Skiing in Telluride

Nan and I just returned from spending the weekend with our friends, Kevin and Lesley Sullivan, at their lovely home in Montrose, Colorado. Kevin and I have been friends since we met while teaching for the Powderhorn Ski School back in 2005. Neither of us teaches there anymore, but we get together several times each winter to ski together and several times each summer for golf.

On Saturday morning, we left Kevin and Lesley's two golden retrievers, Duke and Chisum, and ours, Scout, to their own devices at the Sullivan home while we drove down to Telluride to ski. I have wanted to ski at Telluride since moving to Colorado almost twenty-five years ago, but we always had a season pass for the Aspen ski areas, which kept us skiing close to home. Now that we live in Grand Junction, we have been trying to broaden our horizons and Telluride was at the top of our list. We parked at the covered parking and took the gondola over to Mountain Village. From there, we skied down the Meadows run and warmed up on the easy runs off the Sunshine lift. Lesley and Kevin stayed on those runs while Nan and I went off in search of greater challenges. We soon found ourselves at the top of the Gold Hill lift, for a cruise down the See Forever run. The views were spectacular, as the name implies, and we stopped to snap some iPhone photos. In the photo above, Nan is posing in front of the dramatic panorama formed by the Lizard Head rock formation, Mount Wilson and Wilson Peak. The "Wilsons," as they are known, are both above fourteen thousand feet in elevation. When I was climbing all of Colorado's 14ers, I stood at the top of each Wilson. Click the photo for a better, full-size view.

We met up again with Kevin and Lesley for lunch in the Village at Diggity Dog. Nan opted for shopping with Lesley in the afternoon while Kevin and I went to ski the runs that descend into the town of Telluride. These are the runs that give Telluride its reputation for "steep and deep," with names like Plunge and Spiral Stairs. We caught the gondola in town, rode it all the way back to the Village, and met up with Nan and Lesley again. We had seen some people walking around in hats shaped like big cupcakes, but Nan said every place she checked was sold out of them. Too bad!

Back in Montrose, we regrouped and went out for authentic Mexican food and margaritas at Amelia's. Tired from the skiing and with daylight saving time going into effect, we called it an early night. The dogs didn't accommodate the time change, so they had us up early this morning for the drive home. But we'll be back! Happy birthday, Lesley!