Looking for advice on where to live/work...

[Pete_H]

If you can swing it Jackson would be a pretty sweet place to live. If anywhere else in the state has much appeal to a skier or alpinist, I'm not familiar with it. Cody obviously has good ice climbing but its real dry.

 

There's a lot of spill over from Jackson across the pass to Driggs, Idaho. That might be worth checking out. I was there last fall. Its a cool little town with great access and your local ski hill is Grand Targhee. Apparently lots of entrenched conservative politics going on though.

[bedellympian]

You could consider Boise, Reno and Missoula too. All have access to cragging and mountains with alpine stuff not that far away. They also have the benefit of not being "on the map".