About this episode

Jason Blevins discusses the challenges facing mountain towns in the Rocky Mountain West, including water scarcity and the housing crisis.

Jason Blevins is a veteran journalist at the Colorado Sun who has spent nearly three decades covering outdoor recreation, public lands, and the mountain communities of the Colorado high country. In this conversation, Buzz and Jason dig into the slow-motion crisis unfolding across the Rocky Mountain West, a snowpack at 61 percent of normal, a 103-year-old Colorado River Compact straining under the weight of 40 million people's water needs, and ski towns facing an identity reckoning that has been building for years. They talk about what it looks like when mountain communities diversify away from a sole reliance on chairlift riders, why the ideal town might be "just shitty enough," and how the housing crisis in places like Crested Butte and Aspen is a preview of pressures playing out across the country. The conversation opens up into something larger: outdoor recreation as a $1.3 trillion industry that has earned a seat at the policy table — and the responsibility that comes with it. This episode is brought to you by Wahoo KICKR Run. The Buzz is part of the UltraSignup Podcast Network.

People in this episode

Host: Buzz

Guest: Jason Blevins

Topics covered

• outdoor recreation
• water crisis
• mountain communities
• ski towns
• housing crisis
• Colorado River
• policy and industry

Sponsors

Wahoo KICKR Run

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Colorado Sun, UltraSignup

Places: Rocky Mountain West, Colorado, Crested Butte, Aspen

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