kodokan

Stone skimming lessons on the way out of Glacier. The whole place is like a ridiculous postcard view, everywhere you look.

SultanOfSwing

Lovely. I'll make sure I have plenty of fresh batteries for the camera when we make it up there.

BritishGuy36

I agree with Kodokan, it's crazy beautiful at every turn. Every weekend would be like a vacation. Unless you're snowed in.

Thanks all for your input. Jobs in IT are hard to come by in that area.

I have got some good local contacts and they tell me that the professional jobs there are hard to get because the folks that have them never give them up until they retire.

Maybe I need to change professions. But I'm not trained for anything else.

nun

I rode my bike across Montana last year and stopped in Whitefish before going over the "Going to the Sun" road. The place is spectacular and the people were really friendly, but there were a lot of casually racist comments about the Native Americans that live in MT. I was advised to stay clear of Browning and Wolf Point and while those places were obviously poor I received lots of hospitality there too.

BritishGuy36

Poor is not the word for Browning. It's a terribly run down town. Ironically with one of the best hotels ever (new Holiday Inn Express (and adjoining casino!) on the edge of town).

Since Browning is on a reservation and under sovereign law, not federal law, the locals can get away with stuff that they otherwise wouldn't try. I was well warned about it, and I didn't take it as racist at all. If the crime is there, it's there. But yes almost everyone there is native american.

mrken30

We have a vacancy for a Senior System Engineer that you may be able to carry out from Montana

Bob

Does look lovely...but I'm not entirely sure I'd want to live there. Those winters

scrubbedexpat099

As an side there is a pass not that from me that certainly a couple of weeks ago was impassible due to snow, talked to somebody with a fairly serious Jeep who tried it.

kodokan

<checks calendar, and boggles in amazement>

Where in Colorado are you, Boiler, if you don't mind saying? We spent some time a couple of summers ago camping around Durango, going into the mountains, and there wasn't a speck of snow there.

scrubbedexpat099

Did you go up to Silverton and above? Silverton is at 9300 but surrounded by mountains and high passes.

Nearest place to me that people will have heard of is Breckenridge.

The pass I am thinking of is near Leadville.

kodokan

Yes, I believe so - there's a tourist train that runs through there, I think? Didn't go on it, but drove along some of the route.

We went to a mountain sports resort place which is presumably a ski place in winter, with chairlifts up and then hiking down.

Steve_

Look, all BS aside, I've known people who've lived here their whole lives and they have difficulty hacking it. 25F is a warm day here during the winter, I kid you not. The English language lacks the words. There are big differences between -5, -10, -15, -23, -30 and -40 C. And the fact that I know this should tell you how cold it gets.

-23 is the temperature used in a walk-in freezer, skin freezes in less than five minutes. You literally have the snot freeze in your nose.

It gets too cold for it to snow. Let that sink in for a minute. The air cannot hold moisture, it's too cold. I've literally had my hands freeze to things (namely equipment cabinets, I work in IT too). Steering wheel heaters are a common accessory.

At least in Calgary there is lots of indoor stuff to do but in Kalispell, there's hardly anything.

Don't play down the winters, what Canadians do is sit in the basement with a TV watching hockey for six months.

Steve_

Browning is a dump, that is true. Every time I go through there, I look at all the bullet holes in the sign outside the school and I think to myself, not exactly a well enforced gun-free zone.

Steve_

You've clearly never seen the Berkeley Pit.

The western part of Montana is impressive but the eastern part is ho hum prairies.

The three largest cities in Montana are Billings, Missoula and Great Falls.

Billings is a town on the prairies, there's nothing wrong with it but there's nothing wrong with Lethbridge. Missoula is up in the mountains so that makes it nicer, Great Falls is nothing special but they do have the Missouri River running through it.

scrubbedexpat099

D&S yep, a lot of the route is only accessible by train.

Purgatory is the local ski resort, think they have a more touristy name for it as well.

3 1/2 hours by train to Silverton, mainly up and then from Silverton pretty much anyway else is up again.

Above Silverton is an extreme ski resort.