What is the best affordable ski resort/mountaineering, climbing town?

I live near Vedauwoo (literally at the end of Vedauwoo road) so I consider moving every winter...after all, windchill was -38F this morning when I woke up. Then summer comes and I forget all about it until the next November...

Anyway, I did some "average home price" research (2009 from city-data.com) on some towns, will record it here for posterity so I can look it up next winter:

Jackson $532,439
Boulder $477,700
Ft Collins $248,500
Reno $245,000
SLC $242,400
Colo Spgs $213,800
Ogden $139,900 (can that even be true?!?)

Plus, the skiing in the Wasatch is just unreal...

Walt Barker wrote:..yeah I just got priced out of Jackson Hole this fall, fun while it lasted though! Check out Logan Utah, I loved it. Went to school there. Lots to do and close to SLC if you need to get your urban thing goin' occasionally....Logan's not too far from Jackson, either! -cheers

+1 Nice brewery and "The Beav" is great with great backcountry access. Pretty close to City of Rocks, Idaho, for summer climbs.

Thanks for all the input. It's funny that this discussion is about Jackson Hole and the inventor of "Mountain Project" has a huge house in Jackson and I believe owns the Enclosure Rock Gym there too...an exceptionally nice person as well.

No one has mentioned Ridgeway/Ouray though. That is kinda surprising. I am not sure I would want to live near SLC...it seems kinda smoggy there. This is a tough decision. Its really hard to touch the access of the Tetons. I still have not had the time to look at some of these towns in depth. I am working 10-12 hr days 6 days a week and its wrecking me. I think that the greater population of Americans have the idea of Work then Die. Or Live to Work rather Work to Live. Either way I haven't had the time to do much.

not climbin' much anymore wrote:Coeur d'Alene, Idaho is a great town. For some reason, I like it better than Boulder, Gunnison, and Whitefish. I've lived in Boulder/West Denver and Coeur d'Alene; I've spent a lot of time in Gunny. I got rained on the week I was in Whitefish. Coeur d'Alene: warm summers, lots (and, lots) of climbing, lots of natural lakes/streams, lots of mountain biking, more ski mountaineering than you can manage in a life time (only 4 hours north to the Great White North/Canada), and Schweitzer is a great mountain. One (maybe two) problem (s) with Coeur d'Alene: jobs and housing. My feeling is that most of the jobs are low paying/hourly, and I feel like rents/home prices have gone up since I lived there. All-in-all prices are likely to be much better than Jackson/Driggs. Try Spokane, if northern Idaho is too expensive...I feel like prices are going to fall off pretty fast as you move away from the Coeur d'Alene/Spokane. I'll move back to Coeur d'Alene someday.

What's the ski access in Coeur d'Alene? Where is it? Glacier National Park? Is it a quick drive to the park then 5-8 miles to a summit ski? It took about 3-4 hrs to skin to the Meadows in the Tetons. That put you in the Grand Nez Perce circuit. Also, you mentioned climbing. Are you referring to sport climbing? Alpine?

The ski area in Sandpoint is great. Schweitzer mountain.

Allen Hill wrote:The ski area in Sandpoint is great. Schweitzer mountain.

I've looked at the ski map and all though its no Jackson, there does seem to have potential...and quite a good vertical drop. Is there any OB skiing from the lifts? Also, what are the mtns like up in that area...they seem to be about 6-8k feet high. Is there Alpine Climbing and ski mtneering in those hills?

Salinas, CA

OK, I'm not sure if anyone is still reading this little blog but noone has mentioned Ouray/Ridgeway area. It's about 40 minutes to Telluride and 1hr to Silverton, 3 hrs to moab, and ice climbing everywhere....am I missing something about this place or do people just don't know about it?

athan wrote:OK, I'm not sure if anyone is still reading this little blog but noone has mentioned Ouray/Ridgeway area. It's about 40 minutes to Telluride and 1hr to Silverton, 3 hrs to moab, and ice climbing everywhere....am I missing something about this place or do people just don't know about it?

good jobs are tough to come by in dgo, but they're really gonna be hard to find in ouray and ridgeway. just too small. the climbing is great all around ouray (many folks from dgo drive up to ouray regularly through the winter to climb...), but it's hard to live with no work. of course, it depends on what you currently do for a living as to whether or not my statements are valid.

I figure you could pretty much count on having to drive at least to Montrose for work. It can be done, but it's not a lot of fun to have to drive a ways to work.

I live in dgo, and I drive 75 miles (one-way) to my awesome job.

It looks like skiing is your focus, but if you decided to give up some on that side, Asheville is about as fabulous as an "outdoor town" as you can get in the East, especially if you have the kayak bug too. Housing is plentiful and reasonably priced, jobs are not hard to come by, and the independent nature of the downtown scene puts out a great vibe. We do have some Ice in the winter, but the closest you can get to ski mountaineering is cross country on the Blue Ridge Parkway. I ski to Waterrock Knob about 10 times per season via the parkway and it is wonderful. The ski areas around here typically open in Nov and close around right now. My Cataloochee pass cost me $160, and I'm almost always the only one on tele gear when I go. I miss the big mountains of WA now and then, but then spring arrives and I'm on my road/mountain bikes, kayaking in the GSMNP, or climbing at Linville and I quickly forget that.

My family and I (5 and 2 year old) just moved from Jackson to Bend, Oregon. We had spent 8 years in Jackson, and with our oldest child starting kindergarten - we decided it was the right time to make the move.

We're climbers before skiers, and the (rock) climbing in Jackson is really quite poor. Yes you can access the City of Rocks and Lander, but with small kids it just doesn't happen much.

We love Bend. Climbing in TShirts in January, and skiing powder (ok, heavy powder) the next day..... and it is an AMAZING town for kids. I don't think there is a more kid friendly town in the U.S. The entire town is setup for kids and there are great schools.

You give up the big mountains in Bend, but in exchange you get great weather, great climbing (trad and sport), world class mountain biking, and acceptable skiing. And all this is packaged with a huge infrastucture for families and kids. Want to go to the crag with your kids? There are five other families in your neighborhood to go with!

Oh yeah, and houses are DIRT cheap right now!

Good luck with your search!

Andy

ps. When thinking about your next home town.... be sure to consider how your family needs will change in a few years. We travelled out of Jackson extensively in the off season with young kids, but once our son started kindergarten that was no longer an option - hence the motivation to move. We wanted to live in a town that was a great place all 12 months of the year... and as everyone knows, there are 4 rough months in Jackson! And of course, schools are critical! In fact, it may become the most critical decision for you in a few years....

Consider this a vote for Ouray/Ridegway area. I'm a life-long Coloradan, and I've always thought this would be the place to retire. I love the area. The Sneffels range reminds me of the Tetons a little bit, especially with the way Mt. Sneffels dominates (like the Grand). Like you, I had to leave Jackson Hole after several years of summer jobs in the park and a two-year full-time stint in Teton Village. I can't think of an area I like more in the country, but it's just too expensive. The hiking in the Ouray area is endless, and there are many alpine climbs nearby (not to mention ice climbing). I just assume there aren't many jobs, though. It can be a zoo on the summer holiday weekends, but it might be worth it. Sadly, it isn't an unknown area anymore, so the housing prices might be little higher than you'd expect.

T.C. wrote:It looks like skiing is your focus, but if you decided to give up some on that side, Asheville is about as fabulous as an "outdoor town" as you can get in the East, especially if you have the kayak bug too. Housing is plentiful and reasonably priced, jobs are not hard to come by, and the independent nature of the downtown scene puts out a great vibe. We do have some Ice in the winter, but the closest you can get to ski mountaineering is cross country on the Blue Ridge Parkway. I ski to Waterrock Knob about 10 times per season via the parkway and it is wonderful. The ski areas around here typically open in Nov and close around right now. My Cataloochee pass cost me $160, and I'm almost always the only one on tele gear when I go. I miss the big mountains of WA now and then, but then spring arrives and I'm on my road/mountain bikes, kayaking in the GSMNP, or climbing at Linville and I quickly forget that.

I've lived in Boone, NC for a spell... I think if kayaking and rock climbing is your bag (and humidity), asheville is the place. Also, there is incredible fly fishing under an hour drive from Asheville. The east seems to be over run with people and trash though.

Durango sucks ;-)

athan wrote:OK, I'm not sure if anyone is still reading this little blog but noone has mentioned Ouray/Ridgeway area. It's about 40 minutes to Telluride and 1hr to Silverton, 3 hrs to moab, and ice climbing everywhere....am I missing something about this place or do people just don't know about it?

Everyone knows, it's just an expensive resort area with limited employment opportunities. Also, Red Mountain Pass between Ouray and Silverton shuts down whenever it snows, so, no access to the best ski area in the state on the exact days you want to be there. At least that's what I have heard from locals, maybe I'm wrong.

richard magill wrote:But Eldora isn't a huge ski area either...you could get bored with it if you want big. And Nederland might be just as pricy as Boulder... does anyone know?

Yeah, ned is comparably priced to Boulder, maybe a little less expensive, but gosh darn if it ain't literally the windiest, nastiest place to spend a winter in the state. I grew up skiing at Eldora, it's fun, there are good trees, a tiny bit of decent o/b, MASSIVE crowds on the weekends, and really good snow maybe a handful of days a year. After moving back down to Boulder from Summit County, I tried to deal with Eldo and fighting my way up I70 to Loveland, but screw that. I basically just don't ski much anymore. DO NOT move to the front range if skiing is really important to you.

If skiing comes first I would look outside of the USA for maximum pleasure, better terrain and more affordability.

If it must be the USA, then Anchorage is only 45 minutes to Alyeska and you would be in Alaska at least.

First choice is the Alps for skiing but if Canada works, you will find more enjoyable skiing there. Or maybe I should say a more liberal approach to the use of the skiing in these places.

Good luck in your quest

Lakewood's pretty cool. 35 min from eldo, 5 min to I-70, 1.20 to rmnp, a few crappy jobs, schools, medium hot chicks with feathered hair and cigs., 1.30 splatt, 7.30 to JH in summer,4.30ish to ouray...12 min to Broaderdam...

Sure, I'll throw in a plug for Ridgway/Ouray. I "spend most of my time" over the hill in the Magic Kingdom: Telluride. If you've made it this far in a mtn town, then you can disregard comments from the "Martin Acres" types who dream about living in the mtns but have no idea what its really like.
I hesitate to give you the DL on where we ski and climb b/c when I travel and people ask me where I ski or climb I usually say The Creek or Rifle, which is true, but after hanging out in Boulder with the chicks and "climbing heroes", its nice to have a place, a climbing, area to ourselves and I don't want more people to coming here and clogging it up with their shiny gear and attitudes. Suffice it to say that there are about 100 limestone crags around Ouray: some developed/some not. Ridgway has more sun than anyplace else I know including Boulder. That said you need to "roll your own" in a place like this: build your own house (or fix it anyway), run your own business, fix your truck, shovel your own roof, etc: In short, you're a long way from the Boulder Rock Club!
I've ice climbed in most places and the San Juans are the only place where it doesn't have that desperate "bitter cold, gray sky, blowing snow in the face" feel to it. I find leading pitches under the bridge in the Ice Park to be very challenging. Get there late, leave early and still scare the shit out of myself leading hard ice. Tons of ice in the backcountry too.
On the skiing side, I don't want to get into that one too much either but one of my bros in Silverton summed it up best, "TFB, I skiied 110 days last year, everyone of them in the backcountry and everyone of them powder".
Have fun and enjoy the search!

Whitefish is really great for skiing, and the backcountry skiing is amazing. Unfortunately there isn't much in the way of climbing. GNP is great for mountaineering, but technical climbing and free climbing isn't very good there. The closest cragging is in stone hill, I found it to get old a little quickly. Great climbing south in missoula though.