tomdarch wrote:I think you have to define "city". By some standards the only cities in the US are Boston, NY, Chicago and San Francisco (and maybe Seattle). (I'm defining this by multi-million person pop, vibrant/dense city center, good public transit, immigrant/ethnic diversity, world-class cultural scene) Out of those, SF sounds like your only option. If you 'lower the bar' to smaller cities and ones with less 'culture' then you've opened things up.
Also, what do you want to do for a living? Climbing is great, but if you want to balance that with a career, then that's a factor.
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tomdarch what kind of uppity bs is that. I'll give you a chance to reconsider before I start in on you.
Do you like apples? Well, how do you like [b]THEM APPLES[/b]
Seattle and Boston have like half a million peeps and SF is under a mill. So we drop to a half a mill and Nashville, New Orleans, Minneapolis/St.Paul, or Memphis aren't "cities"?
Fucking Chicago, hate that city. Seems like conditions can be setup for an awesome time and I still leave that place feeling slimy.
There are a lot of great places to choose from. Do as J-Rock says....stay a few years in each place.
Living in Lexington is great for rock climbing but I miss not being able to go ice climbing on a regular basis. I think Denver or maybe Fort Collins, CO would have a good mix of everything (sport, trad, ice, mountaineering) I'd like to do.
Life's too short to drink cheap beer or cheap coffee.
anti-tomdrachites- yikes, is this spit flying out of my computer?
i think that despite his word choice he was bringing up some valid (public transport) and not so valid points ("world class cultural scene"). i don't think he meant it to be snooty, more academic if you catch my drift.
granted, in my mind, only really NY has the set-up in that definitition. every other city is a midget in comparison.
I know that you believe that you understood what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.
- Robert McCloskey
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.
- Emo Philips
Czech Republic or Albania.
Although , I agree with Artsay about Flagstaff, it is a great place and I don't think it's that far from the Virgin which strikes a slacker/gumby/newbie(like myself) like a place for fanatic hardbody sportsclimbers to spend some special time.
Once your out west a 10 hour drive to any climbing is something you can get used to. 8)
Still, think about Europe, if you have no kids or other delights in your life, become an expatriate.
I try to be a good man but all that comes
of trying is I feel more guilty.
Ikkyu
She said she likes sport climbing and cities (you'd have to give more things you like about cities as this is vague).
Well as mentioned you arent' going to get better sport climbing than where you already are really, all things considered, so if you are weighing a lot of your decision on the quality of the sport climbing don't leave. Since I think you are a budding .12 climber that is really imo where the red sport climbing really starts to shine bright, stay at least a few more years to enjoy that you won't regret it. It's just not going to get any better than the Red.
Salt Lake or Vegas take your pick, the main difference is one has a winter the other doesn't. Vegas climbing season is pretty much year round, yet it is a pretty psycho city, however I know people who love it and say the strip, gambling, etc. doesn't bother them they just stay away from it. Both SLC (not winter) and Vegas have some good climbing within an hour drive so you don't have to be a weekender in those places. Denver is third imo basing the decision around quality close by sport climbing, no good sport climbing is near Denver, great trad but not sport. Rifle is the closest place and you'll only be able to do this on the weekend (don't go there on the weekend either!) because the drive is too far. St. George for a city girl? Puulease that's crazy talk, St. George would drive a non-mormon city loving girl insane in about 1 week I think. Yeah there is some good climbing nearby but that places really is the pits socially,culturally and by most any other redeeming quality you can name.
"Good things take time, impossible things take a little longer"
Percy Gerutty
