lot of people are prepared for when they come.
This is the only reasonable post on the whole thread just listen to captain obvious. Some other things about skiing: if you like touring you can avoid a lot of these problems, if you like spring skiing there is almost no traffic april / may, and lastly, if you are willing to take your vacations locally (that is what I do) you can just ski weekdays on PTO. I do some combo of pto, getting up early, touring, and focusing on late season - almost never sit in traffic and ski 50+ days a year on world class terrain. That being said, I miss most mid-winter resort pow days but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make for my sanity and long run dedication to the sport.
And yea, if you are willing to do a little work it is very easy to be all alone skiing / climbing / biking / hiking. It is a pretty big state...but it's not just wake up at 8am, drive an hour, park at the base, ski epic pow all day, and be home happy and relaxed in time for sunday night football.
