Hi Terry,
I'm currently living in Colorado (Fort Collins)! There's not to many extropians out here. And, in my opinion, the general population seems to be much more right wing fundamentalists than places like the North East or California and so on. For example, the Christian organization "Focus on the Family" is bassed here and so on. Although some places like Bolder have a higher percentage of more liberal people because of CU...
If you're only looking for Skiing, I'd say Utah would be better. From any large city in Colorado, you've got to drive 2+ hours before you can get to good skiing. Unless you actually live in Veil or something, very expensive for that, unlike the rest of Colorado. With 20 minutes driving you can get to many great ski resorts from SLC.
I guess it depends on what you're looking for. You sure can't beet the mountains for hiking, biking, camping, fishing, hunting, and stuff like that. And yes, good computer programming jobs are easy to find here, at least along the front range.
Brent Allsop