Climbing Community in Northern Idaho VS Southern Idaho

Looking at potentially moving to Idaho and trying to get an understanding of the Climbing Community here.
Would like to get into all aspects of mountain exploration as well so if you are a multi adventure person, feedback welcome

Cities we are looking into
CDA for northern
Pocatello, Idaho Falls, Twin Falls - Southern Idaho

Interests
multi/single Trad, alpine, sport, boulder in that order for climbing

Need to develop my back country ski skills + ice and would like to get into ski mountaineering in the next 2-4 years as well

Any/all feedback on living locations/ local crags/ community/ big trips/ mentorship/history of the climbing areas

Thank you for your time,
-Jay

Serious question, why Idaho at all? A list of small cities in a random western state? Honestly, your interests suggest the Cascades. Reality would suggest the place with a job you can be happy with, since that's where most of us spend most of our time.

That said, having lived in Boise for 40+ years, I've not been to northern Idaho, unless you count driving from Missoula to Lewiston. Can't help ya there, except to point out northern and southern Idaho are only technically the same state. Not even the same time zone!

Southern Idaho, Twin is close to everything people come here for, Sawtooths, COR, etc. Eastern Idaho is the back door of the Tetons, and close enough to the other stuff for overnighters. If you're willing to drive some, you are in reach of much of Utah. But? Idaho is a long ways away from.....everywhere. A big plus, to me, not for everyone though. You won't be seeing family and friends from home often, if ever, without a lot of travel involved. Again, a plus or minus, lol!

There's backyard climbing here, good weekend destinations, and an abundance of other outdoors stuff to do besides climbing.

If you've never been out here, definitely visit first!

Best, Helen

Old lady H wrote: Serious question, why Idaho at all? 

You could have stopped there Helen

Old lady H wrote: Serious question, why Idaho at all? A list of small cities in a random western state? Honestly, your interests suggest the Cascades. Reality would suggest the place with a job you can be happy with, since that's where most of us spend most of our time.

That said, having lived in Boise for 40+ years, I've not been to northern Idaho, unless you count driving from Missoula to Lewiston. Can't help ya there, except to point out northern and southern Idaho are only technically the same state. Not even the same time zone!

Southern Idaho, Twin is close to everything people come here for, Sawtooths, COR, etc. Eastern Idaho is the back door of the Tetons, and close enough to the other stuff for overnighters. If you're willing to drive some, you are in reach of much of Utah. But? Idaho is a long ways away from.....everywhere. A big plus, to me, not for everyone though. You won't be seeing family and friends from home often, if ever, without a lot of travel involved. Again, a plus or minus, lol!

There's backyard climbing here, good weekend destinations, and an abundance of other outdoors stuff to do besides climbing.

If you've never been out here, definitely visit first!

Best, Helen

We are planning to visit in the winter & then again in the summer. Wouldn't move with out a job as that is a consistent thing that i keep hearing

Why Idaho - It seems like a lot of great natural landscape with out a lot of the big city BS. We want to live a simple life and enjoy spending time outdoors. Would like to move to somewhere with good community where we can become a part of it. Idaho seems to have a lot of what we are looking for with good home prices (IE why we have had little success looking at the cascades)
Right now we are in NC and the heat is becoming an issue in the summer (you can wear well suited clothes when it cold, can't do that for heat)

I’m in the Coeur d’Alene area and as Helen said North/southern ID are legitimately 2 different states. CDA has more of a connection with Spokane, PNW, and WA state whether we like to admit it or not. And we’re on Pacific Time.

I’m up here because Spokane and CDA have decent weekday crags, CDA is a great city and a 4-5 hour drive gets you a lot of places: North Cascades, Vantage, Index, British Columbia in general, Bugaboos, Banff, Canmore, then east to many spots in western MT. The sawtooths and frank church south of us are a little ways to drive too but pretty worth it. Skiing opportunities are good whether you resort ski or Backcountry.

I'd look into communities near SLC/Park City or Bozeman if you want a town in the Mountain West that will still have like-minded folks, great amenities, and close access to mountain sports.  As mentioned by others, a lot of small towns in Idaho will lack a viable social network and strong employment opportunities.  That being said City of Rocks is almost worth living in southern Idaho - but its also less than 3 hours from SLC.

Having come from Western North Carolina myself and had been seeking the same sort of things you've outlined I'd say Idaho has exceeded my expectations. If you can afford to live in the Wood River valley area the access to the Sawtooths & other surrounding ranges is unbeatable, their's a smattering of smaller decent quality local crags, and much of of the culture of Southern Idaho (read: Mormon) is significantly less. CoR is easily within reach for weekend trips and SLC & Tetons for longer weekends. If you ski their are also plenty of options. The climbing community here seems to be similar to that of NC, hush hush and somewhat insulated but also plenty of visiting climbers that make finding partners pretty easy. If you get lucky you'll be able to find a non service industry job but cost of living can make things very tough to get by otherwise. Luckily I work here seasonally and have affordable housing. If you find yourself in the area hit me up!

Regarding assimilating into small towns, in rural areas without a lot of population turnover, that has always been something that can take awhile. As far as LDS goes, Twin Falls is no longer overwhelmingly LDS. And, even the town's that are mostly LDS, there are still people who aren't. Besides, in my experience, they are very nice people. These are my neighbors too, after all!

The greater Boise area is attracting tons of people, because housing is less here than bigger west coast areas. But? Wages are low. Rents are much higher than they were. Wages are not. Really check that out before you commit!

And if you do come through, say howdy!

There are older threads on here with Idaho information, feel free to pm too.

Sorry, abe r, secrets out. I'd rather have climbers than faux rancher land barons from Texas, eh?

Best, Helen

Helen is a mature individual, whom we love, here because she is expressing neighborly love beyond tribal boundaries (great route at City of Rocks by the way).  This is something we should all do.  This is something all non-juvenile humans should do, and do do, in Southern Idaho as much as in your favorite heady cafe with nitro cold brew.

Jason:  Indeed Southern and Northern Idaho are very different in terms of culture.  Geography explains most of it, pretty obviously.  The South, dominated by the Snake River plane, is an agricultural powerhouse and the culture and political- and social-economics are as one would expect.  The North, dominated by mountains, is a more constrained geography and the results are again as you'd expect.  

It's like going from the Coastal areas of N.C through the Piedmont to the Western areas of the state with their gorges, mountains, and totally different look, feel, and culture.

Post Script Rabble Rousing:  Some of you, here on MP, prove your juvenile intellects with your expression of a desire to be tribal, to live among "like-minded" folks...as though you could know people's thoughts as to whether they were truly "like-minded", and as though a planet or place filled with correct-thinkers is at all desirable.  Enjoying your cheap shots via products you do not understand, you express your virtue endlessly as the University-inculcated postmodern groupthink you ignorantly love goose-steps its way across the American Experiment.

Dankasaurus: I don't see anything wrong with gaining insight into a "like-minded" communities whereabouts that you yourself are apart of and that others wish to feel accepted by. Before you judge others on their respective backgrounds and perspective and call them out as "juvenile intellects", which by the way who says that about other people that is not arrogant themselves, why don't you take a step back and not lump all MP users into one simplified category. Yes, many climbers share similar traits... likely college-educated, come from a middle class background, etc. but that is not always the case. Even then it is possible to fit that stereotype and not have this mindset that you seem to projecting. Case in point, I would fit the typical stereotype as a white middle class male but I also grew up in rural appalachia and have worked with mostly blue collar folks my entire life. I currently work as a land manager with local ranchers and folks that have worked the land for generations. I think Helen hits the nail on the head by sharing the concept of neighborly love. My experience in Idaho has been great when it comes to folks from different sides of the aisle still being able to work together no matter you're religion, politics, etc. That is not always the case in other places, especially where I originally came from. 

I am a bit biased, but the Wood River Valley (aka Sun Valley) has a "mountain culture" that you won't find elsewhere in Idaho. Varied local climbing, accesss to the Pioneers, Sawtooths, COR, etc, plus amazing back country skiing and ski mountaineering.

The Spokane area has a decent amount of varied and fun cragging to keep you busy.

The Selkirk Range, north of Sandpoint, has some amazing granite: Chimney Rock, Harrison Peak, Lion's Head, etc. 

I can only comment on CDA since I lived in Spokane and they are very close. You have all four seasons to their extremes. Cold and snowy in the winter. Hotter than you would think in the summer. Be prepared to not rock climb much in the winter without travelling and then be prepared to not have great conditions in the summer and to have trouble getting up in elevation to find better conditions. I didn't find any of the trad to be particularly awe inspiring when I lived there. You have some good stuff relatively close (within 5 hours or so) but the local stuff isn't that great. Chimney is pretty fun and lions head is cool too but the local trad cragging to prepare yourself for bigger objectives is pretty abysmal. The sport climbing in the area is super underrated however. Ice climbing didn't seem that great locally although the stuff Jess(RIP) and Coldiron and others have done in MT looks pretty sick and that wasn't really a thing when I lived there so I can't comment too much in that regard. CDA is a nice town with what I think is the best local lake beach I have been to in the US. Sandpoint is pretty nice too as far as towns go. The nicest thing I would think for an alpinist there is being within striking distance of the cascades and the Northern MT ranges and not too far from the Canadian stuff.

Be sure to visit Eagle Rock, NC before you leave. Nice cluster of high quality routes, especially at the Lower Tier.

Dankasaurus wrote: 
Post Script Rabble Rousing:  Some of you, here on MP, prove your juvenile intellects with your expression of a desire to be tribal, to live among "like-minded" folks...as though you could know people's thoughts as to whether they were truly "like-minded", and as though a planet or place filled with correct-thinkers is at all desirable.  Enjoying your cheap shots via products you do not understand, you express your virtue endlessly as the University-inculcated postmodern groupthink you ignorantly love goose-steps its way across the American Experiment. 

Unnecessarily harsh and presumptuous.  You went from zero to nazi comparisons in record time.

I grew up in North Idaho.  Lovely place.  Good for river running and backcountry skiing.  Mountains are not very high.  There are no destination rock climbing areas.

Great climbing in Southern Idaho.  Plus taller mountains. City of Rocks, Sawtooth mountains, White cloud mountains.

I moved to So Cal where the real rock climbing is.  Also good mountain climbing and occasional skiing.  No rivers, but there is the Ocean.

Joshua Upchurch wrote:

Unnecessarily harsh and presumptuous.  You went from zero to nazi comparisons in record time.

And yet no counter argument.  

Dan Daugherty wrote:

You've lost me completely since I don't recall anyone saying we shouldn't try to express neighborly love. Quite the opposite, actually, since I'm pointing out that it doesn't tend to go the same direction in the smaller LDS communities. This is a generality, but proven correct time and again, if you move into a predominant LDS community, you will initially be welcomed with open arms. After you say no thank you to joining the church, you will no longer be welcomed the same way. That's all I'm saying and it sucks to be that outsider and it's something to consider when moving to a rural town smack dab in the middle of LDS country.

Guess you just have to suck it up, and adapt to the place you move to, or be unhappy and move.  Has it been different in ages past?  

Not all communities are postmodern.  So sorry about that.

Danny Beatty wrote: Dankasaurus: I don't see anything wrong with gaining insight into a "like-minded" communities whereabouts that you yourself are apart of and that others wish to feel accepted by. Before you judge others on their respective backgrounds and perspective and call them out as "juvenile intellects", which by the way who says that about other people that is not arrogant themselves, why don't you take a step back and not lump all MP users into one simplified category. Yes, many climbers share similar traits... likely college-educated, come from a middle class background, etc. but that is not always the case. Even then it is possible to fit that stereotype and not have this mindset that you seem to projecting. Case in point, I would fit the typical stereotype as a white middle class male but I also grew up in rural appalachia and have worked with mostly blue collar folks my entire life. I currently work as a land manager with local ranchers and folks that have worked the land for generations. I think Helen hits the nail on the head by sharing the concept of neighborly love. My experience in Idaho has been great when it comes to folks from different sides of the aisle still being able to work together no matter you're religion, politics, etc. That is not always the case in other places, especially where I originally came from. 

This post is verbal diarrhea used to setup a humble brag.  The acceptance you describe in your last two sentences is more prevalent in flyover country than in the elite coastal and elite inland areas, the media elite, the climbing elite, and generally less prevalent among those who consider themselves "Correct Thinkers".  You're right, though...climbers who express their opinions on this now terrible website have a high degree of ideological purity and homogeneity.