Higher Education? Free Condo, Season Pass with 'Ski Bum Scholarship'

Think you’d make a good ski bum? Prove it and Columbia Sportswear just might make your dream come true.

An ongoing video contest, the company’s “Ski Bum Scholarship” will award one creative skier or boarder three months of mountain bliss with a Summit County (Colorado) condo, a fully-gassed SUV, and season passes to some of the best ski areas on the planet.

You also get $50 a day for “food money.” Spend it how you want while enjoying a lifestyle most people can only dream of living.

To enter, the “Ski Bum Scholarship” page has an application form where you submit a video and complete a few lines of text. Wow the world with your case and some ski bum antics and you can live happily ever after (or for about three months, at least).

Last night, we stopped by the Denver premier of Warren Miller’s “Flow State” film at the Paramount Theater. Columbia had a video camera on hand to record attending skiers’ application films.

“Ski bums built our industry,” said Columbia spokesman Scott Trepanier. A rowdy group in 1980s-style skiwear huddled and shouted for the Columbia camera.

For the scholarship, Trepanier noted the brand is “looking for people who can tell us a good story.” Humor and creativity don’t hurt either.

The contest is open for video entries until December 8, 2012. A winner will be selected on December 17, the chosen “scholar” to then ostensibly quit his or her real job and move to Colorado to let the plush and powdery life begin.

—Sean McCoy is a contributing editor based in Denver.