Questions about life in washington

clive_bixby

clive_bixby

Active member
whats up washingtonians. so i'm tired of co and looking to relocate, had a few questions about the pnw. we aren't really looking to live in a ski town anymore. with that said skiing is still a huge part of life, (80-100 days a year) so we want to be somewhat close to have decent access to the most amount of terrain. kinda looks like baker is isolated a little up north, would love to live north of seattle, but i wanna be able to have access to other mountains since i have been isolated to one mountain for a while now. Anyways as far as towns are concerned we are looking for a chill spot to be. are there any multi mountain passes? do i have to drive all the time or are there busses? bus passes? I am sure i'll have more questons. help a brotha out!!
 
from seattle the 4 major resorts (Crystal, Snoqualmie, Stevens, Baker) are 1-3 hours away.

For the most part the closer you get to one resort the farther you get from the others.

There are no ski towns. there are small towns on the way to resorts but they limit you to mostly the resort you are close to and there isn't much to do.

there are some bus programs but they aren't that great of a deal.

you can get a variation of passes that give you access to crystal and Snoqualmie, the cheapest is a 400 dollar season pass with 5 free days at crystal, but you can do it the other way around or get a combined pass for a lot more.

what kind of skiing do you want to do? Steep and Gnarly? Big and wide open? Trees? Backcountry? Park?
 
You can submit your application to live here through my office. Of course I'll reject it, but hey its worth a try~
 
Yea we would like to be closer than further away from the mountains. north of seattle looks so sweet. my question is how tough is it to cross the border to go skiing? lots of carpooling? I guess that puts us closer to baker which is alright i guess. crystal looked like a go to kind of mountain. going from a 2 minute bus ride to a 1.5 hour commute is going to suck dick.
 
Where are you thinking north of Seattle? Pretty much in between Seattle and Bellingham there isn't a whole lot going on. Do you know what you're going to do for a job? Seattle is probably the best place for that, but rent is high in the city. Also, from Seattle, it's a reasonable commute to all of the mountains. It is the most central location between them.

Baker (N) 2.5-3 hours, Stevens (NE) 1.5-2 hours, Snoqualmie (E) .75-1 hour, Crystal (SE) 2 hours are all within range. If you're looking a little further, Hood and Whistler are both about 4 hours depending on traffic from Seattle. As Andrew said, there are no "ski towns" like in CO.

 
are you looking for more rural or urban/suburban setting? the east side of the mountains is where it's at for a rural setting and has many options for outdoor activities/places you can go to be in the woods alone.

as far as carpooling/bus transportation HA that's for hippies, the transportation infrastructure here is not an enlightened as other west coast areas like portland/san fran, you need a car.
 
I would still suggest Bellingham. The crowds down south can be pretty unbearable. Crystal actually had to turn guests away because they were so crowded. I absolutely love Bellingham the town is amazing always something going on and it really isn't that bad. Glacier is really close 30 min about.
 
this is what i expected. As far as north of seattle the only place i looked is bellingham. I also looked at issaquah and some other places ne of tacoma. like i said in my first thread, i am over ski towns and i am kind of over hitting up one mountain. stevens and crystal look pretty fun, this is why i would choose to live closer to those than just baker.

As far as a job is concerened I would rather find a place to live first before I went looking for a job. I dont want to tdrive all the time so i was trying to find something that would be somewhat close to me. Probably goign to try and make moves closer to the summer, live there for half of the summer/fall so I can get comfy in the city before the season starts.

as far as access and crowds are concerened, i have a sled as well so i guess i am hoping that there are some rec areas in the mtns (which im sure there are).

kick ass thread so far, thanks for all the help, guys and girl(s)
 
Then you probably want to avoid Bellingham. Issaquah might be a good choice. For sledding, Gold Creek is amazing when the snow is low enough, and getting to the south side of Baker from Seattle doesn't take THAT long.
 
If you are using "size of sled crowd" as evidence persuading him to move to Bellingham, I can assure you that based on population size alone the Seattle area has a far larger "sled crowd" than Bellingham does.

Canyon Creek (on the way to the Mt. Baker Ski Area) is sweet, but the majority of the stuff there requires sunny days and good visibility, which are few and far between. And when the sun does come out, I'd rather go to the south side any day over Canyon Creek. (off of I-5 by Marysville)

This is my first full season in Seattle after spending a substantial amount of time in Bellingham skiing and going to school, and I much prefer being farther south.

 
The amount of sled/skin access around seattle is insane. Not to mention the North Cascades.

If I had a sled I would find a job over in the Mazama/Twisp area and just drive as close to WA pass as I could every day and go.
 
Meh, Baker is really cool in Idea and Believe, but is way over rated. Add in the increadbly large population of snowboarders who fucking rip, and the mountain is done by 1030, the side country done by 1200, and that's on a week day.

At Seattle areas I can ski side country without hiking for more then 5 minutes, for days after a storm.
 
this.

also, the comment about twisp/mazama is so true. I grew up in Chelan sledding out of my garage, riding at Cooper Mtn snow park which is the ridge that separates the Chelan valley from the Methow valley. god damn do I love the east side of the mountains.

It's sunny almost all the time, lots of sno parks (snowmobile trails), but very rural and has a small-town feel for most of the east side.

I lived on the west side of the mountains and I was miserable. The population centers are endless expanses of suburbs, it's rainy all the time, traffic, and
 
This. Although if you want more options to do things/jobs, stay on the west side. Wenatchee is the coolest place I've been, maybe because I grew up in Snohomish, but Leavenworth is also close to Stevens and I love it there, too.
 
It's true the mountain gets torn to shreds before lunch, but the side country/backcountry at Baker is endless. You really must not be skiing the same backcountry because it would have to be a couple weeks without snow for the backcountry to get tracked (which never happens). Swift Creek, blueberry, herman, hermans saddle, table mountain, backside of table, the arm, Ptarmigan ride, baggley lakes, artist point. And those are just a few of the that you can easily get to in a day.

Although i do agree that there is some amazing side country down south.

 
issaquah is bought 25 min form snoqualmie i think(depending on how fast you drive haha) and within reasonable distance to stevens and crystal which is like 1.5 to 2 hours. living wise its nothing like being in seattle but you will get more for your money out hear
 
And you might even learn to spell in Issaquah.

That was to obvious man sorry. But Snoqualmie isn't that great of a resort IMO it has some nice terrain but overall Stevens, Crystal are the better Seattle resorts.
 
Are you kidding?

Issaquah is an overpriced, overcrowded yuppie paradise. I lived there for 3 years and got the fuck out. Unfortunately I still have to go there often, the traffic is fucking ridiculous.

I live in North Bend, 20 minutes to the Alpental lot from my driveway, and 9 minutes to work each morning.
 
your gona find that yuppie stuff any place. and i was comparing the price to seattle but yea north bend isnt bad either

and my bad bought the spelling
 
I enjoyed my stint in Fremont after graduating. Sucked getting to the pass and back, but otherwise nothing to complain about - central for nightlife options, great neighborhood during the day, close to downtown to be convenient... yeah. Rent was kinda bad though, but at least I wasnt living on the Eastside.
 
I love Fremont, but being a couple hundred feet from all those bars is dangerous/expensive. Anyone been to Woodsky's yet?
 
Ya haha. I grew up skiing at Aplental and it just wasn't that great. Sure on a pow day anything is fun. But compared to other ski resorts i have skied at it just wasn't that much fun. This is all my personal preference.
 
fuck yeah twisp is my love. LOUP LOUP ALL THE WAY BITCHES.

but anyways sledding out there is really sick and i know a ton of fun spots. i have a house down in the valley 5 minutes between twisp and wintrop so if you ever wana check out the area hit me up.
 
Same here. Thats what I thought. But then I rode with my brother and Aply has everything there is to offer, you just need to know the mountain. Explore more. I would choose alpental over lots of resorts on a pow day.
 
I'm in a similar situation. I'm thinking about going to school at The University of Puget Sound in Tacoma but I'm not sure about the weather there. I don't mind a little rain now and then but I hear from people that the majority of days are cloudy or rainy? Is the weather really that big of an issue?
 
Washington has the largest rainforest in north america. Obviously it pretty much rains every day. Not sure why youd want to move here. Im moving to portland, I hear its nice there~
 
I don't really consider it an issue, personally. But I've never lived anywhere else, so maybe someone who came up here from like san diego would probly want to shoot themselves. Seattle only gets like 40 inches of rain annually, but thats drawn out over like 200 days.
 
Does Portland get less rain? I'm looking at Lewis & Clark college as well, so Portland is an option. I've pretty much set my mind on going to school in the PNW, so I guess it's Tacoma or Portland.
 
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