Andy Searls pets her dog, Beethoven, in her home in Frisco on Tuesday, March 3, 2026. The Syracuse, New York, native inherently loves the snow and fell in love with the mountains, so she started planning to age in place when she moved to Summit County in 2005.Andrew Maciejewski/Summit Daily News
When Andy Searls moved to Summit County in 2005, she was in her late 60s and quickly became involved in conversations about how to make aging in place easier for the community.
Those conversations led Searls in 2018 to help create and become the president of the nonprofit Staying in Summit, which advocates for the creation of a senior living community and lobbies for expanded services.
Taking time to understand common risks of living in the mountains can pay off long term, according to both Summit and Grand residents and those who assist aging adults.
Though Searls, 89, has worked with Staying in Summit to mitigate the challenges of aging in place, the only challenge she has personally faced is having to stop skiing about a year and a half ago after she had a hip-replacement surgery.
“The hip is absolutely fine, and the doctor was perfect,” Searls said. “It’s just my stupid head. It has decided that it wouldn’t be smart to fall on that hip.”
Searls said she has “been lucky” to successfully age in place and hasn’t thought much about going anywhere else.
Medical experts say the best practices for aging in place in rural mountain communities involve physical fitness, mental health, socialization, financial planning and logistics. Both Summit and Grand counties have high costs of living and unique health challenges that come with living at high elevations, but resources are available to help aging adults find success in these areas.
“It never dawned on me that I couldn’t stay here,” Searls said. “I just never thought about it.”
Staying active is key to physical health, fitness
Stand Firm former owner Cal Cherrington, 69, works with his mother, Sara “Toots” Cherrington, 89, during a CrossFit class at the gym in Granby on March 3, 2026.Sean McAlindin/Sky-Hi News
A CrossFit class that meets regularly at Stand Firm in Granby looks different than most across the country. Martin Smith, who attends the 8:15 a.m. class three times a week, said half the participants are over 50 years old.
A 2022 Sky-Hi News article about Cal Cherrington — the then-65-year-old former owner of Stand Firm who won the title of “Fittest Man on Earth” in his CrossFit age class — inspired Smith to visit Cherrington’s gym. Ever since, the now-69-year-old Smith has been working out with a unique group of athletes.
“My carpool and exercise partner is Bob Benzin, who’s 83 and has Parkinson’s (disease),” Smith said. “Of that group, I’m probably the youngest. There are several people well over 70.”
While not all aging adults join CrossFit gyms, medical experts in Summit and Grand counties said staying active is one of the best things adults can do to increase their chances of aging in place. Officials from Middle Park Health and CommonSpirit St. Anthony Summit said aging adults in Grand and Summit are more active than in other places.
“We see a lot of orthopedic cases in people 65 and over,” said Jason Cleckler, the Middle Park Health CEO. “A lot of times it’s somebody (saying), ‘I want to get my knee done because I want to mountain bike this summer,’ or you know, ‘I need my hip replaced, and I want to do it before the snow falls. I want to ski again.’”
Outdoor activities draw people to live in mountain communities, but Cherrington said just living in the mountains requires people to be active.
“It takes work to live here,” Cherrington said. “You cannot go out in the winter without shoveling the front stoop, scraping down the car windshield. It’s not easy, and you have to stay physically active.”
For Searls, being active as she has gotten older is second nature. She has been active all her life and said she has a personality that will not let her “sit home and be bored.” Though she gave up skiing, she still stays active by walking her dog, Beethoven, around Frisco and going to pilates classes.
Andy Searls said she’s been “lucky” to not experience any major challenges while aging in place in Frisco. She’s been careful to plan her retirement, and she stays engaged in the community while also advocating for more services for older adults in Colorado’s mountain towns.Andrew Maciejewski/Summit Daily News
Dr. Rebecca Smiley, the chief medical officer of CommonSpirit St. Anthony Summit, said some of the best things for aging adults to do for their health fall under “general wellness advice.” She listed staying active as one of those important tips.
“If you stop moving, everything is going to become harder for you,” Smiley said. “There’s going to be a decline.”
Smiley’s other general advice included maintaining a healthy weight, eating well and not excessively using alcohol and drugs. For older adults, specifically, she said it is important to think about fall prevention. When people fall, they can get injured, which Smiley said is especially concerning for older adults because they often cannot recover as quickly.
“We’re not like those 4-year-olds who can fall off of a rail and hop right back up,” Smiley said.
Injuries, from falls or otherwise, and illnesses in older adults can cause them to be less active than normal while they recover, Smiley said. With that inactivity comes deconditioning, where people lose heart and lung capacity and muscle mass due to lack of use. For older adults, she said, reconditioning is more difficult, which means one injury can cause longer-term health issues.
While the above graph shows percentages of common chronic conditions for adults who are 85 or older, the National Health Survey in 2022-2023 also found that 7% of those surveyed had no chronic conditions, 12.1% had one, 20.8% had two, 22.3% had three and 37.3% had four or more.Andrew Maciejewski/Summit Daily News
Maintaining one’s “core health,” as Smiley called it, acts as a preventative measure against future health issues. She said regular visits to a primary care physician and cancer screenings are also important for prevention.
“All of that preventative stuff to keep yourself healthy is what’s going to give you the best chance to be able to age in place at altitude,” Smiley said.
Smiley said primary care physicians are key to preventing “serious illness and injuries.” Patients go to primary care for preventative health visits, where they get physical exams and get things like blood pressure and oxygen levels checked, she said.
Smiley and Dr. Maximiliano Smolkin, a high-altitude specialist at CommonSpirit St. Anthony Summit, said using oxygen at night helps those living at high elevations prevent future health issues. Smolkin said that most residents in Colorado’s mountains should use a liter or more of oxygen each night and that the lack of oxygen is the main health challenge of living at high elevation.
The lower oxygen levels in mountain communities like Grand and Summit can lead to hypoxia, or a condition where organ tissues do not receive enough oxygen, Smolkin said. Hypoxia can lead to body parts that have acclimated to high-elevation working less efficiently as someone ages, Smolkin said.
For example, Smolkin said hypoxia can lead to heart and lung issues, like pulmonary hypertension, which is high blood pressure in the arteries in the lungs and the right side of the heart. That high blood pressure can then lead to more complications, he said, like congestive heart failure, a condition where the heart cannot pump blood well enough to sufficiently supply the body.
“If the problem is the lack of oxygen, I’m going to fix it by using oxygen,” Smolkin said.
Socialization improves mental and physical health
Mary Layton reaches for a domino while laughing with Meredith Van Dyne, left, at the Summit County Community and Senior Center on Tuesday, March 3, 2026. The group regularly plays together and also participates in other Summit 50 Plus events.Andrew Maciejewski/Summit Daily News
Cleckler said aging adults should also look to stay connected to their communities and socialize to maintain good mental health. He said isolation “can be a real challenge,” especially in more rural communities like Grand and Summit.
Cherrington said he believes the secret to battling aging, besides fitness, is community. While Cherrington and Smith may find community through CrossFit, other seniors look for it in different places.
The Summit County Community and Senior Center provides space for Summit 50 Plus, an organization that focuses on building community among adults. President Philip Mervis said people can have a harder time making friends as they get older, so his organization provides spaces for aging adults to meet one another and create friendships.
Mervis said there are some medical studies that show people with strong social connections have lower risks of cognitive issues like dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.
“There are so many different health benefits of gathering everyone together, making them more connected, and providing programs that are of an interest and value and provide information to our aging community,” Mervis said.
The organization’s main goal, Mervis said, is to improve the quality of life for those over 50 in Summit County. Residents of any age, however, are welcome to join the group, as it offers standard memberships for those 50 and older and supporting memberships to those 49 and younger.
Marilyn Scholl, center, looks at the playing field while talking with Nann Pearce, left, while preparing for another game of mahjongg at the Summit County Community and Senior Center on Tuesday, March 3, 2026. Socializing has been proven to improve health outcomes in all ages, according to the World Health Organization.Andrew Maciejewski/Summit Daily News
Dr. Briony Catlow, the director of the University of Denver’s Knoebel Institute for Healthy Aging, said social isolation negatively impacts the mental health of people of all ages. Catlow said social isolation can lead to worse outcomes from medical treatments for chronic health conditions, and aging adults are more likely to have such ailments.
Social isolation, Catlow said, can lead to negative mental health outcomes, like depression and anxiety, and impact physical health, as well.
“When you’re not plugged into community, you can lose your sense of purpose, you can lose your drive to live, and you kind of lose that initiative to get out and about,” Catlow said. “There’s plenty of data that shows that the way that we interact with others absolutely impacts our health.”
Social isolation and loneliness among older adults can increase their risk of developing negative health outcomes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Andrew Maciejewski/Summit Daily News
Searls gets out of the house regularly by playing bridge at the senior center. She said she has been connected to the senior community in Summit since she moved here in 2005, and she likes that a wider range of adults are welcome at events through Summit 50 Plus.
“I find it a very welcoming group of people,” Searls said. “No matter what their ages are — if it’s, you know, 45 or 75 or 90 or whatever.”
Summit 50 Plus charges members $25 per year to participate in its programming, which includes events ranging from weekly community dinners to a winter games event with skiing and ice skating competitions. The organization also has a wide array of groups that meet regularly, including ones for games like bridge, informational ones like a safe driving class and social ones like a happy hour book club.
In Grand County, aging adults can visit Middle Park Health’s Wellness Center in Kremmling for movement classes, yoga and other active socialization opportunities. They can also visit Grand Seniors in Granby, which is operated by the nonprofit Mountain Family Center.
Grand Seniors puts on some events, like bingo, at its Granby office, and plans events at other Grand County locations and businesses. Sun Outdoors, a resort in Granby, hosted the group for a bowling event in January, for example.
High costs of living require financial, life planning
Andy Searls’ home features wider-than-usual hallways and doorways in case she ever needs to use a wheelchair or walker. The home was also designed so that everything she needs to live a quality life is on the main floor.Andrew Maciejewski/Summit Daily News
Another key to Searls’ success staying in Summit has been her home. She said the middle of her three sons, an architect, designed it and made sure it was built with unique specifications in mind.
The house, Searls said, has more than one floor, but everything she needs is on the main one. If stairs become a challenge, she does not have to use them. She also said the house has wider-than-normal doorways in case she ever needs a wheelchair or walker.
“I’m very lucky,” Searls said. “I don’t need any of that.”
Aging adults who find it difficult to maintain and live in their homes as they get older have a few options. A new company, Honeycomb, assesses homes and suggests ways to improve their safety for older residents. The company partners with contractors to make sure the work is completed well and operates in several mountain communities, including Summit County. While it has not officially started offering services in Grand County, founder Maggie Gannon said the company looks to expand there soon.
Finding housing geared toward older adults can be another solution for those having a hard time maintaining their homes, but it can also be difficult. Grand County has senior housing developments in Kremmling and Granby as well as an assisted living development. Fewer housing resources for older adults exist in Summit County, which is part of the reason Staying in Summit organized in 2018.
Bob Brocker, the founder of AgeWise Colorado, said assisted living and other levels of continuing care communities are usually expensive. The Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Studies reported in 2024 that, nationally, only 13% of people 75 and older could afford to live in an assisted living facility in their area. But with proper financial planning, many residents can afford to live in facilities in Colorado mountain towns.
In Colorado, the median costs for long-term care monthly are $6,070 for assisted living, $7,270 for memory care and $3,498 for independent living, with home care costing $40 per hour.
Cliffview director Karrie Sellke wrote in an email that the assisted living center’s current monthly rates are $4,100 for a single room and $7,060 for a double occupancy room.
Timberline Adult Day Program employee Michael Klepper helps a client, Pat Sutherlin, on Tuesday, March 3, 2026. Having a financial plan for services or potential use of facilities is a key strategy for aging in place in Summit County.Andrew Maciejewski/Summit Daily News
“These rates are typical for assisted living in rural Colorado, often reflecting staffing, utilities, meals, basic care and daily supports,” Sellke wrote. “The price range at Cliffview is providing full-service assisted living, not just room and board.”
Megan Nuttelman, a Frisco-based financial planner with Mission Wealth, wrote in an email that there is “no magic number” for planning a retirement in Colorado’s mountains. The key, she wrote, is understanding that living in the mountains can be more expensive than other places, knowing your priorities and planning accordingly.
“For some, more modest aspirations make a mountain retirement possible because they’re happy enjoying the outdoors and keeping things simple,” Nuttelman wrote. “For others, priorities like travel or dining out require greater cash flow and a different level of planning.”
Many people who want to age in place also prioritize planning for options that don’t involve living in a facility by talking with family and friends about receiving in-home help as they age, in case it’s ever needed.
Because Searls’ son Paul lives with her, he can help her with any challenging physical tasks, like clearing snow from the driveway in the winter.
Aging adults not in senior-specific housing who need help with physical tasks can receive assistance from local organizations and companies. Grand County Public Health in Grand and Lenka’s Loving Care in Summit provide nonmedical, in-home assistance services. Summit County also has Timberline, which provides adult day care services and respite to full-time caretakers. Prices are based on the individual’s circumstances, so residents are encouraged to begin talking about costs and planning ahead.
These and more organizations and services aim to help aging adults stay in their communities as long as they want. Smith said his philosophy on aging centers around doing whatever he can to prepare himself for challenges he may face as he gets older.
“You can’t control when you’re going to die,” Smith said. “What you can control is how healthy you live and how prepared you are for the years — the inevitable years — when your body’s going to start to fail you.”
