Living in Seattle?

[olyclimber]

Once every 20 or so years in Seattle you can go skiing from your front porch.

[alicia_h]

You say the job is in "Seattle" but is it actually located in downtown Seattle? Some employers list jobs for Seattle that are actually nearby.

The reason I bring this up is that I live in Redmond and can zip out to Index in an hour easily. There is also the backroute through Duvall that cuts off some time and avoids a little of the traffic.

One more thing, Exit 38 is well described here but what is not mentioned is the north side of the highway that has yet to be well developed. Access is a problem but a resourceful person can get in there.

 

I think it is downtown--the office is near the Qwest Field, is that any good for getting out of the city fast?

 

Thanks for the other info as well!

[alicia_h]

Alicia

 

Seattle-ites are spoiled. There are few towns ANYWHERE that offer quality climbing so close to town, or a climbing season or SKI SEASON as long! Its just that even here we can find things to complain about. But if any one of us were to start talking about New York City? Chicago? Dallas? LA? San Francisco? Seattle has them all beat by miles! Sure each of these places has some redeeming factors, but nothing offers the package Seattle does. Someone mentioned Salt Lake City....SLC is *great* for skiing and climbing, but there are other...ummm....reasons not to live there that you might weigh too.

 

Reality is that if Sheffield is really all that, and you're really so single-sport focussed that the lack of DAILY natural rock climbing would prevent you from moving to a different country and land of volcanoes, glaciers and deep green forests and thousands of square miles of wilderness, then I'd say stay there.

 

I think you're undoubtedly right about NY, Chicago etc, but the thing is, I wouldn't consider living in any of those places no matter how good the job was! So even if Seattle has them all beat, that wouldn't be a factor in my decision.

 

Seattle does sound like an absolutely beautiful place to live. I used to live in Minnesota, which is probably similar to Seattle in that it has lots of wilderness and forests to explore. But I moved on because it was time to focus on climbing, so what I'm really looking for in a city now is easy access to good quality rock. At the moment I've got an enormous amount of world-class climbing 15 minutes from my house! I'd sacrifice *some* of that for a job opportunity as good as the one I've seen in Seattle, but I wouldn't sacrifice a *lot* of that.

 

Thanks for all your input people, keep the thoughts coming!

[alicia_h]

Once every 20 or so years in Seattle you can go skiing from your front porch.

 

When I lived in Minnesota I got to ski to work a few times:) Mmm, I do miss the snow a bit!

[Bug]

You say the job is in "Seattle" but is it actually located in downtown Seattle? Some employers list jobs for Seattle that are actually nearby.

The reason I bring this up is that I live in Redmond and can zip out to Index in an hour easily. There is also the backroute through Duvall that cuts off some time and avoids a little of the traffic.

One more thing, Exit 38 is well described here but what is not mentioned is the north side of the highway that has yet to be well developed. Access is a problem but a resourceful person can get in there.

 

I think it is downtown--the office is near the Qwest Field, is that any good for getting out of the city fast?

 

Thanks for the other info as well!

 

That is downtown Seattle.

At least it is close to the I-90 onramp.

I-90 will get you to exit 32, Exit 38, Snoqualmie pass, really fast.

It is pretty bad for getting to Index after work which is out highway 522 (hooks up with highway 2 in Monroe) to the north of Seattle.

[alicia_h]

Okay, so I'd have good after work access to Exit 32--that could be okay then...

 

Do you happen to know whether I-90 going in that direction will be reasonably driveable at rush hour?

 

(if I do move to Seattle, I will owe lots of you on this forum a beer for all the time you've spent answering my questions! thanks!)

[DirtyHarry]

I would think you'd get sick of x32/38 pretty quickly. I guess its not bad for an afterwork pump though.

 

The real place for afterwork climbing is UW Rock. That's where the sickness goes down.

 

 

Truly a state of the art elite athlete's training facility.

[mkporwit]

Do you happen to know whether I-90 going in that direction will be reasonably driveable at rush hour?

 

If you're not carpooling or taking public transportation then the first 10-12 miles of I-90 eastbound can be a bit of a clusterfuck. Without traffic you could be at exit 32 in ~30 minutes... whereas with traffic it might be an hour.

[Cobra_Commander]

If I lived in Seattle I would lease a used bell 407 to get around.

[Hugh Conway]

If I lived in Seattle I would lease a used bell 407 to get around.

 

if you lived in Seattle you might be able to afford a Bell! Living in Portland a Subaru is a stretch based on the shitty wages and shitty job market underpined by undernourished vegan alternatrash

 

having lived in Seattle and LA metro area, Seattle has way more climbers but LA has far more climbing within 4 hours and its available all year round