Ski States Are the Happiest States

Enlarge Photo

Photo by: The Canyons Resort/Rob Bossi

You may not know this, but the SKI Magazine offices are located in Boulder, Colo. We like it that way -- the closest skiing is about 45 minutes away, but we still get an awful lot of those 300 days of sunshine Colorado's tourism board like to brag about. Of course, when the big dumps roll in like they did last month, the skiing gets even closer -- like on the hilly trailheads right at the edge of town, or at North Boulder Park, where a local with a groomer likes to plow trails for cross-country skiers. If we didn't live here, we could easily see ourselves in any one of the incredible ski towns around the state: Steamboat, Crested Butte, Breckenridge or the Aspen Valley. Turns out we're not alone in our satisfaction with the great state of Colorado: A new survey has found it to be the fourth-happiest state in the nation. It also turns out that, among the Top 5, three are what we would consider skiing states: Utah (No.1), Wyoming (No. 3), Colorado (No. 4). And hey, if you throw Minnesota (No. 5) in there -- they sure love their nordic skis in Minnesota -- skiing states take all but one of the Top 5. That leaves Hawaii in the No. 2 slot as the happiest nonskiing state. (Being able to surf every day of the week must count for something, right?) The moral here is pretty clear: Move to a ski state, get happy.

Canyons Resort, all smiles

• Login or register to post comments