Seattle VS Denver - Best City For The Life

[The SnowShow]

All our ski areas are from different roads. I90 has more below snow level grade and is mamaged a tiny bit better. Also, slightly less distances.

Interesting. Are there chain or 4WD laws there, and are they enforced?

What about the other roads to Stevens or Crystal or Baker? How are they handled?

Distance-wise, it looks like Seattle to Alpental is about the distance from Denver to Loveland. Stevens and Crystal are about the same distance as Denver to Copper/Breck or Winter Park (a bit less). Seattle to Whistler is about the same mileage as Denver to Aspen/Crested Butte.

[Lindahl]

Crystal gets chain laws on rare occassions (grew up skiing there)

[Danno]

I wonder how much ski traffic those roads get combined as compared to 70.

[AK47bp]

Awesome thing about Seattle is the access to Whistler, made the drive in under 4 hours once. Once. Middle of the night driving fast as shit.

[Harry]

Or is I90 handled differently than how I70 is handled in a storm or on the weekend??

Washington DOT has a motherfucking Army surplus tank they use on the highway for blasting through during storms. Does Colorado have an Army surplus tank cruising around blasting shit ? No = FAIL by CO.

[AK47bp]

Washington DOT has a motherfucking Army surplus tank they use on the highway for blasting through during storms. Does Colorado have an Army surplus tank cruising around blasting shit ? No = FAIL by CO.

http://youtu.be/FZLfboCceGA

BOOM!

[hatchgreenchile]

We've got Gazex pipes, but holy shit, bring some tanks on scene ASAP !

[Soups]

Washington DOT has a motherfucking Army surplus tank they use on the highway for blasting through during storms. Does Colorado have an Army surplus tank cruising around blasting shit ? No = FAIL by CO.

Yes, basically. We used to have a Howitzer, upgraded it with better technology

[Mofro261]

http://youtu.be/FZLfboCceGA

BOOM!

There's a tank up on top of Summit West too.

[detrusor]

I do the live in PC work in SLC thing. It's 20 minute commute for me. Ski/bike/hike from the door.

IMO Portland is way more fucking livable than Seattle (done both).

Denver, not really in the mountains.

[Bromontana]

A tank by snowbird would add to the soviet feel..

[Harry]

There's a tank up on top of Summit West too.

TANK SUMMARY

WA = 2 (or 3?) Army surplus tanks
CO = zero tanks

[Badger]

Denver has less character, interesting topography, trees, greenery, and has a lot of brown blight a lot of the year.
You know Seattle weather, it ain't for everyone. I'd say people are maybe a little less friendly here too, but not by a whole lot. My wife is fine with the weather and I am too, but I snowboard/kayak so it's great for that. Besides the occasional dose of vitamin d, what I think CO offers that we don't have here is high country living. There aren't mountain towns and it's kind of a bummer. There are way more athletes and people into outdoor sports in the FR, definitely more of that culture there so more people to relate to for sure. CO people are probably funner overall, minus all the bro brah shit.

I think this nails it. 10 years in Colorado Springs/worked in Denver for two. Moved back to WA two years ago, living in Tacoma. Seattle is prettier, better food, better culture culture, less outdoors culture, worse traffic, better economy. Denver is better outdoor culture, much better mountain biking, much better skiing (although access is worse), much more sun, real mountain towns. Beer is a wash, but Washington wines are way better. I really miss having so many friends ready to ride or run at the drop of a hat. The ocean is a huge plus for Seattle.

It's tough. If I had to choose now... it would probably depend on whether I could live in Golden and take the light rail in. I don't think I could afford to live in the parts of Seattle that make living in Seattle worthwhile (Green Lake/Phinney Ridge). I actually really like Tacoma, but the job/food/culture opportunities are not what they are in the big city.

[mtngirl79]

Baker was chain lawed Saturday for non all wheel drives.

[Kevo]

It's important to note that it takes an hour to get from Golden to Denver via lightrail. Shit moves at like 15 miles per hour. It's not really a viable commuting option unless you live right next to the station in Golden and work right next to a station in Denver.

I'm one of the main bitchers in the I-70 bitch thread this week. I moved to CO in 2005 when Colorado had somewhere around 4.5 million people. We're fast approaching 6 million now and the state has changed dramatically. It's really starting to get me down.

If you want to ski pow, definitely don't come to Denver. I really like the maritime feel of the PNW- I've felt a pull in that direction for a long time. I'd take lots of consistent maritime snow over once a month Colorado powder for sure. Ideally I'd live in Vancouver, but I'd probably settle for Seattle if I made enough money to live close to work.

Seeing the housing prices in Denver go up so much has been pretty disheartening. My rent in Boulder has gone up by more than 70% in the past couple years. Home prices in Denver metro are up by about 50% in the past 3 years. Average sale price in Boulder county is up 30% YoY.

I work in Westminster, which is basically a lower middle class community with marginal (OK, shitty) schools located between Denver and Boulder. No one I work with lives in Westminster because there is nothing to do there and the schools suck, so everyone commutes. For some god foresaken reason there are new homes in Westminster being sold for $350 per square foot. Seriously, 2000 sq feet ranch homes being sold for $700k. I have no idea who the hell in their right mind would pay that much to live in a marginal area, but it probably gives you an idea of the insanity of Denver right now.

My rent just went up yet again, so I bought a house in Golden for a little over $500k. I figure I might as well buy something next to good biking and climbing before everything up against the mountains gets prohibitively expensive. I'm not really that happy or excited about it though. It feels like a huge burden to live here these days.

[mtngirl79]

Sometimes I wonder if my simple little life in Bham might not be so bad. Baker is nice, even if its a snowboarders mountain... The community is vibrant, artsy, progressive even if its full of homeless people and hipsters, we have parks everywhere and they are mostly connected by trails, it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says.

Sure, not many get rich here..., but if you don't end up homeless, you can get by..

[hatchgreenchile]

$700K properties in Westminster? Maybe for Thornton Melon.

[Kevo]

I wish I was joking. http://www.calatlantichomes.com/find...ves-5000s.html

[dtown]

Need some more details on what parts of town you want to live? Are we talking North Bend vs Evergreen...Ballard vs The Highlands or Bothel vs Golden? To me that makes a difference in the drive time for sure.

Next I'd look at the fact that you used the term weekend warrior and have kid(s). Do you ski 50 days? 100? 15? What if in 3 years your kid starts playing traveling basketball or hockey, how many days are you going to ski then? I love the argument of using skiing to gauge where to live...I know this is a ski forum but if your a true weekend warrior, I think a lot of other things would rank higher in my list in terms of picking a city, many of them have been listed (property tax, earning potential, RE value, etc).

Then I move into the cultural stuff...food is probably better in Seattle, beer is a wash, Denver has more pro sports teams, Seattle a bit more metropolitan, cost of living better in Denver. Someone said it but I feel the people in Denver are significantly nicer too.

I'd also look at what I can do outside of skiing in a long weekend. Seattle has the San Jauns, Vancouver, Whistler, Portland, Bend and a number of other really cool places within a short drive. Denver has Moab, Telluride, Santa Fe or Grand Junction...all also fairly cool.

Lastly, what do you do outside of skiing? Do you use the mountains to mountain bike, hike, camp etc or only ski? If your other hobbies include stamp collecting or woodworking then we're really only taking about ski days and that would also impact my decision.

If I were in the same spot, I would chose Denver and live in Golden. Outside of our best friends living in the Denver area, it's because of the weather, the "feel" of it being a smaller city, and the people but what the hell do I know, I chose to leave Seattle to move to fucking Dallas of all places. Captain obvious but don't make that mistake.

[phatty]

I grew up in Portland, lived in UT for 7 years for school and now in Seattle area for 15 years. While I can appreciate the weather in Denver, I've never had issues with Seattle weather. Yeah it rains, but that means snow and green in the summer. I live 35 minutes door to Lot 4 of Alpental. The night skiing makes it easier to get in days for a weekend warrior. I have an offer in UT and now I'm facing a similar choice. Even though I'm LDS, I'm not in love with the UT culture.

People have mentioned Portland and it is a great choice as well. Hood is a little over an hour with Bend 3 hours away. It's changed a lot since I was a kid but still has a cool vibe.

[Rontele]

I soured pretty hard on Denver the last couple of years that I lived there. Host of reasons why, but essentially it lost a lot of the charm and convenience that it provided in a very short period of time (lets say the last five years). The traffic situation (non- I-70) is much more challenging and if your commute in any way involves having to go north-south on 25, fuck it -- its just not worth it. I would suspect that the cost of living would still be less than Seattle, however, and recognize that there are few cities in the west where you can be a professional and still have reasonable access to the mountains, etc. Denver isn't pretty as a city -- all of the new construction looks essentially the same and I think each of the neighborhoods undergoing gentrification are coalescing towards that norm and losing a lot of character. That being said, there are an abundance of great restaurants and bars, fantastic weather in the winter (the summers are hot, dry and the sun absolute brutal). The amount of non I-70 rec in the summer blunts the impacts of trying to be a weekend warrior. I've always said that if skiing in the most important thing to you, then SLC is where you should live. After that, it is a series of compromises.

[frorider]

Unfortunately the SLC crew have been bitching about the LCC drive on weekends. I've not had issues with it but I'm just a regular visitor when Tahoe isn't firing.

I've lived in or spent a lot of time in every place mentioned in this thread. Most points have been covered. Some years ago I was able to start working from home and keep my career job in tech industry. This seems to be an increasingly common solution, and done right is arbitrage of sorts, let's you choose a mountain town with best quality of life/recreation for you.

But if hypothetically we had to move to a largish or large city again, and wanted low stress mountain access, truly good resort and BC skiing, reasonable real estate prices, at least some cool bars/cafes/culture scene, bearable heat in summer, then Reno would win out over Seattle, Portland, SLC, Denver, Sacramento, Boise, Leavenworth, Missoula. Just a random list of places I know well.

[hatchgreenchile]

I wish I was joking. http://www.calatlantichomes.com/find...ves-5000s.html

I don't think that's representative of Westminster market at all....300-350K should get it done.

[Danno]

It's funny to hear others say that people in Denver are friendlier. I thought that too, but I was so young when I lived in Seattle that I assumed it was just me. And yes, everyone here does some kind of outdoor activity. Your boss may not be a hardcore skier, but he skis some, or mt bikes, or hikes, or road bikes, or climbs, or whatever, at least a little; everyone around you appreciates recreating in the mountains. I like living in that culture. And it's statewide, generally speaking, even though it may not seem it from TGR there is a camaraderie that exists in being a Coloradan.

As with everything, though, it's what you make of it. There are folks posting here who are bitter about it, didn't like the changes it's gone through, don't like this or that, and there are others who think it's still pretty cool. Every single one of them is right.

I think living in Park City and commuting to SLC would be pretty cool. Just not sure I'd be ok with a small enclave of culture that I like amidst a larger culture I didn't.

[Danno]

and Kevo, you've been holding out on us, congrats on the house! Smile man, that's a cool thing.