Living and climbing in Bellingham, WA

Hey guys. I'm trying to figure out where to live after I graduate in a mere 3 weeks. I'm wanting to move out west and WA is a place I have always liked and thought about living in. Bellingham has caught my eye. I want to live in a place with some good after work (granted I find a job) crags and then some great weekend climbing as well. I would prefer trad but climbing is climbing. Nothin is as bad as south west Georgia!

So my question is.....Does Bellingham have a good climbing community. Do you all have any other recommendations of good places to live and climb cheaply. I would really appreciate the help. Thanks, Slaton

Do you like the rain? Epic climbing along with epic precipitation...good bouldering.

I lived in Oak Harbor for many years and my experience is when its not raining, its a pretty place...it rains a lot!

No decent crags nearby. Squamish is a couple of hours north, Index is a couple of hours south. Darrington is an hour away, but it rains there even more and some of the approaches are epic.

My vote in the Northwest would be in teh Redmond/Bend area.

shhhh....Bend sucks. No climbing there ;)

I dont know what you do for work but you should check out Leavenworth, WA. Its two hours east of Seattle. East of the Cascades is key for dry rock. Leavenworth has tons of granite up Icecicle Canyon for after work. And tons of alpine granite North and South. I used to drive up four hours from the south to climb here all the time. The baverian theme of the town is a bit much!
Reed

Bellingham is beautiful. I went to school there and moved... because I couldn't find a job there.

I will vouch for the rain. Get GOOD rain gear. None of that pansy water resistant stuff. Or just get used to being wet. Before you move, make damn well sure you don't get seasonal depression. If you are prone, you will be dealing with it 6 months out of the year... not much winter sunlight. Not as bad as Alaska, but daylight is limited.

When sun does come out, Squamish is a few hours to the north not counting your wait at the border. Then there are the North Cascades. Just know that for climbing, everything will involve a roadtrip (more than an hours drive), unless of course someone has put up a route along the glacial beauty of Mount Baker.

Climbing community? I did live there 18 years ago, before climbing was rad, yo. I'm pretty sure there will be a good climbing community to tap in Vancouver (45 miles to the north).

In sum, if your priority is climbing, maybe B'ham is not the town to move to. If climbing is your priority, move yourself to Salt Lake City. The Wasatch has so much after work climbing potential, it'll make your head spin... and you are more likely to find a job in a larger urban area like this.

I went to undergraduate in Bellingham and loved my time there. The climbing community is smaller than a lot of other places you could be, but it's decent. In addition to the excellent climbing within three hours, there are a couple of predominantly sport crags within about 45 minutes, although neither are fantastic. Feel free to PM me if you have more specific questions.

The American Alpine Institute is based in Bham. Neat city with a lot of neat people. I'm not a city person, but would love to live there. Mount Erie offers some good climbing and weekend trips to North Cascades are less the 3 hours away. Mount Baker offers mountaineering oppurtunities as well. Also, don't forget Squamish, only about 2 hours north!

I live in Bellingham.

If you move here you probably won't find a job. College grads have always struggled to find permanent employment here and unemployment is pretty high right now. Two of my neighbors are recently laid off and the biggest employers, university and refinieries, are looking at significant cut backs.

But if you do this is NOT the place to find good afterwork cragging. There are two crags that might suffice. Mount Erie is one hour away and offers decent (but not great) single pitch cragging.

Baker crags is 45 minutes away and offers one small, generally dank wall of sport climbs.

Any climbing scene here is highly segmented (fractured?) I think due to the lack of a local climbing area, a decent local climbing gym and the long, wet, dark winters.

Index, Darrington and Squamish are all at least 2 hours away (100+ miles) and really require a full day.

And the rain....while there are certainly the occasional winter days you can get out on dry rock I'd say the season for cragging really goes from mid-april through mid-october for cragging and then it's really hit or miss with the exception of July through mid-September.

Try the front range (Boulder, CO area) 300 days of sunshine and the potential for world class cragging 15-20 minutes from home. SLC has already been mentioned as well.

In WA the Leavenworth area would be the best but I'm not sure what the employment situation is other than serving bratwurst to tourists.

This is an old thread but I decided to comment in case others from Bellingham are looking for climbs. Consider checking out Big Rock. It's a short drive from Bellingham and has about 10 SP routes. Most routes are easy to moderate and well protected. It's a short 10 minute approach and offers an alternative to Erie, Baker Crags and the stuff around Larabee. Some really good beginner sport leads as well.