Best Idaho Cities for Climbing / Skiing / WW Kayaking?

Gearing up to move and starting to apply for jobs, where's the best place to live for Rock/Alpine Climbing, Skiing, and WW Kayaking?
What areas in ID have the raddest outdoor communities?
Bonus points if said location possibly has employment for a young mechanical/manufacturing engineer.

ID Falls seems like the best choice at first glance:

• Relatively close to the Fins, Tetons, CoR, and Sun Valley
• Local climbing gym
• Has engineering jobs

I lived in Council (SW of McCall) for several months and loved it; ID felt remote and untouched like no other place I've been.

Any suggestions welcome!
 

You probably know this already but Council and Idaho Falls are night and day different.  IF would be a great place for you to find work though.  The site generates a lot of engineering jobs.  

Adam Grant wrote: You probably know this already but Council and Idaho Falls are night and day different.  IF would be a great place for you to find work though.  The site generates a lot of engineering jobs. 

Definitely different; Council was pop. 800 and I swear half of those people don't exist haha. I spent most of my weekends in the Sawtooths and Lost River Range. I passed through IF twice but didn't get to spend much time there, although I did meet some awesome folks at ID Mountain Trading.

I’ve lived in both those areas and my suggestion would be McCall or Driggs. Both have access to awesome skiing (Brundage or unlimited Teton goodies), whitewater (Payette and Snake respectively), mountain biking, climbing, and a decent social scene. While IF is a much bigger town and probably has more employment opportunities (not to mention cheaper), you’re looking at at least an hour to any sort of decent climbing or skiing so depending on your schedule you’d be weekend warrioring plus the town itself is pretty meh just like the rest of the Snake River Plain. Just my 2 cents

I'm a little surprised Pocatello hasn't been discovered.  

Basalt climbing in town (Pocatello Pump), decent climbing gym at ISU, Massacre Rocks with its 700+ basalt sport routes is 45 mins away, the Fins are 90 mins (about same as IF), and City of Rocks is 2 hours away. The Tetons/Snake River is only 50 mins more than IF (about 2.5 hrs total) and the Wasatch are a few hours away.  

There are 80+ miles of single track with trailheads in town ( and much more singletrack in a short radius drive).  Road biking is very good in the mountains and valleys in the area.

For downhill skiing, Pebble Creek Ski is only 30 mins from town and is an advanced skiers hill with steep lift assisted runs on the frontside and easy AT accessed out of bounds with acres of powder on the backside.  Jackson Hole, Grand Targhee, Sun Valley, Alta/Snowbird are 2.5 to 3.5 hours away. For cross -country skiing, Mink Creek area is 20 mins from town and has skate & track skiing as well as miles of backcountry touring.

IMO, sports wise, there is one major downside but it's true for the whole east side of the state - the whitewater is better in west Idaho (and of course the wild rivers of central Idaho).  

Engineering jobs are available in the region.  Pocatello has an ON Semiconductor wafer fab, a Simplot fertilizer plant, a few different start up tech firms, and a few mechanical/civil firms.  

There are some cultural/social challenges for the area (but probably not a lot different from most of East Idaho).  

Good luck!

waiting for helen reply.

but seriously.  ID sucks, move to CO.

s.price wrote:

You meant Utah.

Front Range actually.

Iowa has a lot to offer....

:-)

OP, hunt down the job you love. Wishing you much success! Helen

if  you want to be a carpenter, plumber, electrician and don’t mind spending a lot on housing, McCall could be for you.  All those trades are so busy it is crazy.  Otherwise it might be best to already have a job when you move here.  I moved here with a solid professional job and it was still really stressful finding an affordable house which here is north of 200k if you get lucky, otherwise north of 300k.

I'm based in the capitol.  They is enlarging the local WW Park to include two or three more new waves, only such thing I know of in hundreds of mile.  So if you want to WW stuff just after work for a couple hours on an artificial wave, so you can dial your tech, I imagine thats the only such place... otherwise, we got good access to several good rivers.

I'm an engineering draftsman... This is where the most work is, but if your personality is right, you can survive with only one job ever, right?  A lot of places got only a few firms of the right kind, but you only need one, cradle to grave, right?  ...some of the places you name are pretty damn small from an engineering standpoint.  But you know that...  Make sure you dont piss anyone off.... small towns can be kinda funny in a very behind you back kinda way... and everything in Idaho is kinda small unless you is working for the government or Idaho Power.

I play everything you do but the WW, and I am gonna add flying a 'sail next year, Its a sport you dont need partners for.  In your sixties you lose most of your friends even if you dont move across the nation...  Idaho has always been a hard place for me to find new partners in.  There is an Idaho issue with xenophobia with respect to newbys to the local.   So... You get a few guys and hang on to them.   But even badass Geezers seem to kinda thin out after decades of serious fun... I dont like it, but there it is...  guys in their upper ranges seem to have little stamina after some doctor gets to them.  They get commitment issues.  So I am at the age where partners availability gets in the way of leisure.  Screw partners they is over rated, right?  You Mormon?  Who you will play with might actually depend more on that than you will ever realize.   How many partners you looking for?  May matter some as to where you live, maybe not...  There are BIG differences in some places here and there...  If you need Authoritarians, Autocrats or Aryans  to play with, they are easily available according to locale;  but there might be better and worse places, too.  

For Liberals, there is only Ada and Blaine counties, and someplace up North....  not much engineering in Blaine, I gave up...

East Idaho is good for playing, especially the caves and the hunting, ...I so want to crawl some of those caves.  Western Idaho is a little better located for the roadways, and we got access to a certain weed, which you likely wont have without a "connection".    Harder to get than you might think unless you is of a certain kinda guy...

Get a white pickup truck, you dont wanna stand out, especially at first...and for Christs sake, its gotta be 4wd... dont screw that up.

Have you looked at Missoula, MT?

Andrew Rational wrote: Have you looked at Missoula, MT?

For that matter, have you spent any time here in the winter? You are correct, this is the most remote part of the lower 48, in terms of cities. 

But, if you know the locale of the photo I posted and it sings to you, as it would to many here....well. Welcome to Idaho! Come say howdy if you're on our end of the place. The gents up thread have shared good stuff.

Best, OLH

Old lady H wrote:

For that matter, have you spent any time here in the winter? You are correct, this is the most remote part of the lower 48, in terms of cities. 

But, if you know the locale of the photo I posted and it sings to you, as it would to many here....well. Welcome to Idaho! Come say howdy if you're on our end of the place. The gents up thread have shared good stuff.

Best, OLH

I’m an ID native (we corresponded about the Purple Lady) but I’ve been a Montanan for quite a while now. 

Looking at his list of criteria, I thought Missoula would be a good fit. 
As far as winter goes, yeah, MT and ID definitely suffer from the effects of “turnaround migration”, so mentioning that is good. He did hack it in friggin’ Council for a while though, so who knows...

Jaren and Andrew are right, plenty of wild out here. You got me when you mentioned LRR!

Andrew, yes, the purple lady! Missoula was my first choice of the towns we looked at all over the (extended) PNW, way back when, but Boise was the job offer my guy got. Yeah. Just followed someone else's life around, for more than forty years now. So, OP? Either visit, fall in love with someplace, just make do for a living, and live where you wish, or, get that job nailed down. It isn't like you can't move. I still think if you're stuck having a job, make it something you enjoy. But? If the place you live is toxic to you? No amount of money is worth it.

Can you be happy with subzero temps? Snow for quite a few months? Inversions? (Looking at you, Missoula. Boise too). Bears playing in your sprinklers? Sharing your bike path with cougars, seeing wolf scat on the trail to your crag? Being the only​ one there that sunny winter day?

Or. Do you need people around? An easy drive to.... elsewhere, anywhere. We are a honkin long way from, well, everywhere.

You're young. Go for it, whatever your "it" may look like. 

Best wishes to you, Helen

By the way, Jackson tends to claim him, but rumor here is Jimmy Chin actually lives in Driggs. 

I have been considering moving to Boise. What’s it like living in Boise as a climber and skier?

Todd Bruns wrote: I have been considering moving to Boise. What’s it like living in Boise as a climber and skier?

All joking aside.  I grew up in the 'Rado (colorado springs as a child, then the illustrious Bubble through college and then some) and now live in Boise.

I can tell Boise used to be smaller than it is now but it still has that sleepy, yet moderately sized town feeling.  Lets just say its way, way less of a cluster then Denver has become in the past 10 years :(

I really dig it here and have found a cool climbing/biking community.  I ski occasionally, mostly back country, but not a whole lot.  There are some areas an hour to 2 hours from Boise that are pretty good given good snow conditions and not to mention Bogus basin right above town.  However, if you move here, get a bike.  The biking is very exceptional just right your door and not to mention the rest of the state!

In terms of climbing, we got the local (hardman) black cliffs just outside town, the City, sawtooth alpine and few other neat crag spots couple hours outside town like hells, dierkies and spring mountain..

Old lady H wrote:But, if you know the locale of the photo I posted and it sings to you, as it would to many here....well. Welcome to Idaho!

https://www.mountainproject.com/photo/114130118

The Pahsimeroi is one of my favorite places :) 

Tremonton, UT....look a few miles south for the big engineering company

If you can find a job, the wood river valley (hailey/ketchum/SV) is pretty much central. 1 hour from the tooths, 2 from CoR, 1-3 hrs from many classic kayak runs. I've lived in both boise and the wood river valley. Both are rad, but WRV is much more expensive and fewer girls to date.

Everybody loves their home towns, and I'm no exception. But if you want a mountain community it helps to be in the mountains. Have you looked at Power Engineers?

dave bingham wrote: Everybody loves their home towns, and I'm no exception. But if you want a mountain community it helps to be in the mountains. Have you looked at Power Engineers?

No, why do you mention them in particular?