It was a hard-fought battle against a host of tough competitors. In the final tally, though, Colorado Mountain College collected the most votes in Elevation Outdoors Magazine’s 2018 Top Adventure College contest.
The nine-year-old magazine features outdoor sports, health, fitness and adventure travel in Colorado and the Rocky Mountain West. At the start of the annual collegiate contest, the magazine chose as competitors 32 colleges and universities from seven Rocky Mountain states.
Through online voting, schools competed against each other, elimination-bracket style. After five rounds, the competition narrowed to Colorado Mountain College facing Boise State University. The CMC Eagles triumphed, earning bragging rights and a new moniker.
“CMC is a natural choice for the Top Adventure College,” said Doug Stewart, the college’s director of marketing and communication. “We are located in the middle of Rocky Mountain recreation.
“Several of our programs – like ski and snowboard business, outdoor education and ski area operations – lead to careers that celebrate an active outdoor lifestyle,” he said. “We find that our students are drawn to this rare blend of outdoor beauty and personal, practical learning.”
“It’s easy to see why Colorado Mountain College picked up top honors in this year’s poll,” stated Elevation Outdoors’ contest announcement, emphasizing the college’s numerous educational opportunities in outdoor recreation and natural resource management, and its proximity to numerous year-round adventure-based locations.
Across its 11 locations, CMC provides students with these and even more choices to learn how to care for, work and live in the outdoors. The college offers continuing education classes, certificates and associate degrees in outdoor education, avalanche science, natural resource management, professional fly fishing, environmental science and studies, wilderness emergency medical services, ski area operations, and ski and snowboard business as well as a bachelor’s degree in sustainability studies.