Don't know much about many US resorts outside of CO and WY and Utah but in my experience hardcore skiing resorts generally have three lots of core residents; the bums / van life crowd, the mega rich crowd and then yuppies

They're not - at least in Europe always big family resorts

I used to LOVE to ski and snowboard. It's what I was in to before cycling and triathlons. But, I got where I didn't like the people at ski resorts anymore. There were "rich" yuppie like people who acted with a "me me me" attitude of "I'm the most important person here and everyone should get out of my way" or the stoner kids who were wreckless and flew around on skis/snowboards with abandonment.

Our experience with WF was a little different, but we were there for only a couple of hours around this time last year. Did some hiking up at the ski resort and stopped in town at a small burrito shop on the way back to Glacier. Fantastic burrito served by what seemed to be a few of the local ski bums who the summer jobs. However, if you look at the median house price there, yes it does look like yuppie town.

Seems an apt description of the crowds. So how would your describe the cycling crowd, and the triathlon crowd?

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It doesn't really matter what Phil is saying, the music of his voice is the appropriate soundtrack for a bicycle race. HTupolev

I've rarely ever had a problem with either the cycling or the triathlon crowd. Yeah, every once in a while I will encounter a self centered douchebag but for the most part, especially in person at races, people are very friendly and supportive. I think that's one of the reasons I love going to Ironman venues is the energy and overall camaraderie you feel among the athletes.

At cycling events, as long as you are working and not being wreckless, same thing, I've never had a problem.

Well, you have to be rich to ski, but most ski towns aren't full of the rich in the summer.

I find most of the ski crowd aren't yuppies though since the y in yuppie is young.

I grew up in Kalispell during the 80's and used to go to Whitefish all the time. Skied at Big Mountain basically every weekend during the season as I had a pass every year. Back in those days Whitefish was a sleepy ski town with a train depot and some timber jobs. A couple of ski shops and that was about it. Big Mountain was a bit of a hidden gem and in my opinion in the top 2 ski resorts in the state for skiing and variability of terrain. Back then you had a few celebrities buy places on the lake but it wasn't terribly expensive and they liked the area because nobody gave a crap who they were. Used to see Kiefer Sutherland, Emilio Esteves, and Julia Roberts in the local bar playing pool. Nobody bothered them.

Visiting current day it's a very different place. I still have family in the area so go a few times a year. It's very expensive to live there now and you have the locals getting by and the out of state folks buying up places. Real Estate is booming in the whole area and prices continue to go upwards.

My impression is Whitefish is like Aspen and Vail before all the wealthy showed up or what they were like back in the day. Never been so can't correctly compare.

It was not a resort town originally, just a town with a great ski area near by. Now I would consider it a resort town and comes with all the positives and negatives that apply.

I'm not familiar with Whitefish, but Hammer Nutrition's headquarters are there. They always seem down-to-earth, stable people when I call/order stuff.

Yeah. Columbia falls is cool and we went to a farmers market In Whitefish ( if you can call it that) but the farmers were cool. But otherwise I definitely don't fit in.lol

Yea, the old"Fish" pulled out of the train station a long time ago. I worked up there a couple summers at the beach. Always thought I wanted to live there, but there were no jobs around. I also loved Tahoe, Jackson Hole, Bend, Park City and bunch of old Colorado towns too.But they all too got discovered and are the same story. Lots of folks with money and folks way below the livable income side by side.

I think Aspen solved the problem, no more average folks around. The help all live as close as they can to keep the driving down but check almost any ski town MLS listings. Nothing on there for a regular salaried person to look at, unless they got help from somewhere.
I don't think Fish is any different than orher ski towns. Same folks different states.

I believe as the boomers with a good nest egg in retirement will drive the home prices in the Western mountains off the charts. I live in Missoula and last week I hiked the M and met two couples looking at buying in Missoula in the next year or two. Then I met a couple in my regular brewhouse from Bend that loved Missoula because it was "like Bend used to be" and were looking at a new place to live. I don't get out much, but three couples in one day midweek seems like plenty.
I grew up here left for 40 plus years to earn a livable wage and moved back after looking at a number of other neat places to retire. Glad I bought in with a good hunk of equity from my home sale on retirement. Missoula was expensive then, but prices have zoomed up in the past two years. Other friends in Bend, Bosie, Seattle, and Portland say the same thing. This is going to get expensive. I still love Fish and Glacier Park, but things are Crazytown up there and not in a good way, but Bozeman and Big Sky are even worse. My advice is if you are thinking of moving to a mountain town in the West, you better hurry or already own a house in a more expensive place.

Yeah it's sad.