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Big cities near big mountains

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bdowning
Posts: 1630 - Karma: 243
i graduated last year from a school in manhattan. i have some loans to pay off and am currently working downtown in nyc. but i need a change, i literally just landed from co for a weeks time spent at breck and keystone and everytime i go back it gets so much harder to leave. i love denver and boulder but they are a little bit far for me in terms of commute to the mountains. i plan on moving out west some time soon, but the only real state im familiar with in terms of big cities near mountains is co and parts of utah (PC).

i'm extremely interested in cali, washington, and oregon. any of you guys know any big cities near the mountains in those states? im not too familiar with northern cal at all nor any of the names of well known cities in oregon and washington. if anyone could be of assistance would be greatly appreciated!
Jan 3 2010 9:10PM
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wall.e
Posts: 101 - Karma: 11
portland oregon is near mt hood, stanford in northern cali is pretty close to oregon and mammoth
Jan 3 2010 9:12PM
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Candy
Posts: 1051 - Karma: 176
Seriously I think Salt Lake City win this. PC or Alta 20 mins away. Not to mention all the other resorts all over the place.
Jan 3 2010 9:13PM
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A.Eberhard
Posts: 4426 - Karma: 415
You could move to Vancouver, Whistler is only 1 hour and 15 minutes away.
Jan 3 2010 9:13PM
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wall.e
Posts: 101 - Karma: 11
you can moove to boston, big new hampshire/maine/vermont mtns arent far away, farthest being maine like 4 hrs at most
Jan 3 2010 9:15PM
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billay
Posts: 270 - Karma: 59
Denvers only about an hour-hour n a half from breck, keystone, copper, a basin, vail, beaver creek, winter park, loveland, and echo mtn
Jan 3 2010 9:15PM
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PhilboydStudge
Posts: 3431 - Karma: 206
No...

Seattle is fairly close to some areas. Reno is close to Lake Tahoe and all the areas there.
Jan 3 2010 9:17PM
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wall.e
Posts: 101 - Karma: 11
renos such a homo city. its also in the middle of nowhere.
Jan 3 2010 9:19PM
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bdowning
Posts: 1630 - Karma: 243
what about washington? is seattle near any large mountains up there like baker for instance?

how far is bachelor from hood?
Jan 3 2010 9:20PM
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wall.e
Posts: 101 - Karma: 11
nah bakers far north of seattle. and squaw and stevens pass are in northern cali, at least i think stevens is
Jan 3 2010 9:24PM
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KNUCKifyouBUCK
Posts: 1330 - Karma: 9
Vancouver - Whistler. ftw.
Jan 3 2010 9:30PM
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ScuffDUFF
Posts: 2027 - Karma: 143
reno is an hour from tahoe.  sacramento is about the same i believe. 
Jan 3 2010 9:35PM
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ScuffDUFF
Posts: 2027 - Karma: 143
stevens pass is in washington.
Jan 3 2010 9:37PM
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wall.e
Posts: 101 - Karma: 11
ahh ok
Jan 3 2010 9:39PM
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kris.....
Posts: 759 - Karma: 43
Kelowna bc you have Big White 45 min away Silver Star 1 hour, Sun Peaks 2 1/2 hours,  Whistler 5 hours, Revelstoke 2 hours, Red Mountain 4 Hours.
Jan 3 2010 9:46PM
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skiP.E.I.
Posts: 7821 - Karma: 21,850
and Grouse is even closer.
Jan 3 2010 9:51PM
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bdowning
Posts: 1630 - Karma: 243
thanks for all the advice!!!
Jan 3 2010 9:52PM
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rocktheLPs
Posts: 2095 - Karma: 14
salt lake city, 7 world class resorts under 45 minutes away. the hardest part is choosing which one to get a pass to!
Jan 3 2010 9:59PM
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smuggs
Posts: 6561 - Karma: 1,375
^unless you were in little cottonwood canyon this past week and you left the ski resort at 430, and didnt get home till 830
Jan 4 2010 12:59AM
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Mstchief
Posts: 751 - Karma: 524
yeah what was up with that, was there a slide?
Jan 4 2010 1:03AM
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PhilboydStudge
Posts: 3431 - Karma: 206
Stop talking, you don't know what you're talking about.
Jan 4 2010 1:04AM
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jKutcher
Posts: 3936 - Karma: 4,260
i would say Salt Lake City as well but it is not even close to a big city if you are coming from NYC. But it is a good compromise if you are willing.
Jan 4 2010 1:09AM
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mr_hartl
Posts: 653 - Karma: 768
seattle...

crystal 1.5 - 2 hours
snoqualmie/alpental 45 min
stevens 1.5
baker 2 - 2.5



Jan 4 2010 1:25AM
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HankTheTank
Posts: 286 - Karma: 17
sacramento isn't too far away from tahoe, like 1 and a half hours
Jan 4 2010 1:31AM
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McLeod
Posts: 1762 - Karma: 1,582
its an hour and a half to stevens if your driving slow as balls. come on man, way closer
Jan 4 2010 1:36AM
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Drail
Posts: 14012 - Karma: 10,010
the greater SLC area (or whatever you want to call it) is pretty big men. granted - nothing in North America is as big as NYC, but SLC is by no means a small city. and as for cities near skiing, it's impossible to beat. Reno might come close, but I wouldn't call that a big city, but a city non the less.
Jan 4 2010 1:44AM
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Funnel
Posts: 7815 - Karma: 1,531
Reno is pretty sweet because you are 45 minutes from Tahoe and 2-2:30 from Mammoth. You also get all the benefits of living right next to Cali without having to pay the high taxes us Californians do. I would look into Reno and Salt Lake for world class resorts within resonable distances. Salt Lake is much larger and closer to more resorts from what I understand, but I would imagine Reno is a better place to be in the Summer. The beach isn't far, Lake Tahoe has so much to do, and the casinos and nightlife in Reno are great.
Jan 4 2010 1:46AM
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lenzner
Posts: 1590 - Karma: 80
Reno's population is around 300K including the surrounding areas. SLC and its surrounding areas is over a million. Sacramento is an equal drive to Tahoe as Denver is to Breck, Key, etc. So that rules out Cali unless you want to ride the SoCal resorts near LA. They are probably not what you are looking for, though. I would look between SLC and Seattle if I was going by your guidelines.
Jan 4 2010 2:45AM
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Alp1ne
Posts: 717 - Karma: 203
Vancouver is on the ocean has 3 local mountains all about 20 minutes from downtown, along with about 5 other random ones within 2 hours and whister is about an hour and half away.
Jan 4 2010 3:08AM
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bdowning
Posts: 1630 - Karma: 243
in terms of the night life and girl scene...is slc up to par? haha

Jan 4 2010 10:49AM
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Elg
Posts: 2998 - Karma: 3,880
3 hours 50 minutes according to google maps. Not sure if i spent that long though.
Jan 4 2010 10:59AM
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JahJahBinks
Posts: 3567 - Karma: 461

Louisville, Kentucky. Paoli Peaks is 50 minutes away and Perfect North is about 1 1/2 hours.

But seriously.....SLC

Jan 4 2010 11:08AM
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dylhole
Posts: 2926 - Karma: 983

No bars or girls in Salt Lake City.  The mormon thing is really, really weird.

  Try Bend, OR or Bellingham, WA

Jan 4 2010 11:31AM
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triebby
Posts: 8670 - Karma: 2,190
Truth. They don't exist here.
Jan 4 2010 11:55AM
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Ryanvdonk
Posts: 12811 - Karma: 1,971
umm its only an hour and half from denver to breck, hour 15 to keystone and abasin. why do people keep thinking its some 2 and a half hour trek? its not. yes it is farther than SLC which is under an hour pretty much everywhere, but denver is far more metropolitan than SLC and breck is the best park in the world. just make sure you live in one of the western suburbs like lakewood and arent stuck way out in aurora or something on the other side of denver.
Jan 4 2010 12:05PM
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dan4060
Posts: 1458 - Karma: 847
Stanford is 3.5 hours from Tahoe.  It is more like 6-7 from Mammoth, as you have to go to Tahoe/Reno, then drive south.  You cannot cut through the mountains to get to Mammoth.
Jan 4 2010 12:13PM
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lenzner
Posts: 1590 - Karma: 80
I never said it was two hours. If you read the original post, he said he doesn't want to live in Denver or Boulder. I was comparing the drive from Sacramento to Tahoe as about the same distance from Denver to Summit County, because someone mentioned looking into Sacramento.
Jan 4 2010 2:32PM
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teleTay
Posts: 2320 - Karma: 186
this besides having not much of a night life id says its a great ski town
Jan 4 2010 2:46PM
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jimmer
Posts: 3586 - Karma: 80
seattle is a really, really awesome city. plenty of good skiing within 2 hours.
salt lake is rad too, not as big of a city, but even better skiing.
portland is a cool city too, hood within 1.5 hours most days.
sacramento has tahoe within 2 hours , except when there's traffic from all the gapers wanting to go shred heavenly and northstar, which is pretty often. kind of a boring city though, especially compared to nyc.
never been to denver, but it seems like a cool city, with great skiing within 2 hours.
i guess if you wanted to live in the LA area you'd have bear, mt. high, and baldy nearby. but i hate LA, and the skiing sucks.

personally, i hate reno with a passion. there's good skiing, but i would definitely go to any of the places i already mentioned before reno. not sure why anyone's really mentioning it. and it's not much of a city, more of a large town with a casino and meth addict filled downtown.


Jan 4 2010 6:20PM
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intifada
Posts: 931 - Karma: 263
SLC may be a decent size but it has absolutely zero culture. if your coming from a place like NYC SLC will seem like the most boring fucking city in the world, because it pretty much is. In my opinion its more of a big ass suburb than a city.
Jan 4 2010 7:04PM
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jesse_jones
Posts: 17 - Karma: 10
You should live in Vancouver BC.  Whistler rocks!  I have gotten so many rockin skis from there!!
Jan 4 2010 7:06PM
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mozzy
Posts: 1034 - Karma: 60
Yup, I think that people here have listed all the viable options in the U.S.

I'd add Calgary for Canada, maybe Montreal with its proximity to the ski areas in Quebec and VT.

If you want to go international, there are lots more places:

Santiago, CL, for example. Now there's a big, polluted city, with 5000 m peaks rising to the east. Wicked.

And a few others:

Milan, Torino, Venice, IT
Geneva, Lausanne, Bern, Zurich, CH
Lyon, Grenoble, Toulouse, FR
Munich, DE
Krakow, PL
Salzburg, Innsbruck, AT
Sarajevo, BiH
Sapporo, Nagano, Japan
Marrakech, Morocco
Beirut, Lebanon
Tehran, IR
Christchurch, NZ


Jan 4 2010 7:13PM
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.peter
Posts: 1222 - Karma: 63
Mt. Seymour is in Vancouver
Jan 4 2010 7:40PM
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16candles
Posts: 1728 - Karma: 516
Kelowna, Vernon - Silverstar and Bigwite. Revelstoke is also a worthy drive away
Jan 4 2010 8:04PM
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calypso_
Posts: 285 - Karma: 1,250
salt lake city no doubt
Jan 4 2010 8:05PM
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doyle.
Posts: 1624 - Karma: 596
grouse isn't really big
Jan 4 2010 9:35PM
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Justo8484
Posts: 3905 - Karma: 205
i haven't been to most of those, but lyon is a really cool city. they have cable cars to get to different parts of the city for public transit, as well as a great subway system, and walking around the city, you just see the french alps rising up around you, it's crazy. i was there in the summer, so didn't get to ski, but during the summer, there seems to be a pretty big skate scene, if you're into that. you've gotta know french though. about the only thing i could do was order food and ask where the bathroom was, and that got me by for a few days.
Jan 4 2010 10:39PM
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Billiards.
Posts: 6853 - Karma: 816
Geneva, Switzerland
Jan 4 2010 10:41PM
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-fungus-
Posts: 249 - Karma: 14
i live in the greater boston area and the commutes can get to be a bitch after a while. you're better off going somewhere like SLC
Jan 4 2010 10:42PM
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selkirks
Posts: 1978 - Karma: 59
I've wanted to visit Tehran ever since a set of articles came out in Powder and Skiing that really encapsulated the Iranian skiing experience. It sounds amazing. Lots of U.S. restrictions on visiting Iran, especially right now, though.
Jan 4 2010 10:43PM
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titsLOL
Posts: 7485 - Karma: 396
I really don't think SLC is what he's looking for. He's from NYC and is looking for a big city... SLC is literally not comparable to a big city. If I was looking for the city life I would probably live in LA and shred bear (if you are down with being a park rat) or Portland. Not denver because I'm not a huge fan and it's nowhere near an ocean.

Vancouver could be legit, I only drove through it once quickly but it seemed like a very legit city and BC in general was epic.
Jan 4 2010 11:30PM
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