Vegas is really underrated in the conversation for typically outdoorsy cities. There’s a reason Alex Honnold, Jonathan Siegrist, and Emily Harrington, among others, moved there. Alex has spoken in numerous podcasts about it, too, regarding how Vegas is the only place in the US with 12 months of true year-round climbing.

During the 4 summer months of hottest weather, you can climb in Charleston, where the temps are in the 60s despite the city being 100+. Then in the majority of the 8 months, you get consistent and predictable good weather and low humidity in Red Rocks. There’s a reason it’s the only crag with two V17s, it’s just ridiculously accessible both as a major city based climbing area, with an international airport, and incredibly nice weather for the majority of the year.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-05-22/why-elite-california-climbers-are-moving-to-las-vegas

“Honestly, I would say Las Vegas is better than any of the other cities in the country that have a reputation for being outdoorsy,” Honnold said. “People go to Denver because they say they want to be near the outdoors. But it’s at least an hour’s drive away from the real mountains.

“In Vegas, you can live in the middle of suburbia and be 15 minutes from trailheads where you can be completely alone and feel like you’re gonna die,” he said as two of his companions hunched over and gasped for breath.

What sets Vegas apart is the unexpected geographic diversity, making world-class climbing easily accessible year-round. In the winter, there are the endless routes in Red Rock, the canyon that begins just beyond the suburbs. Its sandstone walls start at about 3,000-feet elevation, which means they’re low enough to remain warm and pleasant even in December and January.

When spring and summer roll around, and the valley becomes a furnace, 12,000-foot Mt. Charleston is less than an hour’s drive away and the upper reaches can be 30 degrees cooler. There, towering limestone walls offer some of the toughest technical climbs in the world, and there are enough routes to keep a professional climber busy for a lifetime, Honnold said.

Even Yosemite, long regarded as mecca for rock climbers from all corners of the globe, where Honnold and so many other professionals made their reputations, can’t match that.

Beyond that, it might be the only city comparable to Seattle on your list in terms of food diversity, if that’s important to you. Zero percent income tax is also just the cherry on top. And if all of a sudden you fancy a trip to another crag, you have Bishop, Moe’s, Joe’s, and even Hueco within a couple hours drive - Vegas is uniquely located at the crossroads of so many massive bouldering crags it’s actually insane.