Where to Move in Western US?

Hi all, I’m a sport climber who’s just starting trad (and am in love with it). My job is potentially going to allow me to move to the western part of the US to work full remote when I’m not traveling for work (which is a lot). So I’m faced with the opportunity to move anywhere west of Texas within, say, 2 hours’ drive from a decent airport (larger regional or an actual international hub). Looking for suggestions on places to look that are in proximity to climbing. Preferably also a place with some activities aside from climbing (music, breweries, restaurants, etc.). I’ve been looking in the areas around Golden/Boulder/Denver, my only issue there is how ungodly expensive it is to live in a neighborhood that’s not high crime. Been also looking around Vegas and J tree. Anyone with the beta on areas to look into moving to? It’d be around September 2023 most likely. I’m in Philadelphia now. Thanks!!

Sweet deal!

A few things to consider before moving to Colorado:

The front range is a desert. Get ready for cactus all in your chacos on every hike.

The wind here will rip the thoughts out of your mind before they become fully formed, and will blow away all your outdoor things.

V0-V2 boulders may be old school bad landing ankle snappers in certain areas.

You can't legally camp where you want to camp.

Good luck follow your heart!

You'll find lots of opinions in the forum as this has been discussed perhaps 10K times.

But with that I'll suggest Salt Lake City. We have a bit of everything and lots of other stuff is relatively close. Year round climbing by selecting elevation and driving to warmer or cooler areas, world class skiing, an ever expanding restaurant scene. Lot's of music and Vegas is only 6 hrs away for the bands that skip SLC. West coast is a short 90 minute flight from our major (and expanding) airport. Yes, there are the socio-cultural-religious issues, but they're not as bad as some detractors make out.

Spokane WA, CDA, Idaho area would fit all the above descriptions very well.

Don’t listen to Jim… there’s no good climbing in Spokane.  

Couple of notes on CO/ general things to consider:

1. If you travel a lot for work, the Denver airport is pretty far from Boulder and Golden. From Denver, if you're within walking distance of Union Station, you can take the light rail, which isn't too bad. But Denver, you're furthest from climbing. I don't know your tolerance for traffic, but unless you're taking the toll road to the airport from Boulder, there is ALWAYS traffic. 6 am flight, leaving Denver before 5? Traffic. Land at 11pm? Traffic. That, with the driving practically to Nebraska to get to the airport would make me think twice, knowing I'd be traveling a bunch.

2. Do you want to climb year-round? In CO, it's possible to an extent. You can chase the sun in the winter and summers are doable chasing shade and getting high in the alpine. But if you want to be able to climb like every day, CO may not be the best. Vegas seems solid, though I don't know how much climbing mid-summer is possible with the heat.

3. Like you mentioned, cost of living. Boulder is expensive, Denver is getting expensive. No idea what your income is like, but yes, finding a place to live is hard. Buying is ridiculous, renting is annoying.

4. Other stuff - Boulder is ok in terms of the restaurant scene, but not great. Denver is better, but again, you're further from climbing. 

Do not move to SLC. The climbing is great, but the air will kill you. Anyone who tries to convince you otherwise has their head so far up their a** that they don't breathe it, or they're still just trying to justify why they stay there. Maybe move there for a year or two temporarily to enjoy the great climbing, but good luck finding housing.

There’s this little place I know that no one talks about ever. It’s amazing no one knows about it, even though millions of people are moving every year and climbing is more popular than ever.

I’m down to tell you but I just wanna make sure you’ve exhausted your own options and know exactly what you want. Because if it’s not a match then I don’t know if I feel comfortable telling you.

So I dunno, we may need to hash it out. I’m not above being offered a bounty to find out. You lemme know if you want the secret beta.

Denver/Boulder/Golden is incredibly crowded and expensive. I wish I wouldn't have built my life here, but a higher population is necessary for my job. It's always an attractive option for people coming from cities out east because it's less of a culture shock than moving to somewhere smaller. 

The best part of these threads is everyone living in Colorado talking about how busy it is. Have you ever spent any time in a real city?

NYC - ~27000 people / sq mile

Boston - ~14000 people / sq mile

Chicago - ~12000 people / sq mile

LA - ~8300 people /  sq mile

The mountain west doesn’t even come close.

Denver - ~4500 people / sq mile

Boulder - ~4000 people / sq mile

Salt Lake City - ~1800 people / sq mile

Cory N wrote:

The best part of these threads is everyone living in Colorado talking about how busy it is. Have you ever spent any time in a real city?

NYC - ~27000 people / sq mile

Boston - ~14000 people / sq mile

Chicago - ~12000 people / sq mile

LA - ~8300 people /  sq mile

The mountain west doesn’t even come close.

Denver - ~4500 people / sq mile

Boulder - ~4000 people / sq mile

Salt Lake City - ~1800 people / sq mile

Thanks Cory, I hear that. I've been to Denver. I live in Philadelphia. I'm from the NYC area and worked in NYC for years. So all the talk of crowds is not deterring me, but hot damn it's expensive to live in Colorado! 

LL2 wrote:

Do not move to SLC. The climbing is great, but the air will kill you. Anyone who tries to convince you otherwise has their head so far up their a** that they don't breathe it, or they're still just trying to justify why they stay there. Maybe move there for a year or two temporarily to enjoy the great climbing, but good luck finding housing.

This is super helpful, thank you! SLC has been high on my list but this gives me serious pause. 

Colorado is "busy" for us / by our standards. In the last 15+ years, the traffic has gotten much worse, way more interest in folks moving here (= population density increasing), followed by more housing going up in previously empty areas, etc. We NEED the increased housing to make it even remotely affordable, but even better would be less influx of population. It's a relativity thing. NY people would say this part of the country is barren, I'm sure. It's all about what you're used to.

LL2 wrote:

Do not move to SLC. The climbing is great, but the air will kill you. Anyone who tries to convince you otherwise has their head so far up their a** that they don't breathe it, or they're still just trying to justify why they stay there. Maybe move there for a year or two temporarily to enjoy the great climbing, but good luck finding housing.

So, what’s the story on Salt Lake evaporating and the resulting arsenic/heavy metal dust storms? I seem to have read something about that not too long ago. 

Frank Stein wrote:

So, what’s the story on Salt Lake evaporating and the resulting arsenic/heavy metal dust storms? I seem to have read something about that not too long ago. 

That’s just what I was gonna say. In addition to the notorious winter inversions, now there is increasing exposure to toxic dust, as well as decreased lake-effect snow due to the shrinking lake. Also, good luck getting a parking spot in the canyons. The Wasatch is awesome, and I had some great times there, but glad I got out. The last 20 years have not been kind to many towns/ cities in the West. 

Kieran Hunt wrote:

This is super helpful, thank you! SLC has been high on my list but this gives me serious pause. 

If you can work remotely anywhere, then you do have the option of living above the valley in the Park City area.

Marc801 C wrote:

If you can work remotely anywhere, then you do have the option of living above the valley in the Park City area.

Any other towns you’d recommend in the area? Provo has a lot of apartments but seems like it might have the same air quality issues? 

Kieran Hunt wrote:

Any other towns you’d recommend in the area? Provo has a lot of apartments but seems like it might have the same air quality issues? 

I'm not really familiar with air quality in Provo. While not the topographic bathtub that is the Salt Lake valley, I suspect it's not great but likely less so than SLC. Personally being politically liberal and non-LDS, I wouldn't live in Utah county (with the possible exception of Lehi) due to the local LDS influence.

Kieran Hunt wrote:

Any other towns you’d recommend in the area? Provo has a lot of apartments but seems like it might have the same air quality issues? 

You need to be up in the mountains to ditch the smog. PC, Heber, Coalville, Kamas. As for recommending these places to live, not so much. It’s also important to note that if you live up there you are no longer close to climbing other than Echo.

Kieran Hunt wrote:

Been also looking around Vegas and J tree. I’m in Philadelphia now. Thanks!!

Is a decent place near Vegas any cheaper than Philly?  I don't know.  There is  for sure a good international airport there and access to year round climbing (the summer climbing tends to be more limestone sport). I looked into it as a place to retire and decide I'd rather visit than live there.

As to Joshua Tree, Palm Springs Airport is somewhat limited as regional airports go, and as far as the restaurants, music etc that you also want, neither Yucca Valley/Joshua Tree have that and the scene in Palm Springs gears toward an older crowd.  I doubt this would be a good base for you.

I really have no idea about cost of living but the place I choose to retire is a good "base camp" for lots of things.  Far enough from LA not to be too expensive, but close enough to have the advantages of a major city nearby.   and closer to escape to all the climbing I want to do.  The area is called "The Inland Empire". The town is called Upland, CA.  The town next door, Claremont, has a good college scene, with pubs, restaurants etc. It's 45 minutes to Pasadena and anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours to LA, depending on when you go and what part of LA you go to. The town next door to the east of me is called Rancho Cucamonga, and I think it's cheaper.  The stuff nearer the 10 freeway (Ontario and Pomona) can have very nice neighborhoods but there also also big pockets of gangs/crime, so you need to know what you are looking for.

Airports: Ontario International ONT is 15 minutes away, Santa Ana SNA and Burbank about an hour depending on time of day, LAX 1 hr 15 minutes with typical (non-rush hour) traffic.  I typically fly out of ONT or LAX, but the other airports give lots of options for non-stops, depending where you are going.

Climbing, nothing right out the doorstep, but Apple Valley Crags (shorter routes, some trad), 1 hr 15 away, Tahquitz, Suicide 2 hrs, Joshua Tree 2 hrs, Red Rock 3.5 hrs, Lone Pine/Whitney 3.5 hrs, Bishop/Pine Creek/ORG 4.5 hrs, Big Bear 2 hrs.  So there is a lot of climbing but you have to commute to it.  That is the choice I made because I preferred to have my cities/beaches/airports/medical care/arts/restaurants/etc a bit closer.

Bb Cc wrote:

SFO

But you absolutely don’t want to be on the Peninsula/SF. I lived in Millbrae where SFO is for 30 years. Expensive and terribley congested. No good trad climbing within 3 hrs.
We considered Walnut Creek in the east Bay as a retirement option. You can BART to Oakland airport and SFO. And from there, it’s not as horrible to get to Donner Summit or the Valley. Obviously, amazing crack climbing those places.  I can’t speak to the current commute times, I moved south 9 years ago so I could have more year round climbing options.