Thank you guys.

Oldranger you cover a lot of ground with all western schools! I'm hoping for true 4 seasons, so relable snow (at the school itself) every single year. As you say, this would indicate northern schools. But that still covers a lot of ground!

Any specific suggestions for major north and west research universities within 1 hour or less of major hiking / mountaineering ?

Your point is well taken that this should be down on my list of criteria. Which is why I'm trying to narrow down the 'top 50 / 100' lists of math grad departments. That's a lot of schools to apply to! So I might as well start with those that offer an additional attraction!


@Glenn: I'm a salty old easterner myself. And thanks for the 'young man' as I just turned 40 this month. I hiked the AT in 05 and would certainly consider NE schools, or possibly more southernly schools near the Smokies and such. We walked by Dartmouth on the trail and ran into many of their undergrads on trail. A fantastic outdoors school, but it doesn't even appear in the top 100 math schools.

I'm hoping for some more suggestions to research.

Where else?