Best Place to work remote in US

I may have the opportunity to go full-time remote in the near future and starting to think about the possibilities as they relate to climbing. I currently live in Denver. I like the climbing here a lot and I can see myself staying, but 1) real estate is relatively expensive compared to other places I can work remote from 2) The traffic is terrible.

I lived in Bend, OR for a few years and could see myself moving back there. The climbing wasn't super varied (mostly climbed at Smith and local Basalt) and I've definitely enjoyed the Front Range climbing a lot more for the variety it offers. I can climb sport in Clear Creek within 15 minutes, trad in Eldo / Boulder Canyon in 30-45, and alpine in RMNP within 2 hours. Add in South Platte, Vedauwoo, Estes, etc and I have several lifetimes of varied climbing within 2 hours.

Criteria:

• Van-life isn't an option
• Would like to stay in US. I don't think logistics of working international would work well with job.
• Long climbing season
• Mix of sport and access to longer trad routes
• Good local gym is a plus
• Proximity to a good airport within an hour or so that goes direct to major US cities
• Reliable internet
• Splitboard access is a plus. On that note, a safer snowpack than CO is a big extra too.

Anyone else here working remote or have good advise? Thanks!

If you're working remote, traffic doesn't matter that much. That said, Vegas perfectly fits all of your ticks except the last (I think).

The potential downsides:
* If you need to change jobs and can't find another one that's remote, Vegas isn't exactly diversified in its employment sectors. That was probably the biggest con when weighing whether to move here.
* There's a bunch of other ones like the schools and what the city will do to you if you have an addictive personality for anything, but whatever. You'll probably move here anyway. ;)

Flagstaff would be a good choice.

-Long (essentially 12 month) rock season
-Varied climbing - numerous styles and rock types
-Weekend-trip access to many other destinations (less than 4 hours to Red Rocks)
-Multiple gyms in town
-Big enough town for all the amenities you need, but not a big city
- Phoenix airport is 2 hours away, and is a hub with cheap direct flights
-Not exactly inexpensive, but cheaper than the front range
-Has skiing, but certainly not a major destination for that
-Access to desert climbing, but you aren't living in a bleak treeless place (Vegas)

One other question to consider is whether you'd want to live in a large city with mountain access (Denver, Salt Lake, Vegas), a smaller city (Bend, Flagstaff, Grand Junction), a small town (Lander, Bishop, Glenwood Springs, Moab, Truckee), or a tiny mountain town (Ouray). All have their pros/cons.

If I were in your shoes I'd take to opprotunity to live in smaller town, but this generally means sacrificing gym and airport access. Bishop meets all your recreation criteria (sport climbing, long trad routes, long rock season, backcountry snow with a more stable snowpack, etc.). But the gym and airport situation is limited.

Durango also seems like it would be a great place to live.

NegativeK wrote: If you're working remote, traffic doesn't matter that much. That said, Vegas perfectly fits all of your ticks except the last (I think).

The potential downsides:
* If you need to change jobs and can't find another one that's remote, Vegas isn't exactly diversified in its employment sectors. That was probably the biggest con when weighing whether to move here.
* There's a bunch of other ones like the schools and what the city will do to you if you have an addictive personality for anything, but whatever. You'll probably move here anyway. ;)

Hit all of the points on Vegas. I’m a transplant and my husband and I both have remote jobs. Under normal circumstances I have to travel for work all over the US and McCarran airport is great. The lack of economic diversification and lower pay scale for the Vegas metro area was a major concern for us too if we were to have to seek new jobs at some point.

As far as backcountry skiing goes, I have been pleasantly surprised by Mt. Charleston, although the snowpack is even sketchier than CO. Plus there isn’t an avy report for the Spring Mountains. The Tushars in Southern UT and the Sierras are doable weekend trips.
IMO the gym situation in Vegas is meh at best - it will be a huge step down from the gym options in Denver. The one modern gym is the opposite side of town from Red Rocks and it isn’t very tall. The other gyms are old, small and dusty although they have their loyalists. But the climbing season is longer here than most other places so that’s the trade off.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I  prefer a Bend/Boulder sized town, but at the same time I made the move to Denver and it's been great other than the few pain points. I tend to do alright wherever and at this point in life having a few close climbing partners and SO is all I can really wish for. Would definitely miss the music/food scene in Denver though.

Vegas is temping from looking at the home prices and knowing how I could live out there. I didn't like the city anytime I've visited in the past and no snow sports. Didn't get off the strip all that much and wonder if I just didn't find an area that's more my scene. Being local to Red Rocks would be a dream plus access to St George and Zion. My industry is big in Vegas so looking for a job if need be wouldn't be too much of an issue and I can work remote.

Flagstaff is tempting too but the lack of consistent snow-pack makes me think I wouldn't want to live there long-term.

I've always thought Bishop would be the move but I wonder how I'd do in that small of a town. What's it like to live there year-round without an established friend group? Can I get set up with good internet? Is the access from Bishop to Mammoth, Yosemite, etc limited in the snowier months due to passes being closed?

More I think about it I think it's stay in Denver, move back to Bend, or try Bishop out for a year before I committed to buying a house.

JCM wrote: Durango also seems like it would be a great place to live.

I'm remote and I move to Durango last year.  So far I've been liking it a lot.  On one hand, it feels like folks hate people from Texas and aren't really excited about more folks moving here, which I get but I gotta live somewhere and I don't like Texans any more than the locals do.  On the other hand, there are actually a lot of remote tech workers here, and the locals don't seem to have a problem taking my taxes or taxes from the guy I hired as a coworker here.

FWIW, the good things are that it has a lot of pretty good, but not great things in very close proximity and there are some great things within a close-ish drive.  

For instance there's a ton of climbing locally, but I wouldn't come here for the climbing.  However, I'm 2.5h from Moab without having to live in UT :D

Or, my goal last season was to learn how to ski... there is a local ski resort, I dunno how good it is in the big scheme of things... but I was able to get 30 days in).  

Learning to climb ice was my other goal this winter, there is some local ice climbing, but Ouray is only about 90min depending on the weather and I was able to get in a lot of time on TR there.

As to the OP's list and Durango:

- there is a gym, but it's not great (the guy who runs it great, but it is bouldering only)
- the airport is regional
- internet has been fine
- there's no quick access to a larger city (though that is a massive plus for me)
- I am still a novice skier, but I have been reading/researching a lot about avvy dangers and looking at the local area, and the slopes are famously dangerous here.  But there are a ton of folks skiing in the back country so I am assuming that means it's not certain death for everyone all the time and that I'll eventually get to where I can do it without killing myself immediately.
- longer trad routes are kind of a hike to get to

I've been working remote for about a decade and it's the best thing that ever happened to me.  When my kid graduated HS, I thought that I would move around more... my original plan when I left TX was to move up to WA this fall, but I like where I am enough that I think I might just stay where I am and travel.  For me, it's nice to be in a smaller place and connect with a community, as opposed to being as rootless as I could be because of work.

Adam Redfield wrote: 
Is the access from Bishop to Mammoth, Yosemite, etc limited in the snowier months due to passes being closed?

More I think about it I think it's stay in Denver, move back to Bend, or try Bishop out for a year before I committed to buying a house.

I believe 395 stays open most of the time, but 120 (Tioga Road, the east access into Yosemite) closes annually in November and doesn't open until May or June. https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/seasonal.htm 

Are there affordable places near Denver? Up in the hills a bit. Don’t underestimate the value of a support network. If you have friends or family within an hour it’s a big plus. 

Bishop is expensive and remote but hard to beat. The climbing is awesome. Mammoth is awesome (gets crowded though). Tuolumne is close in the summer. The valley is not too far in the summer. 

Truckee is also great. 45 minutes to Reno airport. Skiing is great. Climbing is very good. Expensive, crowds on weekends.

Both have great mountain weather. 

Bend has Mt Bachelor. But climbing is less diverse. 

Reno, Flagstaff, Santa Fe.

It's probably at least worth considering Albuquerque.

You should put Reno or Truckee on the list 

No good reason to live in Reno instead of Truckee if you work from home IMO. 

Adam Redfield wrote: Would definitely miss the music/food scene in Denver though.

Vegas is temping from looking at the home prices and knowing how I could live out there. I didn't like the city anytime I've visited in the past and no snow sports. Didn't get off the strip all that much and wonder if I just didn't find an area that's more my scene. Being local to Red Rocks would be a dream plus access to St George and Zion. My industry is big in Vegas so looking for a job if need be wouldn't be too much of an issue and I can work remote.

I lived in Orlando and Chicago before moving here. If it helps, Vegas is about 150% Orlando and -150% Chicago. Think a suburb with a population of 2.22M, not ""I sometimes get a croissant on the way to useful public transit, and my grocery store is a block away."

Depending on your tolerance for driving, there's ungodly amounts of destinations within not bad driving. Yosemite's eight hours, with Bishop and Mammoth on the way. Moab and Salt Lake are also eight hours. Joshua Tree, Flagstaff, Zion, VRG -- all less than four hours.

Definitely not New Mexico. Nothing to see here. 

Flagstaff is a real hassle if a major airport is an requirement. The drive to the Phoenix airport is a solid 2.5 hours and the flights from Flag are unreliable in the winter. 

Sorry, Truckee is full. 

Glowering wrote: No good reason to live in Reno instead of Truckee if you work from home IMO. 

In addition to the rental expenses mentioned, I don't see why anyone would want to pay CA income taxes if they can avoid it...

I don't think I'd permanently relocate to Vegas even if I can work remotely most of the year, but it is an intriguing option for the winter/early spring months. I'm already contemplating renting a place around Rifle/New Castle for the summer months as a big FU to the Carbondale "locals".

reboot wrote:

In addition to the rental expenses mentioned, I don't see why anyone would want to pay CA income taxes if they can avoid it...

I don't think I'd permanently relocate to Vegas even if I can work remotely most of the year, but it is an intriguing option for the winter/early spring months. I'm already contemplating renting a place around Rifle/New Castle for the summer months as a big FU to the Carbondale "locals".

I lived in Truckee and worked in Reno for a while. To me quality of life > standard of living. I was happy everyday heading home. Truckee is 15 minutes to Donner Summit climbing... Reno was kind of seedy (but getting better). A lot of smokers. Gambling. It's small city compared to a mountain town. Just no comparison. As a small city it's not bad at all though.

Income taxes are just one component of your overall taxes. CA income taxes are high but real estate taxes are low (even as a renter this affects you indirectly). For example Texas income tax are low but others are high and you may pay way more overall than in CA.

For median income according to wallethub.com/edu/best-wors…  total state and local tax rate NV 8.04% CA 8.94% ranked 4 and 11 out of 50 states.

Rent / housing prices are mainly supply and demand. Truckee/Bishop etc. has low supply and high demand =  high prices.

I've been reading these comments with personal interest and have a modest question to all who are qualified to answer: why haven't you put South Lake Tahoe on a map in Truckee and Reno gets to be there? It's much cheaper than Truckee and still close to everything a climber and a slower would want to, right? I'm remote worker myself and have been thinking about getting a house up there (if my non-climber spouse who wants to instead but a house in warm Caribbean ever agrees to it).

Glowering wrote: For median income according to wallethub.com/edu/best-wors…  total state and local tax rate NV 8.04% CA 8.94% ranked 4 and 11 out of 50 states.

That study is so flawed that I don't even know where to begin: the median income and property value of each state/locality is different, so it makes no sense to use a fixed national median to compute the effective rate. Yes, taxes in California is much more progressive than Nevada (probably a good public policy), so if you are poor & live on the street, you'll pay a lower tax rate. But in general, the cost of living in CA is way, way higher so you'll end up paying a much higher tax rate than the equivalent earning/living standard in NV. 

If you work in NV and live in CA, don't you still have to pay CA income tax? Isn't that like the worst of both worlds?