I didn’t say they were comparable to the Sierra Nevada or coastal ranges, was merely trying to understand your “trapped in a flat plane of existence” line.

If we want to go for some real good skiing, Utah or Colorado are short flights and will likely have much better & more consistent snow than CA has for the past decade :)

Having grown up around hill country Texas, it absolutely in no way compares to real mountains :) Only thing I miss about Texas is lower housing prices, but even those are high in desired areas in big cities.

I could fly anywhere, but there's something really nice about driving to the mountains for the weekend

The Sierra are fine if you live in CA, but I would take the VT/NH backcountry every time given a choice. The Rockies are a different story.