Portland ME vs Portsmouth NH

The thing about Burlington vs Portland or Portsmouth is that you can sport climb after 5pm everyday in Burlington but you can't realistically in Portland or Portsmouth.

Sure North Conway rock is better than Bolton VT rock but you have to drive 1hr 45 min from Portsmouth and 1hr 30min from Portland to get to Conway. No matter how psyched you are you aren't doing that at 5pm after working an 8 hour day every day. Rumney is still 2 hours from Portsmouth and 2.5 hours from Portland.

Burlington to Rumney is 2 hours 10 minutes and its 2hr 45 minutes to North Conway but it is only 30 minutes to Bolton with enough sport climbing to satisfy you during the week, and then you can still go to Rumney or Conway on the weekends.

Metrorock is 10 minutes from Burlington and comparable to the new Salt Pump gym in Portland.

JCM wrote: True, but not quite the right comparison to make. North Conway is great for ice and trad, but the OP said sport climbing...so that means lots of time at Rumney. Burlington is a similar distance to Rumney as Portsmouth, but has the advantage of having convenient local cragging also. Also, I would say that if you want trad/ice the Dacks trump North Conway (points again to Burlington).

http://northconwayrockclimbs.com/graded-list-of-climbs.html Everything in red on this list is a sport climb. There's plenty of sport in NH/ME that isn't at Rumney. It's definitely skewed towards the higher end of the grade distribution, to be sure, but there's probably more good 12/13's in that region than there are at Rumney. The guidebook is very frugal with its star ratings so it's definitely quality-sandbagged. Prime example: Mithras at Sundown gets only 1 star despite being amazingly fun.

Burlington is the better town if you're a skier as well...

It depends on how much you like the ocean I suppose.

DRusso wrote:The thing about Burlington vs Portland or Portsmouth is that you can sport climb after 5pm everyday in Burlington but you can't realistically in Portland or Portsmouth.

Shell Pond is what 30 mins from Portsmouth. Pway also 30.

ChrisN wrote: (I still haven't figured out how the state functions.).

Property Taxes...

Shell Pond is an 1hr 45 min from Portland and 2 hours from Portsmouth. Pway is 1hr 25 mins from Portland and 40mins from Portsmouth. Not much sport climbing in Pway either...

oops I meant Stonehouse Pond is 30mins

Lots of great info ---thank you all for the beta! Keep it coming!

I think my gut & heart are saying Portland; however, it'll perhaps come down to where I can find the best job. I will also look more into Burlington, but I think I'd like to be closer to the ocean after being landlocked for 10 years now ;-)

Thanks again!