Here's the article from the recent OUTSIDE Magazine : How We Ranked Them First, we started with the 100 most populated cities in America, using public data to rank them on factors like cost of living, unemployment, nightlife, commute time, and access to green spaces. Then we took the 28 candidates with the highest overall averages and put them through a second round of number crunching, comparing things like the percentage of the population with college degrees, income level in relation to home prices, and weather. The wild card? Our own multisport factor, which rated each of our finalists on a scale of 1 to 5 for quality and proximity to biking, running, paddling, hiking, and skiing. KEY STATS 617,000: Population (metro) $180,000: Median home price A: Multisport grade 1,200: Number of Olympic athletes who live in town to train at the U.S. Olympic Complex There's a reason 1.3 million people have rushed to Colorado's Front Range in the past two decades: With 249