Just wanted to update since I read this one. I was initially a little disappointed because the book wasn't so much about ski bum life as it was about the decline of ski bum culture and cheap mountain town living. This is a subject near and dear to my heart since it was one key driver for me moving away from Tahoe (paradise!) in the first place. Here is a copy 'n paste of my amazon review:
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.