RRC Archives

Definitely CHATTANOOGA!

Or Asheville or Tucson or Phoenix or somewhere in the heart of the Northeast (plenty of climbing in all directions!)... we've considered Central NM too, but it's not much of the city action you might be looking for.

1. Asheville (awesome vibe kind of place)
2. Chattanooga (proximity to everything)
3. Reno (or, if you can foot the bill, Truckee) --which actually gets bumped up on the list, because that's where I'm moving! --[Spray] note that I was less than 3 hours from Reno, last weekend & had to hike through snow in my pants and tank top to get to the routes! [/Spray]
4. SLC
5. Boulder or somewhere Colorado-ish
6. SF -- wicked awesome city, but 4 hours from good climbing

Great thread! So many wonderful choices in so many beautiful areas. To experience the whole spectrum of climbing I would also recommend expanding your horizons and doing some trad climbing and bouldering as well.. I've thought about this often and I thought that the ideal method for me would be to spend 2 or 3 years in each area and then move on to another one. If you are only interested in steep sport climbing then stay in Lexington (route development will be continuing at the Red for many more years so there will constantly be new routes). New River is freaking awesome. I'd love to spend a few years living there. Same with Chattanooga - there is sport, trad, and bouldering all nearby.

The Ultimate Tour:

1. 2 or 3 years in the Northeast (New Hampshire)
2. 2 or 3 years in the Mountain State (WV) New River Gorrge and/or Seneca
3. 2 or 3 years in the Chattanooga/Atlanta area
4. 2 or 3 years in North Carolina
5. 2 or 3 years in Rapid City, SD (Needles, Mt. Rushmore, Sylvan Lake, etc.)
6. 2 or 3 years in the Boulder, CO area
7. 2 or 3 years in Moab, UT
8. 2 or 3 years in Phoenix, AZ
9. 2 or 3 years in Las Vegas, NV
10. 2 or 3 years in So Cal
11. 2 or 3 years in the Pacific Northwest
12. 2 or 3 years in Alaska

I can't decide!!! They are all good!!!

I live in Mesquite and I gotta say this place is close to all the action. If I were a girl and wanted to do work other than construction I would chose St George Utah. Couple of reasons over Mesquite or vegas. St. George probably has a couple of hundred thousand people in it. You get a great stabile economy that offers all sorts of jobs across the economic spectum.Everything is not just Gaming oriented or a service industry.
(1) there is not a gym in St G beecause there is a climbing wall right on the edge of town. Chuckwalla wall.
(2) within an half hour of ST G. VRG, Veyo pool,Theres a bunch of stuff in Arizona. Bryce caynon, Brians Head,blah blah blah.
(3) Red Rocks is about a 90 min drive. Mt. Charleston, Clark,Potasi.
(4) J-tree is just down the road.
(5) Yosimite 4 hrs
San diego 4 hours

I'm no the one to tell you all of this Johnathan is. He's got all the places wired.

The main reason I would chose Mesquite over Vegas and St. G over both is..
Vegas has too much crime and illegal immigrants who will cut your throat for a nickel. Mequite is a much slower city but its economy is Gaming and retirement based. Its almost too small here. St G. has a diversified economy and a bigger climbing community. Plus St G haas more social control (less Crime) Mostly because they are all glassey eyed "true Believers". Another thing is Morman girls like it in the butt.

Well - Meadows.....Joe and I are in Mesquite, NV and I have to agree with pawilkes - I think though, having known you for a little bit, Mesquite might be too slow for you, or not enough city - the PLUS is that you are only 45 mins from Vegas - so you can get your city in if and when you want, but have the escape to nice towns when you don't. Mesquite is very very friendly...people talk to you in the stores and welcome you into their homes and families. I thyink you save money here, there is NO place to shop - no walmart even, but one is coming next year.

St. George, UT is the country's fastest growing retirement community - lots of mormons - has everything a bigger city has - lots of nice movie theaters, plenty of shopping, the crime is fairly low and it's 40 miles from Mesquite, about an hour and a half from Vegas.

THE CLIMBING: you're looking at day and weekend trips to LIMESTONE: Welcome Springs - recent advert for Prana in the recent Rock and Ice shows Lauren Lee climbing there at a crag called the Wailing wall and it's been talked about more in the last couple months in the mags...it's a great place - nice free camping, 20 degrees cooler in the summer up there and there is a spectacular cave called the Cathedral with just amazing climbs. Yas has been there, you can ask her about it.
Then there is Mt. Charleston in Vegas as well which is in season now, while Welcome SPrings season starts in about a month.

There is Red Rocks of course and for longer trips New Jack City, J Tree and the rest of Souther Cali.

Yosemite is 4 hours away.

All of Utah is at hand...Chuckawalla Wall - Veyo Pool (totally a great sport training ground. NO approach, pool side climbing...very fun).

Arrow Canyon, 15 miles from Mesquite. 300 ft limestone walls, drive thru the canyon and belay out of the back of your car....woo!

Lime Kiln Canyon - IN Mesquite...great after work crag if you live here.

Anyway, I could go on, but it's not neccessary. There may not be much work for you here in Mesquite, but St George would have a market for you. There are lots of jobs in Mesquite, but I doubt you want to work in a casino.

AND WE'RE HERE!!!

So Ultra - you going to come climbing with us - we should start a Mesquite Climber board - oh wait - that's the other thing, there is not much of a climber community right here...Vegas is OK - and Utah is OK - but right here in the middle, eh, not so great but Joe and I are working on it.

wow, good thing my comments seemed to be agreed apon, i mostly just pulled them out of my butt. i remembered a few main points and made up the rest

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.

Meadows, not Golden, its to nice here. Besides, its all slab.

Chattanooga. That has to be the next best place if you like steep sandstone.