best climbing town

Hey I'm in NM right now, and was wondering what the best city's on the east coast for climbing and living working? Many climbing after work?

In the north east North Conway is a really good spot with a good community. Working wise might be a little tough depending on how you like to live,

Depends on what you enjoy doing out of work, but the Lake George area has loads of climbing and is a nice spot to live also. Keene is also a great suggestion. Tons of rock, ice, and partners who climb both. Plus, you have The Mountaineer to shop at.

Plymouth, NH (for NH) is a decent size and might offer employment. It's a bit far for after work climbing at North Conway, but Rumney is just one town over.

1. Chattanooga -
Really cheap cost of living, TONS of the best rock in the world, with sport, trad, and world class bouldering. Decent culture for a smaller southern town, somewhat of a revival/gentrificaation has been going on for about 15 years so the old rust belt vibe of the Noog is evolving. And while there is enough rock within 30min to keepyou busy for a very, very long time, you are also within easy weekend trip striking distance of NRG, RRG, HP40, Tallulah Gorge, Little River Canyon, NC Granite, Obed, Foster, Boone, etc. Places like T Wall, Suck Creek, Sunset could be after work crags.

While I'd probably take the NRG over the collection of Chatt crags and boulderfields, the variety (of facing direction and sport/trad/bouldering) in the Noog is basically unbeatable for the east.

Not a big fan of the Red myself, so YMMV.

Here's a list of places you might want to live/work/climb (therefore leaving out tiny burgs like Slade, which aren't exactly rife with economic oppotunities). They are grouped into categories:

For sport climbing: Chattanooga, TN; Lexington, KY; various small to mid-size NH towns near Rumney (like Plymouth). NRG is great, but cultural/career opportunities nearby are scant.

For bouldering: Chattanooga, TN; Various western NC cities and towns (Boone, Asheville, etc); and a few places in the Northeast that would be OK (New Paltz, NY; western Mass).

For multipitch trad/adventurous climbing: Anywhere in western NC (Asheville, Boone); North Conway, NH area; Adirondack area (work may be tricky for this last one)

Ice: northern NH, northern VT (Burlington is a great small city), Adirdondack High peak region

Big Cities (if you really have to live in one): Atlanta, Charlotte, Montreal, and Boston would all be good to tolerable

Well I have never been to Chattanooga but it looks great...

What about Northampton, MA? Cool town. Close enough to the Westren Ma crags for after work climbing. Day trips to the gunks, and pretty much all of new hampshire. Weekend trips to the adirondacks.

bruno-cx wrote:Chattyvegas is great for all the reasons stated above. But the culture, humidity and poison ivy problem in the SE is what drove us back to west after a 1 year stay in east TN. Not much love for liberals in the SE. That crap you see on FOX news is actually real and alive in east TN. Be sure to visit in the middle of the summer and go climbing if you plan to move there. I found myself only wanting to climb in the winter and fall due the humidity. Also the kayaking is world class in east TN and better than the climbing IMO.

Clearly you couldn't hang.

Bruno,
Chattanooga's not really that bad a place to live work and climb, sorry it wasn't what you were looking for, hope you are happy where you are now. Please ignore Blake's post we are not all snobs.

Chris Gibson wrote:Bruno, Chattanooga's not really that bad a place to live work and climb, sorry it wasn't what you were looking for, hope you are happy where you are now. Please ignore Blake's post we are not all snobs.

It was a joke. The summer is brutal...you take up swimming!

Eric8 wrote:Well I have never been to Chattanooga but it looks great... What about Northampton, MA? Cool town. Close enough to the Westren Ma crags for after work climbing. Day trips to the gunks, and pretty much all of new hampshire. Weekend trips to the adirondacks.

NOHO is a really fun college type town IMO. It would be a bit of a drive to the whites in NH but doable

A lot of good advice already. While I don't totally agree with Bruno, he brings up some good points. The heat and humidity of summer are just too much for some people. There are climbing opportunities all over the SE in summer, but you have to plan carefully and you have to be able to deal with humidity, which takes its toll, even in the shade.

And while I don't think that Chattanooga is quite as conservative as Fox News would lead you to believe, the east is definitely different than the west. Even in the cities where most of the liberals live, you can sense that you are no longer out west in hippie heaven. Most people in the east are very nice and kind, no matter what their political views, but people here tend to speak their mind. If you're hangin' with group of local boys in any number of places from NC to NY, they're gonna say things that you'd never here out west.

I'm the kind of person that hates being surrounded by yippie western liberals because, well, most of them grew up in the east in conservative families and are now going out of their way to be the opposite of their parents. Two years in Colorado and they've sworn off meat and anything that makes them feel like there might be a God. This doesn't bother most people, but it bothers me. Just seems a bit fake and it gets old real fast.

The reverse scenario also exists. If you are the kind of person that is going to get upset every time you hear someone make a joke about race, every time an old man at the gas station says the N word, and every time someone seems insensitive to poor or disadvantaged people, then you might not love it in the SE. And if you can't handle people being real, uncensored and sometimes in your face, then you might not like the NE.

My usual answer to these threads is that there are thousands of places in the US where you could live and LOVE the climbing. But climbing is just one small part of what makes a nice life. My advice: find a place that you LOVE to live, and learn to love the climbing.

The eastern USA is not a drought area.
It rains a lot. It's humid a lot. There are swarms of bugs that live in the rainwater. Sometimes it's even hot + humid + rainy + buggy all at the same time.

From a pure climbing perspective (except for some special sport climbing areas in the southern part where it's absurdly hot in summer) about the best you're going to find for a place to live is some town with climbing almost as good as lots of towns out West, but with inferior weather.

So if you need to move eastward to climb, just keep going farther -- across the Atlantic ocean -- to some place around France + Italy + Spain + Switz. There's just overwhelming more rock there of every size and kind than in eastern USA.

Ken

Ryan Williams wrote:A lot of good advice already. While I don't totally agree with Bruno, he brings up some good points. The heat and humidity of summer are just too much for some people. There are climbing opportunities all over the SE in summer, but you have to plan carefully and you have to be able to deal with humidity, which takes its toll, even in the shade. And while I don't think that Chattanooga is quite as conservative as Fox News would lead you to believe, the east is definitely different than the west. Even in the cities where most of the liberals live, you can sense that you are no longer out west in hippie heaven. Most people in the east are very nice and kind, no matter what their political views, but people here tend to speak their mind. If you're hangin' with group of local boys in any number of places from NC to NY, they're gonna say things that you'd never here out west. I'm the kind of person that hates being surrounded by yippie western liberals because, well, most of them grew up in the east in conservative families and are now going out of their way to be the opposite of their parents. Two years in Colorado and they've sworn off meat and anything that makes them feel like there might be a God. This doesn't bother most people, but it bothers me. Just seems a bit fake and it gets old real fast. The reverse scenario also exists. If you are the kind of person that is going to get upset every time you hear someone make a joke about race, every time an old man at the gas station says the N word, and every time someone seems insensitive to poor or disadvantaged people, then you might not love it in the SE. And if you can't handle people being real, uncensored and sometimes in your face, then you might not like the NE. My usual answer to these threads is that there are thousands of places in the US where you could live and LOVE the climbing. But climbing is just one small part of what makes a nice life. My advice: find a place that you LOVE to live, and learn to love the climbing.

Yep.

Personally I love having people surround me that have different political views, religious views, and all around life views than I do. It keeps me in check and always makes me think about the other side of the argument. I lived in the "bubble" for 2 years and found it rather painful how quickly the population assimilates without really asking too many questions. The culture here is old, storied, gritty, and on the upswing....and that's how I like it. The climbing is amazing and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Well...maybe the New River Gorge...but that's it.

Ryan Williams wrote:A lot of good advice already. While I don't totally agree with Bruno, he brings up some good points. The heat and humidity of summer are just too much for some people. There are climbing opportunities all over the SE in summer, but you have to plan carefully and you have to be able to deal with humidity, which takes its toll, even in the shade. And while I don't think that Chattanooga is quite as conservative as Fox News would lead you to believe, the east is definitely different than the west. Even in the cities where most of the liberals live, you can sense that you are no longer out west in hippie heaven. Most people in the east are very nice and kind, no matter what their political views, but people here tend to speak their mind. If you're hangin' with group of local boys in any number of places from NC to NY, they're gonna say things that you'd never here out west. I'm the kind of person that hates being surrounded by yippie western liberals because, well, most of them grew up in the east in conservative families and are now going out of their way to be the opposite of their parents. Two years in Colorado and they've sworn off meat and anything that makes them feel like there might be a God. This doesn't bother most people, but it bothers me. Just seems a bit fake and it gets old real fast. The reverse scenario also exists. If you are the kind of person that is going to get upset every time you hear someone make a joke about race, every time an old man at the gas station says the N word, and every time someone seems insensitive to poor or disadvantaged people, then you might not love it in the SE. And if you can't handle people being real, uncensored and sometimes in your face, then you might not like the NE. My usual answer to these threads is that there are thousands of places in the US where you could live and LOVE the climbing. But climbing is just one small part of what makes a nice life. My advice: find a place that you LOVE to live, and learn to love the climbing.

People are people everywhere you go. And that's the problem with things, it seems.

With regard to the heat.....Summer in the extreme SE is special. And by special, I mean brutal. Mosquitos, briars, humidity, poison ivy and poison oak, chiggers, snakes, you get the idea. Great for the beach or the lake or the river, but not so fun bushwhacking through kudzu infested privet hedge. However, with the proper planning, a rolling cooler, and some swim trunks, climbing is possible year-round. If you stay at the higher elevations and on crags that are high on hillsides and mountaintops, chasing shade as the sun moves across the sky, catching what breeze may be stirring, there are some venues that are downright pleasant even in June and July. From Chattanooga, one can easily access Sunset (in town), Little River Canyon (1 hour South), and the Cashiers area (2.5 hours East)....all nearly perfect Summer locales.

I'm gonna go for another vote for Keene/Keene Valley or North Conway. Preeeeetty good climbing a stone's throw from your front door. I also have a friend who lives in New Paltz and he loves it...soloes all the time when he has breaks from work, so that might be good as well.

I second the North Conway and New Paltz suggestions for the North East however living and working in the North Conway area can be very meager and difficult since it's so seasonal.

Ryan Williams wrote:A lot of good advice already. While I don't totally agree with Bruno, he brings up some good points. The heat and humidity of summer are just too much for some people. There are climbing opportunities all over the SE in summer, but you have to plan carefully and you have to be able to deal with humidity, which takes its toll, even in the shade. And while I don't think that Chattanooga is quite as conservative as Fox News would lead you to believe, the east is definitely different than the west. Even in the cities where most of the liberals live, you can sense that you are no longer out west in hippie heaven. Most people in the east are very nice and kind, no matter what their political views, but people here tend to speak their mind. If you're hangin' with group of local boys in any number of places from NC to NY, they're gonna say things that you'd never here out west. I'm the kind of person that hates being surrounded by yippie western liberals because, well, most of them grew up in the east in conservative families and are now going out of their way to be the opposite of their parents. Two years in Colorado and they've sworn off meat and anything that makes them feel like there might be a God. This doesn't bother most people, but it bothers me. Just seems a bit fake and it gets old real fast. The reverse scenario also exists. If you are the kind of person that is going to get upset every time you hear someone make a joke about race, every time an old man at the gas station says the N word, and every time someone seems insensitive to poor or disadvantaged people, then you might not love it in the SE. And if you can't handle people being real, uncensored and sometimes in your face, then you might not like the NE. My usual answer to these threads is that there are thousands of places in the US where you could live and LOVE the climbing. But climbing is just one small part of what makes a nice life. My advice: find a place that you LOVE to live, and learn to love the climbing.

This post does a great job of describing the culture/vibe in the parts of the NE, SE, and Boulder, Colorado. My critique is that you generalize "the West" by making it sound like it is all like Boulder. This is absurdly far from the truth, and makes me think tht you have fairy limited experience living in much of the west. You don't have to go far from Boulder to see an enitrely different culture. Ever been to Colorado Springs? Then there is Utah, and Idaho. If you want to replicate the deep South experience (heinous summers, crazy racists), try Arizona. Anyway, trying to make a blanket generalization of the "west" is about as silly as people who live in the west making a blanket generalization of the east (they make it sound like it is all New Jersey).

Ryan Williams wrote:I'm the kind of person that hates being surrounded by yippie western liberals because, well, most of them grew up in the east in conservative families and are now going out of their way to be the opposite of their parents. Two years in Colorado and they've sworn off meat and anything that makes them feel like there might be a God.

As a born and bred westerner who now lives in the East, and especially loves Appalachia, I completely agree with this. I'd take the culture and people of Fayetteville, Chatt, Ashville, or New Paltz over Flagstaff, Boulder, Moab, or Bishop any day.

Even going beyond the general vibes of the entire populatces, the climbing communities are quite different. Moab and Fayetteville are very similar: heavy tourist economies in former mining towns, combinations of hippies and rednecks that somehow seem to coexist, heavy river, climbing, and mountain biking cultures, lack of pretentious ski culture that you get in Vail or Jackson. But, when I lived in Moab, everything was about status, how hard you climbed, who you knew, what parties you knew about. There was very little interaction between climbers, rafters, and mountain bikers. In Fayetteville, the entire outdoor community seems more close and cohesive, and there is very little of the fractured cliquishness.

End of longwinded analysis.

camhead wrote: As a born and bred westerner who now lives in the East, and especially loves Appalachia, I completely agree with this. And I'd take the culture and people of Fayetteville, Chatt, Ashville, or New Paltz over Flagstaff, Boulder, Moab, or Bishop any day.

Yes.

BTW...you traveling west this summer? We are doing VC - Ten Sleep - Canmore...join?

Blake Cash wrote: Yes. BTW...you traveling west this summer? We are doing VC - Ten Sleep - Canmore...join?

Might do a short trip, we'll see. We're looking to move from C-bus to destinations yet unknown, and I might actually just hang at the NRG and work a McJorb, so I can be a bit closer to the dissertating wife. If you guys go to Canmore, you should do something like hit Lions Head on the way back East! I've always wanted to go there.