Moving to the Boston area

Moving to Boston from Wyoming. I am wondering: for an outdoor climber/skier, where should I go? Good communities, climbing gym, and folks who are up for adventures are a must. Within a half hour commute of Cambridge. Ideas?

Welcome to New England.

Central Rock has a location close to Cambridge, although you may find that the majority of the people there don't really climb outdoors.

As for skiing and climbing outdoors.. You will be spending a lot of time in the White Mountains. There's a lifetimes worth of multipitch trad routes up there, Cathedral and Whitehorse alone have an amazing array of multi-pitch trad routes. You can get your alpine rock fix on Cannon. Rumney is the epicenter for sport. Pawtuckaway in southern NH is the spot for bouldering.

The backcountry ski scene is there, but pales in comparison to Wyoming. Mt Washington is pretty much the epicenter for steep lines, some of which rival anything out there. Enough there to get your fix, and comparatively few people venture into avy terrain in the winter months (spring weekends in Tuckermans are another story).

This may sound silly, but I would try to find a place to live that minimizes the drive up to the mountains. You will be making that drive up I-93 a lot.

PM me if you are looking for more info etc.

East Coast style:

youtu.be/MDYe_kNK7Yc

Find housing as close to I-93 as possible. Go to Metrorock instead of the other gyms - you'll find more "old school" guys who don't mind black flies and back country climbing there. I can drive from I93 entrance to Medford (2 towns over from Cambridge) to the Rumney parking lot in 1 1/2 hours without speeding. It's not too bad. I'm assuming you'll have a car, right? It's true most climbers in metro Boston are gym/sport climbers, but they are a friendly bunch and are welcoming of new people.

Look at that NH pow! Bwahaha.

Thanks for the thoughts. Medford seems good. Has it been "relatively" affordable for you Ming? I'm coming from Jackson prices, so my tolerance has been higher than I would prefer, tho Cambridge and Somerville seem pretty pricey too.

LOL you want Jackson prices? Willing to live in the ghetto/near ghetto? Lynn has $600 rentals :D But you'll have to commute for that. Anyhow, it's not really a rhetorical question :) There are some more working class type neighborhoods in Malden and Everett that may be more your taste in budget, but chances are you'll have to commute more, may have to contend with occasional car break-ins and the like. I use to live in Somerville and really love it but it has gotten expensive. I can't really say that Medford is that much cheaper (it isn't) but at least the rent is not going up up up every year because of the real estate boom like it is in Somerville. The closer you get to Cambridge the pricier it gets, and it's up to you to see what you are willing to pay for the convenience.

And BTW the traffic in/out of Cambridge during rush hour is horrendous. +1 for living closer.

I live in medford (bordering somerville and everett) less than a 10 minute walk to Wellington Station on the orange line (easy commute into the city for my wife and I) and it takes a few minutes to drive to Metrorock. Easy access to 93 to head north. Rent is pretty reasonable for the greater Boston area, but I think anything out here is going to seem really high compared to what you're used to. Maybe someone else can comment on the commute to Cambridge from Medford-I can't imagine it's very quick in rush hour.

Metrorock is a great gym for training during the week. Central rock is nice too, but really hard for me to get to. Most people that I've talked to who climb at BKB aren't crazy about it, but live close by so they put up with it.

There's a lot of quality rock in NH and even Western Mass, but the weather can be a bit disappointing at times (I moved here from Vegas). I was surprised when I moved out here and started looking through guidebooks-they would often describe climbs as "dries quickly after a rain" or "seeps for a long time and rarely dry."

Have you thought about trading a pair of skis for ice tools and crampons?

Hey amigo - send me a PM when you get to town if you're looking to get out...

Ming wrote:Find housing as close to I-93 as possible. Go to Metrorock instead of the other gyms - you'll find more "old school" guys who don't mind black flies and back country climbing there. I can drive from I93 entrance to Medford (2 towns over from Cambridge) to the Rumney parking lot in 1 1/2 hours without speeding. It's not too bad. I'm assuming you'll have a car, right? It's true most climbers in metro Boston are gym/sport climbers, but they are a friendly bunch and are welcoming of new people.

It's not like living in Southern NH is a lot cheaper....All traffic sucks all the time. Living in the area is fine w/o a car, but going anywhere is a pain. and of course ..parking

On the bright side, there are lots of small areas kinda nearby, some really good climbing.

Going to rep East Cambridge here. It puts you a 5 minute bike/drive to BKB (everyone's comments about people tolerating it due to location are spot on - I left for CRG once my initial yearlong membership expired). It's also ~15 minutes to MetroRock, ~15 to CRG Cambridge, ~15 to Rockspot Southie,and ~20 to CRG Watertown. Plus it's 5 minutes from 93 so getting up north is easy.

I'd say Metro and CRG are the best local options for all-rounders (rockspot is bouldering only and BKB is mediocre in terms of climbing and community). If you're living north of Cambridge, Metro would take the top spot due to accessibility. Metro is a bit less polished than CRG in terms of facilities, but my impression (as a non-member) is that it's probably a better fit if you're looking for partners to go on climbing adventures with rather than hitting the usual spots. I don't know where Chris NH's claim of most CRG regulars never getting outside comes from, though (nothing like my experience there).

caesar.salad wrote: This, this, this. Your three major destinations will be Rumney, North Conway, and Pawtuckaway.

Don't forget the Gunks. As a Boston transplant in DC I need to make sure my friends up there never forget to meet me halfway. Really not a bad drive most weekends, and great climbing.

zswan wrote: Why would you leave Farley off?

yyyyup, good sounding beta in all. My girlfriend works at harvard (hence close to cambridge).

Living in jackson, the prices are definitely steeper in boston, but hey! There is housing! We had to build a tent village to accommodate summer workers cause there straight up aren't enough buildings to put people in.

Stoked on learning ice, but I'll never be able to leave the skis behind. And I grew up in New York, so traffic shouldn't be too much of a headache.

Super excited about Cathedral. And traveling back to the gunks.

looking hard now in Somerville, Arlington, Medord and parts of Cambridge. Thanks for the tips crew.

Well, let's get you going..

it's Meffa..AAHHHlington (my wifes home town) Some-Ville

I work in Cambridge (Kendall square area) and live in Brighton. Super easy commute by bike, not too expensive, and decent access to I-90 for getting out of the city. Met a lot of partners at CRG watertown and had no trouble getting outside with them. Shoot me a PM if you're looking for bc ski or climbing partners.

Having just moved to Boston myself 10 months ago, I live, work, and climb right off the Orange Line. The mass transit usually runs pretty well, despite how much people love complaining about it, and a 2-4 hour drive north/west will get you to some fun climbing/skiing areas.

Gyms – I prefer the setting and walls at Metro Rock by far, but CRG although a little harder to get to the T has maybe slightly longer/more climbs and slightly less creative routes/problems (both still fun & nice). I think they wax the walls at BKB, which also use to be way more expensive than all the other gyms, but they are slowly catching up.

Outdoors – I’ve hear the Gunks is world class, I’ve enjoyed pushing my sport leading at Rumney recently as it’s only a 2 hour drive, and Farley/Pawtuckaway, ect other places have lots of cliffs to pinch and pebbles to wrestle.

Ski/board – In my first winter here I went to like 6 different mountains, Stowe in Vermont is sick, but also Sugarbush and others. I went to Wachussetts a few times, nothing very steep at all, but found some deals (cause lift tickets are redonk) and had some good fun with friends there…

I also do not have a car and didn’t know anyone before I moved here – went to a few meetups ( meetup.com/) and met people looking to do climb/ski trips around the gym and such – now I’m going somewhere fun with peeps almost every weekend.

A little expensive, but Boston’s a pretty cool place I think….