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I'm not completely sure about the traffic thing. The highway up to Big Cottonwood Canyon (Park City, Solitude, Brighton, Deer Valley, UOP, The Canyons, etc.) is much bigger (4 Lanes each way, I wanna say). Then you've got Little Cottonwood Canyon with Alta and Snowbird which splits the traffic with more than half going up BCC and a decent number going the other way up LCC. They do have issues with the road up LCC getting closed from accidents (and blasting, too). Apparently they will even enforce chain/snow tire laws (for all cars) sometimes, too.
There's tons of terrain up there even if you don't ski. Snowbird is sick with 3,000 vert off the tram and then you've got BCC, which all seemed pretty good for boarders too (I don't board, though, so I'm no authority).
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"The world would be a better place if everyone kayaked."-Brad Ludden (Valhalla)
"You only get one chance to run a drop blind."-DD
I'd keep Seattle on your radar, but it really depends on what you're looking for. It's definitely the most expensive of the towns mentioned, but there are plenty of jobs in I.T. up here. Other negatives are traffic, gray winter skies, and it's expensive and time consuming to fly out of there. Everything else is great.
The skiing can be year round up here if you like to skin up volcanoes, but I don't do that since there is tons of year round paddling within an hour of here. There's little traffic going to the ski areas and my local hill is an hour away. There is also good night skiing so afterwork sessions are pretty easy (I've had my share of knee deep nights). The terrain is pretty varied and for the most part, more interesting and technical than summit county. The snowpack is usually one of the biggest in the U.S. and the snow quality is actually pretty good. It can be wet sometimes, but that helps with stability and bc safety. If the snow sucks, I usually just go paddling.
The winter's are gray, but mild (it's been in the 50's and partly sunny for the last couple weeks up here) so I prefer them over freezing my ass off all the time. Scenery wise, this place blows away both slc and denver imo. Summers have the best consistent weather I've ever experienced. PM me if you have any other questions.
Snowbird is the shit. Plus, i think alta is ok to "ride" You just cant use the lifts. It is after all on natl forest. "this land is your land this land is my land......"So if you really wanted to push the issue, you could ride the tram at Snowbird and hike over the top and down alta slopes. Take the shuttle bus down to the bird and do it again. But I dont see why you would need to.
My two cents- The Durango area has a growing service based IT industry that is constantly looking for help. Some of the local companies that are in the area are Mercury Payment Systems-credit card processing...Verint-security information...Fort Lewis College..Mercy Regional medical...some web based medical info sharing (sugical teleconferencing). Manufacturing is mainly beer and chocolate. The pay scale is lower than some and the housing,while not cheap, is less expensive than Seattle and Cal. The skiing at Purgatory (Durango Mountain Resort) is fun and Wolf Creek is an hour away. Summers are insane here with just about anything fun outdoors you can think of. Downside (maybe not) it's far from a decent sized airport for escape to tropical vacations, but it's where many travel to for their dream vacations. Good luck in your search! This should be a great oppurtunity to find adventure. Let us know where you end up.
well, it's a choice of equal evils. salt lake has horrid smog but great snow. denver has decent snow, less smog, and the I-70 mania. I can't speak for Sacramento or Reno but i'm sure they're jacked up in their own special way. go where the money is, suffer for the next ten years, and then move to B.C. (not beaver creek). or, admit that chasing the almighty dollar is a soul-sucking sacrifice that rarely ends in happiness and move to a secret mtn. town w/ >350"/ year and great boating in the summer and truly live the dream rather than chase a myth. we're on this planet for ~70 years. do meaningful work and have fun. money should be a distant third.
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