Steven Groetken wrote:Is this a telecommute job, or do you need the conveniences of a city?
This is the big question. In addition to the job, what sort of place do you want to live? Do you need the culture, resources, and social/dating opprotunities of a city, or is a quiet small town in the mountains more what you are looking for? San Francisco vs. Bishop, in a sense. To put it in UK terms, are you looking for London or Llanberis? Or maybe something in between like Sheffield?
I will suppose these criteria:
1. Local climbing
2. Within a few hours of Yosemite
3. Skiing
There are tons of good spots ruled out by #2 (i.e. all of Utah, Colorado, Washington, etc). If that one is flexible, there are more options. Within the general Sierra/Yosemite realm, I would reccomend these locations:
Small towns:
Truckee: Ski resort town, lots of local granite climbing, 3-4 hours to Yosemite
Mammoth: Ski resort town, lots of local climbing, When the pass is open (summer/fall) 2.5 hours to Yosemite Valley (only 1.5 hours to T. Meadows). 45 minutes to Bishop. Good High Sierra access.
Bishop: Amazing for climbing and alpine access. 3 hours to Yosemite when the pass is open. Not a ski town (thankfully), but still only 45 minutes from Mammoth. Cheaper to live in than the ski towns.
Sonora/Jamestown/Groveland/ Oak FLat: Small foothills towns. Damn good Yosemite access. Hard sport climbing at Jailhouse. Farther from skiing. Not much else going on.
El Portal: Cut to the chase, live at the Yosemite National Park gate.
"Biggest Little City": Reno
Reno is a mid-size city with excellent mountain access. Very low cost of living. 45 minutes from great skiing and climbing. 3-4 hours gets you to Yosemite, Bishop, and much of the high Sierra. The town kind of sucks, though. I'd rather live up the hill in Truckee, given the option.
Proper big city:
Oakland, Berkeley: All the upsides of living in the San Francisco area, but faster and easier to get out of the city than being in San Francisco. Awesome towns.
Avoid:
The Central Valley (Fresno, Bakersfield, Modesto, etc etc): Yosemite access is good, but it is a wasteland.
San Francisco: Insanely expensive, hard to get out of the city.
Silicon Valley: Too many software engineers
LA: Hell A
San Diego: too far from the Sierra