Too Many Tourists In Colorado

[hatchgreenchile]

Yeah, the mountain people are casually hucking 50 feet.....LOL....
50 footer at Vail and they're removing the teeth from your kneecap still.
Geezus Bunny. Take a lap.

[Foggy_Goggles]

Benny, when there are 20K people at the ski area, how many are hucking 50'? Your trying to tell me that the increase in orthopedic injuries from actually being active in indicative of other all "health" as a community?

[Buster Highmen]

I get to spend a month or so every year Colorado. We've been doing it for 15 years now.

During that time, I've made a lot of friends there where we share dinners, go skiing together, do some moderate imbibing, go to the hot springs, hike and just talk.

None of the folks I know there fit the description completely. Some don't make a lot of money, but they're very savvy about working the scene with multiple jobs, vacation rentals, hut owners, construction, patrolling, guiding and so on.

Some of them are younger (20-30) some are older (60s). Some have bad knees or other ailments, but none of them are drunks and even those with leg injuries and hip problems are healthy and generally happy.

None of them are bitter.

None of them have trust funds.

They just made a decision to live life on a different slice. And kudos to them.

Are there drunks in town? Yes, but they're in the minority. As far as I can tell the wasted bro-bum is a stereotype that like a lot of things, doesn't really have a lot of statistical foundation.

[PNWbrit]

Closest they come to physical injuries is falling out of their Aeron chairs.

They can be difficult to unload sometimes... especially for tourists.

[Meadow Skipper]

Well, sure, there's always the trust fund to foam the runway. Have fun with that.

You know, Bunny, sometimes you're kind of cute when you're being an idiot.

You'd give both nuts to have the insurance I have, the pension I have, the (paid-off) house in the nice part of the nice mountain town that I live in, and the wonderful chick that married me. And I got all that from fighting and managing wildfire in the mountains (well, and Alaska) for many years. But do go on, clearly you know what the deal is here.

[TahoeJ]

People from the burbs aren't dealing with destroyed limbs after hucking 50 feet the other day. Even if they did, on that Vail trip, the cube life accommodates such an injury.

Yeah, more of them are just getting triple bypasses instead or fighting diabetes. You also once again revealed your massive ignorance about those who live in the mountains, as most are pretty chill and aren't bros hucking big cliffs. And there's just as many visiting from suburbia who end up at the ortho clinic.

If you really want to find a bunch of drunks, go... anywhere.

[Name Redacted]

Im a mountain drunk and proud of it. Being a FUNctional drunk who skis and bikes more than most while holding down a good job, owning a nice home and a business, and being married to a great gal is how the long term residents get by. Not always easy but I could never get by in the city, just not my environment. There, I would be just a drunk.

We'll take the tourons money and retire early and move to NZ.

[Benny Profane]

You know, Bunny, sometimes you're kind of cute when you're being an idiot.

You'd give both nuts to have the insurance I have, the pension I have, the (paid-off) house in the nice part of the nice mountain town that I live in, and the wonderful chick that married me. And I got all that from fighting and managing wildfire in the mountains (well, and Alaska) for many years. But do go on, clearly you know what the deal is here.

IF that's true, and you did it all on your own (ahem), let's get real. You're an exception. Tell me about your neighbors with pensions and paid off mortgages. Right. How the fuck can most mortals without serious income afford to live in most mountain towns these days, and still have money left over for old age, and, trust me, you're getting old like everybody else. Tell me. The only way I see it is to luck out with a sweet job, the wife also has a sweet gig, you luck out on a home that's less than a half mil, and, ahem, mum and dad are there to help, er, kickstart the whole deal and help out every now and then. Correct me if I'm wrong. I can do simple math. It's really fucking expensive to live up there these days. And, if you're working all the time to fund it, what's the point?

And my insurance is better than yours.

[Name Redacted]

IF that's true, and you did it all on your own (ahem), let's get real. You're an exception. Tell me about your neighbors with pensions and paid off mortgages. Right. How the fuck can most mortals without serious income afford to live in most mountain towns these days, and still have money left over for old age, and, trust me, you're getting old like everybody else. Tell me. The only way I see it is to luck out with a sweet job, the wife also has a sweet gig, you luck out on a home that's less than a half mil, and, ahem, mum and dad are there to help, er, kickstart the whole deal and help out every now and then. Correct me if I'm wrong. I can do simple math. It's really fucking expensive to live up there these days. And, if you're working all the time to fund it, what's the point?

Please continue to propagate these beliefs at your dinner parties on the east coast.

[Benny Profane]

Please continue to propagate these beliefs at your dinner parties on the east coast.

No, really, cut the bullshit. Tell me how it's possible. Bring something better. I fantasized about it for twenty years, like almost everybody on this board does, and, for the life of me, could not figure out how to do it. Maybe because my inheritance was a small coin collection?

[Meadow Skipper]

IF that's true, and you did it all on your own (ahem), let's get real. You're an exception. Tell me about your neighbors with pensions and paid off mortgages. Right. How the fuck can most mortals without serious income afford to live in most mountain towns these days, and still have money left over for old age, and, trust me, you're getting old like everybody else. Tell me. The only way I see it is to luck out with a sweet job, the wife also has a sweet gig, you luck out on a home that's less than a half mil, and, ahem, mum and dad are there to help, er, kickstart the whole deal and help out every now and then. Correct me if I'm wrong. I can do simple math. It's really fucking expensive to live up there these days. And, if you're working all the time to fund it, what's the point?

If that's true?!?

But okay, neighbors with pensions and paid-off houses: both sides.
Me: not an exception. My friends and my acquaintances from living my life in the mountains have more similar stories to mine than the ones you pretend apply to the whole.
You: clinging to weird ideas that sardonic caricatures are somehow accurate for everyone in the mountains, which seem that you hold pretty much to justify your own lifestyle. And I understand that - I am not fully immune to characterizations and mythological generalizations so that I can feel superior to the poor schleps that live in the east.

For instance, I don't think it's any more expensive or difficult to get by in the mountains than it is to live in the east, say, like in Westchester County.

Edit: I doubt that your insurance is better than mine - federal retiree. And I "figured out" how to live in the mountains by doing it, and getting a forestry degree, because I really wanted it. Not by sitting in my cube trying to make my past decisions support my future desires.

[Benny Profane]

Ok, enough already. You really are full of shit on a Trumpian level.

[hatchgreenchile]

Bunny, you'd do well in Walden, Kremmling or Saguache, start your search there for affordable mountain town living.

[Meadow Skipper]

Ok, enough already. You really are full of shit on a Trumpian level.

I might be full of shit, but compared to you I'm caviar. And I'm living the dream in a mountain town - you live in suburban hell.

[Name Redacted]

No, really, cut the bullshit. Tell me how it's possible. Bring something better. I fantasized about it for twenty years, like almost everybody on this board does, and, for the life of me, could not figure out how to do it. Maybe because my inheritance was a small coin collection?

Priorities.

[PNWbrit]

Maybe because my inheritance was a small coin collection?

I doubt anyone would give you change for a nickel Bunny.

[Benny Profane]

Priorities.

So fucking weak.

[Benny Profane]

I might be full of shit, but compared to you I'm caviar. And I'm living the dream in a mountain town - you live in suburban hell.

Hey, let's get this down to numbers, ok, because, ultimately, it's the numbers. How much did this awesome fire fighting gig pay? What was you top salary? How many years?
Wife work? How much did, does, she make. How long?

[Foggy_Goggles]

No, really, cut the bullshit. Tell me how it's possible. Bring something better. I fantasized about it for twenty years, like almost everybody on this board does, and, for the life of me, could not figure out how to do it. Maybe because my inheritance was a small coin collection?

Benny, if this is an honest question, be specific and I'll do my best to get you the answers. Listen, life is hard for everyone. We all make sacrifices to carve out our little piece of what we want. Just because you may not be willing to make the sacrifices necessary to live in a mountain community, doesn't mean that those of us that did are either trustfunders, broke, drunk, working all the time, or whatever other misconception you developed while being on extended vacation in Summit County.

For every Jackson, Vail, Aspen or Brekenridge their is a Victor, Edwards and Tabernash. For every lifty, dishwasher and snow shoveler there is a mountain operations supervisor, restaurant owner and master electrician.

But I get it. It's not for you. You see the glass half full in the mountain towns. The thing that I think you are having a hard time with is the fact that despite having a ski area near by, a vast majority of these places are just normal towns full of normal people.

[Name Redacted]

Hey, let's get this down to numbers, ok, because, ultimately, it's the numbers. How much did this awesome fire fighting gig pay? What was you top salary? How many years?
Wife work? How much did, does, she make. How long?

Give us your deets and we will tell you where you went wrong.

[Benny Profane]

Benny, if this is an honest question, be specific and I'll do my best to get you the answers. Listen, life is hard for everyone. We all make sacrifices to carve out our little piece of what we want. Just because you may not be willing to make the sacrifices necessary to live in a mountain community, doesn't mean that those of us that did are either trustfunders, broke, drunk, working all the time, or whatever other misconception you developed while being on extended vacation in Summit County.

For every Jackson, Vail, Aspen or Brekenridge their is a Victor, Edwards and Tabernash. For every lifty, dishwasher and snow shoveler there is a mountain operations supervisor, restaurant owner and master electrician.

But I get it. It's not for you. You see the glass half full in the mountain towns. The thing that I think you are having a hard time with is the fact that despite having a ski area near by, a vast majority of these places are just normal towns full of normal people.

Dude, really, Victor? How the fuck do you make a living in Victor? That's my point.

[Benny Profane]

Numbers. Give me numbers.

[PNWbrit]

How the fuck do you make a living in Victor?

By sitting on your ass for 20 years in Westhchester talking yourself out of doing it.... no wait that's not how you do it.

[goldenboy]

I thought this was a thread about dealing with tourism in mountain towns? Now it's about Benny justifying east coast city life, of which there are exactly 1,000 threads on TGR already. Pity, because the original conversation was interesting.

[Meadow Skipper]

Hey, let's get this down to numbers, ok, because, ultimately, it's the numbers. How much did this awesome fire fighting gig pay? What was you top salary? How many years?
Wife work? How much did, does, she make. How long?

Fuck you and your numbers. I was solidly in the double-digit GS scale when I retired after 32 years. When I was on crews and going to fires all the time (which I did less when I worked up into management) I got tons of overtime. I worked really, really hard, sacrificed, and made it work.

And go fuck yourself for asking about my wife's work. I only brought her up because of your bullshit about chicks not digging mountain guys.

Go ahead and rationalize your failure to live an interesting and rewarding life, but the blame for that is inescapable - it's you.