washington SNOW (Vancouver, Bellingham, Summit: hotel, job, houses)

[kato1kalin]

hi, im a snowboarder from colorado and im moving to washington, mostly to take weekend trips into canada. I like their coffee shops. Anyways, from what i can gather Mt.baker has the most snowfall. Im used to 300-500inches. Can anyone tell me the snow quality anywhere around that area. My friend is also moving with me and we hardly ever ride the groomers, strickly POW, and some terrain park action.

If anyone can let me know id appericate it. We are really moving for canada but we want the snow still too.

p.s. can anyone tell me what the hotel industry is like? were both hotel workers and so far finding a job isnt hard at all in this industry in any ski community.

thanks, kalin

[pw72]

Make the move. Plenty of hotel opps. Vancouver Olympics coming up. Snow can be wet throughout the western coastal areas, including Whistler.

Bellingham would be a good base. Close to Baker, snowboard paradise, and close to Canada.

[Skytripper]

Yeah, I used to live in Colorado myself but had to get the heck out of that state.
Growth...DESTROYED what Colorado was in a big way, IMO.
As far as snow....(I loved Keystone/Breck...in the day, BTW)....TONS of it up on Baker. Mt. Baker holds a world record for most snowfall in a single seasonin ALL of North America at close to 1200" back in '98-'99... I believe....BUT....the snow up here in the NW....is DEFINITELY NOT like that of Colorado or Utah.
You just don't get the powder here and all too often you can get dumped on with say......5 or 6 FEET of snow in less than a week at the ski areas.....but then the freezing level rises so it will rain on top of that snow.....a pattern repeated ALL winter long!
Then....there can be the sheer hassel of GETTING to the slopes with more snow than the plows can keep up with and chains ARE required to at least have!
BTW....back in May....they were trying to get the road open over North Cascades Nat'l Park and on to the east as this road closes every winter.....they said there was 55 FEET of snow ON the ROAD then (Rainy Pass/Wa. Pass.....over 5,500 ft. el.)... and it would take about 6 weeks to clear it workin everyday!
Whistler/Blackcomb.....is only about 2 or 3 hour drive (depending on traffic and border wait times from Bellingham and they have EVERYTHING imaginable in the way of winter recreation.
2010 Winter Olympics will be there as well!
Yeah....the coffehouses are cool, Gastown and Hastings Street in Van.
Bellingham.....Whatcom County....IS where you wanna be if you stay stateside.....and wanna enjoy the mountains.
Baker IS sweet too!
Applied for a Passport yet?
Might need one soon for trippin out of the Land of the Free.

[kato1kalin]

YUP got my passport. Thats very intresting about the snow, sounds like the east coast, wet your pants snow. As far as baker goes and whistler, we really dont need a resort to go riding. Also the eastern cascades, ive heard get some decent snow. Is all the snow gen. wet?

Our mt.'s are keystone and a-bay! also crested butte when i can get there.

Utah's out of the question, those ppl are nuts! Also not going back to ski the east coast, so our choices were northern cal. or washington.

I agree with you about colorado, I lived in vail for 3 years, not im in leadville.

thanks

[kato1kalin]

can u plz decribe "snowboarding paradise" That to me ispl my age doing what we love. Good community of "real" snowboarders, theres alot of fakes in the vail valley area. A community that dosent want to kick us all out. Job's and reasonable renting. I paid 550 with all ult. in vail, but the average is 650.

plus im going to be doing almost 24/7 filiming for my snowboard vid. So a community of like minded, i know that sounds like seattle, but they dont get snow.

Kalin

[Skytripper]

COOL..... A- Basin....Wow....I forgot about the place for a bit but it was awesome....HIGH altitude fun!
Yeah....Loveland Pass and of course...my personal fav. (Keystone).....I do MISS Summit County!
As far as what you might be looking for..(Snowboarding Paradise).....that has to be a combination of a State of Mind and the fact that snowboarding and surfing are so similar.....one...gotta go where the waves are....or where the snow IS.
It changes all the time....season to season.
Watchin a Warren Miller film at this moment, BTW!
Anyway....there ARE a couple other locations that I KNOW are still quite uncrowded and "snowboarder friendly" AND fairly reasonable rents, etc. with cool locals....BUT...the last couple winters anyway.....just did NOT get much SNOW!
(1). Look into info. on Whitefish, Montana and definitely check out Big Mountain Ski Resort.....AWESOME and still a hidden gem....so-to-speak. It's just north of Kalispell and right by Glacier Nat'l Park.
(2). Another one I like.....Schweitzer Mountain.....just north of Sandpoint, Idaho.....SOOOWEEEET!! You would LOVE this place and it has AWESOME views of huge.....Lake Pend Oreille.

So...if you are willing to look into other areas....I would highly recommend these two.....especially Schweitzer at Sandpoint, Idaho.....TONS of potential!
Just HOPE they get a lot more snow this winter.....last year SUCKED bad!!

[kato1kalin]

thanks, i will look into it. SO much reasearch