How would living in Syracuse be for a climber?
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Just wondering if anyone who climbs a lot has any experience living in Syracuse, NY. I enjoy all types of climbing from alpine to bouldering. I'm willing to drive on the weekends to get to good stuff. Is there a climbing gym in town? Good climbing community? Also is it a nice place to live? What do folks think? Thanks. |
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I grew up in Syracuse. You're fairly close in proximaty to the Adirondacks and the gunks (4 hoursish to each). The closest thing to town is Little Falls, which includes a hand full of crags, mostly TR with available sport and trad lines, mostly 5.11 and up for sport and lots of moderate trad. Good quality, nice local scene, busy on weekends. Nine Corner Lake offers excellent bouldering at all grades in a nice setting that's thankfully somewhat insulated from the white trash that also like to hang out there. Snowy Mountain is also a great yet small boulderfield, high quality sandstone in the woods. It's awesome. There's a good sampling of the routes/problems listed on this website for each. There's no gym yet although there are threats to open one (there's a facebook page for it) although seemingly the project has stalled. The only thing in town is a little podunk climbing wall at a jewish community center. It's pretty lame. Colgate has a solid bouldering wall, as does Ithaca, nothing amazing, but fun. It's not the worst place to live, it's not the best place to live. Depending on what youre into there's a solid bar scene with lots of good beer, a couple pretty alright ski hills, good mountain biking if yo know where to look, and the people are generally cool. PM me if you want any more beta or have any other questions I could help with as far as areas to live, or more over, areas where NOT to live. |
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I went to high school in Syracuse. My mom is from Crested Butte where I used to go every summmer and some x-mas. |
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Rick Blair wrote:Culinary, forget it! Economy Sucks! What else do you want to know?Alright, so the food is terrible, there's a complete lack of jobs, the awful weather, and a complete lack of decent climbing in the area, but you forgot to mention that flights from Syracuse to places worth visiting are expensive and often delayed or canceled. On the bright side, after you live in Syracuse for a while you'll be psyched about the culture in Fresno. |
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I was a little harsh in my first post. I looked up the stats. Officially 171 days of precip and 11 percent clear days. |
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Oh yea, I forgot to mention the weather. You should probably get a parka. On the up shot Salmon River Gorge has tons of rad ice climbing. |
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AdamB wrote:Oh yea, I forgot to mention the weather. You should probably get a parka. On the up shot Salmon River Gorge has tons of rad ice climbing. and there's good Thai food.You live in Sacramento and think the Thai food in Syracuse is good? |
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The food scene in Syracuse is pretty good if you know where to look. There is plenty of good South East Asian, (St Joes Hospital is dual language English / Vietnamese). The Italian is top notch, there is good Vietnamese, NYC China Town Chinese, Thai, Laotian, Indian, Middle Eastern, Italian, Eastern European, Korean, Tex-Mex, Baja Mex burritos, Irish, Scottish and a smattering of really good local cooks. The regional market runs year round, the localvore / CSA availability is out standing. How about 4 different artisian cheese shops in Syracuse metro area alone? The beer scene isn't too shabby, Armory Square is alright as far as bar scene. All summer there are street fairs of one type or another downtown. There are a couple of really nice wine / liquor stores. The cost of living is seriously cheap for NY State, 1200 sf house on 1/2 an acre in the burbs for 120K. Traffic is non-existent, 10 minutes to get across town and people are complaining. |
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Absolute crap place to live, run and never look back. If you are from the west the outdoor scene will drive you to drink, its cloudy to the point of zero sun half the year, and the laws and taxes raise the bar on oppressive. Seriously, I lived in Rochester for a year, I'd shoot myself before doing so again. |
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Oh yes, cost of living, try 3000 or so per year per 100,000$ in taxes on your house. I easily paid 4 times as much in taxes on property in NY as I do in CO. It isn't cheap when you factor in govt theft from your wallet. |
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Like Merlin said, Run and Don't Come Back! Im currently about to move from syracuse to AZ, the climbing is good but no where near syracuse, |
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I lived in Oneida, NY for 7 yrs and there wasn't much out that way but old railroad bridges that I hear from guys that like in Geneva area and Rochester. Most all of them come down to Moss Island to climb or the ADK's or Gunks... |
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And yeah - you better like snow if you wanna live in Syracuse - because that is ALL it does there because of the 'lake effect' from the west. |
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Nathan Stokes wrote:But, the Gunks are an easy day tripSince when is a 7 hour round trip drive an "easy day trip". Day tripping means going somewhere, climbing, and coming back in the same day. I wouldnt call 8 hours in the car an easy day trip. Think you are trying a little to hard to sell syracuse. |
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Merlin wrote:Absolute crap place to live, run and never look back. If you are from the west the outdoor scene will drive you to drink, its cloudy to the point of zero sun half the year, and the laws and taxes raise the bar on oppressive.You're just a complainer. Cough up those taxes to pay a full time state worker to hand out the tickets when you enter the Thruway, you know, the thing everywhere else in the world that is done by a machine. They are counting on your mortgage payment to pay for that guys way of life. Did you think they were going to allow you to build personal wealth or something? |
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BurtMachlan wrote: Since when is a 7 hour round trip drive an "easy day trip". Day tripping means going somewhere, climbing, and coming back in the same day. I wouldnt call 8 hours in the car an easy day trip. Think you are trying a little to hard to sell syracuse.Easy day trip is defined by the willingness to drive vs the effort to haul the camping gear for an overnight. If you live in the LA Basin, 3.5 hours on the road may not even get you out of the county on a bad day. And I'll take the 120 inches of snow a year vs months of severe fire danger thank you very much. We were way short on snow this year and it was miserable. There are plenty of activities to amuse oneself involving snow. Its all relative. I've worked out west enough to determine I prefer the North East. |
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Don't do it. Lived in Watertown (1 hour northeast) for 2 years. Climbed one month a year at the Gunks. That was in 80-81 and I will never get those seasons back. If you like to hunt and fish the finger lakes are great. Go west! |
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Honestly, I think even Miami would be a better option for a climber - at least they have a gym and a functional airport. |
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Nathan Stokes wrote: Easy day trip is defined by the willingness to drive vs the effort to haul the camping gear for an overnight. If you live in the LA Basin, 3.5 hours on the road may not even get you out of the county on a bad day. And I'll take the 120 inches of snow a year vs months of severe fire danger thank you very much. We were way short on snow this year and it was miserable. There are plenty of activities to amuse oneself involving snow. Its all relative. I've worked out west enough to determine I prefer the North East.Ummmm no. No matter how you try to rationalize it to yourself 7-8 hours round trip is not "an easy day trip". Keep on telling yourself you are loving syracuse though... |
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When discussing the living conditions and outdoor potential of the north east, many folks have strong opinions. I grew up in rochester NY, moved to Albany NY after school and i'm not going back, i love it here. So Rochester=bad Albany=Good. weather isn't optimal, but as Nathan mentioned above neither are some of the hazards out west. Aside from the once-a-decade hurricae (irene) and the recent mild winter we had (which was nation-wide) our weather might not be good, but it's rarely extreme. No earthquakes, etc... |
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Mark, Albany is not Syracuse. I don't know where all of this North East defensiveness comes from. He didn't ask about New Hampshire or Maine or even Albany. He asked about Syracuse which pretty much universally sucks whether you are a climber or not. I love the Adirondaks, great place, but I would never trade that for what I have access to out here. |