Best Small City for Skiing/biking/getting outside

[tmokes]

What kind of job are you looking for?


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[PeachesNCream]

What kind of job are you looking for?


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

I would like to know what your career is?

Here is the big question, do you need a ski area?

The Western US is full of awesome places with great people and an affordable cost of living. For better or worse, they don't "tick the boxes" for a lot of people.

And search...tits...JONG...sister

Civil Engineer. So I can live most places but the more exciting work/career advancement is definitely in larger cities

Working remote/from home sounds pretty terrible to be honest, at this point at least

[JoeyFish]

Definitely Tucson.

Summerhaven FTW!

[FringeLife]

a

[boardtodeath]

The santa catalinas are great and all but I'm not sure their snowpack, if you can call it that, is the most reliable (source: astrophysicist that spent 6 years on top of Mt Lemmon - got exactly zero chances to rip mt lemmon ski valley, and then the first year I don't work up there it dumps for a week...)

[RootSkier]

Civil Engineer. So I can live most places but the more exciting work/career advancement is definitely in larger cities

Working remote/from home sounds pretty terrible to be honest, at this point at least

So should this thread really be about the best place to be a weekend warrior?

[FringeLife]

Get a work visa in Europe, go back to the homelands.


Forget Bozeman, its on its way to becoming some sort of amalgamation of SLC, Boulder, and Bend. That is unless, you like to move to places and see them develop like a cancerous tumor right before your own very eyes.


The mountain biking is overrated. The majority of the trails are rocky as f*** and have no flow. The best trails are in the wilderness and and/or horse f*****. Plus, they are all covered in snow or mud for 10 months of the year.


The 2 ski hills are over-run with all types. I know, I know. From viewing TGR forums you might of gotten the idea that there are only like 10 skiers here and they mostly concern themselves with chatting on the internets as if texting doesn't exist. There are hordes more. 1/3 of the university's undergrads are out-of-state wannabe ski bums who somehow convinced their parents to pay out-of-state tuition to a middling state school in Montana.


You might get lucky and get to ride a chair with a washed-up ex-patroller who will explain the inner-workings of ski operations to you until your ears are bleeding. Oh, and then he'll mention how he was a ski patroller and they let him throw a bomb once. Don't you forget that he was a ski patroller. Pay heed to this man, for he is the holder of much knowledge and is one not to be crossed. Better yet a posse of twenty-somes living off their "savings" from Vermont, New Hampshire, or some other county in New England will engulf you. Watch out though, once they learn that you went to a regular high school and not ski academy they'll murder your children and leave you for dead. All the 10 year olds are going to be out-skiing you. Count on it. The limited backcountry skiing is dominated by rando-types racing around trying to dodge avalanches before class or work. By the end of April is a two-week Spring skiing season when the snow pack won't actually kill you. You will have to walk for many miles in boring lodgepole pine forests in order to access this said Spring skiing.


The climbing is second-rate, the best routes are in the gym. None of the peaks are iconic, just a bunch of turds below 11,000' with no glaciers.


The rivers are tame and flacid, usually drying to wee little trickles by July.


The job market consists of tradesman driving from the Gallatin Valley and beyond to Big Sky to build castles for the rich. They got lots of ironically named roads and landmarks up there in Big Sky. As a civil engineer you could do well. Shit bro, you could jump right in and help everybody figure this whole thing out. We could really use a bypass around the southside of Bozeman. Please call it the Triple Tree Highway. Oh, and there are plenty of real estate agents chasing the next property sale like a lawyer chases an ambulance. They are more than willing to help you start flipping over-priced homes. Or renting them for twice their mortgage. F*** yeah! Winning!


There are lots of very, very aware people here. They will make sure to keep you up-to-date on how humans are causing climate change, the glaciers are disappearing, this and that. You live in Seattle, you must be familiar with this type? Well, they run rampant in the Bozeman community. At the same time you might get to see the very same people give a slideshow of their latest vacation, oops...expedition, to the Greater Ranges. Because after every few months of saving the world, who doesn't need to go fly around it and play? Good networking there my friend. That being said, you could start a high-minded non-profit of your own to pay for some fun.


The food is horrible. Burgers and steaks. The sushi is abhorrent.


It is cold here. When its not cold, it is hot and smokey.

• Good luck on your quest!

[skaredshtles]

Get a work visa in Europe, go back to the homelands.


Forget Bozeman, its on its way to becoming some sort of amalgamation of SLC, Boulder, and Bend. That is unless, you like to move to places and see them develop like a cancerous tumor right before your own very eyes.


The mountain biking is overrated. The majority of the trails are rocky as f*** and have no flow. The best trails are in the wilderness and and/or horse f*****. Plus, they are all covered in snow or mud for 10 months of the year.


The 2 ski hills are over-run with all types. I know, I know. From viewing TGR forums you might of gotten the idea that there are only like 10 skiers here and they mostly concern themselves with chatting on the internets as if texting doesn't exist. There are hordes more. 1/3 of the university's undergrads are out-of-state wannabe ski bums who somehow convinced their parents to pay out-of-state tuition to a middling state school in Montana.


You might get lucky and get to ride a chair with a washed-up ex-patroller who will explain the inner-workings of ski operations to you until your ears are bleeding. Oh, and then he'll mention how he was a ski patroller and they let him throw a bomb once. Don't you forget that he was a ski patroller. Pay heed to this man, for he is the holder of much knowledge and is one not to be crossed. Better yet a posse of twenty-somes living off their "savings" from Vermont, New Hampshire, or some other county in New England will engulf you. Watch out though, once they learn that you went to a regular high school and not ski academy they'll murder your children and leave you for dead. All the 10 year olds are going to be out-skiing you. Count on it. The limited backcountry skiing is dominated by rando-types racing around trying to dodge avalanches before class or work. By the end of April is a two-week Spring skiing season when the snow pack won't actually kill you. You will have to walk for many miles in boring lodgepole pine forests in order to access this said Spring skiing.


The climbing is second-rate, the best routes are in the gym. None of the peaks are iconic, just a bunch of turds below 11,000' with no glaciers.


The rivers are tame and flacid, usually drying to wee little trickles by July.


The job market consists of tradesman driving from the Gallatin Valley and beyond to Big Sky to build castles for the rich. They got lots of ironically named roads and landmarks up there in Big Sky. As a civil engineer you could do well. Shit bro, you could jump right in and help everybody figure this whole thing out. We could really use a bypass around the southside of Bozeman. Please call it the Triple Tree Highway. Oh, and there are plenty of real estate agents chasing the next property sale like a lawyer chases an ambulance. They are more than willing to help you start flipping over-priced homes. Or renting them for twice their mortgage. F*** yeah! Winning!


There are lots of very, very aware people here. They will make sure to keep you up-to-date on how humans are causing climate change, the glaciers are disappearing, this and that. You live in Seattle, you must be familiar with this type? Well, they run rampant in the Bozeman community. At the same time you might get to see the very same people give a slideshow of their latest vacation, oops...expedition, to the Greater Ranges. Because after every few months of saving the world, who doesn't need to go fly around it and play? Good networking there my friend. That being said, you could start a high-minded non-profit of your own to pay for some fun.


The food is horrible. Burgers and steaks. The sushi is abhorrent.


It is cold here. When its not cold, it is hot and smokey.

• Good luck on your quest!

[thefortrees]

Geez this thread is still going? Reno is a good choice.

[Hott Butt Mud]

Sedona / Flagstaff, AZ

[Meadow Skipper]

I know what you mean, but I thought it wasn’t a bad first-time jong rant. One thing though for Señor FringeJong, you can say fuck here. Fuck, fuck, fuck. See? No need for those prissy little asterisks. But overall I’ll give it a B+ for effort.

Also, has he posted tits or stoke yet? Need to get on that.

[SUPERIOR]

Haha, FringeLife - nice summary of the pitfalls of the quickly growing and “woke” Bozeman community.

There’s just one thing you can’t argue. The Ridge at Bridger Bowl is a classic proving ground and fucking excellent.


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[FatChance]

We left Durango because it got way too crowded. This is where we moved to find the best place to live:



Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

[Albeer]

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk[/QUOTE]

[Albeer]

Trash valley Ut. Cache

[PeachesNCream]

Starting to lean towards Spokane. Perfect size, affordable, 5 ski resorts within 2 hours, good biking. I'm planning on visiting Spokane and Bozeman before I make a decision though. I'm surprised I haven't heard more places in Colorado/Utah, but maybe everything is way full or people are just keeping their secrets to themselves. Fair enough.

Thanks for all the input

[Foggy_Goggles]

I'm surprised I haven't heard more places in Colorado/Utah

For most, life is a series of imperfect choices. You've ID'd a high paying job in a city. In Colorado, the means the Front Range...maybe Junction...maybe Durango. In Utah, that means the Wasatch Front...maybe the Wasatch Back. None of these fit your criteria otherwise for size and access.

This is a bit of rub about the intermountain west. The higher paying jobs are really concentrated. Now I know enginerds pulling down $100K, slaying pow, working remotely in all kinds of rural places. Put that chicken don't fuck itself...ya dig?

I won't pretend to know your situation, but if I were you, I'd consider expanding my horizons. As you see, the weekend warrior skier, M-F golf shirt and khakis thing is a little limiting.

[PeachesNCream]

For most, life is a series of imperfect choices. You've ID'd a high paying job in a city. In Colorado, the means the Front Range...maybe Junction...maybe Durango. In Utah, that means the Wasatch Front...maybe the Wasatch Back. None of these fit your criteria otherwise for size and access.

This is a bit of rub about the intermountain west. The higher paying jobs are really concentrated. Now I know enginerds pulling down $100K, slaying pow, working remotely in all kinds of rural places. Put that chicken don't fuck itself...ya dig?

I won't pretend to know your situation, but if I were you, I'd consider expanding my horizons. As you see, the weekend warrior skier, M-F golf shirt and khakis thing is a little limiting.

I'm just looking for a small/med sized city in the mountains that isn't overcrowded, but I guess that's probably a lot of people's ideal scenario so that's what makes it crowded. It sounds like your definition of expanding your horizons means being okay with living somewhere smaller? I guess I'm just surprised in general how many cities there are with 200k people (not very many). There seems to be all sorts of cities 50k-70k and then 500k+. I wonder if there's any sort reasoning behind that but that's a discussion for another time (and another forum)

[AdironRider]

I kinda get that you are bummed this shangrila doesn't exist, but life is a series of tradeoffs unless you got a nice trust fund.

I personally really don't see much difference between a 50-100k city and a 200k city, but thats me, a guy who would never live in either of those places. I'd be perfectly content living in a place with zero people but myself, but then I'd be bankrupt, so there is my tradeoff.

[Foggy_Goggles]

It sounds like your definition of expanding your horizons means being okay with living somewhere smaller?

I'm saying you are looking for what everyone else is looking for. It's a unicorn, it pretty much don't exist. And if it did, everyone would move there and then it wouldn't exist.

"I wish I could crush the paycheck, have an affordable cost of living, have easy access to the stuff I want to do, my kids could go to good schools, the socio-political enviroment is copacetic...ya know...young white people heaven!"

[GoldMember]

Starting to lean towards Spokane. Perfect size, affordable, 5 ski resorts within 2 hours, good biking. I'm planning on visiting Spokane and Bozeman before I make a decision though. I'm surprised I haven't heard more places in Colorado/Utah, but maybe everything is way full or people are just keeping their secrets to themselves. Fair enough.

Thanks for all the input

And the lakes...don't forget the lakes! And rivers, fishing, etc. as part of your criteria. You might find this helpful regarding Spokane.

http://spokaneplanner.com/economic-d...te-to-spokane/

And this

https://123relocation.com/washington/spokane/#about

[phatty]

I'm just looking for a small/med sized city in the mountains that isn't overcrowded

Basic geography makes this nearly impossible. Mountains don't really allow for cities to get very big and if they get the size you want, they are very crowded. There's just not enough room. That puts you in cities near mountains. Once you are there, those places have room to grow. That's where your SLC, Seattle, Denver, Boise start coming in. This is also where the Spokane, Missoula, Bozeman, etc. fit, there's just not many of them.

My friend called it looking for a 1 Costco town. Big enough to have a Costco, but not big enough to have 2. He chose Missoula. Then when his company went under and he couldn't find another decent job he moved to SLC.

[snapt]

Another under the radar place would be Pacatello. 1 Costco town. The town hill is super fun when it has snow. Touring nearby plus some cool yurts. 2 hours to the Ogden resorts. Very good mountain biking. College town makes it less LDS than IF. Very affordable housing. Great access to other outdoorsy things.

As an engineer there are high paying jobs at the site accessible from Poky/IF. Many people work 4/10's there and play the other 3.

[TAFKALVS]

Buy my house in Wenatchee.

[The AD]

I'm surprised I haven't heard more places in Colorado/Utah

How about Glenwood Springs? Although it is substantially smaller than what you've said you're looking for.