SLC or Denver ? Need some help ...

Hi guys and gals..

I have the opportunity to move to either Salt Lake City or to Denver for school, and having a hard time deciding on which. I am into most "disciplines" of rock climbing (bouldering, sport, trad and big walls). I hope that the community can give me a run down of both.

Thanks, Leo

duplicate thread.

SLC.

For what reason ? How is SLC a better choice ?

and, yeah, sure, this is a duplicate thread...
I'd like to know what people from both cities think...
sorry for the inconvenience

Denver man!! theres a whole lot more going on and the climbing is just the half of it......The music scene ,the women ,the weather.........

I've lived in Denver for 6 months now and I lived in SLC for three years. The climbing is great in both places.

There are more routes along the Front Range, but if you want to FA, there is more unclimbed rock in the SLC area (IMO).

If you like to ski or board, SLC is the better choice (7 resorts within 20 minutes).

If you like to climb in the winter, you can always climb in St. George, which is only 4 hours from SLC.

It is sunnier in Denver, so there are more climbing days than in SLC.

My 2 cents...

salt lake has a way better proximity to climbing and skiing. My vote's for denver so you don't crowd slc.

I've lived in both cities for many years. I live in Denver now, and will absolutely move back to Utah as soon as I can.

Climbing is good at both places, but definitely better in Denver/Boulder. Road trip possibilities are much better from SLC, but alpine climbing/peak bagging is much better in Colorado. Ice climbing is good in both places - it is more reliable, but also more crowded in Colorado. Bouldering is very good in both places, but a touch more diverse for rock types in Colorado. When it comes to skiing, it isn't even close. Utah is so much better that Colorado may as well be Kansas.

Denver is a much more fun city to live in, but SLC isn't as bad as people make it out to be. If you want to party your ass off, Colorado is the obvious choice, but if you just want to have a good normal social life Utah is just fine. Utah is a much cheaper place to live in all respects aside from booze, and booze isn't all that much more expensive in Utah so overall cost of living is much less than Colorado.

To me, the single worst thing about SLC is the inversions in winter, which are soul crushingly dreary. You can get above them quickly going up the canyons, but if you stay in town all the time in winter it can get grim. It is also hotter in the city in summer, but easier and quicker to get to higher altitudes to cool off. Traffic can be bad in Denver/Boulder, but is more or less nonexistent in SLC.

My other sports are whitewater and fly fishing. SLC is much better for quick access fly fishing, and Denver is much better for quick access whitewater. Both have excellent fly fishing and whitewater within a few hours.