Legalize it man, the first time I ever voted was for the legalization of recreational cannabis in 2012 while living in Breckenridge. I was paying $600 a month for a room in a 3 bedroom apartment relatively close to downtown Breckenridge. In total we were paying $1,800 a month for the town home. It was the good life, and I was stoked.

That same apartment was just rented out at the price tag of 3,300 a month, no renovations just the same exact place, only without utilities this time. What the hell happened?

It stopped snowing in California, Washington, Oregon, you can buy weed at the local store. This in part caused a lot of ski bums to show up, but that is not the real issue here.

pc: Brent Lafleur

The issue is in large part the "young professionals" this is the boom of the tech business in Denver, which lead to many people looking for a weekend house, the folk from Austin who just HAVE to go on a weed ski vacation, the Kansas City kids who want to show they can shred even though they have never seen a mountain before. Many of the long term rentals became short term, renting out to a family from Austin Texas for the price one would expect to pay over a month's rent.

Who would you rather rent your home to? Some white collar folk from the city who are up Friday-Sunday or 6 lifties who are looking to shred all the time and have tried to cram themselves in a 3 bedroom apartment so they can make the 3,000 dollar rent?

The ski bum loses every time. God forbid we have some large affordable apartment buildings in ski towns, that would totally ruin everything.

People are being forced to the fringe, moving out of the real ski towns and into the towns a pass or two over, driving into work and ski at the mountains.

The true skier is being run out of Summit County in exchange for the higher end white shirt, black tie worker bee. The prices being gouged out of locals are incredibly challenging to afford, and if something is not done, we may see a true exodus out of this town by the summit ski bums. The mountains will always be here, but when it becomes this challenging to find housing, one must expect that there will be some consequences.

I already left, I moved to Leadville, rent is cheaper, the people are more real, and the beer is a couple bucks on tap. Isn't that what a ski town is supposed to be about anyways?

Cheers,

another jaded ski bum