Continue with onX Maps
Sign in with Facebook
Yet another “Where do I move?!?!?” Thread (solved)
Not Not MP Adminwrote: I wasn't referring to those two as obscure crags, I only brought them up because they're much further of a trip than the canal zone/N. Table. |
J Ewrote: Which is exactly the point I was making. Clearly I need to stop being so hilarious (again, facetious) |
J Ewrote: Bowman has been snowed in since mid-November, Emeralds probably similar. The rest of the I-80 crags are at comparable or higher elevations. Not a winter zone at all. Climbers clearly make it work here but there's not exactly a wealth of good options, unless you consider a 2 hour drive to be 'local'. |
|
When you mention dating scene/likeminded liberal folk, I'm not sure anywhere in Utah outside of Salt Lake County really fits that bill. I'm still pretty new to UT so take this with a grain of salt though. Just trying to be helpful. |
|
I loved living in LA. If you're able to live close to your work, you can avoid 90% of traffic pain. I had a 20 minute commute and some of my coworkers rode their bikes to work. "LA" is quite sprawling and can mean Santa Monica, Long Beach, other towns where daily freeway driving isn't a must. |
|
Have you considered Bend, Oregon (you are aware that it's high desert and not rainy in the slightest) - year round climbing access...CHECK -ability to find solitude at the crag...CHECK (climb weekdays, climb in the marsupials, climb in the lower gorge, climb at trout creek) - a sizable liberal population...CHECK - healthcare career opportunities...CHECK (central Oregon has 200,000 residents and 4 hospitals) - within ~2hrs of an international or at least affordable airport...CHECK (the local airport flies direct to denver, slc, sfo, seattle, phoenix and for cheap) -varied climbing; sport and Trad, varied rock types...CHECK (Splitter Basalt, Techy Basalt, volcanic Tuff) - a decent ropes gym...CHECK (We have a rope gym, a bouldering gym, a training gym, and another bouldering gym coming soon) -crag access at most an hour away...CHECK (30 minutes to Smith, 1 hour to Trout Creek) Bonus points to: - low to average cost of living..NOPE (but honestly deciding where to live based on cost of living is lame, live where you want to live and pay the cost of admission, there's plenty of undesirable yet affordable place to live if you want to miserable) - lively city/active dating acene...CHECK (for only having 100,000 inhabitants, bend is rather lively and there are certainly single folks to mingle) My sincerest apologies to the NIMBYS and Nativists. "BEND DOESN'T SUCK AND YOU SHOULD MOVE HERE" |
ryan climbs sometimes wrote: In case you weren't joking, here is my honest opinion after living in Arkansas for 6+ years. - year round climbing access; I can stomach anything from 40°-80° but prefer the lower half of that range. September-May can are pretty good if it's not wet. I consider November-March to be the best time to climb here. June-August are incredibly hot and humid, it's best to do an alpine trip during this time. -ability to find solitude at the crag; prefer not to drive+hike more than an hour or two one-way to find it You will have to drive 2 hours for the better climbing in the area, but solitude is what Arkansas does best. - a sizable liberal population Lol, it's Arkansas. NWA and Little Rock are liberal for Arkansas but keep in mind the climbing is out in the sticks. - healthcare career opportunities (I will be a radiation therapist) Healthcare industry is growing rapidly in the area and overall job market is good. I want (can compromise): - within ~2hrs of an international or at least affordable airport Flying out of XNA is expensive and limited in direct flights. Most people end up driving to Tulsa (1.5-2hrs away). -varied climbing; sport and Trad, varied rock types Almost entirely single-pitch sandstone and some limestone. Sport is more prominent but there is still good trad to be found. Arkansas is probably most notable for it's bouldering because of the Dosage films. - a decent ropes gym One in Little Rock, one in Bentonville. -crag access at most an hour away NWA has more options than Little Rock within one hour, but once again you will have to get used to making the 2 hour drive for the better climbing. Bonus points to: - low to average cost of living NWA is probably still below national average, but very expensive for Arkansas and prices have skyrocketed in recent years. - lively city/active dating scene College town and active/outdoorsy population. You may be disappointed in the liveliness if you are coming from a bigger city. |
|
I think that hat Tucson and Vegas are your best options. Yes, they get very hot in the summer, but you can always go up in elevation. That said, Albuquerque, for all of its blight, checks most boxes. Access: realistically, only the lower Sandias (mostly bouldering) offer access shorter than an hour, but they are practically in town. The Sandias proper are very close, but they and Palomas Peak have longish approaches. Everything else is an hr+ drive Solitude: easy to find. NM has the population density of Mongolia. Climate: hot in the summer, but not too bad. Abq is at 5k’, and you can always go up higher. Gym: two large, excellent full-service gyms. Politics: very liberal in a mostly liberal state. Leans quite catholic though. Cost of living: very cheap for a larger metro area. Airport: good, midsize airport. very easy to navigate. Medical facilities: yes, with a shortage of staff. Can write your own ticket. Dating scene: no idea, been out of it for eons. There are a million people in the metro though, and a large university. No shortage of yoga pants at the gyms. |
|
So basically you're looking for this thread minus the colder/wetter cities? https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/topic/120995670/top-10-best-us-large-cities-for-climbing From what I understand you think Front Range, SLC, and Vegas don't provide adequate nearby solitude and/or year-roundness? |
Ben Fwrote: I also perused your ticklist. Not to be a jerk, but Ben is absolutely right, its way easier to avoid crowds when your projecting 5.12 and up, or climbing 5.11- trad instead of 5.8/5.9 |
Dan Booklesswrote:
|
highaltitudeflatulentexpulsionwrote: Bend is where 5.12 climbers go to become 5.13 climbers. |
|
I think Fort Collins or maybe Loveland could really fit your needs. The northern front range climbing is good, but not good enough that the Denver/Boulder crowds are driving up that way. There is loads of ‘pretty good’ climbing in Poudre canyon such that you’ll always be able to find somewhere that isn’t too crowded most times of the year. 1 or 1.5 hrs to DIA. Town is hot in the summer sure, but you can get to elevation on CO-14 up past Rustic or go to RMNP. I moved there expecting to hate the notorious Front Range crowds and it wasn’t nearly as bad as it sounds in Golden/Boulder. |
|
Somebody mentioned Flagstaff. Beautiful little city with many lifetimes of climbing nearby…. A couple hours from Sky Harbor in Phoenix. I stayed there for a week when I was scoping out living in AZ (long story). Great hiking. Decent but smaller gym, gear shop…. Houses and rent are expensive. It’s a college town so there is a decent dating scene as well. Or at least there appeared to be…. Not that my wife was letting me look around too much haha. We fell in love with the city though…. Was hard to leave. |
Dan Booklesswrote: This might be the first time that one of these "where should I live" posts has been answered with all of the OP's desires met! I don't know about finding solitude up there, but I think my living room is crowded when my girlfriend is home, so I may not be the best judge. |
Not Not MP Adminwrote: What this guy said, Front Range + weekend = crowds. No way around it |
J Ewrote: Yes to various other crags. The South Platte region is close to Golden. Staunton can be hit or miss. Some crags there are horribly crowded on the weekends while others are very quiet. On the north end of the metro area: The St Vrain Canyons are good alternatives to the common areas around Boulder. |
Mary Elizabeth Beckwithwrote: Brevard is amazing when the weather is good. That can be a significant issue at times. The weather can be foul for weeks at a time. Mills River would be a better compromise, location wise, as it closer to (slightly) less rainy craggin' options. I lived in Fletcher (just east of Mills River) for many years and now live in the Front Range (near Eldo). To the OP: My perception re Carolina and Colorado: One place has amazing rock and terrible weather. The other has much better (generally) weather but a large amount of mediocre rock. Sure, there are great crags, but the crowds, as others have mentioned, can be absurd. Colorado has a long history of way overhyping the climbing... and now people are annoyed that "everyone" is moving here. Shocker. Carolina climbers on the other hand have largely kept the spray to a minimum, despite having some of the best crags in the country. |
|
north carolina and tennessee are just going to keep flying under the radar i guess |
Not Not MP Adminwrote: A couple people have mentioned this but not much serious discussion. It's a bit of a dark horse candidate - a much better city for climbers than it gets credit for, and could be a good choice for OP. It isn't a cool outdoors town like Bend or Flagstaff or Golden or Durango (and to be honest I think that OP should move to one of those places). But for a larger city, Sacramento has a lot to offer and has some advantages that make it worth considering. I moved to Sacramento a couple years ago, having previously lived in Golden, Vegas, Idyllwild, Seattle, and Vermont. Sac has really exceeded my expectations. Anyway, to look at OP's criteria individually: I need: - year round climbing access; I can stomach anything from 40°-80° but prefer the lower half of that range. Yes, absolutely. Can find good conditions within day-trip distance 12 months a year. Summer is hot in town, but a drive to Tahoe gains 7000 feet in elevation and it is 30 degrees cooler. When it is too hot or smokey in Tahoe, you can go to the coast where it'll be 55 and foggy mid-summer. Every 5 years or so there is a rainy winter, but even then the rainy period is only a month or so. Never gets too cold. In general, a great climate where you can get good climbing conditions for months at a time, by shifting locations with the seasons. There are a huge number of crags to choose from, so you pick your crag based on the weather. -ability to find solitude at the crag; prefer not to drive+hike more than an hour or two one-way to find it Yes. Mostly able to find solitude. Some crags get busy, of course, but its the sort of place where 80% of climbers are on 20% of the climbs. The easy-access moderate sport crags (Emeralds, etc) and famous roadside moderate multipitch (Lovers Leap and Yosemite classics) tend to be busy. But still not anywhere near as bad as I experienced in CO or WA. And everything else is much quieter. The Sierra are vast and there are many high-quality, uncrowded granite crags. There's just so much good rock here, there is plenty to go around. In particular, the bouldering is very very uncrowded. Almost weirdly so; we frequently remark "Where the hell is everyone?". Tahoe bouldering has something like 15,000 boulder problems, spread out over hundreds of little sectors. The result is that you are very often the only person/party in that sector, on a perfect 60 October degree day, even if you are only 15 minutes from the road and 1.5 hours from town. I've gotten much more into bouldering since moving here, in part because of how peaceful and empty the areas tend to be. - a sizable liberal population Yes. The central city is fairly liberal (but not to a wacky degree); the suburbs are conservative. Liberal state-level policies. - healthcare career opportunities (I will be a radiation therapist) Yes. Numerous major hospitals in town. CA generally is known to be a good place to work in nursing and other medical fields (worker-friendly laws, as least compared to other states in this dystopian country). I want (can compromise): - within ~2hrs of an international or at least affordable airport Yes. Sac airport is a nice size. Large enough to have reasonable prices and good direct flight options. Small enough that it is easy to park and navigate. -varied climbing; sport and Trad, varied rock types Yes. So much variety. All types of (rock) climbing available. Very, very good quality and quantity in the trad and bouldering realms. Plenty of sport climbing too; just not as much or as notable as the trad and bouldering. Rock type is heavy on the granite, but the granite is quite varied. And there are lots of other rock types around also. Last year I climbed on 13 different rock types, entirely during weekend trips in the local region. - a decent ropes gym Yes. A pretty good ropes gym (Pipeworks) and a world-class bouldering gym (The Boulder Field - arguably the best bouldering gym in the country). -crag access at most an hour away No. Here's Sac's big weak point. There is some climbing within an hour, but it is pretty limited. To get to the good stuff you are driving 1:15 or more. But once you commit to that 1:15-2:00 hour drive, the options are vast. It's pretty easy driving generally also; traffic is rarely an issue to get to the climbing. If super-local after work climbing is important to you, don't move to Sac. It's a town where you do in-town stuff and climb in the gym during the week, then drive 1:30 to climb on the weekends. It's a tradeoff that I'm fine with given the other benefits of being here. But other's may choose differently. Bonus points to: - low to average cost of living Not really. It is the west coast. Though it is probably the least expensive major metro on the west coast. It is pricey here, but no worse than anywhere else with job opportunities, good weather, outdoors access, an airport, and urban entertainments. - lively city/active dating scene Yes. Live "on the grid" in Midtown or adjacent neighborhoods and you will be in a lively, walkable city with lots of entertainment options and young people. It is also very compact, on a flat grid, which means it is very easy to get to wherever you want to go. I'd argue that Midtown Sac is a better urban neighborhood than any part of Seattle. Avoid the vast sprawling suburbs to the east of Sac though. The central city is beautiful too. Lush with dense tree cover in the neighborhoods. Very different from the desert vibe of many other western cities. Yet is it also very sunny here. Its a nice combo to have both the sun and the greenery. --- Anyway, that's a bit of a long response. Summary is that Sac isn't the ultimate climbing town (it is a flat town in the Central Valley, after all), but really performs above its reputation. I've lived a lot of places - including some more renowned climber towns, and for the full package Sacramento has been my favorite. This really surprised me. It is a place worth considering. Also the climbing scene here isn't too blown up, so other climbers are welcome. |
