School of Mines

Xam wrote: If you would like to be helpful, name a few areas with good, uncrowded skiing and climbing near nationally recognized engineering graduate schools.

I'm not speaking to the quality of the school, but the access (taking into account crowds, ability to actually get on climbs, waiting in lift lines etc. etc.) would be far better at University of Utah, BYU, Nevada at Reno, Montana State, Colorado State (granted you'll have to earn your turns), University of British Columbia, and Simon Fraser University, to name a few.

notsoepic wrote:In terms of climbing and skiing investment, be prepared for significant investment in waiting. Waiting in lineups at clear creek and eldo to get on just about any line after work/weekend. Waiting 30-40 minutes in lift lineups at any of the front range resorts (non powder day). Waiting 3 hours in traffic to get there. Is the investment worth it? Sure, maybe. But there are a lot better places to get out and actually ski or climb without a couple hundred thousands noobs smoking joints surrounding you at every turn.

You're either a troll, or you have no idea what you're talking about, or both.

Three hours to skiing from where? I do not live in Colorado, but my dad lives in Parker, and I occasionally visit him for skiing. I do not think that we ever drove even two hours to ski, and that is on a weekend. I've also climbed a fair bit on the front range, and although I have at times found a party on a route I wanted to do, I was always able to move on to plan B without any issues, and other than some Eldo classics, never had to wait in a cue.

the schmuck wrote:Three hours to skiing from where? I do not live in Colorado, but my dad lives in Parker, and I occasionally visit him for skiing. I do not think that we ever drove even two hours to ski, and that is on a weekend. I've also climbed a fair bit on the front range, and although I have at times found a party on a route I wanted to do, I was always able to move on to plan B without any issues, and other than some Eldo classics, never had to wait in a cue.

From Golden. CDOT has signs all winter during the weekends that say "expect 2+ hour delays returning to Denver between 1-7pm". There were multiple weekends where it took drivers over 2 hours just from US40 to the twin tunnels. Multiple days people were in there cars over 8 hours getting back to the front range denver.cbslocal.com/2014/02…. Its a mess! Even Friday evenings have 1.5+ hour delays now on the regular.

Climbing has seen a similar overcrowding in recent years, particularly Clear Creek. After work and weekend parking is VERY hard to come by at crags like Little Eiger and High Wire, and Canal Zone is just a complete zoo where there is often never an open route (even a poor one) on weekends.

Another plug for Mines.... if you trust these types of rankings. What field of engineering are you studying? That makes a huge difference in school selection too obviously.

college.usatoday.com/2014/0…

notsoepic wrote: From Golden. CDOT has signs all winter during the weekends that say "expect 2+ hour delays returning to Denver between 1-7pm". There were multiple weekends where it took drivers over 2 hours just from US40 to the twin tunnels. Multiple days people were in there cars over 8 hours getting back to the front range denver.cbslocal.com/2014/02…. Its a mess! Even Friday evenings have 1.5+ hour delays now on the regular. Climbing has seen a similar overcrowding in recent years, particularly Clear Creek. After work and weekend parking is VERY hard to come by at crags like Little Eiger and High Wire, and Canal Zone is just a complete zoo where there is often never an open route (even a poor one) on weekends.

Skiing traffic is bad, but climbing access is great, even in clear creek. You name the three easiest accessed, easy graded, newb magnet locations in clear creek as being crowded. No kidding. You need to branch out. I've never seen another party at Red Slab.

I've gone to CU and Mines, and I'd say Mines has the best climbing access. It takes about the same time to get to Eldo from Golden as it does from the north side of Boulder, plus you have North Table in the winter and the South Platte is closer.