How to make friends in a ski town: lessons from a Colorado winter

For the 2019/20 season I moved to Colorado with one of my best friends, Michael. By the time I left in March 2020, I had met more than 60 people through SkiBuds. Some of them I still ride with. The photo above is from Keystone: two groups of people who had met through the app, on the same summit, on the same day.

Moving somewhere new as an adult is hard, and a mountain town can feel even harder: everyone seems to already have a crew, and they all seem to have been riding together for ten years. The good news is that skiing and snowboarding are one of the easiest ways to make friends as an adult, because you spend hours a day doing the same thing as everyone around you. You just have to use it.

Why the mountain is the best place to meet people

• You already have something in common. Nobody on a chairlift needs an icebreaker. The snow is the icebreaker.
• You see the same faces. Ride the same mountain on the same days and you start recognizing people in the lift line within a couple of weeks.
• A run is a low-stakes first hangout. Riding together for one lap is easier than a coffee with a stranger, and it is easy to end.

What actually worked for me

Talking to people, a lot

I cannot even describe how much time I spent talking to strangers in those early seasons: on chairlifts, at the mountain, in online groups. I handed out stickers and approached people I did not know. Not all of it led anywhere. Enough of it did. If you want to make friends in a ski town, you have to be the one who says hello first, and you have to do it more than feels natural. Chairlift etiquette and how to talk on the lift has openers that work.

Posting real plans

The meetups that happened were the ones with details: a mountain, a day, a time, a meeting spot and the kind of terrain. Vague invitations get vague answers. The free meetup planner turns those details into a message.

Following up

Riding one day with someone is a meeting. Texting them the next time it snows is what makes it a friendship. The people I still ride with are the ones I kept in touch with.

Saying yes

The best trip I took that year came from saying yes. In March 2020 a rider I met through the app at Whistler invited me along to Kicking Horse, and we ended up riding closing days at Kicking Horse and Lake Louise and snowmobiling in Revelstoke. I wrote about it in skiing alone and meeting people.

Other places to find your people

• Ski and snowboard clubs. Clubs run regular days and trips, which means seeing the same people again. How to join a ski club covers what to ask before you sign up.
• Lessons and clinics. A group lesson puts you with people at your level who are also trying to get better.
• Your housemates and coworkers. In a mountain town, a lot of them ride. Ask.
• Carpools. Sharing the drive to the mountain is a ready-made hour of conversation. See how to plan a ski carpool.
• Après. The bar at the base after the lifts close is where the people you rode next to all day become people you know.
• Online groups for your mountain or city. How to find ski buddies and how to find snowboard friends go through what to post.

Be honest about how you ride

Nothing ends a new riding friendship faster than a mismatch nobody mentioned. Say what you like to ride and how fast, and ask the same. If the group has a mix of abilities, plan for it; skiing with friends of different abilities shows how. And when you meet someone new, keep it to a busy base area and one lap first. The safety page has more.

Give it a few weeks

It does not happen on the first weekend. It happens over a few weeks of showing up at the same mountain, saying hello to the same people and following up. If you just moved to Colorado, the Colorado mountain guide covers the resorts, the roads and where to meet. There are guides for Utah, British Columbia and other regions too.

Why SkiBuds exists

That winter is a big part of why I kept building SkiBuds: making friends in a ski town should not depend on how many stickers you can hand out. The rebuilt app is coming soon for iOS and Android, built around finding people who ride the way you do at the mountain you are going to.

If you moved to a mountain town and found your crew, how did you meet them? Tell us on Instagram.