Dave's Blog

how soon do you think they'll open the area all the way? also over the holiday break, how would you say the park will compare to last season during the same time? thanks

Tom

Dave's reply: Hi Tom, As I mentioneed, the patrol is marching their way up Prospect Ridge. It can only progress as fast as the patrol is comfortable. They deserve a huge THANK YOU for the work they are doing!

As far as the freestyle terrain goes, I would expect things to be done differently this year - sequence, features, locations, etc. It is not going to be comparable to any prior year - and I would certainluy define it as better.

Good for Telluride to have Black Iron Bowl open pre-Christmas.

Do you have any ideas about Palmyra Peak opening?  I was thinking you would not open it until the Subaru Freeskiing during February 7-10.

Dave's reply: Hi Chris, Thank you for recognizing the patrol team for making it happen in Black Iron Bowl in mid-December.

Regarding Palmyra Peak - let's let the patrol get their work done - stay tuned.

Dave,

Missed you at Gorrono’s the other day . . . I thought you were buying? Ha! Ha! The mountain is incredible - one of the best Decembers’ I can remember in a long time. Of course some of the locals were unhappy with the delayed opening of chair 9, but I think you made the right decision. A recent employee decision was another great accomplishment . . .no more needs to be said

On another note though, messing with tradition can cause eternal bad Karma, and that would be in removing “Chili,” from the Gorrono Saloon.  With over thirty years of continuous service of some of the best “Chili” in the Rockies at the Gorrono Saloon it was both heart breaking and suspect to see this service suspended. I’m appealing to your business acumen in that, change is paramount for success, but tradition is sacred and imprudent to tamper with.

One of the first changes your boss made when he purchased the resort was to increase the quality of the  “Chili” and while this might seem like a small matter it had a huge impact on the locals and tourists. Most importantly though, was having the opportunity to stop in for a drink and a bowl of “Chili” at the saloon.

Please reconsider the suspension of this service and an eternal life of doom! See you next month. . . .

Happy holidays to you and your family!

SD

ps- great photos and your right "Telluride is amazing."

Dave's reply: Hi SD - thanks for the heads-up on the Chili. I'll look into it!

Hey Dave,

Congrats on the Black Iron Bowl and some snow. I was just wondering that if I can't find a way up to Telluride this season (because I don't have the time) do you know of any good reliable ski resorts in New Mexico? I have tried Ski Apache and it was the worst skiing ever so do you have any other recommondations?

Dave's reply: Hi Fritz, I used to be the VP of Operations/Finance at Angel Fire, NM back in the early 90's - it was a really fun place back then. Also, Taos is a great resort - clearly. Hope you can make it up to Telluride, CO this winter, it's turning out to be a great season already!

Congrats to the patrol for getting that much terrain open!!  I'll be there this weekend and cannot wait to try skiing up there!!

Dave's reply: Hi Chris, We're hoping for some freshies after midnight tonight into Friday, this weekend should rock at Telluride!

Hello Dave,

I'm enjoying your blog and apprecite the fact that you take time out of your busy schedule to keep the masses up-dated!  I find it very informative, for the most part.  Some buddies and I are thinking about heading out to Telluride (from Phoenix) in January, and are wondering when the half pipe and big jumps will be ready to go (the real park)!  I've found your answers to be a bit evasive in the past posts.  It's beginning to sound like a top secret, wait-and-see operation!  (Maybe a hidden-type deal like "The Stash" at Northstar, Tahoe)!  Could you please reply with a more definative answer?  It will probably determine whether we vitit Telluride or Breckenridge in mid-January.  (We're all hoping Telluride!) Thank you for your time!

Dave's reply: Hi Nima, Telluride is always the best choice :)

We've developed a new park in a new location on Misty Maiden with some nice jumps and rails. It takes about 10 - 12 days of snowmaking to accumulate enough snow for a super pipe. I'll post soon on the sequence of events. Stay tuned.

Any plans to update the trail maps on the web?  As they are now it is impossible to read them. THere needs to be a zoom feature or something.

Looking forward to a great season and apreciate all you must do to make Telluride a great place to visit.

Dave's reply: Hi Bob, in response to your blog comment and others on the same issue we added a PDF option. Just click on that, wait a minute for it to load, then you can enlarge it all you want from the tool bar. Let us know if you have any problem - it just worked for me. Thanks!

No chili at Gorronos?  Say it isn't so. We look forward to it every ski season (even though it hasn't been what it used to be in recent years). Dave, you really need to look into this!

Thanks for the blog - it's fun to read!

Snowless in Scottsdale

Dave's reply: Being the new guy this year I was unaware it was offered in the Saloon last year in addition to the main restaurant at Gorrono Ranch.  I talked about it this morning with the team and it will be added back asap. Thanks for the notice! Let there be Saloon chili!

Hey Dave,

I just spent the past four days at Telluride with a group from Michigan State and the conditions were great!  Loved the mountain and hope to visit again soon.

Dave's reply: Hi Joe, Thank you for visiting Telluride and thanks for the nice feedback. We hope you can make it back to our wonderful resort and community soon! Have a great holiday!

Hey Dave,

I was wondering if you had any estimate of how long it will be until Hoot Brown park is open.

Dave's reply: We're moving a bunch of snowmaking equipment over there this weekend. If we continue to have good cold temperatures we should have it open from the top down to the yurt by around Friday +/-

Any chance patrol will get prospect ridge open to mountain quail/ nice chute with the new snowfall?  Skiing on westlake has been great

Dave's reply: Talked with Patrol about that this morning. They're working on it. There are alot of variables. Stay tuned.

This is rather random, but I'm looking for an old friend who used to (still does?) live in Telluride.  His name is Scott, but he used to go by Scooter.  He went to Fort Lewis, and is about 37 years old.  Anyone know him?  Sorry for the random question, but I don't know where else to look.  Thanks for any help you can provide.

Dave's reply: Hi Dave, I'll post your question and we'll see if anyone replies with info on your friend - glad to help.

Enjoyed the green chili pork in a bread bowl at Gorronos.  It was really good and I might not have tried it if there had been chili last Monday.   So, you can bring back the chili -- but keep the green chili pork!  ;)

Dave's reply: It's coming!

based on the weather report, it appears that the last 24 hours have been incredible = 9 inches of new!  we are coming up to our "second home" in 6 days and cannot wait to hit the slopes.  Looking forward to seeing the mountain.  Thanks for your Blog.

Scott in FTW.

Dave's reply: Hi Scott, For late December, the snow coverage is really really good. I was talking to a person who has lived here for decades today - he said lower Plunge was skiing better than he has ever seen for this time of year in all his years. Enjoy!

Black Iron Bowl is the best thing since hike to Gold Hill.  Days like today are what makes it so great to live in Telluride.  No lift lines, untracked powder, and some of the best on mountain terrain in North America.  Ski Patrol is doing a great job by working so hard to keep getting us higher up the ridge.  I am really looking forward to hitting the Peak.  Keep up the good work and let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.  

G

Dave's reply: Hi Garret, Thank you for posting a nice comment thanking our Ski Patrollers. They are doing a great job making things happen for those of us who like that kind of terrain. They hauled a pile of supplies up today and continued to make progress. Stay tuned for more good news!

Hi Dave

Have you taken gold hill lift recently? If you have you might have noticed all the rocks that we have to ski over to get off the lift. I try and take care of my skis - as you know how expensive they can be - and skiing over rocks isn't good for them.

I'm no expert on clearing rocks but maybe a rake or putting some snow over them might do the trick.

Other than that I think T-Rides awesome this year.

Thanks for your time - happy powder skiing

Ben

Dave's reply: Hi Ben, I rode Chair 14, Gold Hill today about 2:45 p.m. and didn't ski over anything bad on the unload ramp. It is true that the wind carries small rocks and deposits them on this unload area sometimes. That is why we put the new snowfence up that you see at the top terminal. It's a unique site-specific situation that we are aware of. We'll continue to work on this - thank you for your comment.

Dave,

 I went to the tellurideskiresort.com website looking for road maps to Telluride, but only found Driving Directions from Denver, Colorado Springs, Durango, and Montrose.  I know friends who drive in from Phoenix, for example.  Driving Directions are nice in their detail, but could you also post some maps at different "Altitudes" so those of us who prefer to drive in can get oriented?  Yes, I can use Google Earth, or Mapquest, etc., but it would be nice to find maps under "Getting Here".  By the way, the page on Direct Flights to Telluride/Montrose, with it's map is beautiful and very informative. Overall, the website and links to it on the internet are marvellous, and getting better all the time.  Kudos to you and your staff!!

Dave's reply: Hi Paul, That is a good suggestion - we'll make it happen. Thank you.

Where's the superpipe buddy...? Mammoth Mountain was hardly open last week and because of the recent storm in which they got 4 feet and their pipe opens Sunday. Lets go!!!

Dave's reply: We're making lots of snow on Hoot's now for a park and will soon move the guns for the superpipe.

Reguarding your friend you might want to take a people search if you really want to find him. If you don't want to pay the money it shows his age and were he lives and if he has a listed address and phone number you can find that.

Kindest Regard

-Fritz

Dave's reply: Thanks for helping Dave Lane.

Dear Dave,

    I am a Telluride local, born and raised.  On December 21, (a good powder day) I jumped a rock on Gold Hill and lost my brand new ski somewhere under the snow.  Three people including myself searched for my ski until 3:30 and did not find it.  I skied down to the lift on one ski to meet the ski patrol getting ready to do sweep.  I spoke with the ski patrol and they said if I came by tomorrow [today] they would help me find my ski with the recco rescue system (it often picks up metal).  

   Today I sopped by the ski patrol hut atop of lift six at about 11:00am to see if ski patrol would help me find my ski. I understand that the ski patrol are very busy so I agreed too come stop by again in the afternoon like they asked, during which my brother and I went to search for my ski again.  With no luck in finding the ski my brother and I went back to the patrol hut (at about 2:30), and once again the same patroller told me he was way to busy to help me, as he put zip-ties on a fence.  I offered to be of assistance with the zip-ties and he could accompany my brother to go find my ski; no luck with the ski patrol, I then skied down to lift four where I ran into Mona Wilcox, a long time ski patroller. After telling her about my lost ski she immediately offered to help.  

I understand that this is a busy time of the year, however I feel that one or two patrollers could have taken 30 minutes to come help me find my ski. I think that a little customer service would have been nice.

Tomorrow I am taking a metal detector from home up on the hill to hopefully find my ski.

Thank You,

Jake

Dave's reply: Hi Jake, I can appreciate your need to find the ski. Our patrol has been pushing the limits on many levels to make things happen this season and you may have been caught in the wake. Send me your cell phone number at my email address - driley@tellurideskiresort.com and I'll see what we can do to help tomorrow. Thank you.

Hi Dave,

Welcome to Telluride - it sure is an amazing place.  My wife and I visited for the first time four years ago, and purchased a condo before leaving.  We have not gone anywhere else since, and we spend approximately six weeks every winter, and four weeks in the summer in Telluride.  We have also turned several other families on to Telluride.  

We are very excited that our three year old son is learning to ski.   We arrived on December 15, and our son has been in ski school all week, having a great time, and really skiing - he's mastered the Meadows and is ready for Chair 10.  I am so impressed with that, and it is a strong testament to the ski school staff.  Particularly, I'd like to acknowledge Dustin (sorry, I don't know his last name, but he teaches the Miners).  What a great attitude and ability to bond with the kids.  My son loves him.  

My only complaint....as you can imagine, six weeks of ski school for our son is extremely expensive.  The only package pricing offered is 5 days at $105/day and then each additional day is $105.  If our son skis every day, that will cost over $4000.  This is prohibitively expensive, and I'm sure is an issue for many families who enjoy spending more than a week or two in Telluride.  I would like to suggest some sort of value pricing for the "ski school regulars".  I think a limitless lesson pass, like the one sold to season pass holders, makes great sense (no pun intended) and would be very much appreciated by so many.   I thank you in advance for looking into this and look forward to you reply.  

Happy holidays.

P.S. Since sending you my original email, the ski school ticket price was raised to $625/5 days. I am now told that the price of $525/5 days was the early season price.  We were told at that time that all additional days, after the 5-pack, would cost $105 and could be used anytime.  There was no mention of a price change beginning on Dec. 21.  Obviously, if we knew of the price increase we would have bought additional days upfront, though I really think some adjustment is appropriate for multiple weeks.

Dave's reply: Hi Brad, I did a quick review of some other destination resorts and find that our prices are right in line. Part of the reason is that resorts such as Telluride and others invest millions in their children's learning center building. I have seen deals offered for people like you who use the children's center and lessons many times through a season - we'll review that. Thank you and enjoy the excellent conditions!

my friend knows your friend, and he says he lives in California, but comes back from time to time. hope that helps...

Dave -

Blog is fantastic.  Haven't seen an update though in a few days.  Do you mind writing your normal long blog with pictures?  I think there are a fair amount of folks coming in immediately after Christmas that would love to hear from you and hear specifics about Palmyra Peak.  Also - is there cat skiing in the area?  Name of company?

Also - one other suggestion, in regards to both signing up for powder alerts and finding the forecast on Telluride's main website - I find it a little difficult.  Could you add some links that make it more obvious?  Maybe even add a "pic of the day" - keeps website viewers coming back.

Let me know about Palmyra Peak!  Happy holidays.  Great blog as always.

Dave's reply: Hi Brian, Those are all excellent ideas. Thank you for your thoughts and suggestions - we'll get on it.