Moving to Seattle, skiing and climbing!

If i sell the jeep before hand, you can count my ass to not be in WA this next year. I'll just make do with what I have for now and maybe I can meet someoen who has 4WD and carpool for gas with them on the way or spot them into seattle for a climbing gym some days each week.

Either or, I'll figure out what my jeep can handle/can't and judge accordingly.

I'm assuming i'm gonna need chains, but will I be getting stuck a lot with RWD?

If you ski only at Snoqualmie Pass, you'll experience no problems whatsoever with RWD -- in winter, precipitation only falls in the form of rain.

I'll just make do with what I have for now and maybe I can meet someoen who has 4WD and carpool for gas with them on the way or spot them into seattle for a climbing gym some days each week.

And come spring/summer time that jeep with high clearance will come in handy and you can reciprocate.

haha! all very true! but I'd take 6th ave over Front Street anyday. Had to stick up for the hometown

for the record, I live in Greenwater!   which is an entirely different page of life than that of our Tacoma-nite comrades! Maybe I'll see you for a beer at the Naches sometime post xtal, Pete!

Me too. Bought a small ski cabin in the Ranch this summer. Gonna save me a lot of driving this winter.
I'm offfissshially a Xtal local.

163 days!

I'm really excited to get to ski with you guys when I'm there, though I'll probably need some resort time in first to avoid making your 3 hour day turn into an epic 7 hour day.

Me too. Bought a small ski cabin in the Ranch this summer. Gonna save me a lot of driving this winter.
I'm offfissshially a Xtal local.

I saw your car (Pacific Pile?) with the huskie in it outside the Naches on Saturday I believe. I live next to the bar holdin' down the block in Greenwater Proper.

-Trevor

I saw your car (Pacific Pile?) with the huskie in it outside the Naches on Saturday I believe. I live next to the bar holdin' down the block in Greenwater Proper.

-Trevor

Yep, that would be me. Hope to see ya there sometime!

Back to my thread.

When Moving from Austin, TX. I'll be heading up Through NM to Albq, then to Twin Falls, ID then through Yakima to Issaquah.

It being Early - Mid March when I do the move, is there any type of snow stuff that I need to be aware of when doing this? I'm used to driving in TX so dealing with a 12ft trailer + my car and 3 loud cats is going to be a pain and would like to avoid adding 10 hours onto the trip but also want to make it super safe for me and the animals.

Basically anyone know the areas and know if i'll run into any nasty snow roads on the trip? You can google Austin Texas to Issaquah WA and should get you an idea of the route.

One thing, How am i going to fare with my RWD jeep

I'm assuming i'm gonna need chains, but will I be getting stuck a lot with RWD?

The WSDOT requires *all* vehicles to carry chains on mountain roads from Nov 1st through April 1st -- sometimes they extend those times depending on conditions.

That said the number of times I've actually had to put on chains on chains in 50 years of skiing can be counted without using all my fingers.

But learning to drive on snow takes to practice -- I suggest that you do what my dad had me do when I was learning to drive -- head for the Ski Acres / Summit Central main parking lot on a Sunday night when it is snow covered and empty. Then practice accelerating, turning, braking, getting into and out of a four wheel drift. I learned to do this in a VW bus -- when the lot is at all icy it's pretty easy to spin 720's in that VW Bus -- despite the lack of power. Imagine my disappointment when I took my 4WD Honda CRV up and tried to do the same -- it just doesn't want to spin out -- no fun at all.

Back to my thread.

When Moving from Austin, TX. I'll be heading up Through NM to Albq, then to Twin Falls, ID then through Yakima to Issaquah.

It being Early - Mid March when I do the move, is there any type of snow stuff that I need to be aware of when doing this? I'm used to driving in TX so dealing with a 12ft trailer + my car and 3 loud cats is going to be a pain and would like to avoid adding 10 hours onto the trip but also want to make it super safe for me and the animals.

Basically anyone know the areas and know if i'll run into any nasty snow roads on the trip? You can google Austin Texas to Issaquah WA and should get you an idea of the route.

Forget chains... if you hit snow, tie a cat to each rear wheel ( like real skins). Should work just fine and you'll have one cat left!

Forget chains... if you hit snow, tie a cat to each rear wheel ( like real skins). Should work just fine and you'll have one cat left!

you'll be rolling on meow-meows with pussy to spare... welcome to the PNW new guy.

Also since i'll be moving in March, I'm going to need a list of peaks to bag my first year that are wicked fun.

My goal is to get up on Rainier and climb it once a month if weather permits, but i'll still need other peaks to climb (not ski) if anyone here has any good suggestions.

I may take my skis to Helen's but that's about the extent of my skiing (or muir snow field) I don't even feel comfortable going down pan face on skis yet.

There may well be some fun en route for your move, depdends on the weather. Snoqualmie Pass in particular (despite claims that you'll only every encounter rain there - fun for locals to joke about but potentially misdirection for you). But chances are you'll be fine.

If you are into hiking/climbing, you may also want to check out nwhikers and/or cascadeclimbers (should be obvious which slants in what direction, though nwhikers is not only all about trail hiking).

Already on Cascade Climbers and on summitpost too. Never tried nwhikers!

Yeah the only part i'm worried about is the snoqualmie area on I90 but like I said from what I hear it'll be all rain with a SMALL chance of snow or death storm.

Eitherway it's gonna be new for me to be driving on it, plus towing a trailer (never done that before) is gonna be a pain too.

Ordering Chains for x-mas! I may head out on christmas for some skiing at alpental and check out my apt before i move out there. If so, I suggest you all stay the frack off the slopes in front of me or hide behind sturdy trees.

Sure can feel your excitement. I too am looking to travel 2600+ miles to relocate in the PNW. As soon as someone buys my house. When my kid first moved out there I googled Snoqualmie Pass and "Most dangerous roads in the U.S." came up. Made a trip up once in late Feb. and got stuck behind a sander truck that was slippin' and slidin' and going nowhere due to "Black Ice" . 10 min. later,  this happened in the other lane:

seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews...1_webi90crash28.html

You'll be fine.....probably.


BTW- one of the better skiers at Xtal is from Texas

Brian, don't sweat it. Just come up I-5 and you won't hit any passes in Washington.

For the most part, passes are in pretty good shape by mid-March anyway. We've been getting powder dumps until April recently but even if you do encounter a storm roads clear up pretty quick that time of year.

So comign from Texas I've done a few things to help prepare myself and you guys.

First off, I went ahead and changed your flag. Let's be honest, a flag with George's head on it, isn't the coolest flag. So I took, some of the best aspects from the 2 coolest states and made a new flag for you guys and me when I get there.


New flag attached.

139 days until I move, but hey, who's counting?

Amazing work on the flag saxybrian. There's a tremendous need for gifted graphic artists in Seattle.
I think you're going to flourish here.

Tex here is something you need to know since you'll be driving from Twin Falls way on I-84, once you leave Idaho and head up through southeast Oregon going north when you get to La Grande you will be going up Deadmans Pass to come down to Pendleton on the other side and if it is snowing some that pass gets shut down quite regularly due to all the out of state truckers who jack knife their semi-s on a regular basis up there, so depending on the weather you would need chains to cross that in a storm.
Also as suggested if you stay on I-84 all the way to Portland and go up I-5 you will miss Umptanum Ridge between Yakima and Ellensburg as well as Snowqualmie Pass. good luck in March

I can second what Filbo says about I84 being treacherous in winter between Pendleton and La Grande. Might want to bookmark this odot webpage www.tripcheck.com/Pages/RCMap.asp?mainNa...nditions&curRegion=3

I'm not from Seattle but welcome to the NW

Just remember, (A) if you have a cross a river, caulk the wagon and float it; ( Snake bites can be lethal and (C) don't take the toll road at the end...run the Columbia!

Just remember, (A) if you have a cross a river, caulk the wagon and float it; ( Snake bites can be lethal and (C) don't take the toll road at the end...run the Columbia!   

I tend to always play the farmer so I know how to get around pretty cheap! You gotta buy some bullets and take shots on anything that moves to feed the family!


netninja.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/oregon_trail.png

Ok so update.

Got a job in Seattle, will be starting my job 4/30.

So, I'd like to get a bit of skiing in before I start if anyone wants to help a 100% noob at touring out. I'm ok with listening, shutting up when being told instructions and having fun!