Life/Career in the mountains

[Jeffreaux]

It takes zero talent to move to a ski town, run your career into the ditch and leave. And there is no valor in surviving 40 years of poverty working shit jobs just to be in a cool place.

You'll never convince a 12 year old of this but I think the best play is to target moving Permanently to a ski town in your 30's. With college and professional training you can move to a ski town at, say, 35 and stay there - and still be able to send your kids to college. I have plenty of neighbors who tele-commute in writing, insurance, sales, marketing, consulting, engineering, finance, etc.

I lived and played in the mountains in my 20's, painted my career into a corner then left for my 30's, recharged education and career and moved back to a ski town at 40, permanently. There's probably no right answer, other than a trust fund.

[Long duc dong]

. I've found a ton of people move to mtn/ski towns and then scoff at working office hours, but I'd way rather be a weekend warrior/ dawn patroller and easily get 50+ days in then have to work the same or more elsewhere to have enough money to get up here on the w/e's and maybe get 10 or a dozen days

You can live in Southern California and ski Mammoth 35 days a year if you want. I do that and I know others who ski Mammoth 50 days a year. People in the bay do the same thing with Tahoe. You don't need to live in the mountains to ski that much, you just have to be willing to drive a ton and get a ski lease. What you miss out on is being able to ski during the week on pow days if you have a flexible schedule.

I lived in the Tahoe for half a decade between college and grad school. I would much rather live on the beach in Southern California and surf every weekend in the summer and ski Mammoth 35 days a year than live in Tahoe and ski 50 days a year. If I am going to live in the mountains I want to ski 80 days a year. If I could do that as a programmer, ski 4 days a week and work 3 and make good money, I would have considered staying, although I'm really glad I didn't. If you like to ski and surf and are willing to drive, and live on the beach with a 10 minute commute, southern California is hard to beat.

[mtngirl79]

Or you could live in Wenatchee or Spokane or Sandpoint or Bellingham or Yakima or Kalispel or Bozeman or all sorts of places in the Northwest where there are medium size towns that have family wage careers for normal people and have the mountain be less than 2 hours away and stay out of the rat race.

[Conundrum]

Or you could live in Wenatchee or Spokane or Sandpoint or Bellingham or Yakima or Kalispel or Bozeman or all sorts of places in the Northwest where there are medium size towns that have family wage careers for normal people and have the mountain be less than 2 hours away and stay out of the rat race.

Wouldn't living in the mountains be staying out of the rat race of larger communities or cities? I must look at it a little differently than you...

[TAFKALVS]

Or you could live in Wenatchee or Spokane or Sandpoint or Bellingham or Yakima or Kalispel or Bozeman or all sorts of places in the Northwest where there are medium size towns that have family wage careers for normal people and have the mountain be less than 2 hours away and stay out of the rat race.

2 hours??

[mtngirl79]

I was replying to long dongs post about SoCal.

SoCal is not out of the rat race. Lots of smaller NW towns have a "mountain town" feel and easy access to skiing and other good outdoor recreation without the rich assholes and high real estate prices along with access to reasonable, livable careers for normal people who don't have trust funds as a back up plan.

[Conundrum]

Not all assholes are rich and not all richies are assholes. Plenty of people make it and make it well in mountain towns without trust funds. I'm with you though, there are plenty of places with a good attainable quality of life close to the mountains in the NW and you listed a number of them.

[frorider]

It takes zero talent to move to a ski town, run your career into the ditch and leave. And there is no valor in surviving 40 years of poverty working shit jobs just to be in a cool place.

You'll never convince a 12 year old of this but I think the best play is to target moving Permanently to a ski town in your 30's. With college and professional training you can move to a ski town at, say, 35 and stay there - and still be able to send your kids to college. I have plenty of neighbors who tele-commute in writing, insurance, sales, marketing, consulting, engineering, finance, etc.

I lived and played in the mountains in my 20's, painted my career into a corner then left for my 30's, recharged education and career and moved back to a ski town at 40, permanently. There's probably no right answer, other than a trust fund.

Generally similar to what I posted, so naturally I agree. .

Long Duc, I'm not the only career track tech dude in Tahoe getting 100 days of skiing and 6 days/week Mtn biking. The key is to not have kids.

For 8 yrs I did the regular drive from San Diego to E Sierra for 2 or 3 day weekends. It wasn't bad once I got into Mojave, but man it fucking sucked at times slogging thru Riverside/SB. Even leaving work at 1 pm didn't help much.

If someone is a hardcore surfer then the trade off might be worth it.

[RShea]

Hotel and restaurant managment? I don't know anything about it, but someone has to manage all those resorts.

OK industry if you have a personality dealing with people all the time, but can be long hours or shifts that are not conducive to ski or outdoors, unless you can be the third shift help, the busy hours can be morning and afternoon.

[MagnificentUnicorn]

I was replying to long dongs post about SoCal.

SoCal is not out of the rat race. Lots of smaller NW towns have a "mountain town" feel and easy access to skiing and other good outdoor recreation without the rich assholes and high real estate prices along with access to reasonable, livable careers for normal people who don't have trust funds as a back up plan.

I wouldn't put Bellingham, Spokane and Yakima in the same boat as the other towns you mentioned. The idea is right, find a medium to small city with a real economy not completely reliant on tourism and real estate in close proximity to mountains. I can sometimes drive an hour but most of the time I want to drive 30 minutes or less and also be able to access public lands directly from my house. Skip the destination resort towns. For my liking it shouldn't be on an Interstate highway.

[the_flying_v]

I think the idea of moving to a mountain town in your 30s is a good one. I was able to build a solid skill set as a carpenter during my mid 20s and its paid off quite a bit here so far.

Advice from my older ski enthusiast friends are to make a name for yourself and do it quickly. There are a ton of people that want to sit around, drink, and smoke dope and somehow collect a paycheck. If you're able to set yourself apart from those folks it should work out and can be quite lucrative (at least that's what I'm told).

[danmelon]

This article just came up in my news feed. Maybe a bit alarmist, but some good points raised related to the current discussion.

Why Are Ski Towns Seeing More Suicides

http://adventureblog.nationalgeograp...alarming-rate/

[frorider]

Thx for the article. I didn't know this:

Another factor complicating the matter is the way altitude affects brain chemistry. A 2014 study by the University of Utah found a link between altitude, depression, and suicide rates. “At altitude, you get a pretty marked reduction in your serotonin levels. Low serotonin has of course been associated classically with mood and anxiety disorders,” says Perry Renshaw, M.D., a professor of psychiatry at the University of Utah School of Medicine, who led the 2014 study. According to Renshaw’s work, the higher you go....

[PNWbrit]

My advice to kids struggling.

.... beggars belief.

[Name Redacted]

Yeah, wait till your thirties to move to the mountains. That's great advice. You'll be a shitty skier, have a bitch of a wife and 2.4 kids, so it should be no issue what so ever. At least you'll fit right in with that little drinking and pill popping habit you've developed from years of life in the corporate world. I guess you will have botch ACL's intact though, so there's that.

[mtngirl79]

.... beggars belief.

what does this mean?

[PNWbrit]

what does this mean?

it is used to describe something that exceeds the limits of belief.

[mtngirl79]

.... beggars belief.

what does this mean?

[PNWbrit]

what does this mean?

http://grammarist.com/usage/beggars-belief/

[mtngirl79]

being a bus driver is a little like being a bartender. People talk to me. Its kind of weird. Also, lots of conversations to listen to.

[PNWbrit]

No wonder you guys keep crashing into people.....?

95% of people on any bus I've been on in the past 10 years are staring at their smartphones/Kindles and or are wearing headphones.

[mtngirl79]

Im pretty sure WTA drivers have never hit any pedestrians. We actually have the best safety rating in the state.

[XXX-er]

wine in Bali? You are doing it wrong. Then again I guess anything & everything is needed to take the edge off the loud drunk Australians.

Hey yer singing to the choir here, I'm mostly drinking Bintang but gf is a serious wine lover, she will even drink bad wine so I support her when I must

[Bromontana]

Im guessing trust fund babay career path is out of the question, OP

[frorider]

We're talking about a kid.

Read the OP and I think you'll conclude he's talking about when his kid is older than 12.

But yeah, if he's giving his kid advice about moving on his own to a mountain town at age 13, I see your point.