Does it actually rain a lot in PNW?

Hey all, I accepted a job in Portland, OR so I'll be moving there this summer (probably around late-June). It's the best option between what I was offered so it has been a big point of discussion between me and my friends and family, but I wanted to ask the climbers of Portland, Oregon, and the general PNW what they think of the area.

The job itself is a tenure-track academic position, so if I like the area enough, this is essentially where I may want to put down roots. I'm originally from San Diego, lived in a different part of SoCal for three years, then New England/Massachusetts for seven years, then lived in a car/on the road for 1.5 years. During that time, I spent about a month and a half in the PNW and absolutely loved it -- however it was July/Aug so I feel like I don't have a clear picture of what it's really like because it rained maybe once for 15 minutes the entire time. My favorite thing to do is sit and roast in the sun, and everyone who lives in Portland told me the rain and overcast is awful. That genuinely makes me worried because I absolutely despise rain.

Me as a climber, I am leaning significantly less toward hard, single-pitch climbing in general, which is what I used to really be into. I'm far more interested in big alpine objectives, mountaineering, and moderate adventure climbing -- one of the reasons the PNW was appealing. I'm actually a little less interested in pure climbing overall and getting more interested in just general outdoor activities: water sports, UL backpacking, trail running. However, I do want to know what the local crags are like -- I am primarily a trad climber, but I will clip bolts and would like to work on projects. I really do not like bouldering. Is it easy to find climbing partners? How is the climbing gym culture/which gym is the "best" gym?

Additionally, I will probably be one of those people who works in Portland but lives in Vancouver, Washington. WA was my first choice, but I didn't get that position and I still really want to "live" in Washington...so close enough. How's the traffic over the bridge? I heard it can be bad; I don't have a traditional 9-5pm so I may be able to avoid it some days.

So yeah, what are your favorite/least favorite things about Portland and the PNW? How is the affordability? My salary isn't great (academia sucks) but it is survivable for the area if I'm a bit thrifty. I am single, no kids, no plans on kids, but hopefully plan on finding a life partner lmaoooo. How is the social life? I love meeting people and so building a friend base is very important to me. I already know the food is great. :)

Nice to meet you!

Yes, a lot. 

And yet, there may be hope. My youngest daughter recently moved to Portland for her first job, and despite her strong dislike of the weather near Seattle, somehow really likes it down there. 

I suppose it might be the job though. My own experience had been that if you really like your work and your colleagues, then the constant rain probably won't be that much of an issue.

While Portland gets half as much rain as north bend, this rain detail map gives you an idea of how much it rains: https://www.northbendweather.com/wxraindetail.php?year=2022

Portland has more gyms than seattle I think, but you’re probably gonna wanna plan your gym around where you live rather than which is the best. I think the circuit gyms are bouldering?

I ran in college and run a decent amount still and Portland is by far the best place to run. As a trail runner you have forest park (70 miles of trails), tilamook forest, and mt hood are all great places to run. It is the only place I have been passed by multiple people I don’t know and by olympians.

There has been no increase in road/bridge capacity between Portland and Vancouver in over 40 years, which is wild since I remember it as a big issue in the 1990s. Expect heinous traffic and no near-term improvement for that commute. I'm sure someone who does it daily can give you suggested times it takes between suburbs around exit 5 or 7 in Vancouver and downtown Portland, or your university. I imagine that the daily use on the bridges is probably double what I remember as being a huge traffic mess as a kid but maybe the work-from-home movement has helped.

My impression for Portland is that its 2 best styles of climbing are volcano skiing/mountaineering in Oregon, and then single pitch cragging, oriented mostly to projecting pitches, focused on Smith/Trout with a few OK small crags along I-84 east of town (Rat Cave/Ozone/Viento). That doesn't sound like your favorite style, but the ocean is also day-trip distance if you take up surfing or beach stuff, and maybe the variety will still feel awesome relative to San Diego. There are lots of other outdoor things worth considering, with tons of wind and kite surfing, paddling, berry picking, and day hikes. The Wallowas in NE Oregon seem underrated, but probably a bit of a significant drive for a normal weekend. Most of the serious backpackers and climbers into multipitch or backcountry outings and scrambling peaks end up driving 5-7 hours to North Central WA pretty frequently, and the dedicated climbers do the same thing in the summer, when Smith is blazing hot. 

The total quantity of rain/precip isn't as striking as the consistency from late Sept to early May. Frequent minor rain mixed with cloudy days and short daylight keeps things damp between showers. That being said, Smith is in a high desert a few hours east of Portland, with very little rain. So Portlanders often find great cragging when its rainy at home, but Puget Sound area residents, who have a lot more climbing spots along the wet/west foothills of the mountains, actually climb in spots with a similar or worse climate to where they live. (exceptions being low quality single pitches at Vantage and somewhat Leavenworth)

In addition to looking into living in Vancouver, you might want to look at the suburbs to the east, on both sides of the river. Your commute from Troutdale or Sandy or Camas *might* not be much worse than from north Vancouver, but if your recreation plans have you frequently headed to the Gorge, Mt. Hood, the Gifford Pinchot, or Central Oregon, you will start/end the drive already outside the Portland Metro zone.

Yes it rains a lot.

You can change your attitude. If you tell your subconscious "I hate rain" thousands of times that's what you'll believe. If you tell your subconscious, "today's rain is a bummer, but it means things are pretty, the rivers flow, there's more snow in the mountains" it won't be as bad. Similarly with snow, people who live in snow country and don't ski complain and hate it, while the skiers embrace it and you have to dig out and deal with it, but it makes it far less annoying when you have appreciation for it. It will be tough coming from San Diego and SoCal, and of course you'll never convince yourself to love rain, but you can see it as significantly less bad if you try. If you dwell on hating it you'll be miserable.

Embrace what the area has to offer. As mentioned windsurfing/kite surfing, the Columbia river gorge is a hot bed for it. 3 hours to Smith to get to a much drier area with great climbing. 1.5 hours to Mt. Hood Meadows. If you don't ski/board yet learn and appreciate the rain which means snow in the mountains.

The rain doesn't bother me. I actually like it. Portland doesn't have the best of everything. Doesn't have an abundance of any one thing either. But it has a decent amount of most outdoor activities in close proximity. I like living here a lot. Great job opportunities (for me). I like the city a lot. I have been here for a decade+ and don't plan on moving. I never really go to Vancouver so I can't comment on that. I'm also not strong in any one outdoor activity. So I don't need "the best" to have fun.

Mid Dec-Feb: skiing (touring mostly, resort poaching, some actual resort skiing). Driving out to the sisters gets you better snow. But we have enough good days for me on hood. Especially the last couple years. I also make a weeklong trip out to hyalite typically (obviously not near Portland but it's just a days drive). Might sneak in a trip or two to smith if it it's warm/sunny enough. There are a couple close-to-Portland winter crags but I can't, and likely won't ever, climb 12s. 

Mar-May: Lots of trips to Smith. Spring alpine routes on Hood. Spring skiing on hood and around the sisters. Also might visit vantage, Tieton, other sunny crags.

Jun-Jul: More skiing (higher elevation, mostly Hood), some hiking, some long runs, some climbing at the closer-to-home crags.

Jul-mid Oct: hiking, backpacking, running, a few bigger alpine climbing trips to WA, MTB, climbing at the various crags near Portland and Hood.

Mid Oct-Nov: back to smith mostly, sneak some more hiking or running in.

Nov-mid Dec: maybe an ice route on hood, maybe ski, lots of rest

Portland is great. Has everything I want in town and out, especially since I'm not really good at anything. If you're a strong skier, snowboarder, sport climber, trad/alpine climber, ice climber, and/or mountain biker... maybe look elsewhere. If you really like running and hiking and like to dabble in all the activities above, Portland is fantastic. 

This winter may be an anomaly but I will say that there's been only about 1.5 months where it wasn't possible to get out and climb in Jan/Feb. The rest of the "rainy season" has offered pretty regular windows where enough dries out/stays dry that there is good climbing to be had around Seattle (especially if you can get even a little psyched on bouldering). And I think there's been only one or two instances of consistent rain in Seattle for more than one day. Reports of oppressive gray/rain are overblown imo, especially if you're used to NE.

Big Red wrote:

This winter may be an anomaly but I will say that there's been only about 1.5 months where it wasn't possible to get out and climb in Jan/Feb. The rest of the "rainy season" has offered pretty regular windows where enough dries out/stays dry that there is good climbing to be had around Seattle (especially if you can get even a little psyched on bouldering). And I think there's been only one or two instances of consistent rain in Seattle for more than one day. Reports of oppressive gray/rain are overblown imo, especially if you're used to NE.

This winter has had about half as much rain until this last week: 10 Year History . It has been abnormally cold at low elevations tho.

As others have said, yes it rains for a large portion of the year. If you love basking in the sun, you will probably find yourself driving to Smith every chance you get from about October through May. Some spring seasons can be consistently rainy all the way up until early July but even during those years there are usually occasional small windows of dry sunny weather before the rain returns.  We've also had some really great dry spring seasons with warm temps and a lot of sun, although it seems those can lead to low snowpack, drier forests and higher potential for summer fires which are a huge bummer. If you're into Winter mountaineering or other snow sports, it will help a lot with the long dreary winters. It's also worth noting that even during the breaks from rain in the fall/winter/spring months, local crags are pretty much all found in dense forests, so sun is still pretty limited especially on the ground.

Regarding traffic: I live in Portland and work in Vancouver, so I have an easy reverse commute but see what your commute would be like on a daily basis. Mornings are generally worse the later you get into the morning commute - 6-7 or 7:30am is much more free flowing than 8-9am, but in general the morning commute is more hit-or-miss depending on who knows what factors. Evenings will almost certainly be much more of a headache as traffic getting north out of town is consistently bad from about 3-3:30pm to sometimes as late a 7pm - it's rare I see northbound afternoon traffic not at a crawl. If you can't avoid that evening commute I think your best bet is to find a gym in Portland and spend the early evening there until traffic gets better...which leads me to your question about gyms.

I would recommend either Portland Rock Gym or Movement. PRG is an older, somewhat smaller gym with slightly shorter walls and Movement is a newer mega gym, although lately it seems like they've had trouble keeping up with increasing maintenance issues. Movement also can feel incredibly crowded from 5-7 on weeknights. Regardless, Movement is my preference mostly due to how much it offers, but others may prefer the smaller gym feel of PRG, even though it is not really a small gym anymore, and also has a 2nd location on the way next year. PRG members probably skew a little bit older in age, but it seems there are climbers of all types at both gyms - Movement is just on a larger scale. I've never had a problem meeting climbing partners at either gym - people are generally pretty friendly, and you will start to see the same ones at the gym and crags so it feels pretty easy to become friends and start climbing together. I know people at both gyms who are into your types of climbing so I don't think one gym is necessarily better for you in that regard - probably the best thing to do is try each gym out for a month and decide for yourself. There is also a smaller gym in Vancouver but you might be forcing yourself into the bad afternoon commute to get there after work, and I think you would also have a smaller pool of potential climbing partners there.

Lastly, since you asked about our overall opinion: I love Portland mostly for all that it offers just as a city. It's a fun place to live with a lot going for it, but it doesn't feel as intense and overwhelming as other west coast cities which I like. There are a ton of good outdoor opportunities nearby, but the climbing "scene" has always felt pretty laid back compared to other places I've visited. Overall, I think its a great balance between a fun city and all that entails, while also giving you pretty good access to the outdoors.

bryans wrote:

 Living on the east side is key.

100% agreed. I'm in SE and I can get a morning ski in before a slightly late start to work. It's awesome. 

Princess Puppy Lovr wrote:

This winter has had about half as much rain until this last week: 10 Year History . It has been abnormally cold at low elevations tho.

That's since the jet stream / storm track has been hammering CA all winter and leaving you guys alone. I guess I brought the damn wet weather with me from WA when I moved down here!

----

Anyway, to OP: the bridge traffic from Vancouver WA to Portland OR is really bad. One of the big charms of Portland is living in a walkable, bikeable, transit oriented city and not needing a car day to day within the city. Living in Vancouver throws all that away and puts you in a boring suburb with a heinous traffic commute. Don't do that...

For the Portlanders - have you noticed a major decrease in quality of life downtown due to homeless camps/people, trash, drug use, theft, vandalism?

I remember PDX as pretty blue collar in the 1990s and then kinda gentrified/cutsie in the early 2000s, but haven't spent much time there in the past decade. I see random stories like this or the worst events of the 2020 summer and wonder if the problems feel tangible downtown, or if it's media hype and not much change.

REI closing its Portland store due to shoplifting

blakeherrington wrote:

For the Portlanders - have you noticed a major decrease in quality of life downtown due to homeless camps/people, trash, drug use, theft, vandalism?

Certainly not a major decrease in quality of life. I would call it more of a nuisance which is almost always in the back of your mind, but rarely actually affects you. Ya I've stepped over needles and human shit walking through the Pearl. People ask you for money A LOT. There are far more tents on sidewalks and whatnot throughout the city than there used to be, and piles of trash along streets and highways. It's sad knowing how much better Portland used to look (and I've only lived here since 2011), but it's impossible to deny the change is significant in that decade.

Maybe I've just been lucky though - I've never had a vehicle stolen or broken into (I had a motorcycle stolen years ago but that was by a neighbor). I've never been threatened by someone on the street. I know others have so their conclusion might be different than mine, but it hasn't *really* affected me besides just wanting the city cleaned up a bit. Today I would avoid walking through certain neighborhoods like China Town, which I used to do without a thought 10 years ago, but not because of personal experiences but because of stories I've heard.

I live on a quiet street in North Portland which is a popular place for people to stash/dump/transfer stolen cars, so there can be frequent periods of "questionable" behavior going on that we can see from our living room. But again it's never affected me personally in a tangible way besides just being bothersome (I'm sure it's a different story for those whose cars were stolen). I've even called police non emergency a couple times due to things happening on our street and had very fast responses both times, but again other people have had different experiences with that.

TL,DR: at this point it hasn't tipped the scales much to make me want to give up all the things I love about Portland.

Hi everyone! Thank you so much for the detailed responses and keeping it real. I’ll DEFINITELY consider not living in Vancouver based on what y’all said, and look for places in the Eastside (and also just keep ALL options considered, I’m generally really open to anything.) I’m not much of a city person and living in suburban spaces is more my kind of thing.

Wind/kite surfing sounds like an absolute baller of a time, I’d totally try and get into that. I also am a long distance canoeist, and want to get into whitewater, so it sounds like those are great sports to get into here. I’m also a long time snowboarder, so skiing/splitboarding on the volcanos in the winter is another draw to the area.

The comment that struck me the most was Glowerings’: “You can change your attitude. If you tell your subconscious "I hate rain" thousands of times that's what you'll believe. If you tell your subconscious, "today's rain is a bummer, but it means things are pretty, the rivers flow, there's more snow in the mountains" it won't be as bad.”

100%. I tell people this all the time about winter, especially in the Northeast. Winter is my favorite season as I LOVE snow, adore all snow sports and am a pretty avid ice climber but people who do nothing in winter hate it. So thank you so much for putting this into perspective for me. I appreciate the wake up. Rain will give me time to explore my other “indoor” passions, as I have many of those that I have neglected due to an obsession with the outdoors. Perhaps it’s time to find a balance.

As for crime, I’ve lived in some “not great” places for a substantial amount of time so I’m “used” with it. It will be frustrating for sure though. Every city has its major issues and I don’t think Portland is an exception — just an extremely sad part of rising cost of living and low pay increases.

Again, thank you all for the replies. I’m very excited about this move now.

JCM wrote:

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Gotta comeback, I hear some idiots are bolting choss

blakeherrington wrote:

For the Portlanders - have you noticed a major decrease in quality of life downtown

much of downtown kind of sucks since 2020. Not all of it. But it's definitely a lot worse than it was. There have been some improvements in the last year or so but it's still a far cry from what it was pre pandemic.

I think a lot of that is because of the lack of office workers though so I don't really see it going back. There are just fewer people coming downtown so there isn't as much motivation to do anything about it. 

That being said, I think the neighborhoods are as good or better than before the pandemic. And that's where I hang out anyway. So I don't see much effect of downtowns problems in my life. 

A few thoughts regarding your original post-

• Realistically, it "feels like" it rains a lot in the PNW.  While technically the PNW doesn't receive a huge amount of precipitation compared to other cities when measured in inches/volume, the number of rainy days and the streaks of continuous rainy days, only broken up by densely overcast days, can be high around winter.  
• Similar to the point above, there are a large number of overcast days in the PNW, mostly isolated to late fall, winter, and early spring.  Crisp clear freezing winter days are less common here, you're more likely to get cold-ish overcast winter days.  This is often very difficult for people who aren't used to the area, seasonal affective disorder does affect quite a few people when they move here. 
• The good news is that getting into the deserts does make the above much more tolerable, my wife and I have found that we can go to Smith or Vantage nearly every week of the gloomy months (unless we have other engagements or whatever).  I do find that that during the core of the winter though, Smith specifically can get cold enough that it can be uncomfortable to climb.
• The weather actually gets very very nice in the late spring through mid fall.  I always joke that if you want somebody to move here, have them visit during the summer.  
• Big alpine objectives of the PNW tend to be more densely located in the North Cascades (which is around the city of Bellingham, WA). In regard to the big volcano alpine objectives, Portland is very well located.  Seattle, WA sits in the middle, but that also means there is nearly always a drive. 
• Between WA and OR, climbing is nearly year round, which is amazing.  I find myself spending more time in OR during the late fall through early spring, between Mount Hood winter climbing and rock climbing in Smith.  But then I find myself spending much more time in the North Cascades between late spring and early fall.   
• If you haven't already, peek over at the climbing in British Columbia.  While across the boarder, it is still close enough to be accessible by car if you have a few days off.  Squamish and the Bugaboos are really nice.
• I've been lucky enough in life to climb in quite a few locations around the world, and what we have in the PNW is really up there in quality and year-round availability.

Ry C, just wanted to say thanks for un-jinxing our weather pattern. Looks like from Vancouver down to Portland, we'll finally be hitting 70 degrees and sunny this week. (Portland is at 182+ days since last 70 degree day.)

Hi everyone, just wanted to give an update and thank you all for your detailed replies.

I've been here for 3.5 months now! I stated in my original post that I thought I would get here in June/July but I ended up hiking 800 miles on the PCT to Oregon from California and arrived in early September. I ended up living in Vancouver, WA and love it. I only need to come into work 3x/week and my hours are wild so I avoid all of the traffic over the bridge. It's actually faster to drive from my house to work than it is from Portland itself -- also coming from Southern California, peak rush-hour traffic is not bad at all. Originally, when looking for places to live, I found the entire city of Portland to be overwhelming and claustrophobic. I don't like tight streets. The walkability of the city is cool to visit but is actually stressful for me to live in. That said, I really like having Portland so close and I like working there because it's such a cool city with a lot of quirks. The food is great, and the city has character. A lot of SoCal is endless strip malls and concrete so this is really sweet.

One of my main concerns was the rain, but I found that I don't actually mind it that much. It reminds me of New England and I never had a problem with New England weather. I've spent more time painting/making art indoors (rediscovering lost interests), and actively training at the gyms to emerge strong af in the spring. When the sun does come out, I find that I relish it a lot more instead of taking it for granted. I also still go on runs/hike/climb in the rain, blah blah there is no bad weather only bad gear etc etc so I haven't really felt like I'm stuck inside or inactive. I've gone to Bend a few times already and find that although there is less rain there, I really love the greenery of Portland and prefer it to the shrubs and desert of Bend.

My absolute favorite thing about the area is how accessible the outdoors are. Since I live in Vancouver, Ozone/Farside are 20mins away and Beacon is 40mins. The Portland crags like Broughton are only 40mins. I've climbed at Trout Creek (incredible!!) and Smith. I've hiked around Hood several times already, scrambled up St. Helens, and tried to do a ridge traverse in Rainier NP. I've gone on some runs in the Columbia River Gorge during the incredible fall colors, and I hope to invest in a ski touring set up soon. Overall, I'm really pleased how this all turned out.

Thanks again for all your replies from back in April.

Hit me up if you want to do anything. :)

Ry C wrote:

I've been here for 3.5 months now! 

One of my main concerns was the rain, but I found that I don't actually mind it that much. 

Oh you sweet summer child, the rainy season just started. Report back in 5 months when it's still raining.

JCM wrote:

Oh you sweet summer child, the rainy season just started. Report back in 5 months when it's still raining.

Hahahhhahaha fair. I’ll be gone (to sunny and warm San Diego) for a chunk of the winter, but that still leaves me dealing with late winter/early spring.

A bunch of people have also told me it’s been an unusually sunny/warm start to the winter so woooooooop oh no.