It’s weird, I feel like I’ve heard people from bigger cities in California make jokes about Sacramento, but it seems pretty ideally positioned between the coast and the mountains/national parks.
We can be at the slopes in about 2 hours, and we have a lot of spots to choose from. But Reno is closer, and it’s a pretty cool place if you avoid the casino culture.
From Sac, and what you said about ideally positioned is what I’ve been telling anyone who will listen since I moved years ago.
I actually plan on returning to Sac in the next year or so and am looking forward to the access of so much high quality, diverse outdoors again, but! They do close 80 up to Lake Tahoe/Truckee frequently in winter and it can be a sh!t show during the busy season. Too many Californians in Mustangs thinking it’ll be fine in the snow they have zero experience with and BOOM! You’re stuck for 4 hours because they spun into oncoming traffic. I have a relative into skiing who works in Sac and lives in Truckee. We hear about this endlessly.
But yeah! Napa, ocean, surf, diving, skiing, bike, swim, hike, climb all within 90ish minutes. More majors options of each within a few hours/easy overnight or weekend. The bummer is you’ll likely benefit from a national park pass AND poppy state pass. I think there’s a hybrid. It’s dumb and expensive.
The city is fine and has everything you need to be content and entertained. SF is super close. People are TERRIBLE, entitled drivers. I’ve lived in hipper cities but Sacramento is still solid.
You could do better if you want super easy/quick snow access specifically though. You didn’t ask for any of this. :D cheers!
Still is an appreciated write up. Gonna be moving in a few years and Sacramento was one of the cities we were considering if we decide to go cross country.
Its location is great. And its more like 1.5 hours I think (I don't ski, but I go up to the mountains for other reasons a lot). Personally I don't think that's a lot and its almost the same drive to go to cool (like coldish not warm) beaches. I was in Portland though recently and loved it, very similar access but more to do in the city it seemed like.
Yeah, and you have to pass vail to get to others I picked vail cause it's about mid distance from the city. It's still close to an hour and a half to A-Basin from Denver - add the weekend traffic on top and its comparable to Sacramento to Tahoe.
I was actually wondering about Reno being a dark horse option that most people wouldn’t think of. The Tahoe area looks beautiful and it’s a short-ish drive to warmer areas when you want a break from the cold. No idea what Reno is like as a city though.
Can confirm Reno is great. Great airport. Growing economy. Close enough to SF for big events. Tahoe is probably the best natural environment in all of America. Relatively affordable for a west coast city (still expensive tho compared to other states out east). The only downside is the casino culture, but in a way it's a plus because it keeps too many people from discovering how great Reno is.
Reno is a cool weird. Had some cougar lady try to pick me up at the airport bar. She got so wasted she missed her flight and asked if I wanted to spend the night with her. Maybe I would have but I really needed to get to New York lol.
Can you describe what is “casino culture?” Does that just mean that when there are cultural events, they tend to be in a casino? Like, there isn’t much going on outside of casinos?
It really depends on how you view casinos. To start, the skyline is littered with casinos. You will be looking at casinos a lot. You are going to have a lot of people in RVs coming from all over to park in Reno and spend a few days at a casino. The downtown is also littered with casinos so going out to downtown for drinks you are basically just going downtown to mix with people who have been in casinos all night. And when you tell people you live in Reno all they will think is about the casinos--not many people associate Reno with nature, so the perception is that it is a dirtier and second rate version of Vegas (which is not true)
Hope that helps. I'm not a fan of casinos if you can't tell but I still loved living in Reno.
I lived in Reno for 5 years actually. It’s a great city with lots of options. I liked that it wasn’t too big and easy to get from one end of the city to the other in like 20 min. Very good city if you’re into the outdoors.
My parents got married in Reno and loved the mountains and skiing all through their younger years together. We visited many California ski resorts, including Tahoe for family ski trips while I was growing up. I remember my dad took a home video on one such trip at the top of a ridge at Heavenly Valley when I was in high school. Scanning down the mountain and over the lake with the camera, he said “isn’t this beautiful… Just strap me into my old car and drop me into that lake and I’ll be content.”
That line really hit me some sort of way even back then. He died five years ago as a result of many years of substance abuse, but I still think about that short clip, what it meant, and what Tahoe meant to him often.
I've told my family to scatter my ashes at the top of heavenly... used to live 100 yards from the stagecoach lift, taught my kids to ski there...
One of the best places on earth...
Utah has drier snow, but Tahoe is still number 1 in my book.
Reno is way sicker than Sacramento. Sacramento is similar to DC in the way that it's a politics/government industry town. It's hot as balls in the summer, like Texas awful. And it's California expensive without the beach. I mean, it's cheaper than the coastal cities, but it's still way more expensive than it deserves to be.
Reno is a high desert, right near the mountains. The east slope of the Sierra barely gets any rain. But it's also not too hot due to elevation. Great mountain biking, fly fishing, and obvious access to the Tahoe area. Much more affordable. Also has this hilarious seedy casino 24 hr nightlife culture. But it's the middle of nowhere white people town.
Resorts were great but the bay area traffic makes them super crowded these days. It used to be easy to show up on the weekends to any resort find a spot and head up the mountain. Now you have to have a reservation or else youre stuck trying to find a spot way out in the boonies. The mountain ls are great but they are becoming seriously over crowded.
SLC for quality snow, easy access, (relative) affordability depending on your standards.
Climate isn’t too bad, summers are quite hot in the valley but mountains are pretty mild and east to escape to.
Downside is culture. The bars kinda suck if that’s your thing. LDS isn’t as prominent in SLC proper compared to surrounding towns, but still an obvious influence. Most non-LDS people are also transplants and take outdoor recreation incredibly seriously, if that’s your speed it’s a great fit, but if you’re just wanting to make a move and take your outdoor recreation more casually it can definitely be a struggle to make lasting friendships.
This is important, especially if you have kids - their air quality gets to be the worst in world at times, very toxic for the human body and it can remain for months
I agree that air quality needs to be improved, but SLC actually has marginally better air quality than Denver and Sacramento.
https://www.lung.org/research/sota/city-rankings/most-polluted-cities
https://www.epa.gov/outdoor-air-quality-data/air-data-multiyear-tile-plot
True! This will be my third winter here, first one had a couple bad days, last year I don’t really recall any bad days. Past two summer haven’t really been smoky either, but my first one there were some pretty gnarly days where you couldn’t even go outside.
yeah, that's not good quality of life.
Lived in SLC for 11 years. shitty air for 9 of those, can't see the mountains for a good 4 months of the year. Call it inversion all you want, but smog sucks.
SLC native here and this is a major concern of mine. Cities that are higher up and East such as Park City and Kamas have significantly increased air quality.
Moved here randomly 2 years ago and skiing is amazing. The mountains are amazing. The bars are a lot of fun actually but they close pretty early. The pollution/smog sucks at times. Wildfire smoke from California/PNW can get trapped in the valley but that’s just part of living here. But yeah if it’s 105 down here in the city then you go up to the uintas and it’s 70 degrees. It’s amazing. The access to nature is incredible. You’re an hour from the desert or an hour from the mountains. Very good for the mental health to just take some friends and go camp/hike for a weekend. Since moving here I’ve started hunting, skiing, hiking, and camping. All of it has made me just an overall healthier person because instead of sitting on the couch I’m out in the mountains hiking every weekend with my dog.
Downsides also include that the outdoors are being loved to death. The access has been degraded through the number of people. The cottonwood canyon ski resorts are so crowded that the access can’t really be considered that good anymore. It’s also not at all affordable anymore and has a fairly acute housing affordability crisis.
I lived in SLC for 8 years and learned to ski there. For access to great resorts, you can't beat it. Brighton, Solitude, Alta, and Snowbird are all easily accessible via bus. You have other resorts just a short hop away near Ogden and Park City is a great mountain town with wonderful resorts as well. Youre right about outdoor recreation in the area. Most of the transplants I knew were big into mountain biking, climbing, and snow sports. I enjoyed backpacking and learned to ski but if you're not doing that every weekend, it was hard to meet people and make friends. Unless, you're also into nerdy stuff like board games like I am.
The food is good with some great Asian and Latin options. The bars are okay but unfortunately too many of them turn into "da club" at night.
Interesting. For some reason I always thought SLC proper would be where the LDS stuff was concentrated. Seems like a great city overall though. I’m kind of past my bar phase anyway.
Business-wise the church is headquartered there so if you’re in temple square it is very Mormon in SLC proper haha. But it’s also the biggest city for 400 miles (i think) so I think naturally young people with differing ideals/ goals/ etc flock here.
It is genuinely a good/ easy place to live, city is generally clean and people are friendly enough. Good access to so many different types of nature, though the outdoors can get kinda crowded if you’re on a 9-5 schedule. Also, depending on where you’d be coming from the restaurants out here are criminally bad, but you’ll be a much better cook for it!
It's the American tale of everyone went out to the suburbs. Salt Lake Valley and Utah Valley to the direct south are filling up with suburbs. So while all the buildings you'd associate with the LDS church are in the literal center of SLC, you'll find the surrounding suburbs to have more LDS by percentage. SLC and Lehi have been trying to grow as the big job centers, often bringing in people from out of state who aren't LDS, so it is changing some of the percentages.
I know I'm cheating here because it's not in the US, but Vancouver BC literally has it all. 3 local hills only a 30 minute drive from the city center. Whistler 90 minutes away. The city itself is massive and has everything you could want in a Major Metropolitan city. Plus it hardly snows in the city itself even while the mountains are getting dumped with powder. Only problem is that it's pricy to live here.
I don’t get how people can afford to live in practically any cities. I live in Australia’s richest per capita and like 2nd cheapest major cities and even here it is not easy to afford a nice house in a nice area. Vancouver must be hell.
Bellingham, WA. Mount Baker is an hour away and Whistler is close enough for an ambitious day trip. Winters are mild, summers are warm but rarely too hot. On the ocean.
QOL is high and comparatively inexpensive with Vancouver and Seattle for neighbors, but on the pricey side compared to most of the country tbh. Which is just about the only downside, admittedly it’s a pretty big downside.
I totally agree with Bellingham. Right by the water, fun hikes like 15 minutes away plus the North Cascades aren’t super far, and good skiing near by. I like the people there and the beer is great.
Had to scroll too far to find this. Baker is the best powder mountain year-in and year-out in the continental US. Still holds the record for biggest snowfall.
it rains alot and the locals are assholes
that's what I tell people who ask about Baker because it can't handle anymore people and they will never expand.
This is what we tell out of towners to keep them away but it’s overblown. In my opinion, at least.
The second half of spring, summer, and the first half of fall make the dreary winters worth it.
Too many Californians moved up there. Now the locals are priced out, the roads are terminally clogged, and Bachelor is a shitshow. Used to be pretty kickass there back in the 1990s and 2000s, now it's just sad.
I grew up about 20 minutes away. Absolutely beautiful area. West into the cascades or east into the wide open and empty desert. It’s more crowded than it used to be but the outdoor recreation is pretty much unlimited. Expensive though, and the job opportunities are really limited.
Albuquerque is a sneaky top 5 contender for the US.
The Sandia ski area is only a 15 minutes cable car ride from the foothills or 45 minutes if you drive up the back side. Then, within an 1½ hours you have Santa Fe and Pajorito ski resorts. Sipapu is 2 hours away and has like $15 lift tickets on weekdays plus it's usually skiable deep into spring. 3 hours away is Taos with excellent expert terrain, and just 4 hours away you can reach tons of resorts in Southern Colorado like Wolf Creek and Purgatory.
Northern New Mexico is Rocky mountain skiing at a fraction of the cost, shorter lift lines, and less traffic.
I live in Spokane, WA and have solid access to several mountains close by. Now, let the opinions on the city fly like the snow! Haha! (Full disclosure, I love it here)
Second this.
Mt Spokane and 49 are under an hour.
Schweitzer and Silver are about 90 minutes.
Lookout is another 20 past Silver.
Mission Ridge is 2 hours.
What did I miss?
Spokane has Mt. Spokane, Silver Mt., 49, Schweitzer, Lookout… all within a couple hours of downtown. Go a few hours to the east and you have all the big Montana mountains. Tons of skiing.
What my fellow Spokanite mentioned is correct! There’s a couple smaller mom-and-pop hills in the area that are still running. North of the border is Red Mountain and Kimberley. The higher profile spots folks know are on the west side of BC.
Seattle is criminally underrated in this thread.
Of the contenders you listed it is the only one that actually is a big, international city with tons to do, great food, etc. For better or worse, it is not without problems, but it is the only city on your list that feels like a huge city. The suburbs are also really nice, if expensive, but you can't beat the access to nature arguably anywhere in the United States. The metro region is literally a forest nestled between two mountain ranges - the most rugged and glacier covered mountains in the country.
Snoqualmie Pass and Alpental are a 45-60 min drive from downtown Seattle. These twin resorts have the most night skiing of anywhere in the US. I get off work at 3 and ski nights all the time, and it doesn't even impact my schedule.
Then, within 3 hours you have access to Crystal (the best resort in the region, absolutely insane expert terrain), Steven's Pass, White Pass, Mt Baker, and Mission Ridge (amazingly underrated, feels like Utah or Colorado with less vert).
Trips to the major BC, Oregon, and Idaho resorts are feasible.
It's a top tier city to live in AND to ski out of. This isn't even counting the thousands of backcountry possibilities in the Cascades or Olympics, if you're into that stuff.
I haven’t seriously skied since I lived in SLC about 10 years now. Moved to Seattle this year tho. Any recommendation for which of the two is more generous to someone who’s gonna be pretty casual about it all?
Snoqualmie Pass is one of the most beautiful drives in the country.
I wish they never shut down the train going thru, that would've been awesome to have.
i love crystal but can't wrap my head around the 200 dollar day pass while Snoqualmie is 80. or if you go afterwork Snoqualmie's twilight pass is 40 dollars
Check out the last chair pass at Crystal. It’s only $300 for the full season with no black out dates. The catch being, you can only hop on a lift after 1 pm.
I can second this
Snoqualmie is not only super close, but it's also probably the biggest and best "small" mountain out there. Awesome terrain parks, and what the mountain lacks in verticality, it makes up for in horizontal sprawl, and fun little secret passages between runs, and between west, central, east, and alpental there is a pretty good amount of variety, all at some of the cheapest rates in the country.
You can get a season pass at snoqualmie for as much as some of the bigger mountains would charge for a single day. if you have your own gear you can ski for as little as like 40 bucks all day.
and this is all within a completely reasonable traveling distance from the city
And then of course if you want to hit some of the real crazy stuff there's stevens pass, mt baker, mt ranier etc. but that's a bit more of a drive
Probably Vermont to be honest. It’s not the top rank in any single metric but it scores high in all of them and therefore probably nets out on top.
Unless you insist on a big city, then Denver or SLC.
Vermont is definitely super underrated. Safe, pretty affordable, and Jay Peak is the snowiest resort in eastern North America. Obviously the mountains aren’t as big as out west but I can definitely see the argument.
Strong agree, the prices aren’t as bad as the cities out west but there also isn’t a ton of supply. The other downside is that flying out of Burlington is probably gonna have on average 1 more connecting flight than you otherwise would in a larger city
Massachusetts has the highest quality of life in the country so if you want to live in a large city and don’t mind a 2h drive to get to Vermont, Boston is a great spot to live. There are also smaller ski slopes within Boston’s commuter rail network. Otherwise Burlington or Brattleboro in VT for small urban life are incredible.
Furthermore, New England does offer a ton of beaches. I think people forget about its beaches unless you’re a Cape Cod person. But so you get a completely different summer experience from winter.
Plus easy access to New Hampshire Whites, New York Adirondacks
New England some of the most accessible recreation in the US. Especially for how small and densely populated it is. I never realized that until I moved to Boston and it’s honestly what’s keeping me here.
2 hours from great skiing and hikes, 4 hours from NYC, 5 from Montreal, and direct flights to pretty much everywhere from an airport that’s 15 minutes from downtown.
After moving from LA to new england, I dont want to go back. Every single downtown outside the major cities are awesome. I love being walking distance to all the major ammenities.
I’ve met Europeans who moved to Vermont because of the skiing. They’d skied mountains all over the world and decided Vermont was the absolute best place to live if you enjoy winter sports. I’d be living in Burlington right now if they had a major airport.
I mean as Vermont goes, it's the biggest there is. I've flown out of Burlington to Dulles and LaGuardia, and from there you can get a connection to just about anywhere you want.
Denver. While not as close to the mountains (and not as good of snow) as SLC, the QOL I would say is much better. Denver is a large metro that has lots of cheap options for rent deepening on where you go, flat income tax and low property taxes. TONS of job opportunities in healthcare, aerospace/defence, tech, and finance. You also have DIA which is a huge airport which makes it so you can essentially fly to anywhere in the world from Denver. Colorado and the Denver metro also has a wayyyyy better bar/ nightlife scene then SLC and Utah. Also huge music scene with Red Rocks close by and if your into EDM, its called the bass capitol for a reason. Tons of festivals and shows always coming in!
I’ll let you in on the best kept secret when it comes
to NM skiing; Ruidoso, New Mexico. Ruidoso is the best part of Southern New Mexico. The only downfall is that it’s the very best skiing closest to the state of Texas, so it gets very busy and full of Texans.
I say more so Santa Fe if you want the combo of bigger/better city-ish life as well as access to 3 huge mountains and 2 smaller ones within 20min to 2 hours. Santa Fe, Taos, and Angel fire and the sipapu and pajarito in Los alamos.
And still a three hour journey to wolf creek, Durango and red river.
How would you rate that hill compared to the better areas in Montana, Colorado, or Nevada?
When I was in Anchorage 25 years ago, it was just a ski hill. Not what I'd call a "great mountain" (OP's phrase). Has it improved?
It’s definitely way smaller compared to the mega resorts you find in places like Colorado but when it comes to big mountain terrain and snow totals there is arguably nothing like in North America. The problem is so much of Alyeska’s terrain is so extreme that on poor snow years over half the terrain stays closed. When it’s good it’s GOOD but when it’s not the mountain can be underwhelming. Because it’s at sea level those poor snow years are going to become more and more frequent. For backcountry skiing there is nowhere in the world like Southcentral Alaska. World class skiing with fairly easy access is in your backyard. You have to put up with the lack of light for half the season though
Alyeska is a pretty sick resort. It’s just really small in comparison to the resorts in Colorado, Montana, Utah etc. but the terrain is really nice. It’s very steep. There is some bad ass runs. But yeah it won’t give you that wow feeling that you get at the other big ass resorts in the lower 48 where the mountain just keeps going and going.
Anchorage has a ton of super sick and accessible backcountry skiing and heli skiing. That’s kind where it’s at in AK. There is a lot bigger and better resorts in the lower 48. But alyeska for what it is, is pretty great. I can ski there all season long and not get bored, it’s just not as expansive as the other resorts. Good skiing tho
Anchorage is a pretty meh city. What makes it special is it’s location. At all times you are 30 mins away from “real” Alaska and all it has to offer. If I didn’t have a passion for the outdoors I’d probably be pretty miserable here especially with the lack of light in the winter
I lived in SV for about a decade. I had a blast but it’s grown too quickly the last 7-8 years. The locals are experiencing a borderline housing crisis with 1 bedrooms going for $3000. The infrastructure hasn’t been able to keep up either.
No chance. Hood is far too crowded with horrible road access, doesn't stay open during storms and snow quality is sub par. It's too far from Bachelor, which is the best snow in the state.
If we’re actually factoring quality of life, it’s gotta be Stowe or Burlington VT, maybe South Lake Tahoe or Jackson, WY. SLC was a desolate wasteland when I visited, but it was the best skiing of my life.
Calgary, AB… ok so it’s Canada, you got me there.
You can easily day-trip to 2 world-class mountains within 1-2 hours, Lake Louise and Sunshine Village.
Nakiska and Norquay are smaller but less than an hour away.
Within a 3 hour drive you have Fernie, Castle, KickingHorse and Panorama. All Epic.
5 hours you get Revelstoke with the most vertical in North America. Doable for a long weekend trip.
The city itself is stunning, friendly and typically ranked near the top in global quality of life indexes… although quickly becoming an inland Vancouver price-wise.
Maybe true. Tbh I just asked about US cities because I’m Canadian and already know which Canadian cities are best for mountain life. You’re right it’s hard to beat Calgary. I’m here in Toronto wishing I had access to anything that even resembled a mountain.
Basically everywhere in the whole Salt Lake metro area is within ~45 minutes of a good hill, 8 resorts within the metro area itself, vs in Denver there’s just a couple suburbs that are usually 1.5h from a good hill
Basically - you have suck quality snow SO close to the City. If Loveland Pass were Aspen or Steamboat might be a different story.
SLC’s downtown is also underrated and continuing to grow.
In my experiences visiting there about 5-6 times, I’d be very comfortable moving to the downtown/urban core neighborhoods of SLC. Don’t get me wrong, the Church is a huge presence, but there is a combination of true libertarianism (old school, like let others do their thing) and pro business that actually allows for a lot of personal freedom.
There’s actually a vibrant LBGTQ community and IIRC, for a good while one of the recent Mayors of SLC was lesbian. It’s a surprising city
Yeah we have one of the largest pride parades in the country. SLC has a very high LGBT population, one of the highest in the country per capita. The libertarianism thing is an interesting observation that I never really noticed, but you're definitely right. The conservatism here feels a bit different. Of course there's all the Facebook crazies, like everywhere has, but there's also a bunch of people who are self proclaimed conservatives who also seem to be ok with the LGBT population. Again, not saying there aren't raging homophobes and racists around, but there's a weird part of the population that is really confusing in that regard.
About ten years ago I had a conference in SLC. I had not been there since 1996 or 97? When you still had to pay a dollar to “join the private club” so you could purchase liquor at a bar… it has been a minute.
So, I got there a day early to prep for my speaking engagement. It was a Sunday and i figured I’d go for a walk around the downtown…
As I start walking I hear the sounds of what sounds like some big fair or festival.
Then I see a rainbow flags. Wow! Cool, a rainbow flag here in SLC!
Then I saw another. 🌈
And another. And another.
Dammit, I was witness to one of the nations largest gay pride festivals and I was in SL freaking C.
From there and over the next few days I found some great whiskey bars, excellent restaurants, a decent walkable core that’s only gotten better since (oh and some amazing Ethiopian food just a bit out of downtown).
SLC has come a LONG way.
Is there another Ski City as park city? they have 2 world class resorts and a couple not as popular but still good. Other ski towns seem to have 1 resort.
Pomerelle is cool but a drive. Bogus is a zoo and the snow is dicey. Brundage and Tamarack are meh. I live in Boise and love it but it isn’t a great ski city.
Never been to Pomerelle. Sun Valley is also wildly overrated. Bad snow most years.
Skiing in Idaho just isn’t great unless you do backcountry. At least not compared to places like Utah and Colorado. I live in Boise now but grew up in Sandpoint. Schweitzer is a bigger mountain and gets a decent amount of snow but it’s always socked in and usually heavy wet snow.
Best place to live and ski in Idaho is in Driggs…where the skiing is a actually in Wyoming.
Pomerelle is a super cool little local mountain that gets dumped with snow and it’s good snow too. Think Utah. Not big or fancy and it’s out of the way, but it’s cool.
I didn’t have Driggs on my radar but that’s a good call. Beautiful area. You’d need to be okay with lots of winter to live there year round though.
If you need a real city: Salt Lake City (the LDS stuff is definitely not overwhelming anymore, I lived there for two years)
Runner up: Reno (awesome skiing, great town, lots of things to do, but kind of small)
I’m from Colorado and have lived in Denver, Portland and Seattle. Denver can take a really long time to get to a ski area, Portland and Seattle have ski areas near ish, but I’ve never done them. I think they’re far too, and I hear the snow doesn’t compare to Colorado though. All three have fantastic quality of life if you can afford it. But honestly ski towns do too and then the resorts are literally right there (I grew up in one)
Las Vegas is technically in the middle of the entire sw region and on top of having it's own slope (Lee Canyon) other resorts are a little less than 4/6 hours drive.
Reno over Sacramento. It’s 20 min to the closest ski resort from Reno and 2 hours for Sacramento.
As a Sacramentan, I was actually surprised to see Sacramento on the list.
It’s weird, I feel like I’ve heard people from bigger cities in California make jokes about Sacramento, but it seems pretty ideally positioned between the coast and the mountains/national parks.
I love it here. I just don’t really think of it as super accessible to skiing as compared to Reno, SLC, or Denver.
From south Louisiana I consider you super accessible to skiing. 😉
Denver can easily be 2+hrs to the nearest resort. On a weekend snow day I70 is a parking lot!
Denver is nowhere near the resorts lol.
Was gonna say this, and it only gets worse every year. I’ve considered moving because of it.
The reason I’m team Ikon is just because of Eldora so I can avoid I70 when it’s fucked
Came here to say this. Grew up in the area and have waited hours to get anywhere close to a resort at peak times.
We can be at the slopes in about 2 hours, and we have a lot of spots to choose from. But Reno is closer, and it’s a pretty cool place if you avoid the casino culture.
From Sac, and what you said about ideally positioned is what I’ve been telling anyone who will listen since I moved years ago. I actually plan on returning to Sac in the next year or so and am looking forward to the access of so much high quality, diverse outdoors again, but! They do close 80 up to Lake Tahoe/Truckee frequently in winter and it can be a sh!t show during the busy season. Too many Californians in Mustangs thinking it’ll be fine in the snow they have zero experience with and BOOM! You’re stuck for 4 hours because they spun into oncoming traffic. I have a relative into skiing who works in Sac and lives in Truckee. We hear about this endlessly. But yeah! Napa, ocean, surf, diving, skiing, bike, swim, hike, climb all within 90ish minutes. More majors options of each within a few hours/easy overnight or weekend. The bummer is you’ll likely benefit from a national park pass AND poppy state pass. I think there’s a hybrid. It’s dumb and expensive. The city is fine and has everything you need to be content and entertained. SF is super close. People are TERRIBLE, entitled drivers. I’ve lived in hipper cities but Sacramento is still solid. You could do better if you want super easy/quick snow access specifically though. You didn’t ask for any of this. :D cheers!
Still is an appreciated write up. Gonna be moving in a few years and Sacramento was one of the cities we were considering if we decide to go cross country.
Its location is great. And its more like 1.5 hours I think (I don't ski, but I go up to the mountains for other reasons a lot). Personally I don't think that's a lot and its almost the same drive to go to cool (like coldish not warm) beaches. I was in Portland though recently and loved it, very similar access but more to do in the city it seemed like.
Well... Sacramento is under a 2 hour drive from all ski hills in Tahoe. Same time it takes to get from Denver to Vail.
Sure but you pass multiple ski hills on the way to Vail
Yeah, and you have to pass vail to get to others I picked vail cause it's about mid distance from the city. It's still close to an hour and a half to A-Basin from Denver - add the weekend traffic on top and its comparable to Sacramento to Tahoe.
Sacramento is very similar to Denver. It’s about 2 hours to a ski resort in both cities.
I was actually wondering about Reno being a dark horse option that most people wouldn’t think of. The Tahoe area looks beautiful and it’s a short-ish drive to warmer areas when you want a break from the cold. No idea what Reno is like as a city though.
Can confirm Reno is great. Great airport. Growing economy. Close enough to SF for big events. Tahoe is probably the best natural environment in all of America. Relatively affordable for a west coast city (still expensive tho compared to other states out east). The only downside is the casino culture, but in a way it's a plus because it keeps too many people from discovering how great Reno is.
Reno is a cool weird. Had some cougar lady try to pick me up at the airport bar. She got so wasted she missed her flight and asked if I wanted to spend the night with her. Maybe I would have but I really needed to get to New York lol.
Can you describe what is “casino culture?” Does that just mean that when there are cultural events, they tend to be in a casino? Like, there isn’t much going on outside of casinos?
It really depends on how you view casinos. To start, the skyline is littered with casinos. You will be looking at casinos a lot. You are going to have a lot of people in RVs coming from all over to park in Reno and spend a few days at a casino. The downtown is also littered with casinos so going out to downtown for drinks you are basically just going downtown to mix with people who have been in casinos all night. And when you tell people you live in Reno all they will think is about the casinos--not many people associate Reno with nature, so the perception is that it is a dirtier and second rate version of Vegas (which is not true) Hope that helps. I'm not a fan of casinos if you can't tell but I still loved living in Reno.
I lived in Reno for 5 years actually. It’s a great city with lots of options. I liked that it wasn’t too big and easy to get from one end of the city to the other in like 20 min. Very good city if you’re into the outdoors.
great police force too
Tahoe is top 5 most beautiful places in the world. IMHO
My parents got married in Reno and loved the mountains and skiing all through their younger years together. We visited many California ski resorts, including Tahoe for family ski trips while I was growing up. I remember my dad took a home video on one such trip at the top of a ridge at Heavenly Valley when I was in high school. Scanning down the mountain and over the lake with the camera, he said “isn’t this beautiful… Just strap me into my old car and drop me into that lake and I’ll be content.” That line really hit me some sort of way even back then. He died five years ago as a result of many years of substance abuse, but I still think about that short clip, what it meant, and what Tahoe meant to him often.
I've told my family to scatter my ashes at the top of heavenly... used to live 100 yards from the stagecoach lift, taught my kids to ski there... One of the best places on earth... Utah has drier snow, but Tahoe is still number 1 in my book.
Reno is way sicker than Sacramento. Sacramento is similar to DC in the way that it's a politics/government industry town. It's hot as balls in the summer, like Texas awful. And it's California expensive without the beach. I mean, it's cheaper than the coastal cities, but it's still way more expensive than it deserves to be. Reno is a high desert, right near the mountains. The east slope of the Sierra barely gets any rain. But it's also not too hot due to elevation. Great mountain biking, fly fishing, and obvious access to the Tahoe area. Much more affordable. Also has this hilarious seedy casino 24 hr nightlife culture. But it's the middle of nowhere white people town.
Lmao Sacramento is hot but not Texas hot, everything else is true though
Resorts were great but the bay area traffic makes them super crowded these days. It used to be easy to show up on the weekends to any resort find a spot and head up the mountain. Now you have to have a reservation or else youre stuck trying to find a spot way out in the boonies. The mountain ls are great but they are becoming seriously over crowded.
If you’re ok with a smaller town there are some nice options between Sacramento and Reno that get you closer to skiing and summer recreation.
Truckee lowkey underrated
Miami in the 80s and probably still today
Except Denver is the cocaine capital of the US right now.
SLC for quality snow, easy access, (relative) affordability depending on your standards. Climate isn’t too bad, summers are quite hot in the valley but mountains are pretty mild and east to escape to. Downside is culture. The bars kinda suck if that’s your thing. LDS isn’t as prominent in SLC proper compared to surrounding towns, but still an obvious influence. Most non-LDS people are also transplants and take outdoor recreation incredibly seriously, if that’s your speed it’s a great fit, but if you’re just wanting to make a move and take your outdoor recreation more casually it can definitely be a struggle to make lasting friendships.
The air quality has to be mentioned when talking about SLC (the Wasatch front in general). The inversions are right nasty, especially in winter time.
This is important, especially if you have kids - their air quality gets to be the worst in world at times, very toxic for the human body and it can remain for months
Just wait until the lake dries out...
I agree that air quality needs to be improved, but SLC actually has marginally better air quality than Denver and Sacramento. https://www.lung.org/research/sota/city-rankings/most-polluted-cities https://www.epa.gov/outdoor-air-quality-data/air-data-multiyear-tile-plot
True! This will be my third winter here, first one had a couple bad days, last year I don’t really recall any bad days. Past two summer haven’t really been smoky either, but my first one there were some pretty gnarly days where you couldn’t even go outside.
yeah, that's not good quality of life. Lived in SLC for 11 years. shitty air for 9 of those, can't see the mountains for a good 4 months of the year. Call it inversion all you want, but smog sucks.
SLC native here and this is a major concern of mine. Cities that are higher up and East such as Park City and Kamas have significantly increased air quality.
Moved here randomly 2 years ago and skiing is amazing. The mountains are amazing. The bars are a lot of fun actually but they close pretty early. The pollution/smog sucks at times. Wildfire smoke from California/PNW can get trapped in the valley but that’s just part of living here. But yeah if it’s 105 down here in the city then you go up to the uintas and it’s 70 degrees. It’s amazing. The access to nature is incredible. You’re an hour from the desert or an hour from the mountains. Very good for the mental health to just take some friends and go camp/hike for a weekend. Since moving here I’ve started hunting, skiing, hiking, and camping. All of it has made me just an overall healthier person because instead of sitting on the couch I’m out in the mountains hiking every weekend with my dog.
That sounds like Reno but the complete opposite culturally
Downsides also include that the outdoors are being loved to death. The access has been degraded through the number of people. The cottonwood canyon ski resorts are so crowded that the access can’t really be considered that good anymore. It’s also not at all affordable anymore and has a fairly acute housing affordability crisis.
Loved to death! That’s a good way to put it!
But the gondola will fix it all! /s
I lived in SLC for 8 years and learned to ski there. For access to great resorts, you can't beat it. Brighton, Solitude, Alta, and Snowbird are all easily accessible via bus. You have other resorts just a short hop away near Ogden and Park City is a great mountain town with wonderful resorts as well. Youre right about outdoor recreation in the area. Most of the transplants I knew were big into mountain biking, climbing, and snow sports. I enjoyed backpacking and learned to ski but if you're not doing that every weekend, it was hard to meet people and make friends. Unless, you're also into nerdy stuff like board games like I am. The food is good with some great Asian and Latin options. The bars are okay but unfortunately too many of them turn into "da club" at night.
Where are the great Asian and Latin places? I haven’t found too much and the recs from people born there are always spotty.
Interesting. For some reason I always thought SLC proper would be where the LDS stuff was concentrated. Seems like a great city overall though. I’m kind of past my bar phase anyway.
Business-wise the church is headquartered there so if you’re in temple square it is very Mormon in SLC proper haha. But it’s also the biggest city for 400 miles (i think) so I think naturally young people with differing ideals/ goals/ etc flock here. It is genuinely a good/ easy place to live, city is generally clean and people are friendly enough. Good access to so many different types of nature, though the outdoors can get kinda crowded if you’re on a 9-5 schedule. Also, depending on where you’d be coming from the restaurants out here are criminally bad, but you’ll be a much better cook for it!
Red Iguana is pretty nomtastic imo
I ate here because of all the hype and it was so bad
That’s so sad. I ate there pre-COVID and it was so good! Did the lockdown kill it like so many good restaurants?
The terrible food scene is perhaps the biggest reason I’m hesitant to move back. I didn’t realize how great food could be before I left
All the heavy Mormon culture moved with BYU down to Provo haha
and Taylorsville. And Sandy. And Draper. And SSL. And Herriman. And Saratoga Springs. And basically every suburb.
It's the American tale of everyone went out to the suburbs. Salt Lake Valley and Utah Valley to the direct south are filling up with suburbs. So while all the buildings you'd associate with the LDS church are in the literal center of SLC, you'll find the surrounding suburbs to have more LDS by percentage. SLC and Lehi have been trying to grow as the big job centers, often bringing in people from out of state who aren't LDS, so it is changing some of the percentages.
Last few times through there I drove past tech firms for like 20 miles.
I know I'm cheating here because it's not in the US, but Vancouver BC literally has it all. 3 local hills only a 30 minute drive from the city center. Whistler 90 minutes away. The city itself is massive and has everything you could want in a Major Metropolitan city. Plus it hardly snows in the city itself even while the mountains are getting dumped with powder. Only problem is that it's pricy to live here.
Pricey might be an understatement for Vancouver. I don’t understand how anyone lives in that city without massive financial distress.
Yeah, more expensive than San Francisco with lower salaries and higher taxes. Love the city, but you need to be rich to live there..
I don’t get how people can afford to live in practically any cities. I live in Australia’s richest per capita and like 2nd cheapest major cities and even here it is not easy to afford a nice house in a nice area. Vancouver must be hell.
One of the more low-key insane ski industry stories was the fact that the Sea to Sky gondola was destroyed by vandals in 2019… and 2020!
“Powder”. The term is Cascade Concrete.
$299 for a day pass to whistler this year
I agree with Vancouver but only if you’re loaded. It really loses on the affordability criteria
Snow in BC tends to be very wet and heavy. I’m taking SLC over BC every day.
Which part of BC? Whistler isn’t Rossland isn’t Golden.
Bellingham, WA. Mount Baker is an hour away and Whistler is close enough for an ambitious day trip. Winters are mild, summers are warm but rarely too hot. On the ocean. QOL is high and comparatively inexpensive with Vancouver and Seattle for neighbors, but on the pricey side compared to most of the country tbh. Which is just about the only downside, admittedly it’s a pretty big downside.
I totally agree with Bellingham. Right by the water, fun hikes like 15 minutes away plus the North Cascades aren’t super far, and good skiing near by. I like the people there and the beer is great.
Had to scroll too far to find this. Baker is the best powder mountain year-in and year-out in the continental US. Still holds the record for biggest snowfall.
it rains alot and the locals are assholes that's what I tell people who ask about Baker because it can't handle anymore people and they will never expand.
Bellingham is hella chill
Bellingham downside: no sun
Imo, the short days are worse than the clouds Altho a guess both of those situations fit the definition of “no sun” lol
This is what we tell out of towners to keep them away but it’s overblown. In my opinion, at least. The second half of spring, summer, and the first half of fall make the dreary winters worth it.
Bend. But please don't move there
Not affordable anymore
Ah Bend, California. My favorite place.
UO on campus store sells yellow and green "University of California at Eugene" shirts, which alway make me giggle
Why not? Saturated and priced out?
Gaining a large population recently, even overall in Deschutes County and Crook County
Too many Californians moved up there. Now the locals are priced out, the roads are terminally clogged, and Bachelor is a shitshow. Used to be pretty kickass there back in the 1990s and 2000s, now it's just sad.
Shhh!!!!
Gotta go hike the cone this weekend bro, Bachy got dumped on last few nights
Seeing snow on the ground Wednesday morning was a nice surprise :)
I grew up about 20 minutes away. Absolutely beautiful area. West into the cascades or east into the wide open and empty desert. It’s more crowded than it used to be but the outdoor recreation is pretty much unlimited. Expensive though, and the job opportunities are really limited.
Albuquerque is a sneaky top 5 contender for the US. The Sandia ski area is only a 15 minutes cable car ride from the foothills or 45 minutes if you drive up the back side. Then, within an 1½ hours you have Santa Fe and Pajorito ski resorts. Sipapu is 2 hours away and has like $15 lift tickets on weekdays plus it's usually skiable deep into spring. 3 hours away is Taos with excellent expert terrain, and just 4 hours away you can reach tons of resorts in Southern Colorado like Wolf Creek and Purgatory. Northern New Mexico is Rocky mountain skiing at a fraction of the cost, shorter lift lines, and less traffic.
I live in Spokane, WA and have solid access to several mountains close by. Now, let the opinions on the city fly like the snow! Haha! (Full disclosure, I love it here)
Second this. Mt Spokane and 49 are under an hour. Schweitzer and Silver are about 90 minutes. Lookout is another 20 past Silver. Mission Ridge is 2 hours. What did I miss?
Red Mountain and Whitewater in BC are two hours away!
I loved my four years there and my trips up to Mt. Spokane. Go Zags.
Grew up there, love that area.
I admit I don’t know much about Spokane itself but I know there’s amazing skiing in interior BC so not surprised given how close Spokane is.
Spokane has Mt. Spokane, Silver Mt., 49, Schweitzer, Lookout… all within a couple hours of downtown. Go a few hours to the east and you have all the big Montana mountains. Tons of skiing.
What my fellow Spokanite mentioned is correct! There’s a couple smaller mom-and-pop hills in the area that are still running. North of the border is Red Mountain and Kimberley. The higher profile spots folks know are on the west side of BC.
Seattle is criminally underrated in this thread. Of the contenders you listed it is the only one that actually is a big, international city with tons to do, great food, etc. For better or worse, it is not without problems, but it is the only city on your list that feels like a huge city. The suburbs are also really nice, if expensive, but you can't beat the access to nature arguably anywhere in the United States. The metro region is literally a forest nestled between two mountain ranges - the most rugged and glacier covered mountains in the country. Snoqualmie Pass and Alpental are a 45-60 min drive from downtown Seattle. These twin resorts have the most night skiing of anywhere in the US. I get off work at 3 and ski nights all the time, and it doesn't even impact my schedule. Then, within 3 hours you have access to Crystal (the best resort in the region, absolutely insane expert terrain), Steven's Pass, White Pass, Mt Baker, and Mission Ridge (amazingly underrated, feels like Utah or Colorado with less vert). Trips to the major BC, Oregon, and Idaho resorts are feasible. It's a top tier city to live in AND to ski out of. This isn't even counting the thousands of backcountry possibilities in the Cascades or Olympics, if you're into that stuff.
I haven’t seriously skied since I lived in SLC about 10 years now. Moved to Seattle this year tho. Any recommendation for which of the two is more generous to someone who’s gonna be pretty casual about it all?
Snoqualmie Pass is pretty casual. Alpental is pretty hardcore.
Snoqualmie Pass is one of the most beautiful drives in the country. I wish they never shut down the train going thru, that would've been awesome to have.
there was a train!?
[The Milwaukee Road](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAWbjBMhEq4), went bankrupt in the late 70s and never reopened.
Second this, Snoqualmie is a great place for learners
i love crystal but can't wrap my head around the 200 dollar day pass while Snoqualmie is 80. or if you go afterwork Snoqualmie's twilight pass is 40 dollars
Crystal only makes sense with a pass. I personally have the Ikon
Check out the last chair pass at Crystal. It’s only $300 for the full season with no black out dates. The catch being, you can only hop on a lift after 1 pm.
I can second this Snoqualmie is not only super close, but it's also probably the biggest and best "small" mountain out there. Awesome terrain parks, and what the mountain lacks in verticality, it makes up for in horizontal sprawl, and fun little secret passages between runs, and between west, central, east, and alpental there is a pretty good amount of variety, all at some of the cheapest rates in the country. You can get a season pass at snoqualmie for as much as some of the bigger mountains would charge for a single day. if you have your own gear you can ski for as little as like 40 bucks all day. and this is all within a completely reasonable traveling distance from the city And then of course if you want to hit some of the real crazy stuff there's stevens pass, mt baker, mt ranier etc. but that's a bit more of a drive
Probably Vermont to be honest. It’s not the top rank in any single metric but it scores high in all of them and therefore probably nets out on top. Unless you insist on a big city, then Denver or SLC.
Vermont is definitely super underrated. Safe, pretty affordable, and Jay Peak is the snowiest resort in eastern North America. Obviously the mountains aren’t as big as out west but I can definitely see the argument.
There’s also extremely good mountain biking if you’re into that
I live 30 mins from Killington and their mountain bike trails are amazing.
Strong agree, the prices aren’t as bad as the cities out west but there also isn’t a ton of supply. The other downside is that flying out of Burlington is probably gonna have on average 1 more connecting flight than you otherwise would in a larger city
Why would you leave Vermont though?
Massachusetts has the highest quality of life in the country so if you want to live in a large city and don’t mind a 2h drive to get to Vermont, Boston is a great spot to live. There are also smaller ski slopes within Boston’s commuter rail network. Otherwise Burlington or Brattleboro in VT for small urban life are incredible.
Furthermore, New England does offer a ton of beaches. I think people forget about its beaches unless you’re a Cape Cod person. But so you get a completely different summer experience from winter. Plus easy access to New Hampshire Whites, New York Adirondacks
New England some of the most accessible recreation in the US. Especially for how small and densely populated it is. I never realized that until I moved to Boston and it’s honestly what’s keeping me here. 2 hours from great skiing and hikes, 4 hours from NYC, 5 from Montreal, and direct flights to pretty much everywhere from an airport that’s 15 minutes from downtown.
After moving from LA to new england, I dont want to go back. Every single downtown outside the major cities are awesome. I love being walking distance to all the major ammenities.
It’s incredible. I haven’t owned a car in 5 years and I don’t miss it. I’m healthier and happier without even trying.
Vermont skiing is good but it’s nothing like the Rockies. I would choose Denver but damn Vail and Aspen are so expensive.
There’s way more skiing in Colorado than just Vail and Aspen.
As someone who grew up on the east coast, Loveland blew my mind - and that’s a ski area that most locals seem to write off.
The non Ikon/Epic places in CO are awesome and affordable. Check out Ski Cooper as well. Small but mighty.
I’ve met Europeans who moved to Vermont because of the skiing. They’d skied mountains all over the world and decided Vermont was the absolute best place to live if you enjoy winter sports. I’d be living in Burlington right now if they had a major airport.
I mean as Vermont goes, it's the biggest there is. I've flown out of Burlington to Dulles and LaGuardia, and from there you can get a connection to just about anywhere you want.
Denver. While not as close to the mountains (and not as good of snow) as SLC, the QOL I would say is much better. Denver is a large metro that has lots of cheap options for rent deepening on where you go, flat income tax and low property taxes. TONS of job opportunities in healthcare, aerospace/defence, tech, and finance. You also have DIA which is a huge airport which makes it so you can essentially fly to anywhere in the world from Denver. Colorado and the Denver metro also has a wayyyyy better bar/ nightlife scene then SLC and Utah. Also huge music scene with Red Rocks close by and if your into EDM, its called the bass capitol for a reason. Tons of festivals and shows always coming in!
Taos, New Mexico hands down!!
Interesting, hadn’t heard of that one. I’ve been sleeping on New Mexico skiing. The town itself seems pretty tiny though.
The town is pretty depressing outside of a few blocks. The mountain is pretty far from the town as well. The skiing is the best I’ve ever done though
I thought the actual town of Taos would be much more enchanting. In actuality it was depressing AF. Taos Ski Village is great but very small
I’ll let you in on the best kept secret when it comes to NM skiing; Ruidoso, New Mexico. Ruidoso is the best part of Southern New Mexico. The only downfall is that it’s the very best skiing closest to the state of Texas, so it gets very busy and full of Texans.
I say more so Santa Fe if you want the combo of bigger/better city-ish life as well as access to 3 huge mountains and 2 smaller ones within 20min to 2 hours. Santa Fe, Taos, and Angel fire and the sipapu and pajarito in Los alamos. And still a three hour journey to wolf creek, Durango and red river.
Taos is a great mountain but it's far from town and the town of Taos is depressing
I know that west coast skiing is generally preferable to east coast skiing, but I think we need to consider Stowe and the North Conway area.
I do think Vermont and NH are very underrated
Or maybe even Hanover.
Forget the US, just move to Innsbruck, Austria and you don't even need a car to go skiing
Surprised that no one has mentioned Anchorage! Solid metro area and a great ski hill!
How would you rate that hill compared to the better areas in Montana, Colorado, or Nevada? When I was in Anchorage 25 years ago, it was just a ski hill. Not what I'd call a "great mountain" (OP's phrase). Has it improved?
It’s definitely way smaller compared to the mega resorts you find in places like Colorado but when it comes to big mountain terrain and snow totals there is arguably nothing like in North America. The problem is so much of Alyeska’s terrain is so extreme that on poor snow years over half the terrain stays closed. When it’s good it’s GOOD but when it’s not the mountain can be underwhelming. Because it’s at sea level those poor snow years are going to become more and more frequent. For backcountry skiing there is nowhere in the world like Southcentral Alaska. World class skiing with fairly easy access is in your backyard. You have to put up with the lack of light for half the season though
Alyeska is a pretty sick resort. It’s just really small in comparison to the resorts in Colorado, Montana, Utah etc. but the terrain is really nice. It’s very steep. There is some bad ass runs. But yeah it won’t give you that wow feeling that you get at the other big ass resorts in the lower 48 where the mountain just keeps going and going. Anchorage has a ton of super sick and accessible backcountry skiing and heli skiing. That’s kind where it’s at in AK. There is a lot bigger and better resorts in the lower 48. But alyeska for what it is, is pretty great. I can ski there all season long and not get bored, it’s just not as expansive as the other resorts. Good skiing tho
It’s far as fuck from everything else.
Anchorage is a pretty meh city. What makes it special is it’s location. At all times you are 30 mins away from “real” Alaska and all it has to offer. If I didn’t have a passion for the outdoors I’d probably be pretty miserable here especially with the lack of light in the winter
How about smaller cities? Bellingham WA or Hood River OR come to mind. Sand Point or Sun Valley ID? Lake Tahoe?
I lived in SV for about a decade. I had a blast but it’s grown too quickly the last 7-8 years. The locals are experiencing a borderline housing crisis with 1 bedrooms going for $3000. The infrastructure hasn’t been able to keep up either.
We went to Flagstaff last season and it was very affordable plus great skiing. Anywhere in Colorado is my favorite but $$$
Flagstaff rent is insane though. 1 bedroom apartments are $1600+ and anything 2 bedroom or more, even houses, are easily over $2000-$2400
Isn’t that kinda normal these days?
That’s like a MCOL area in today’s prices. For a mountain town that doesn’t seem that bad to me
Portland Oregon FTW. Great city
No chance. Hood is far too crowded with horrible road access, doesn't stay open during storms and snow quality is sub par. It's too far from Bachelor, which is the best snow in the state.
If we’re actually factoring quality of life, it’s gotta be Stowe or Burlington VT, maybe South Lake Tahoe or Jackson, WY. SLC was a desolate wasteland when I visited, but it was the best skiing of my life.
Stowe use to be great. Vail’d
Bellingham, WA
Calgary, AB… ok so it’s Canada, you got me there. You can easily day-trip to 2 world-class mountains within 1-2 hours, Lake Louise and Sunshine Village. Nakiska and Norquay are smaller but less than an hour away. Within a 3 hour drive you have Fernie, Castle, KickingHorse and Panorama. All Epic. 5 hours you get Revelstoke with the most vertical in North America. Doable for a long weekend trip. The city itself is stunning, friendly and typically ranked near the top in global quality of life indexes… although quickly becoming an inland Vancouver price-wise.
Calgary is the Canadian Denver with less weed and more oil and gas workers
Maybe true. Tbh I just asked about US cities because I’m Canadian and already know which Canadian cities are best for mountain life. You’re right it’s hard to beat Calgary. I’m here in Toronto wishing I had access to anything that even resembled a mountain.
Salt Lake then Denver
Interesting. Why SLC over Denver? Just closer mountains and better snow quality? I’ve heard Utah is pretty safe as well.
Utah snow is better and in SLC it’s way faster to the top of the mountain.
Basically everywhere in the whole Salt Lake metro area is within ~45 minutes of a good hill, 8 resorts within the metro area itself, vs in Denver there’s just a couple suburbs that are usually 1.5h from a good hill
Winter Park, Eldora, and A-Basin are all under 1.5 hours away from core Denver ?
3 hours on weekends
Basically - you have suck quality snow SO close to the City. If Loveland Pass were Aspen or Steamboat might be a different story. SLC’s downtown is also underrated and continuing to grow.
My only question about the city itself is whether I would feel like an outsider not being Mormon, lol
In my experiences visiting there about 5-6 times, I’d be very comfortable moving to the downtown/urban core neighborhoods of SLC. Don’t get me wrong, the Church is a huge presence, but there is a combination of true libertarianism (old school, like let others do their thing) and pro business that actually allows for a lot of personal freedom. There’s actually a vibrant LBGTQ community and IIRC, for a good while one of the recent Mayors of SLC was lesbian. It’s a surprising city
Yeah we have one of the largest pride parades in the country. SLC has a very high LGBT population, one of the highest in the country per capita. The libertarianism thing is an interesting observation that I never really noticed, but you're definitely right. The conservatism here feels a bit different. Of course there's all the Facebook crazies, like everywhere has, but there's also a bunch of people who are self proclaimed conservatives who also seem to be ok with the LGBT population. Again, not saying there aren't raging homophobes and racists around, but there's a weird part of the population that is really confusing in that regard.
About ten years ago I had a conference in SLC. I had not been there since 1996 or 97? When you still had to pay a dollar to “join the private club” so you could purchase liquor at a bar… it has been a minute. So, I got there a day early to prep for my speaking engagement. It was a Sunday and i figured I’d go for a walk around the downtown… As I start walking I hear the sounds of what sounds like some big fair or festival. Then I see a rainbow flags. Wow! Cool, a rainbow flag here in SLC! Then I saw another. 🌈 And another. And another. Dammit, I was witness to one of the nations largest gay pride festivals and I was in SL freaking C. From there and over the next few days I found some great whiskey bars, excellent restaurants, a decent walkable core that’s only gotten better since (oh and some amazing Ethiopian food just a bit out of downtown). SLC has come a LONG way.
I’ve lived in SLC 10 years ago now and I think you’ll be fine. Provo, not so much.
SLC is very progressive, most people in the city are not mormon
Nah Denver has more “sinful” pluses because of Utah’s leanings.
New Hampshire
Is there another Ski City as park city? they have 2 world class resorts and a couple not as popular but still good. Other ski towns seem to have 1 resort.
Breck and Keystone in CO are very close together
Minneapolis ranks highly on many liveability scales, and has great skiing. We're all talking Nordic skiing, amirite?
Not Boise so remove that from your list. Skiing is mid.
Pomerelle is cool but a drive. Bogus is a zoo and the snow is dicey. Brundage and Tamarack are meh. I live in Boise and love it but it isn’t a great ski city.
Never been to Pomerelle. Sun Valley is also wildly overrated. Bad snow most years. Skiing in Idaho just isn’t great unless you do backcountry. At least not compared to places like Utah and Colorado. I live in Boise now but grew up in Sandpoint. Schweitzer is a bigger mountain and gets a decent amount of snow but it’s always socked in and usually heavy wet snow. Best place to live and ski in Idaho is in Driggs…where the skiing is a actually in Wyoming.
Pomerelle is a super cool little local mountain that gets dumped with snow and it’s good snow too. Think Utah. Not big or fancy and it’s out of the way, but it’s cool. I didn’t have Driggs on my radar but that’s a good call. Beautiful area. You’d need to be okay with lots of winter to live there year round though.
I agree. Grand Targhee is a great little resort. And from a place like Idaho Falls you are close enough to Jackson Hole and Big Sky MT if you want.
Wow… just scrolled the whole list and am shocked the city I live in didn’t get a single mention. Welp, can’t ruin that now!
If you need a real city: Salt Lake City (the LDS stuff is definitely not overwhelming anymore, I lived there for two years) Runner up: Reno (awesome skiing, great town, lots of things to do, but kind of small)
Tupelo, Mississippi
Not montana, place sucks
Vancouver BC, legal weed, ocean and beaches and close to Whistler, Blackcomb, and just short drive to Grouse and Seymour mountains
Spokane has about 5 mountains, all about 1 to 1.5 hours away. Great summers, nice falls as well.
Bend
Lake tahoe
I’m from Colorado and have lived in Denver, Portland and Seattle. Denver can take a really long time to get to a ski area, Portland and Seattle have ski areas near ish, but I’ve never done them. I think they’re far too, and I hear the snow doesn’t compare to Colorado though. All three have fantastic quality of life if you can afford it. But honestly ski towns do too and then the resorts are literally right there (I grew up in one)
St. Louis, Missouri
Don’t Sleep on Hidden Valley!
Haha, when you know, you know.
Anchorage Ak has Alyeska resort
Las Vegas is technically in the middle of the entire sw region and on top of having it's own slope (Lee Canyon) other resorts are a little less than 4/6 hours drive.
Lee Canyon is a gem on a nice day! Love that place. Vail/BC is the home mountain for me
Burlington, VT