Best place to live in Washington for backcountry skiing

[skimore]

What do you do for work OP? Your wife?

Wife is in medical field and I am in purchasing.

[skimore]

How close to b/c do you want to be, drive-time-wise? Are you looking for the gnar, solitude, what? How close to water does your wife want to be? What kind of work do you want? Hugh's right, far-eastern WA (Spokane, Colville, Chewelah) or even N. Idaho (Sandpoint, Coeur d'Alene) might be worth a look for you. Plenty of vacant back country in NE WA and N. ID.

Wife wants to be pretty close to the water. I was thinking an hour or so from water and an hour from backcountry would be a good medium, if all else lined up.

[GoldMember]

Well, you might want to look at Spokane or Coeur d'Alene. The water is right there (Lake CdA and others) and there's a strong medical cluster in Spokane. Purchasing jobs are pretty transferable so there should be opportunity there, too. Lots of b/c opportunities east of CdA in Lookout Pass area as well as north in the Selkirks. CdA is only 30 minutes from Spokane and, obviously, vice versa. Lots of b/c in NE WA as well. Not many people participating and like I said, plenty of room to roam in the mountains. Interior B.C. is not far away, either if you want to take weekend trips up and hit areas like Kootenay Pass or the like.

[brutah]

in my experience, colorado and washington have completely different backcountry skiing scenes.

to the OP, have you skied in washington before? because you might want to fly out to washington and see what its like out here before you move. check out some areas in the PNW..... other places you might want to consider would be wentachee and leavenworth. maybe bend, oregon....i know its not in washington, but its pretty similar to colorado

[shafty85]

Move to Colorado.

[skimore]

Move to Colorado.

Thanks. Been here for a long time

[MagnificentUnicorn]

Wife is in medical field and I am in purchasing.

Move somewhere in the Wenatchee Valley anywhere from Wenatchee to Leavenworth. You will have tons of BC skiing options with or without a sled and water activity on the Wenatchee and Columbia rivers or you can scoot up to Chelan. White water, flat water or water/jet skiing is very popular. I have friends that live in Leavenworth pretty much just for the bc skiing and whitewater.

Always good jobs for medical professionals in Wenatchee and sometimes Leavenworth. You should be able to find a job in purchasing either in healthcare or one of the big fruit packers plus a myriad of light industry.

Housing is usually cheaper than Bend and it's less crowded and not as dependent on tourism outside of Leavenworth. Wages for good jobs in the Valley aren't that far off Seattle Metro but the cost of living is cheaper.

I've been here 11 years now and love it. Its a great place to raise kids, has good schools and has a real economy unlike most mountain/ tourist areas/towns.

Of course you could do what everyone else does and move to Bend.

[skimore]

Move somewhere in the Wenatchee Valley anywhere from Wenatchee to Leavenworth. You will have tons of BC skiing options with or without a sled and water activity on the Wenatchee and Columbia rivers or you can scoot up to Chelan. White water, flat water or water/jet skiing is very popular. I have friends that live in Leavenworth pretty much just for the bc skiing and whitewater.

Always good jobs for medical professionals in Wenatchee and sometimes Leavenworth. You should be able to find a job in purchasing either in healthcare or one of the big fruit packers plus a myriad of light industry.

Housing is usually cheaper than Bend and it's less crowded and not as dependent on tourism outside of Leavenworth. Wages for good jobs in the Valley aren't that far off Seattle Metro but the cost of living is cheaper.

I've been here 11 years now and love it. Its a great place to raise kids, has good schools and has a real economy unlike most mountain/ tourist areas/towns.

Of course you could do what everyone else does and move to Bend.

I will look into that area more. It might be more what I am looking for. I was hoping to find something on the west side of the sate more but I keep hearing that the eastern side and central have good options. Good to hear about the schools and jobs, some of our main concerns. Not a bad drive to the sound area from that area? Where do you fly out of, Seattle? Do you receive much snow or is it mostly up higher?

[MagnificentUnicorn]

I will look into that area more. It might be more what I am looking for. I was hoping to find something on the west side of the sate more but I keep hearing that the eastern side and central have good options. Good to hear about the schools and jobs, some of our main concerns. Not a bad drive to the sound area from that area? Where do you fly out of, Seattle? Do you receive much snow or is it mostly up higher?

The access to touring from places on the east side of the mtns. is way faster and easier than the west side. Usually it's faster to get to places like Steven's Pass from the east side too. There's a reason that people who are incorporating skiing and other outdoor activities into their daily lives move to areas like this. There are exceptions and people do manage to get out daily and live on the west side but it's less convenient given the weather and travel times. Also people from the west side are always coming over here for outdoor recreation. People here go to the west side for the city experience.

It's about 2 1/2-3 hours to Seattle area depending on traffic. You can get to the Sound faster if your heading north of Seattle over Steven's. These time are from Wenatchee, it will be shorter if you live up valley. You can drive to Seatac, but I usually bite the extra cost and fly out of Wenatchee to Seatac on Horizon. I don't really travel anymore though because everything I want to do is here. In Wenatchee it can snow a lot but usually we get a foot or foot and half and it will stick around until the beginning of February. Leavenworth can get a lot more snow some years and usually has more snow and longer than Wenatchee. What's nice is that even without snow, no shoveling, the snow is never more than an hour away and usually about 15 minutes. About half the years I can ski the foothills in town from the middle of December to the end of January. Overall the weather is great with four distinct seasons. Lots of sunshine, most of the precip falls between Nov. and March and is usually snow. Once you get down to Wenatchee and the Columbia Basin it is a desert, less than 9" of precip.

[PNWbrit]

Aaron makes a very good case for living on the eastside if you can make the small city thing work for you.

[dtown]

Having lived in both cities I'd ask what the priorities are outside of BC? I have a family as well and while skiing is a priority, so are schools, healthcare etc. I lived in Ballard in Seattle and was less than a mile to the sound and never took me more than an hour to get to the steven's area for a tour (just gotta get up early). 'Hood was great but schools suck. Having never lived that close to saltwater was cool to see our kids explore the tides and things that come with the beach. The dungy crabs are awesome, get a crab pot the second you move there.

East side of Seattle has some of the best public schools in the country but you're in the burbs. The city is much bigger and more metropolitan than Denver IMO...also the people in Seattle aren't as friendly as in the Mile High.

If you like the idea of working in the metro area but smaller town living check out North Bend or Maple Valley. Skiing is ~20 min away, mountain biking, hiking and fishing is right out the back door and you're in the mountains. Drawback is schools aren't as great as the metro area, gotta drive to work and elevation isn't high enough for it to snow all the time so winter months can get rainy. Think of it like Evergreen is to Denver but without The Little Bear....even a little theater in NB that shows ski and fishing movies for what it's worth.

Good luck, thought Seattle was a great town for a family.

[Hott Butt Mud]

Gotta say this. Preface: I hold no loyalty to CO. Not from here, just live here. I guess it is home now, however.

When I visit Washington I don't like how it seems to be always cloudy. There aren't as many good views. Seems like you get stuck in deep woods all the time without large big sky views. There aren't as many access points to the mountains as CO and the people just seem weird to me. I think Denver/CO gets a lot of Midwest transplants which brings a very unique perspective to the party atmosphere and excitement for the mountains that I'm not sure WA has.

[Jonathan S.]

If you're not tied to being near lifts then there are a few more options although Job and City might start to be an issue and some are more limited without a sled - For instance the eastside of Cascades.

I think that would describe where a friend just moved: Winthrop!?!
Ditched the crazy old wife, waited until both daughters were off at college, took an early retirement buyout at work, and moved with his girlfriend.
Part of the attraction for him is the 200+k xc skating network.
But he says his homesite has a north-facing thousand vert line.
Although sure will make his former Boise look cosmopolitan by contrast!

[auvgeek]

Washington sucks. Nothing to see here. Move along.

[shroom]

Washington sucks. Nothing to see here. Move along.

i believe we're past that point here. come as you will; just another fish. plus, i need a few more people to buy into the market at these levels so i can in turn buy it from your lender for .5:1 when things get weird again in a few years.

[MagnificentUnicorn]

I lived in Ballard in Seattle and was less than a mile to the sound and never took me more than an hour to get to the steven's area for a tour (just gotta get up early).

Are you really claiming that you drove from Ballard to Steven's Pass in an hour? That's almost 80 miles with a good portion just getting to the freeway and with driving through the stop lights of Monroe and slow downs in Sultan, Goldbar and Startup, add some snow above Baring. It would be almost impossible to make it in under and hour and a half and that would be with no traffic and good weather.

[kevino]

Always interesting to see what people have to say in these sort of threads. I've lived in Redmond, Alpental, Ellensburg, Wenatchee and Spokane. I'm a big advocate of not living on the west side of the mountains for a couple of reasons: I like four seasons (and sunshine throughout) and less people in the mountains. Wenatchee and Spokane are two spots I'd live again for sure due to their proximity to mountains and good trails. While Wenatchee had some of a water scene as Aaron pointed out, there is a real big water going population in the Spokane area, especially with Lake CDA and the Pend Orielle. Demographics of these two areas are of course going to be significantly different. People will be quick to point out how bad Spokane is, but there are lots of really nice neighborhoods with good schools. And with your wife's career in mind, it probably is the second best medical community in the state behind Seattle (and less residents and med students). Wenatchee has a good medical community, albeit much smaller, though it is a regional hub, which adds to the interesting patients.

As far as backcountry skiing goes, Wenatchee is a good location. Close to Blewett and Stevens Passes, with a lot of mountains in between and all types of touring (treed, high alpine, etc). Spokane is different in that your best backcountry skiing is about 75 minutes away and not actually in WA. On the flip side, you will pretty much never see other people out. My first winter there we jokingly complained we never had to break so much trail before.

I could keep rambling on but I'll stop here since I should stop procrastinating. If you have more specific questions I'd be happy to answer. I work in medicine so I could probably help answer some of your wife's questions/concerns as well.

[dtown]

Definitely wasn't longer than 75-90 min (would leave around 430am) but thank you internet police, I got over my tips. Point is, wasn't the 2 1/2-3 hours it takes to get to Vail area from Denver on a weekend.

[dtown]

Gotta say this. Preface: I hold no loyalty to CO. Not from here, just live here. I guess it is home now, however.

When I visit Washington I don't like how it seems to be always cloudy. There aren't as many good views. Seems like you get stuck in deep woods all the time without large big sky views. There aren't as many access points to the mountains as CO and the people just seem weird to me. I think Denver/CO gets a lot of Midwest transplants which brings a very unique perspective to the party atmosphere and excitement for the mountains that I'm not sure WA has.

Would agree with all of this...except there's an inversion at times where the coast is cloudy and you get above the clouds on a tour.

[MagnificentUnicorn]

Would agree with all of this...except there's an inversion at times where the coast is cloudy and you get above the clouds on a tour.

And that really only applies to areas west of the crest. It's surprising how many people think all of WA is like the Puget sound area when 2/3 of the state is dry and much of it desert.

Sorry, I wasn't try to be the internet police but I grew up on the west side and know how much time it take to get around. So, "never more than an hour" really seemed optimistic to me. Steven's Pass is about 60 miles from my house but I couldn't get there in an hour although that's how long everyone says it takes. I almost never go that far though because there is great touring to be had much closer and tons between here and there.

Kevino, what do you do? Did you work at the hospital or clinic in Wenatchee?

[shroom]

Always interesting to see what people have to say in these sort of threads. I've lived in Redmond, Alpental, Ellensburg, Wenatchee and Spokane. I'm a big advocate of not living on the west side of the mountains for a couple of reasons: I like four seasons (and sunshine throughout) and less people in the mountains. Wenatchee and Spokane are two spots I'd live again for sure due to their proximity to mountains and good trails. While Wenatchee had some of a water scene as Aaron pointed out, there is a real big water going population in the Spokane area, especially with Lake CDA... People will be quick to point out how bad Spokane is, but there are lots of really nice neighborhoods with good schools. And with your wife's career in mind, it probably is the second best medical community in the state behind Seattle (and less residents and med students).

you keep that to yourself man. really though, I'll probably head back that way to raise some youngins down the road. quality of life over there can be outstanding if you're making anywhere near six figures.

[SB]

DC does not have shit for BC skiing, go to the other Washington.

Your welcome.

[Hugh Conway]

I think Denver/CO gets a lot of Midwest transplants .

Washington, esp west of the crest, seemed to have many transplants from the upper midwest - Minnesota, Wisconsin.

driving home from steven's/leavenworth on a weekend... took much longer than an hour.

[MagnificentUnicorn]

driving home from steven's/leavenworth on a weekend... took much longer than an hour.

Do you mean to Seattle? I/we don't know where your home was.

[wooley12]

Good advice. Where is your favorite place to tour for the day?

You wouldn't like it. Last year my favorite tour started with a ride up the Silver Fir chair. YoYo'd it. My tours are different than most that post here. I'm lucky as I get to ski with and listen to some of the best skiers, alpinists and guides in the Cascades. People who have done it all. Wife and I shed it all to go on vacation for the duration and came here with skiing in mind, but the final location was dictated by family connections. Landed our PERFECT rental via a TGR thread. Lots of good, first hand advice by others here. I'll add that weather in the west central isn't general like east. Lots of micro climates here. We live in the temperate rain forest 20 min from the skiing. Rains less further west. Rains all winter on my roof but that's snow on the mountain.