I'm very excited about my new job, but I have to admit that I'm a little sad to have to leave Crested Butte. When I first decided to move to Crested Butte, I had a very strong feeling that this would be my final move. I had visited the town a handful of times before making the decision, but I knew that first day, at the 7th Annual Kickball Championship, that Crested Butte was a place I needed to live in. I met some of the greatest people on that fateful day in August. And, what started out as a group of strangers joking that I should just leave Aspen and move to Crested Butte because, "Crested Butte is way better than Aspen" according to five guys who had never even stepped foot in Aspen, turned in to a seemingly knee-jerk decision to relocate to "the last real great ski town."
Crested Butte is fantastic. I'm sure there are other places in the world that are just as fantastic. It's not the most beautiful Colorado mountain town. Telluride and Aspen have prettier scenery, in my opinion. And, CB doesn't have the greatest variety of skiing (although it does have arguably the most extreme terrain). But, of all the places that I've lived so far, Crested Butte certainly has the greatest community events. Yes, this sounds a little ridiculous. But, it was the Kickball Championship (which was a fundraiser for the Historical Museum) that got me to visit in the first place. Then, the appeal was increased by the Crested Butte Ultimate Hat Tournament (for Ultimate Frisbee), only to be enhanced by the promise of even better events: Vinatok (a pagan CB celebration in which the entire town gathers to burn the "Grump" which is a collection of scraps of paper on which it citizens have written all the worries and negative thoughts of the previous year, which they hope to let go of), the Townie Takeover (a bike event where everyone grabs their beat-up old bikes and ride around the town for 24-hours straight), the Red Lady ball (a fundraising event that not only celebrates the famous prositutes from the early days of CB, but also raises money to prevent the proposed mine that is threatening to ruin one of our favourite peaks, the Red Lady), and the Al Johnson Memorial Uphill/Downhill Telemark Race (which deserves its own blog, and which i will write about soon).
This is the type of community I have been searching for for a long time, and so I'm very sad to have to leave it. The problem is the lack of viable jobs. Most jobs in towns like this are seasonal. It is expected that most of the workforce will only be around for a few months at a time, so many companies that need year-round employees end up going somewhere else. The cost of living in such a glorious place is also unreasonably high. Rents are comparable to NYC, and food is even more expensive, since most restaurants (and, oddly, the local grocery store) know they can charge more because tourists will pay more. But, the wages here are lower than NYC, and also Aspen and Summit County, Colorado.
Really, the only way to make money in a place like this is to own your own business or to become a realtor. No joke.
And so I move to Salt Lake City. It's a city, yes. But, it is supposedly a great city to live in if you're Mormon, or if you are an outdoor enthusiast. There are six ski mountains within 30 minutes of downtown, and there are more opportunities to own houses (joy!), and to have jobs that would allow one to own said houses (double joy!). So, we'll see.
And, if I am to end my ski bum story now, I can't have chosen a better "final season." We had so much glorious powder. I am at a place in my skiing/snowboarding where I am more than happy with my abilities, and I can say that I had an epic season. Also, I got to travel to Ecuador to go whitewater rafting, and I have seen and learned a lot about what I want from life.
Really. I can do this.
No comments:
Post a Comment