BritishGuy36

Hi all. Been back on this forum a bit lately after not visiting much for a while (sorry ), I know you didn't really miss me.

Anyhoo. We went on a crazy road trip this May/June (6600+ miles). Started in Southern Ohio and drove North West until we hit Minnesota, then across I-90 until we hit Montana. Dropped into Yellowstone then came back up Northwards and drove around Montana for a week.

The result is that we now really want to move to Western Montana. Ideal place would be in the northern part of the Flathead valley (Kalispell / Whitefish) really close to Glacier National Park, which is stunning. Definitely don't want to live in a big city like Billings. The mountains are where it's at.

We are sick of the summers in Ohio, 90F+ days for months in the summer, and humidity so high you feel like you're swimming when you're walking around outside. We love the snow and the extended cold so the further north the better - and Montana fits the bill here and is beautiful.

Anyone living near there on the forum? Any tips on living or finding work there would be appreciated.

I got laid off recently so I am concentrating my search for another IT job in that area. I am experienced (18+ years) in wired and wireless networking, servers, email systems, Windows networking, virtualization. I am not a programmer or web developer.

A few pics from Glacier National Park attached.

scrubbedexpat099

Have you been there in the Winter?

Steve_

Well I don't live that far from Kalispell, I go there pretty often.

As Boiler points out the winters are harsh. They're essentially the same as the winters in Calgary except it's a little bit more humid because of the lake. So basically, October is like a British winter, November is a bit worse than a British winter, December is extremely harsh and January is even harsher. February is like December and March is a bit choppy, some days it is really cold and other days so-so. Not until April does the weather really improve.

Have a look at the prices on hotels from October through March and you will see what I mean. I've stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Kalispell for $99 and right now it's showing $217 for mid-August!

Missoula makes more sense than Kalispell if you want to live there, it's further south so the winters aren't quite as bad but they're still pretty bad. At least you can escape quite easily by driving west down I-90.

Honestly, all manliness aside driving on the roads in Montana during the winter I've started crying at points in the past because the stress of doing it is enormous. That's how bad it is. Like, virtually zero visibility for hundreds of miles. It's very windy so you get snowdrifts that suddenly whip across the road. People put plows on the front of their pickups.

If you go up I-15 through Monida, there is a fixed sign around mm 178 in Idaho that is permanently flashing saying "strong winds ice ahead". Then there is a sign that says: "when flashing Exit 14 to emergency shelters". It really is like Ice Road Truckers. I didn't even see those signs until about the fifth time I did it because they were covered in snow.

And some of the accidents I've seen happen, OMG. One guy coming southbound on I-15, I was northbound, he went straight off the road through the middle, fortunately his car plowed into a snow drift before he came up on the other side and hit me! Brown trousers moment. Saw a massive pileup on I-90 eastbound through Butte once and it wasn't even snowing that hard.

Not that I'm trying to put you off or anything. Thing you have to remember is that it snows more in April and October because it's warmer. If you really want to scare yourself, try driving down Hwy 89 between Carway and Browning during the winter. In Montana they put crosses next to the road to indicate fatalities and on stretches of Hwy 89 there are bunches of them at every corner.

As far as jobs go, in northern Montana, the USAF is the main employer, Missoula has the university and there are a fair amount of mining jobs. Other than that it seems to be mainly tourism to me.

One time I was on I-15 really early in the morning and I overtook a really long USAF transporter, wide load, loads of USAF humvees with SPs in them. I reckon it was a Minuteman III missile. Never overtaken an ICBM before.

So yeah, lovely place during the summer, winters not so much. You could always be a snowbird and buy a place in Phoenix which is what a lot of people do.

Maybe not that bad but it still gets humid here. Lots of thunderstorms during the summer. Plus, less likely to have AC.

Steve_

Okay, so look at this picture, which was taken southbound on I-15 coming up to the Monida Pass... and then pause for a moment and realize that I took it on April 26th.

As you can see from the picture I had to pull in behind this guy pulling his trailer because my car had no grip - and my car was AWD.

BritishGuy36

Yes I realize that the winters are crazy cold and harsh. But I've always been a freak as far as cold tolerance (yes, I can be outside at 0F and I enjoy it). It takes temperatures below about 25F before I need long pants.

I realize they measure snowfall in feet there in Northern Montana.

But it's something I want to do, if I can find the work.

morpeth

Quite agree the weather in southern Ohio ( south-east or south-west ?) is atrocious in the summer, and the winters while less snow than Pacific Northwest, is pretty dismal. Add to that the dismal economic prospects, and worsening social conditions, moving to Pacific Northwest makes sense.

While western Montana I agree can be quite lovely, I would suggest maybe you consider the Panhandle of north Idaho. If you want more city-type living , Coeur d'Alene, if you want small town living the very unique town of Wallace,Idaho is worth considering. I found weather much better in northern Idaho than eastern Montana ( perhaps the Cabinet mountains form some sort of barrier to certain weather conditions).

Best bet workwise would be Missoula or if in Idaho commuting to Spokane. But if I were in IT I would bang on the doors in Seattle for work than could be done over the internet.

mrken30

The company I work for has several offices in Montana. We employ over 1000 IT staff. There are always vacancies and you can choose to work from 1 of 7 states. You may be required to work for a few weeks from and Oregon or Washington office initially. Drop me an IM if you need to know more

SultanOfSwing

Well, Glacier National Park has just made my list. Actually, all the National Parks are on it but it's moved up closer to the top. Looks absolutely beautiful there.

I looked at the picture before reading your description, and was thinking to myself 'well that looks like Chicago in February' until I saw the date it was taken

I should have guessed really, I visited my mate in Alberta in April a few years ago and there was still over a foot of snow on everything in his town.

BritishGuy36

Make plans to go when the Going-to-the-Sun Road is fully open. That's usually late June to September. It's the road that cuts right across the mountains.

SultanOfSwing

Usually when we plan trips it is during that period anyway, so that's a plus

kodokan

We did that drive last summer, in early July. It was entirely stunning.

SultanOfSwing

Holy crap, you're not wrong.

kodokan

The entire state is absolutely beautiful. Here's the view at a campsite we stayed at near Kalispell, pitched right alongside the river.

I wouldn't live there, though. Judging by the abundance of fire 'n' brimstone billboards, it'd be too uncomfortably too socially conservative/ religious for my taste (and this is from someone who lived quite happily in an entirely Mormon area of AZ for years!). But maybe it's a little more relaxed in the larger towns; we mostly did the backwaters.

kodokan

That was one of many casual snaps from the car window, using my phone. The light there is amazing; it makes every picture look like something fantastically high-def taken with a 4-figure priced camera.

SultanOfSwing

It's beautiful. I'm definitely adding that park to our 'within the next 5 years' list.