Most folks can't handle the weather out here, its bad enough in Seattle or Portland, once you get into the hills a little ways, or skip past the end of the Olympics or Vancouver Island it gets really nasty.
And by steep we mean steep, nothing you got in England even comes close. Maybe parts of Scotland, but even then there is the 5000' elevation gain in a little over half an hour (less if your in a crummy (less still if its payday and you're in a crummy)), on windy dirt roads. Temperature drops with the elevation, and the weather is completely unpredictable, could be sunny and 70f at sea level, and rainy and 40 on the landing, in june...