In Search of Powder: A Story of America's Disappearing Ski Bum

Thought this book was going to be a breakdown of what happened to the American ski bum. This was more about a select individual telling his story.

The book has the feel of a text version documentary. It details with history and interviews the changes seen in America's ski towns and ski bum culture. Like Evans I'm from South Lake Tahoe (though currently residing elsewhere due to some of the issues in the book) surprisingly I've never heard of the guy or even have any facebook friends in common. It's a very small town, but he is a bit younger.In any case, he covers a lot of the issues that our mountain towns are facing. I moved to tahoe in the 90's and always assumed I'd spend my entire life there. Those of us who were snowboard/ski bums eventually get older. We want to settle down at some point, we have kids, etc. In a healthy community we'd get some kind of real job, buy a house and maybe start living some kind of semi-mature life. When I moved to town there were condos and houses available for 90k-150k all over the place. However by the time I was ready for adult life I was staring at 300-400k price tags, and keep in mind the average casino dealer (one of the better paying gigs in town) is looking at 40-50k/yr.As mentioned in the book, the price has been driven up by out of towners who buy 'vacation homes' which either sit vacant or worse yet are VRBO'd out to obnoxious partiers on weekends. Schools are dwindling and educational quality is a serious issue. The town starts to become a hollowed out facade, a ski town themed amusement park for well off bay area folks. The lack of opportunity and high cost led to me making the call to move out. Lots of my friends are still in the area but have moved to carson city (mentioned in the book) and the ones who are still at the lake struggle with the above issues.Evans shows what we've seen first hand repeating itself all around the great American ski towns on the west coast and in the rockies. He also goes into detail a little about how the ski/snowboard bum has gone from an alternative to standard 9-5 existence to a marketing front for consumerist culture. From lifestyle to lifestyle marketing.So all this is laid out, and in an enjoyable way. What I really would have loved to see is some kind of discussion near the end on how to solve these problems, as they surely are problems. There are pros and cons to limiting who can buy, how long you have to stay, funding education and so on. It no longer becomes a truly organic community but an artificially controlled one, and is that better or worse then the 'theme park for the rich' situation that is occurring now?Overall though, an enjoyable read and one that should be read by anyone making their home in a ski town.

I really wanted to like this book, but I found it fell well short of my expectations. The author begins the story with his own experience that leads him to quit his job and move back to Lake Tahoe to chase the dream of being a ski bum. Like a lot of prospective readers, I once harbored such ambitions, and was expecting a rollicking ride through that lifestyle. Instead, the author tells the story almost entirely through the experiences of others, often introducing so many characters in the space of a few pages that it's hard to keep track. And sadly, most of those people never really come alive on the page.The central theme of "In Search of Powder" seems to be a morality tale in which the noble ski bum who discovers a resort town in it's early days eventually gets squeezed out by the success of the resort, which drives up real estate values and makes a ski bum existence next to impossible. So what I had hoped would be a fun book about underground ski town culture instead took on a rather depressing angle, spiked with bitterness about the growing commercialization of the sport. I'm not saying the author's point isn't valid, but it's a far cry from the book I was expecting.My biggest criticism is that for a book of this genre, there are precious few pages devoted to actual skiing and snowboarding. The book delves more into ski resort economics than floating turns through deep powder.

Good reading. Not enough about UTAH. Ski Bum's haven'tdisappeared, they just all moved to Salt Lake City !!However, very true about real estate prices in places likeJackson Hole or all of Summit and Pitkin counties Colorado.Skiing has become a sport for the affluent. Back in the day,parking a camper-van in most any 'big-resort' was not a problem.Van-camp these days, and they'll run you out of town.

Wether you’re interested in the business skiing, the awesomeness of it, or anything in between - this is for you. Just don’t read it in the summertime, you’re going to want to clip in every time you read it.

Reading the history and thoughts of the locals was great. The end of the book lost interest for me. Still a good read

A fantastic book that really digs into the cultural shifts of not just skiing itself but the mountains that make it possible, and more specifically the towns, areas and resorts around those mountains and the dramatic changes they've undergone over the past few decades.

A very thought provoking book on how skiing has evolved over the years, and what we are going to miss but also gain despite this evolution .