Where to live to optimize for climbing in SLC?

I'm moving to SLC and looking for advice on where to live that optimizes climbing opportunities. Are there good early-morning/after-work climbing areas around town? What are the best places to live for easy access to those areas (accounting for some balance between access to those areas and access to good food, climbing gyms, the airport)?

For some context, I'd generally be looking for 5.11-5.13 sport routes for weekday sessions. Something similar to the World Wall outside of Seattle is what I have in mind (relatively close to the city, quick approach, lots of options in the 12-13 range). Seems like there's no shortage of opportunity for weekend climbing, but curious whether quick weekday sessions are something that's a realistic possibility.

If there are good options for quick weekday outings, what does the season look like at those areas? Is it so short that I should just find a place close to a climbing gym for weekday climbing instead? 

My (and many others) favorite place to sport climb near Salt Lake is American Fork Canyon, which is actually in Utah County. So if sport climbing is your priority further south in Salt Lake makes the most sense. This also puts you closer to Maple, Joe’s Moab, St George for weekends.

That all being said I live in the Avenues (Northern SLC), work in Murray and make afterwork sport climbing sessions in AF work all the time. From your description of World Wall American Fork Canyon is pretty similar, many crags with literally zero approach and lots of people to climb with on weeknights. The BCC also has plenty of sport climbing and it’s a bit closer and LCC has lots of bouldering and trad.

Hope this was helpful! 

Thanks for the beta, Steve! Very helpful. Couple follow up questions: 

- What's the drive from SLC to AF like for afterwork sessions? I'm assuming that's going in the direction of rush hour traffic.

- Is there a "back way" into AF? If I was living in, say, Draper, is there any good way over the mountain and into the canyon that doesn't involve rush hour traffic on the freeway? 

Back way is over traverse ridge.

There’s definitely traffic but southbound usually isn’t as bad as northbound, and there is a commuter lane that takes you from the I-15 to very close to the mouth of the canyon. I would say in good weather and no accidents the traffic usually only adds maybe 10 minutes for me

Like ddriver said you can drive over traverse ridge, but this would only save time if you lived high up on the mountain in Draper. The housing is nice up there but very expensive.

Another thing to consider is that in Utah if you live close to I-15, I-80, or I-295 it feels like you live kinda close to everything and if you live a ways off of the interstate it feels like you live far away haha. 

I agree that living down south near AF would be ideal if you want to optimize for climbing. Probably cheaper than anything closer to downtown as well.

There's some okay sport climbing in Big Cottonwood Canyon. A neighborhood like Cottonwood Heights could be a good compromise if you want to be closer to the city and the airport but still have decent climbing nearby. I don't clip bolts often, so I have no idea if the BCC stuff is actually good, but I do know it's definitely not as world class as AF.

AF is world class?