# California



## myGNUmylife (Feb 27, 2010)

My boyfriend and I are thinking about moving to California (currently in NJ). We both are addicted to boarding and I would ideally like to live really close if not on a mountain. Can anyone offer up suggestions for a place to live that has great riding and is close-ish to any cities or towns where we could find work? This is all tentative and we are open to suggestions.


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## killclimbz (Aug 10, 2007)

Tahoe will put you the closest. Of course city type jobs don't exist there, it's more about the winter and summer tourist seasons. 

Sacramento is about a two hour drive to most spots. You could do Reno and have an hour drive going against the grain to most spots. Mt Rose is fairly close and I believe that drive is well under an hour.

Denver, Salt Lake City, Seattle, Portland all have good proximity to resorts...


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## Suburban Blend (Feb 23, 2008)

Mammoth Mountain for the Park and Pipes
Alpine Meadows for untracked snow
Mountain High for the LA mix

Nothing beats Tahoe in my opinion for snowfall/bluebird/variety


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## earl_je (Oct 20, 2009)

everyone else is moving AWAY from Cali and you're moving where? 

anyway, Mammoth is probably your best bet.


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## burritosandsnow (Nov 22, 2008)

killclimbz said:


> Tahoe will put you the closest. Of course city type jobs don't exist there, it's more about the winter and summer tourist seasons.
> 
> Sacramento is about a two hour drive to most spots. You could do Reno and have an hour drive going against the grain to most spots. Mt Rose is fairly close and I believe that drive is well under an hour.
> 
> Denver, Salt Lake City, Seattle, Portland all have good proximity to resorts...


best advice so far... 

In Cali Sacto is your best bet for "large" city with proximity to a mtn.. Boreal is pretty close to Sacto and Tahoes not much further. Reno, as kill said, is also always an option that many folks overlook and its a fast hour to the resorts in North Lake Tahoe/Truckee. Bear Mtn/SnowSummit isnt too far from the whole L.A. area but the downside is that its the L.A. area:laugh: Mammoth and all the rest are pretty close to all the smaller peripheral cities between San Jose and L.A.

Really though you cant beat Salt Lake and Park City is so close you can live in PC and work in SLC. You can live in town and be less than half an hour from not only world class resorts but also world class back country as well. Im not saying that because I live here I live here because thats how it is. If it were any different Id just move to a better spot.


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## HoboMaster (May 16, 2010)

Yea, California is pretty maxed out. Prepare to commute, everyone in california does it : /


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## neednsnow (Nov 30, 2007)

I'm in the same boad as OP. I'm looking to sabbatical (unless my current position changes in the next 5 months) next spring and have been torn between SLC and SLT. My only problem with SLC is that the town seems to be either ski/board crowd or mormons. There doesn't seem to be any middle ground. While I dig the ski/board crowd, the scene can be a little too snow-bro, even for me. I got a pass for Kirkwood for next year (can't beat 299), but I'm still up in the air for what to do and where to end-up. I wasn't a huge fan of Brighton and I have a difficult time justifying the cost of a Snowbird tkt. UGH.

In response to OP (not to treadjack) Tahoe is Great. Since you are from the mid-atlantic, you're used to the commute to worth-while mountains. Reno is a pretty quick shot to the tahoe resorts (don't forget about Kirkwood, they still have decent network pass prices) Reno is 90 mins from Kirkwood and Sac is 2 hours.

I'd rather be shot than to move to LA for boarding, even if it is at Mammoth!


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## HoboMaster (May 16, 2010)

> I'd rather be shot than to move to LA for boarding, even if it is at Mammoth!


And if you did move to L.A, you probably would get shot anyways!

Don't mind me, I'm one of those California Exodus people.

For California though, I would deffinetly pick Tahoe over anywhere else.


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## Calibre 6 (Mar 30, 2010)

Shouldn't it depend what line of work you're in? Unless you're independantly wealthy, you should find a job first. Then find housing suitable to your income. If I want to be a forest ranger, I wouldn't really look for housing in Newport Beach. If you want to be a corporate attorney, South Lake Tahoe probably wouldn't suit your needs. Have to have an idea of where you can find a job that suits your skills and education.


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## KIRKRIDER (Mar 18, 2008)

I'm in Pleasanton, Bay area. BART connects to San Francisco, Kirkwood is 2:45 hrs away, the beach 1:30 and the city 45min...that is if you can bear suburbia...






myGNUmylife said:


> My boyfriend and I are thinking about moving to California (currently in NJ). We both are addicted to boarding and I would ideally like to live really close if not on a mountain. Can anyone offer up suggestions for a place to live that has great riding and is close-ish to any cities or towns where we could find work? This is all tentative and we are open to suggestions.


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## Guest (Jun 17, 2010)

i wouldnt move to cali at all if your addicted to boarding. hills are better further north. but Mammoth or Tahoe.


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## myGNUmylife (Feb 27, 2010)

Thanks to everyone for their input. The irony of the situation is after 3 years (and me asking this question) we are going our separate ways. I'm feeling the itch to move alone to Colorado, or in my dream world Canada. I guess now I am back to dreaming. Thanks again for all your suggestions!!!


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## RVM (Jan 31, 2007)

I'm in Sacramento and I love it here, more or less. It does get a bit hot in the summer, and I do wish our snow season was longer, but CA has so many other things to do that the trade off is worth it, in my opinion.





killclimbz said:


> Tahoe will put you the closest. Of course city type jobs don't exist there, it's more about the winter and summer tourist seasons.
> 
> Sacramento is about a two hour drive to most spots. You could do Reno and have an hour drive going against the grain to most spots. Mt Rose is fairly close and I believe that drive is well under an hour.
> 
> Denver, Salt Lake City, Seattle, Portland all have good proximity to resorts...


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## burritosandsnow (Nov 22, 2008)

myGNUmylife said:


> Thanks to everyone for their input. The irony of the situation is after 3 years (and me asking this question) we are going our separate ways. I'm feeling the itch to move alone to Colorado, or in my dream world Canada. I guess now I am back to dreaming. Thanks again for all your suggestions!!!


thats just means nows the time to move west and start over ... theres never a perfect time so dont wait for one ... $1000 bucks and you can move where ever you want .. load up your car with whats essential and head west..


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## RVM (Jan 31, 2007)

Go west, young lady, go west!


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## AlexS (Feb 12, 2010)

Well Mammoth which i'd say is the best overall mountain/terrain park in California really has no "businesses", it's mostly tourist related things...As others have said, you can most likely find something in Sacramento which isn't THAT far from Tahoe.

Also, I'm not sure where all these LA comments are coming from. I lived in Orange County(Brea), and my dad worked in Irvine(pretty much the opposite of what you'd see in LA). Mountain High was around 40-50 minutes away, Bear was 80-100 minutes away. Mammoth was around 4-5 hours(we'd go up every long weekend, then winter break was spent 5 days in the Tahoe area which was 8 hours from us, and then mammoth for 3-4.

Hope this helped a bit.


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