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Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy senior Grant Studness pedaled from Needles, California to Breaks, Virginia over 40 days this past summer. But the 2,382-mile journey wasn’t just a physical challenge. Along the way, the nationally-ranked Alpine skier met with Habitat for Humanity leaders, volunteers and community members to learn how different regions are addressing the affordable housing crisis.
“It felt like the perfect way to combine everything I care about: learning about affordable housing, exploring the country and testing myself physically,” Studness stated.
During the trip, Studness met with Bill Bidal, the executive director at the Greater Albuquerque Habitat for Humanity.
“That’s an impressive young man,” Bidal told the Vail Daily in reflecting upon his half-hour interview with Studness. “Very informed, knowledgeable, sharp (and) aware of the world around him. To have a cause that he was actually on was really incredible.”
Modern day renaissance man
Studness has a lot of irons in the fire, to say the least. The Ski and Snowboard Club Vail Alpine skier was a top-25 finisher at U16 nationals in 2024 and surged to the 29th ranking in the super-G after last season en route to receiving SSCV’s C3 Courage Award. He also helped lead the Vail Christian tennis team to a regional championship and state tournament appearance during his junior season.
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Outside of athletics, Studness founded ‘Tutors by Grant,’ a peer-to-peer tutoring initiative that matches students based on subject needs and learning styles. He also leads Vail Valley Volunteers, which helps high school students find service opportunities with local organizations.
In April 2024, Studness started volunteering with the Habitat for Humanity Vail Valley. After putting in about 50 hours at the construction site over the course of the year, he became curious about how other communities around the country deal with housing challenges. His dad told him his own cross-country bike adventure back in college was one of the best experiences of his life.
“That definitely inspired me,” Studness said. “I’ve always loved biking and wanted to take on a big challenge myself, to see the country, push my limits and build endurance and leg strength for ski season.”
Using the Adventure Cycling Association’s network of routes, he and his dad built a path that utilized the Route 66 option to Missouri before hopping on the TransAmerica trail to Breaks, Virginia. He rode roughly 60 miles a day, with his parents driving a support vehicle. Studness said the hardest part was finishing in time to take part in a pair of Electric Cooperative leadership programs later in the summer. The best part: the trip perfectly combined his passions for physical challenges, public service and research.
Over the last year, he started working on an independent research project with Dr. Ronald Omuthe. The Ph.D. mentor helped him analyze the affordable housing crisis in Colorado by combing through existing research, reviewing state housing data and surveying Colorado residents. Studness said one major finding in his report — which is still being prepared for publication — was that many people don’t understand how affordable housing programs work or how to qualify for them.
“More than half of the respondents were unsure where to even start,” he stated. “This showed me that improving awareness is just as important as building new housing.”
Another discovery was that Colorado is losing affordable housing options faster than its creating them because some housing programs only stay affordable for a limited time.
“This means the state needs to focus not only on new construction, but also on keeping existing affordable homes truly affordable long-term,” he said.
“A lot of Colorado residents supported policies like tax incentives for builders, more accessory dwelling units (ADUs), and zoning changes near public transit,” he continued. “Overall, my biggest takeaway is that solving the housing crisis will require both better policy and better communication.”
The situation closer to home has its own unique challenges.
“There’s such income disparity here, so the need for affordable homes is maybe a little bit greater than other parts of the country,” said Cassie Scales, the volunteer coordinator for Habitat for Humanity Vail Valley. Scales was impressed with Studness’ eagerness to dive into the issue and explore it through his bike trip project.
“I just thought that was a pretty impressive thing for a young person to do,” she said.
While Studness observed factors impacting local families well before his bike ride started, meeting with Bidal helped to broaden his perspective.
“It wasn’t a one-sided conversation,” Bidal said with a laugh. “I think he’d also done a lot of research on what Habitat does.”
In Eagle County, Habitat for Humanity Vail is currently wrapping up 16 units at Stratton Flats in Gypsum.
“We hope to have the last eight families into those homes early next year,” Scales said. “Then we’ll move on to a project in partnership with the school district at IK Bar, also in Gypsum.”
There will be 10 units for school district employees there. Finally, Eagle County will provide $3.75 million in 2026 in a partnership with Habitat for Humanity Vail Valley to further reduce the cost of 10 Timber Ridge Village units in Vail. That will make them affordable for purchase by community members earning between 35 and 80% of the area median income in the county.
In Albuquerque, some creative solutions Studness heard about were the conversions of Old Route 66 motels into housing or the restoration of neighborhoods where water, electric and sewage connections are already in place. Bidal said the discussion also covered the issue on a national level.
“In the last four years, the price of a new home has gone up 57% on average. Interest rates have gone from a little more than 3.5% to, at the highest about a year ago, almost 7%,” he said before adding that the average age of a first-time homeowner has gone from 32 to 44. “Those are just mind-boggling statistics.”
Studness said he was grateful for the time various Habitat for Humanity representatives gave him all along his trip. As he made his way across the U.S., he was also surprised by “how much people care about and want to help others.”
“Whether it was someone pulling over to offer cold water on a hot day, offering encouragement or a Habitat leader taking extra time to talk with me, it showed me that kindness is everywhere,” he added. “It made me want to keep that going — to be the kind of person who helps out whenever I can.”
This winter, Studness is gunning for a top-10 at U18 nationals and achieving a top-50 world age-ranking on the slopes. He’s still finalizing his college plans, but hopes to study urban planning and real estate development with a focus on equitable housing. Bidal, who spent 30 years working for Intel before starting at Habitat for Humanity in 2020, said the advice he gave Studness was to “keep learning, be a voracious reader — which he is — and to find a lot of mentorship along the way.”
“And ask good questions,” he added. “But he already has that gene.”
Reflecting on the questions and answers he received on his epic bike adventure, Studness said what stuck out was how different people live in various corners of the country.
“In some small towns, neighbors really depend on each other, and you can feel that sense of community. In big cities, space and cost change how people interact and even what daily life looks like,” he said. “Being from the Vail Valley, where housing is such a challenge, it made me think a lot about how planning and design affect opportunity — where people work, how they get to school, and whether they can stay in the community they grew up in.”
“Seeing all that up close made me realize housing isn’t just about buildings,” he continued. “It’s about creating opportunities for people to build better lives.”