Welcome to the Centennial State. Being a Coloradan is more than just wearing Patagonia, drinking craft brews and bashing transient Californians. If you wish to fit in with the rest of the weirdos in this state, follow this guide.
How to: Weather
“If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes.”
Colorado weather is a fickle mistress. It is not rare to wake up to 60 degrees and sun and go to bed with the sound of blizzarding snow outside your window. If you learn anything while attending a university in the Centennial State, you must learn to layer. Layers will save your day and maybe even your life. For fall, a light hoodie or sweater with a cotton t-shirt will handle most situations unless there is precipitation. The weather changes so much in winter it’s not even worth going into; basically prepare for the worst but don’t be surprised when you end up wearing a t-shirt in February and a winter coat in May.
How to: Skiing, Snowboarding and I-70
In Colorado, everybody has the same dream, perfect powder days every weekend, shredding the gnar with friends on Saturday and making it home for dinner. Good luck with that.
While DU and Colorado tourism love pushing the beauty of our mountains and the fantastic (and it is truly fantastic) skiing and snowboarding, they always seem to forget to mention a very important point to prospective new Coloradans: I-70 on a weekend morning—or even worse—during the late afternoon,
It is the literal antithesis to fun on the mountain. It is simply the most soul-sucking and dreadful traffic on the planet, and it is very hard to avoid. Your best bet to bypass the horror of I-70 is to do the unthinkable: wake up early. If you force yourself to get going before 7 a.m., even on a Saturday, you can beat the rest of the bozos still sobering up from the night before and get fresh tracks. Eldora Mountain resort, located west of Boulder near Nederland, offers a detour from I-70, taking only 1.15 hours of travel. Another method, while not entirely skipping I-70, is to ski at Loveland or Winter Park which shortens the time as one does not have to go through the Eisenhower tunnel.
How to: Broncos
If you don’t like football, I’m sorry, because from September to January you will be inundated with orange and blue. You don’t have to be a Broncos fan to be a Coloradan, but I would highly advise against speaking out negatively about the team in public, unless you want to disturb the “hive.”
How to: Stay Healthy
It’s no secret that Coloradans are obsessed with health. Besides the basics of nutritious meals and exercise, there are two key components of staying healthy in Colorado. The first is to always hydrate. It is dry beyond description here, and to be healthy one must be constantly drinking water. Secondly, while the 300 days a year of sunshine is a myth, it is still incredibly sunny here, especially in the mountains. This means it’s very important to wear sunscreen, because no one likes coming back from a day on the slopes dehydrated and looking like a lobster. Not to mention consistent sunscreen use prevents Melanoma—the fifth most commonly diagnosed cancer in Colorado.
Living in Colorado means living the good life. While it’s not all puppies and rainbows, with this knowledge, you should be able to make it in this fantastic state.
