Telluride Magazine winter/spring 2017-18

WINTER/SPRING 2017-2018

4.95 | priceless in Telluride

$

ODE TO DARKNESS • SNOW GEEKS • WINGING IT THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX CANYON

Lot 26 Cristina’s Way Aldasoro Ranch Wilson Views • Aspens • 2 Acres $575,000

133 Victoria Drive Mountain Village 7 Bed • 11,359 s.f. • Ski-Out Access • Private $7,595,000

307 Basque Boulevard Aldasoro Ranch 4 Bed • 5 Bath • Commanding Views $2,995,000

Lot `1A San Juan Ranch Horsefly Mesa 133.5 Acres • Unbeatable Views $530,000

301 North Oak Street Town of Telluride 4 Bed • 5 Bath • 4,216 s.f. on 2 Corner Lots $5,375,000

Lot 38 Joaquin Road Aldasoro Ranch 3.62 Acres • Wilson Views • Creek $565,000

Stephen Cieciuch (Chet-chu) Director stevec@tellurideproperties.com | 970.369.5322, Direct | 970.708.2338, Cell 237 South Oak Street @ the Telluride Gondola | Telluride, Colorado 81435 I telluridearearealestate.com

Your pathway to Telluride.

119 Lodges on Sundance Mountain Village 7 Bed • Stand Alone Condominium $3,578,000

8121 Preserve Drive Irreplaceable Compound 13 Bed • 13 Bath • 18,892 s.f. • 28 Acres $8,300,000

West Fork Dolores River Surrounded by National Forest 2 Bed • 90 Ac • Riverfront • Fishing $2,995,000

316 East Galena Avenue Town of Telluride 3 Bed • 2 bath • Cozy with Big Views $1,995,000

438 Benchmark Drive Mountain Village 7 Bed • 9 Bath • Guest House • Slopeside $7,450,000

128 Singletree Ridge Mountain Village 5 Bed • 6.5 Bath • 270º Views $3,695,000

Find virtual tours and more details about these properties, plus search all Telluride area real estate at TellurideAreaRealEstate.com

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-172 DEER PARK LANE - Ski Ranches Secluded amongst aspen, this 4,522 s.f. stone & timber-frame residence set on over 1 level acre, overlooks a tranquil pond & creek. $2,449,000 furnished

-2AUBERGE RESIDENCES AT E52 - Town of Telluride 2 to 5 bedroom residences with a private ski funicular, concierge, spa, heated outdoor soaking pools, & private club room.

Prices starting at $1,100,000

-35 ELKSTONE PLACE - Mountain Village This mountain modern, 4-bedroom townhome, is steps from the ski slopes, Elk Pond, Mountain Village Core, & gondola. $2,750,000 furnished

-4BAKER RANCH - Iron Springs/Horsefly Mesa A panorama of mountain & valley views highlight 2,107 private & protected acres with a cabin and garage for all your outdoor toys. $11,750,000

O'Neill Stetina Group - Together, we do more for you.

Brian O’Neill, Director I 970.708.5367 I brian@oneillstetina.com Marty Stetina, Broker I 970.708.4504 I marty@oneillstetina.com 237 South Oak Street @ the Telluride Gondola I ONeillStetina.com

O’Neill Stetina Group

Leaders

IN TELLURIDE AREA REAL ESTATE for 20+ Years

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-5184 COUNTRY CLUB DRIVE - Mountain Village Easy ski & golf access from this 7-bedroom family legacy home with stunning views, 6 fireplaces, hot tub/sauna, & so much more. $6,250,000 furnished

-6TRANSFER TELLURIDE - Town of Telluride Artfully designed 3, 4, & 5+ bedroom mountain modern residences in Telluride’s new premier location, steps from Main St. & gondola.

Prices starting at $2,950,000

-7120 SNOWFIELD DRIVE - Mountain Village A log home re-imagined to modern day standards, this 5-bedroom residence has private ski access with stunning mountain views. $7,000,000 furnished

-8372 PANDORA LANE - Pandora This 5-bedroom modern masterpiece with guest cottage embraces 360° monumental views on 2.5 private acres close to downtown. $8,350,000

www.ONeillStetina.com Learn more about these properties and search all Telluride area real estate. Get information on the current state of the real estate market. Schedule showings and ask questions.

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124 Lawson Point, Mountain ViLL age

Lorian Penthouse 9, Mountain ViLL age

This spectacular 5,457 sf 5 bed, 7 bath home on 1.36 acres has commanding views of the surrounding peaks from every room! The spacious open floor plan is perfect for entertaining, and the stone fireplaces provide cozy ambiance. Numerous outdoor living spaces allow you to enjoy nature at its finest. Five ensuite guest rooms include two master suites and a bunk room. The home features a lower level game/entertainment room, a large ski storage room, laundry room, and oversized two car garage.

5 bed, 5.5 bath, 4,720 sf fully furnished penthouse with one underground parking space. With interior designs by Jodie Wright of One Architects, the home’s sleek interior is reminiscent of Danish modern inspiration married perfectly with more traditional elements. Furnishings were custom designed and thoughtfully chosen. Views of the San Sophia Ridge from the home are simply spectacular.

Numerous amenities include a game room, fitness center, pool, and hot tub. $2,600,000

$3,625,000

h istoric D airy r anch , r iDgway

6 B ouLDers w ay , M ountain V Lg

c ortina s uBDiVision , M ntn V Lg

This once-in-a-lifetime offering near Ouray comes to market for the first time in more than 60 years. The property includes more than 400 acres of pristine pasture and forest nearly completely surrounded by federal land with stunning views of the Ouray valley.

Structures include a rustic cabin and a large majestic milk barn. A perfect retreat for the outdoor enthusiast, hunter, or individual seeking the utmost in privacy, the property includes two mining claims and water rights.

Elegant 3,709 sf home offers 4 bedrooms, 4 1/2 baths, guest suite, numerous decks/patios, an oversized 2 car garage, has the highest quality design, fixtures and finishes, and boasts spectacular views of the San Sophia Ridge and the ski area. Spectacular stonework and walnut doors, floors and cabinetry throughout.

Property is deed restricted with no income/asset/price cap. Compare to free market units - this property is a great value in the Mountain Village market!

Seven unparalleled trailside lots offering unrivaled amenities in a private setting with majestic views and ski access. Owners may opt-in to subdivision amenities including year-round pool and outdoor spa, owner’s lounge and patio with outdoor fireplace, spa treatment rooms, workout facilities, steam room, concierge, ski valet, and private car service. All lots are either directly trailside or have easy ski access. A developer’s dream, bulk purchase pricing is available.

$3,000,000

$1,185,000

starting

at

$450,000

BuLk Purchase $3M

Michael J. Ward, GRI Lynn K. Ward 970.708.0932 • 970.708.0968 Michael@Telluride-Colorado.com

tBD east gaLena aVenue, teLLuriDe Coming to the market for the first time, Lots 18R and 20R, Block 3. East Galena Avenue are two spectacular building sites with stunning views of Ajax, Bear Creek, the Ski Area, down valley and town. Each 10,800 square foot lot is uniquely situated to take advantage of the beauty and splendor offered by the Telluride box canyon. These homesites are located in the HD II zone district allowing homes of approximately 5,000 to 6,000 square feet. Access to the properties is via an extension of the existing Galena Avenue private driveway. The parcels are bordered to the north by open space and to the east by the Maple Street right-of-way. A plat, site plan, conceptual home design, trail mapping, slope study, civil engineering plans, landscape plan, geological hazard report, geotechnical study, and construction mitigation plan, along with other supporting documentation are available for review.

$3,400,000 for Both

Find Your Happy Place in Telluride SearchTellurideRealEstate.com

Our website is a great place to start your Telluride Area property search.

When you are ready, our local real estate professionals are standing by to answer all the questions your computer can’t.

COME SEE US IN PERSON! Across from the gondola in Telluride. 970.728.0808 I 237 South Oak Street

WOW WEEKENDOFWELLNESS

tellurideyogacenter Be sure to visit the BINDU • BOUTIQUE located in the studio

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Choosing

The Right Realtor Makes All The Difference

Not all realtors are created equal, Eric Saunders provides the service and expertise you deserve.

CLIENT TESTIMONIALS “I’ve bought 4 Telluride/Mountain Village properties and sold 2...all with Eric as my Realtor. There is no more energetic, effective and knowledgable real estate professional that I have ever worked with. He knows Telluride. He’s lived there for two decades.

He’s the guy you want to represent your interests in this dynamic market. I can’t give a higher recommendation.”

Joseph and Maureen Guastella “I have used Eric on a number of transactions in Telluride. He is extremely knowledgable about the local Telluride market, including market trends, factors affecting value, etc. He places long-term client success before his own short-term gain. I value his insight very much and I trust him. He is a good person, well integrated into, and well-liked by the local community. I will continue to use him without hesitation for all my real estate needs.”

Ethan Miller

137 VISCHER DRIVE, LOT 5 Mountain Village Village Core ski & golf lot on cul-desac with big views & sun, includes plans for a unique 4,000 s.f. home. $1,495,000

CASSIDY RIDGE B301 Mountain Village Great ski access from this luxuriously modern 2-bed flat with spectacular views & good rental income. $995,000 furnished

132 ADAMS RANCH ROAD Mountain Village Sitting on 1.6 acres along the golf course, this value priced 4-bed enjoys huge views & great outdoor living. $2,195,000 furnished

Eric Saunders Broker saunders@tellurideproperties.com | 970.369.5326, Direct | 970.708.2447, Cell 237 South Oak Street @ the Telluride Gondola | saunders.searchtelluriderealestate.com

Stonegate Chalet Panoramic views, rustic elegance and timeless design just feet from the trail

15 Stonegate This Mountain Village Residence sits right on the ski slope. A true ski in/out home on Sundance Trail with panoramic views, rustic elegance and timeless design are just feet from the trail. Forgot your sunglasses? Ski home and get them. Hungry? Ski home for lunch. It’s that convenient. Heated driveway. Big views. No Hassles.

Kevin Holbrook

PHONE: (970) 729.1601 EMAIL: kevin.holbrook@sothebysrealty.com

L egacy H omes The day you stop racing,

is the day you win the race.

Luke TrujiLLo

aia

TruLinea.com 970-708-1445

STEVE CATSMAN REAL ESTATE

Been here since 1972 and not going away.

Whether you’re buying, selling, or just want to talk, give us a call.

www.catsman.com S T E V E C AT S M A N 970.729.0100 S T E V E @ C AT S M A N . C O M

F R A N K S T R AC H A N 504.616.8410 FGARDEN7@GMAIL.COM

16 • WINTER/SPRING 2017-2018

CONTENTS

DEPARTMENTS 19 WITHIN

Round and Round

20 CALENDAR OF EVENTS

The who, what, where, and when in Telluride this season

26 LOCAL FLAVOR For the Dogs

28 MOUNTAIN HEALTH Infants and Altitude

30 ASK JOCK

Athletic advice from our mountain guru

46 INSIDE ART

A Cathedral of Aspens, and Looking Forward

52 TELLURIDE FACES

Meet Geoff Hanson, Judy Kohin, and Colin Sullivan

FEATURES

32

Through the Window of the Bus Observations from the daily commute

By Katie Klingsporn

34

Thinking Outside the Box Canyon

Telluride Ski Resort takes up the challenge to build housing

By D. Dion

38

Winging It

Telluride’s love affair with flying

By Rob Story

42

Snow Geeks

Avalanche forecasters in the San Juan Mountains

History: Telluride’s Lady Doc

The town’s most prominent physician at the turn of the last century was a woman.

By Paul O’Rourke

82

The Long Haul by Finn Murphy, Poem by Suzanne Cheavens

68 TELLURIDE TURNS

Telluride AIDS Benefit turns 25, striking a commercial/residential balance, Telluride’s new Nordic team, new home base for scientists, sign of the times

78 INNOVATORS

Getting down to business with Telluride Venture Accelerator

84 NATURE NOTES

By Martinique Davis

56

60 FICTION

Ode to Darkness and Oil Lamps

An homage to the long, starry nights of winter

By Craig Childs

A Monumental Debate: Trump administration considers public lands revisions

86 ENVIRONMENT

Digging In: Ophir’s Carribeau Mine cleanup

88 SAN JUAN SCRIBES Local books, authors, and subjects

92 COLOR BY NUMBERS An index of facts and figures

96 A LAST LOOK Ups and downs,

by Melissa Plantz

www.TellurideMagazine.com

WINTER/SPRING 2017-2018

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18 • WINTER/SPRING 2017-2018

Contributors

Magazine

Telluride Magazine is produced by Telluride Publishing LLC, a locally owned and operated company.

PUBLISHER TELLURIDE PUBLISHING LLC ~~~

ADVERTISING EXECUTIVE JENNY PAGE ~~~

MARTINIQUE DAVIS Raised in Telluride, Martinique Davis (“Snow Geeks,” pp. 42–44) always thought ski patrollers were pretty cool...so rather than getting a “real job” after college, she joined the Telluride Ski Patrol. Turns out slaying avalanches and saving lives is pretty real work (and also cool).

She lives year-round in Telluride with her two daughters and husband. When she grows up, she wants to be a writer.

EDITOR DEB DION KEES ~~~

CREATIVE DIRECTOR KRISTAL RHODES ~~~

DISTRIBUTION TELLURIDE DELIVERS ~~~

WEB ADMINISTRATOR SUSAN HAYSE ~~~

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

MATT KROLL Matt Kroll (Telluride Faces, pp. 52-54) lives in Telluride with his wife Rebecca and daughter Emerey. He started shooting photos in high school, but recently changed careers from teaching to full-time photography in 2014. The mountains are his passion and enjoys running, snowboarding, and climbing. He says photographing people is a joy because no two people are the same, and he gets to meet and connect with new people—and the more creative and adventurous the shots, the better.

Suzanne Cheavens, Craig Childs, Martinique Davis, Deanna Drew, Elizabeth Guest, Karen Toepfer James, Katie Klingsporn, Finn Murphy, Paul O’Rourke, Corinne Platt, Emily Shoff, Rob Story, Regan Tuttle, Lance Waring, Samantha Tisdel Wright ~~~

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Randy Barnes, Ryan Bonneau, Jack Brauer, Erik Fallenius, Gus Gusciora, Alec Jacobson, Matt Kroll, Melissa Plantz ~~~

WWW.TELLURIDEMAGAZINE.COM Telluride Publishing produces the San Juan Skyway Visitor Guide and Telluride Magazine.

Current and past issues are available on our website.. © 2017 Telluride Publishing L.L.C. For editorial inquiries call 970.708.0060 or email deb@telluridemagazine.com For advertising information call 970.729.0913 or email jenny@telluridemagazine.com The annual subscription rate is $14.95.

CRAIG CHILDS Over the last few decades Craig Childs (“Ode to Darkness,” pp. 82–83) has lived in Ouray, Ridgway, Loghill Mesa, the north side of Dallas Divide, Crawford, and for the last few years just outside of Norwood. In most of these places he has not had enough electricity to get through winters entirely lit. He is author of more than a dozen books, mostly written by hand and begrudgingly added to a keyboard wherever he can plug in. An acclaimed novelist, writer, and NPR commentator, his most recent book Apocalyptic Planet won the Orion Book Award and the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award.

Cover and contents are fully protected and must not be reproduced in any manner without written permission from the publisher. ~~~

ON THE COVER Erik Fallenius snapped this shot of a plein air painter in mid-stroke, as he captured the beauty of the valley in winter on his canvas. Fallenius is a longtime local, a realtor, and an avid cyclist and athlete, but when he pulls out his camera he reveals his artistic side.

DIGITAL PARTNER www.TellurideMagazine.com

WINTER/SPRING 2017-2018

Within h

ROUND and ROUND “Life was such a wheel that no man could stand upon it for long.

And it always, at the end, came round to the same place again.”

—Stephen King

L

ife is regenerative. Birth, aging, death, and rebirth. We notice it most in the seasons, when things seem to slumber in the snow, and new life buds and emerges in the spring. Yet it is not just the natural world, but also the human interpretation of it, that cycles and transforms.

In this issue we look at how several local institutions have been reborn: The way Colin Sullivan has renewed Telluride Theatre, Judy Kohin has kept the Ah Haa School for the Arts thriving, and Geoff Hanson has re-invigorated KOTO Community Radio (Telluride Faces, pp. 52–54).

We also have an inside perspective on the way that infants come into our high-altitude environs, frequently needing supplemental oxygen to prosper (Mountain Health, p. 28). And how the movement of the celestial bodies translates into the seasons and requisite emotions

we experience from them (“Ode to Darkness,” pp. 82–83). Snow scientists are particularly engaged with the unfolding of each season and its effect on the snowpack, which forms a mini-record of the weather and the winter that can only be understood by its most discerning interpreters (“Snow Geeks,” pp. 42–44).

Life has its own patterns, from childhood to adulthood and beyond, and buying a home is a rite of passage. In Telluride, settling down can be prohibitively expensive, and

in this issue we take a look at the affordable housing development in the region (“Thinking Outside the Box Canyon,” pp. 34–36). On the other side of the life cycle is infirmity and age. One of the stories within is about a local entrepreneur’s efforts to keep our pets flourishing as they get older with healthy, custom foods (Local Flavor, p. 26). In our history section, we take a retrospective look at a female doctor who labored in Telluride during the influenza epidemic to keep its citizenry alive at

the turn of the last century (“Lady Doc,” pp 56–58).

If life really is a wheel and all of this is temporal, we should make the most of it. One of the most interesting things is what people do with their allotment, the time they are able to carve out from the folds of each turn of the seasons, and the thrilling adventures they have. Ever thought about flying? Not just in an airplane, but actually flying? Rob Story tells us about the paragliding and hang gliding pilots here who fly above our mountains and valley (“Winging It,” pp. 38–40) and reminds us to keep pushing our boundaries.

However you choose to spend your days, nights, seasons, and eras, we hope you enjoy the ride. Thanks for reading, Deb Dion Kees Editor, Telluride Magazine

WINTER/SPRING 2017-2018

www.TellurideMagazine.com

19

20 • EVENT CALENDAR Winter/Spring 2017-2018

CALENDAR of EVENTS The gondola opens for the 2017-18 winter season. The chondola between the Meadows and Mountain Village center starts running Nov. 22.

DECEMBER 1 WORLD AIDS DAY DANCE PARTY

Celebrate life with the Telluride AIDS Benefit’s dance party at the Liberty Bar in honor of World AIDS Day. Local’s tickets to the 25th Anniversary of Telluride AIDS Benefit will be on sale at this event.

1–3 SUESSICAL THE MUSICAL

Sheridan Arts Foundation Young People’s Theatre middle school actors perform Suessical the Musical at the Sheridan Opera House. sheridanoperahouse.com

1–3 HOLIDAY ARTS BAZAAR

Local artisans and artists vend unique handmade goods like jewelry, sewn and knitted clothing and accessories, toys, local foods, housewares, candles, and more at the Telluride Elks Lodge. telluridearts.org

7 ROCK AND ROLL ACADEMY WINTER CONCERT Rock out at the annual performance by the bands of local kids at the Sheridan Opera House. sheridanoperahouse.com 9 AN OLD FASHIONED CHRISTMAS AT SCHMID RANCH

The Telluride Historical Museum presents its annual Christmas celebration at Schmid Ranch on Wilson Mesa. Bring the kids and find your Christmas tree, make a wreath, take a sleigh ride, enjoy homemade hot cocoa, meet Santa, and more. telluridemuseum.org

14 JAY & SILENT BOB GET OLD

Enjoy an evening of live comedy with Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes at the Sheridan Opera House. sheridanoperahouse.com

Local theatre troupe performs Dinner with Dionysus, an original work, improvised, created, and written by the ensemble cast. telluridetheatre.org

22 DROP EVERYTHING

5 MUSEUM OPENS

22 SHAWN COLVIN

Telluride Historical Museum opens for the winter season.

This year’s annual exhibit is entitled “The Valley Floor: Changing Identities of a Telluride Treasure,” and It traces the history of the valley floor from pre-settlement to the Town’s acquisition of it. telluridemuseum.org

6 NOEL NIGHT

Shop early and partake of the holiday caroling, discounts, and cheer in Telluride’s retail stores.

7 ROGUE ELEMENTS Teton Gravity Research’s most recent ski film screens at the Sheridan Opera House. sheridanoperahouse.com

AH HAA SCHOOL FOR THE ARTS OPEN CLASSES The Ah Haa School offers classes in painting, drawing, writing, jewelry making, batik-dyeing, ceramics, graphic design, theatre, dance, fitness, and even qi gong. For a complete schedule of classes and events, visit the school’s website. ahhaa.org

16–17 HOLIDAY PRELUDE Mountain Village hosts this fun holiday event, with train rides, free ice skating, movies, crafts, sledding, and a tree lighting. tellurideconference.com

2 OPENING DAY

Telluride Ski Resort opens for the 2017-18 ski season.

ONGOING:

16–23 TELLURIDE THEATRE

Catch the new ski film by Matchstick Productions at the Sheridan Opera House. sheridanoperahouse.com

AVALANCHE AWARENESS FORUMS AND RESCUE CLINICS The Telluride Avalanche School, in partnership with San Juan Outdoor Adventures/Telluride Adventures and the Telluride Ski Patrol, offers a free series on Monday nights in the winter and educates backcountry travelers about avalanche safety. Free avalanche beacon rescue clinics are offered throughout the season, starting in January. Multi-day avalanche safety courses with field sessions and ice climbing trips are also available. tellurideadventures.com

Grammy winning singer, songwriter, and guitarist Shawn Colvin returns to the opera house stage to perform. sheridanoperahouse.com

22 LINE OF DESCENT

Warren Miller’s ski film screens at the Sheridan Opera House. sheridanoperahouse.com

24 & 25 TORCHLIGHT PARADES Skiers descend into Telluride and Mountain Village, carrying torches and forming a bright string of lights.

BOOK CLUBS Cookbook Book Club is at the library at 6:30 p.m. on the third Monday of every other month, and Booze and Books is held at the Phoenix Bean at 5:15 p.m. on the second Thursday of the month. telluridelibrary.org

RYAN BONNEAU

NOVEMBER 17 GONDOLA OPENS

FILMS AT THE LIBRARY Wilkinson Public Library and Telluride Film Festival host “Cinematheque,” presenting The Best of Mexican Cinema 2017 and a theme TBD in 2018 on the first Monday of each month. All films screen at 6 p.m. The last Monday of the month in October, January, and February, WLP partners with Mountainfilm to screen films that were at the 2017 festival. Show starts at 6:00 p.m. each night. telluridelibrary.org

imagine...

YO U A R E H E R E .

STAR

S I G N AT U R E P R O P E RT I E S

T E L L U R I D E ’ S F I N E S T VAC AT I O N R E N TA L S A N D P RO P E RT Y M A N AG E M E N T reservations@silverstartelluride.com

800.537.4781

silverstartelluride.com

22 • EVENT CALENDAR Winter/Spring 2017-2018

MELISSA PLANTZ

CALENDAR of EVENTS

DECEMBER 26 MOUNTAINFILM FRIEND-RAISER

Mountainfilm in Telluride hosts its annual “friend-raiser,” an event and screening to benefit the film festival and its programs, at the Sheridan Opera House. mountainfilm.org

27–31 HOLIDAY CONCERT SERIES Catch these performances by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s John McEuen and his String Wizards (Dec. 27), Dinner with Purely Patsy, the Patsy Cline tribute show, which includes a catered southern meal in a cabaret style setting (Dec. 28), jamband bluegrass group Elephant Revival (Dec. 2930), and the New Year’s Gala with the funky soul music of Robert Randolph and the Family Band (Dec. 31). sheridanoperahouse.com 31 YONDER MOUNTAIN STRING BAND

Club Red hosts Colorado’s bluegrass jamband Yonder Mountain String Band touring in support of their latest album “Love. Ain’t Love.” clubredtelluride.com

31 TORCHLIGHT PARADE

Celebrate New Year’s Eve with a parade of lights down the ski slopes and fireworks in Mountain Village.

31 NEW YEAR’S COUNTDOWN TO 2017

Telluride’s countdown takes place on New Year’s Eve, from 11:30 p.m. through 12:30 a.m., on main street in front of the clocktower in the courthouse. Colorado Avenue will be closed to vehicles between Aspen and Fir Street, and no glass or open containers of alcohol are permitted.

11 BRETT DENNEN

Brett Dennen, the pop singer/songwriter from Northern California, performs at Club Red. clubredtelluride.com

ONGOING:

11–12 THE FLOOZIES Electronic funk duo The Floozies: Powder Rangers Tour 2 returns to the Sheridan Opera House stage for two nights of fun. sheridanoperahouse.com

FITNESS PROGRAMS AND CLASSES AT THE LIBRARY Get moving for free at the Wilkinson Public Library’s yoga, Zumba, and Pilates classes. You can get a workout outside, too, by checking out snowshoes at the library. telluridelibrary.org

19 TROUT STEAK REVIVAL

Back by popular demand after selling out the opera house last year, and winning the 2014 Telluride Bluegrass Festival Band Contest, this bluegrass band returns to perform. sheridanoperahouse.com

21 VICTOR WOOTEN TRIO

Grammy Award-winning bass player, producer, composer, author, and educator Victor Wooten takes the opera house stage for this special performance. sheridanoperahouse.org

KIDS PROGRAMS AT THE LIBRARY Wilkinson Public Library hosts afterschool programs for kids: On Tuesdays, there is Cyber Club House for aspiring coders, as well as “Paws” for Reading, where kids can practice reading to a therapy dog. Also on Tuesday is Open Math Tutoring for grades K-10 with Mr. Dan. On Wednesdays, go to the library for Kids’ Cook. Kids learn how to make a healthy snack or small dish with ingredients supplied by the library. telluridelibrary.org

24–25 LEFTOVER SALMON Jam with the legendary bluegrass band Leftover Salmon, who perform for two nights at the Historic SheridanOpera House. sheridanoperahouse.

FEBRUARY 2–5 MARY POPPINS

Young People’s Theatre high school actors perform the musical Mary Poppins at the Sheridan Opera House. sheridanoperahouse.com

31 AH HAA SCHOOL FOR THE ARTS

3 POST SECRET Catch this interactive theatre performance at the Palm Theatre. telluridepalm.com

JANUARY

10–11 CHRIS ROBINSON BROTHERHOOD This psychedelic rock band from California features the lead singer from the Black Crowes, Chris Robinson, and performs at the Sheridan Opera House for two nights. sheridanoperahouse.com

Ah Haa hosts its annual New Year’s Eve Gala Fundraiser, featuring artists Julie McNair and Charlotte Jorgenson, with fine art, a champagne reception, a four-course dinner, entertainment, and a wine auction. ahhaa.org

I HEART ART Come try these free art projects with Jeannie at Wilkinson Public library every Monday at 3:30. telluridelibrary.org

METROPOLITAN OPERA AT THE PALM The Palm Theatre presents opera performances on a large HD screen throughout the winter. This winter’s schedule includes Metropolitan Opera performances of Hansel & Gretel (Dec. 9), Puccini’s Tosca (Jan. 27), Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore (Feb. 10), Puccini’s La Boheme (Feb. 24), Rossini’s Semiramide (March 10), Mozart’s Così fan tutte (March 31), Verdi’s Luisa Miller (April 30), and Massenet’s Cendrillon (April 28). telluridepalm.com

RYAN BONNEAU

4 LEZ ZEPPELIN Celebrate the music of Led Zeppelin with this performance by the all-female tribute band Lez Zeppelin at the Sheridan Opera House. sheridanoperahouse.com

OPEN RECREATION The Telluride Parks and Recreation department offers open hockey and ice skating at the Hanley Ice Rink and Pavilion in Telluride Town Park and drop-in basketball, volleyball, and indoor soccer at the high school gym. telluride-co.gov

www.LuxWest.com 970.728.8238

24 • EVENT CALENDAR Winter/Spring 2017-2018

CALENDAR of EVENTS 10 CHOCOLATE LOVERS’ FLING

11 AILEY 2

9 MARTIN SEXTON & KELLER WILLIAMS A special concert featuring two top performers: Martin Sexton is known for his soaring vocals and guitar playing, and Keller Williams is one of the pioneering “one-man band” musicians known for looping his instruments to create a full-band sound. The two will collaborate in a show at the Sheridan Opera House. sheridanoperahouse.com

15–18 COMEDY FEST

15–18 BEYOND THE BOX PERFORMANCE SERIES Telluride Theatre presents its spring Performance Series at the “Bob,” the Palm Black Box. telluridetheatre.org

Sample chocolate confections made by local chefs, dress in theme costumes, and dance at this annual benefit for the San Miguel Resource Center, held at the Telluride Conference Center. sanmiguelresourcecenter.org The Ailey 2 nationally renowned dance company performs at 7 p.m. at the Palm Theatre. telluridepalm.com

The 19th annual Telluride Comedy Fest features famous comedians from films and shows like The Daily Show, Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock performing skits and improv. sheridanoperahouse.com

Groove to the classic funk/jazz music of Galactic at the Sheridan Opera House. sheridanoperahouse.com

27 KOTO LIP SYNC

MARCH

28, 30 & APRIL 1 BURLESQUE Don’t miss Telluride Theatre’s annual risqué fundraiser, a vaudeville style striptease performance at the Sheridan Opera House. telluridetheatre.org

A multi-day event for HIV/AIDS prevention and education, the benefit includes a signature fashion show, art and clothing auctions, and a trunk show. aidsbenefit.org

5–16 DAFFODIL DAYS Telluride Historical Museum hosts this annual fundraiser, which is also a benefit for the American Cancer Society. telluridemuseum.org 8 SHOVELS & ROPE Enjoy the signature Americana/rock group Shovels & Rope, playing at the Sheridan Opera House. sheridanoperahouse.com 9 THE BLUE PARTY

Telluride Adaptive Sports Program, which provides services to athletes with disabilities, holds its annual fundraiser with music, food, drinks, and an auction at the Telluride Conference Center. Guests can dress in blue, the iconic blue of the jackets that TASP volunteers wear when on duty. tellurideadaptivesports.org

PALMKIDZ PERFORMANCE The Palm Theatre presents familyfriendly entertainment at 2:30 p.m. on Nov. 28, Feb. 13, March 13, and April 3. telluridepalm.com

19 GALACTIC

27–28 INFAMOUS STRINGDUSTERS Grammy-nominated acoustic quintet the Infamous Stringdusters performs high-energy bluegrass on the stage at the Sheridan Opera House. sheridanoperahouse.com 1–5 25TH ANNUAL TELLURIDE AIDS BENEFIT

ONGOING:

Locals perform hilarious lip sync routines in costume on the Sheridan Opera House stage, in a benefit event for local community radio station KOTO. koto.org

SPANISH HAPPY HOUR Practice your Spanish at Esperanza’s at 5 p.m. on the third Thursday of every month with Gloria and Jim from the library and other Spanish speakers in the community. telluridelibrary.org STORYTIME AT THE LIBRARY Kids will love Storytime at the Library, where stories are read aloud at 11 a.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays, and there is a “Stay and Play” session after the story on Mondays. Story Time Jam is on Fridays at 11 a.m., where kids can come and sing. telluridelibrary.org

APRIL 6 STREET DANCE KOTO hosts the annual block party in front of the county courthouse to celebrate the end of the ski season. Prizes are awarded for the best pink flamingo costumes/attire.

(Snow date is April 7.)

8 CLOSING DAY Telluride Ski Resort closes for the 2017-18 ski season.

SUNDAY AT THE PALM Telluride Film Festival, Telluride Foundation, and Telluride’s R-1 School District present family-friendly films on the first Sunday of each month at 4 p.m. at the Palm Theatre. telluridepalm.com

8 GONDOLA CLOSES Gondola closes after the 2017-18 ski season.

MAY 25–28 40TH ANNUAL MOUNTAINFILM IN TELLURIDE

TECH AND LEGAL HELP Wilkinson Public Library hosts free tech help every Saturday from 12–2 p.m. and free legal help from 2–3 p.m. on the second Thursday of each month. telluridelibrary.org

Mountainfilm in Telluride is a film festival that screens documentaries and hosts symposiums, breakfast talks, and other events about mountain culture, the environment, and our global community. mountainfilm.org

BEN ENG

TELLURIDE ART WALK On the first Thursday of each month, the Telluride Art Walk celebrates art at the local galleries from 5–8 p.m., with a selfguided tour of the exhibits in downtown Telluride. Nineteen venues open their doors to showcase new exhibits and artists, and restaurants feature art walk specials. Maps are available from local businesses and Telluride Arts. telluridearts.org

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TELLURIDE FILM FESTIVAL PRESENTS On the third Thursday of each month at the Nugget Theatre, catch one of the recently released films selected by the festival directors of the Telluride Film Festival. nuggettheatre.org

Art For Home and Self

970.728.3355

171 S. Pine St. Telluride

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26 • LOCAL FLAVOR

For the Dogs

Side by Side makes some of the best food in town, but it’s not for you

By Elizabeth Guest

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ecently, my three-year-old son sidled up to the dog bowl at Aunt Lydia’s house to share tasty morsels of kibble with her Havanese named “Dude.” Now, if Dude was lucky enough to dine on Side by Side, a pet food crafted by local entrepreneur Marney Zafian, I might have squatted down and joined them in their meal. Or maybe waited to serve it for dinner at the table. Zafian’s product is made from the finest whole-food ingredients, a premier pet food for animal health and well-being.

“We’re finally recognizing that our animals are dying due to their diets,” explains Zafian, a certified veterinary technician, a certified holistic chef for small animals, and a self-taught practitioner of Chinese food therapy.

“One out of every two dogs is getting cancer, which is an absurd statistic, and I want to change it.”

Nowadays, we serve ourselves farm eggs with yolks so gold they look like they were touched by King Midas, incomparable to the pallid eggs in styrofoam cartons that used to suffice. We’re finally realizing that fresh, nutritious food is important for our pets, too, and that over-processed pet food laced with fillers and artificial additives is causing debilitating diseases. Side by Side seeks to change the pet food market by bringing a better balance of healthy, real ingredients to the diets of our animals. “It’s about challenging the pet food industry and offering a better product while educating people to feed their pets like they deserve to be fed,” says Zafian.

Side by Side offers custom pet food diets that promote wellness and vitality. Ingredients get sourced from small, organic farms and ranches. For example, the Comfort-Diet cooked dog food combines 30 ingredients such as duck hearts, ocean fish, parsley, chard, coconut oil, chia seeds, alfalfa grass, and many more you’d recognize from the aisles of your grocery store or serve your family for dinner.

The Comfort-Diet is specific to dogs with itchiness and separation anxiety and promotes clearing internal heat and reduces inflammation.

An assortment of other meals may be more appropriate for pets with www.TellurideMagazine.com

“One out of every two dogs is getting cancer, which is an absurd statistic, and I want to change it.” other symptoms. Side by Side also offers supplements for hips and allergies, toppers to entice more finicky animals to indulge, one hundred percent all-protein treats, and trail mixes for on-the-go nutrition.

Zafian also takes considerable care in selecting cooking techniques.

Different cooking temperatures are suitable for different animal’s constitutions. However, all of Side by Side’s products are minimally processed to promote easy digestion and maximum nutrient absorption.

The company recently started co-packing from Wisconsin, the most progressive state for health-conscious pet food. For Zafian, the Wisconsin branch of Side by Side handles the bulk of production of online items, and is a more cost-effective hub than Telluride. She is also partnered with a holistic veterinarian there who oversees harvesting

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techniques and production, followed by packaging and distribution.

Zafian maintains a kitchen in Telluride to test new recipes and play around with different flavor profiles. She might be found making jerky from Colorado bison one day or responding to a client’s urgent need on another. For example, when an Arizona client contacted her that her dog was in distress and allergic to the chicken broth available online, Zafian put on her pot mitts and stewed up a batch of duck broth for them. “If somebody needs something and it’s hard to get, I can always help,” says Zafian. “It’s not about finding something that simply fits; I want to find the best fit for the animal.”

The same can be said about Zafian’s relationship with business partner Carol Bramson, a businesswoman with more than twenty-five years of experience in the natural

food industry. The duo united after Zafian was chosen for the 2016 Telluride Venture Accelerator program that helps launch local businesses.

Bramson saw Side by Side’s potential and became the business mind for helping the company grow while being sensitive to the enterprise’s carbon footprint on the planet.

“We’re dedicated to expanding the company in the most ethical way,” says Zafian. “We want to offer the best customer service to help hundreds, if not thousands, of dogs be healthy as a result of the products and education we offer.”

Zafian encourages anyone interested in catering to their pet with Side by Side to submit an online nutritional assessment at sidebysidepet.com. The nutritional questionnaire determines an animal’s individual needs and guides pet owners to select the right recipes to help their animals thrive.

Or stop by the Side by Side shop in the breezeway next to High Pie Pizzeria on main street. Pet owners can find it at 100 West Colorado Avenue, while their canine companions can merely follow their noses to the freshest pet food in town. \

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28 • MOUNTAIN HEALTH

Infants and Altitude

Supplemental oxygen is more common than you might think

By Karen Toepfer James

I

n my post-birth euphoria and exhaustion-induced haze, I didn’t recognize that the newborn nestled against me had changed in appearance during the two hours since his birth. But the raised voice of a nearby nurse yanked me out of my maternal reverie. “The baby is blue!” he yelled.

His diagnosis: persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn. It happens when a newborn’s circulatory system doesn’t switch from the fetal state, where oxygen is delivered through the umbilical cord and most blood is directed away from the lungs, to life on the outside. Blood continues to flow away from the lungs so it can’t pick up oxygen and deliver it throughout the body. Eventually, the baby becomes hypoxic, and studies show that 10 to 50 percent will die.

They rushed my son into neonatal intensive care while I stayed behind terrified and bedridden. In NICU, a machine breathed for him.

Tubes pumped him with antibiotics and vasodilators through his belly button. Morphine sedated him into paralysis. Despite all this, he remained dangerously unstable and was airlifted to a larger hospital.

There he could be put on a heart/ lung bypass machine if all else failed.

Fortunately, it never came to that. But it was a full week before www.TellurideMagazine.com

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his new doctors would assure us that he would live, and before we were allowed to hold him again.

Our return to Telluride seventeen days later wasn’t the triumphal entry I imagined. Yes, we had a living, breathing, healthy baby boy, but his doctors insisted he receive supplemental oxygen to assist his transition to nearly 9,000 feet above sea level. With it, I could never quite accept that he was truly recovered.

My imagination took over. I saw blue lips and fingertips where there weren’t any, and an indefinite future dictated by oxygen compressors and portable canisters.

I’ll never know the definitive cause of my son’s illness, which affects about one in every 500 babies.

At the Telluride Regional Medical Center, local family medicine doc Kent Gaylord doesn’t recall another case in his 20-plus years there.

But the supplemental oxygen that followed, that’s another matter.

Like so many other things, a newborn’s full cardiopulmonary transition also becomes more complicated at high altitude. Research shows that blood oxygen saturation in newborns at sea level achieves 96 to 98 percent within hours after birth, becoming slightly higher later in infancy.

In Denver that level drops to 92 to 93 percent within a day or two of

birth, and remains there during early infancy. In Leadville, which sits at over 10,000 feet, blood oxygen saturation reaches its highest point, 87 to 90 percent, within two days of birth.

It then declines over the next week, taking two to four months to recover to the higher post-birth levels.

It is during this period that the lack of oxygen at high altitude can cause the pulmonary blood vessels to constrict, and blood oxygen levels to drop. In turn, the lower blood oxygen levels cause further vascular constriction, and a vicious cycle of transitory, high-altitude pulmonary hypertension can occur.

What I didn’t know before I had my son is that it’s not uncommon for some healthy, term newborns in our

Or, as happened to Owen, the son of Heather Linder, Chief Medical Officer of the Uncompahgre Medical Center in Norwood and former TRMC physician, a baby’s oxygen levels may only dip too low during sleep.

While Owen’s oxygen levels at earlier checks were normal, “At his two-week check at TMRC he was asleep in his car seat and his oxygen was in the seventies,” she says, adding that at Norwood’s lower altitude, she sees significantly fewer hypoxic babies than she did working in Telluride.

Her experience causes Linder to wonder if some cases of hypoxia are being missed, and if so, how many?

In fact, it’s a question that has caught the attention of the makers

I could never quite accept that he was truly recovered. My imagination took over. I saw blue lips and fingertips where there weren’t any, and an indefinite future dictated by oxygen compressors and portable canisters. region to be placed on oxygen during the course of their earliest well-baby visits because of this condition. Many new parents confronted with it feel just like I did: shocked and alone. “I think they are surprised, and a lot of them are scared,” Dr. Gaylord says.

He estimates that five to 10 percent of TRMC newborns require supplemental oxygen for anywhere from a few days to six weeks due to blood saturations below 88 percent. “It’s pretty common that we have someone on oxygen all the time,” he says, noting that the babies most commonly affected live above Telluride in places like Mountain Village, San Bernardo, and Ophir. “Sometimes we have two to three babies on oxygen at one time.”

It’s not that babies with slightly reduced oxygen levels are at imminent risk of brain damage or other serious developmental delays without the treatment, Gaylord explains.

But the additional oxygen will help them sleep better, eat better, gain weight faster, and generally thrive.

For this reason, “It’s important for newborns to have an oxygen check between two days and one week after birth,” high-altitude medicine expert Dr. Peter Hackett says.

“That’s when they often decide to put kids on oxygen in order to keep them at acceptable levels.”

of the Owlet Smart Sock, a wireless pediatric heart rate and blood oxygen monitor made for consumer use.

According to Owlet Vice President for Health Affairs Dr. Milena Adamian, the company is hoping to begin a clinical study of the device in Colorado in a few months in which the Telluride region may serve as one location among several in a high-altitude study. “The region is known for its unique circumstances and challenges for infants born at elevation,” Adamian explains. “We would like to address those questions in a formal manner.”

The data could shed more light on current unknowns about the effects of altitude such as the incidence and duration of hypoxemia (low oxygen levels that are not life-threatening) and pediatric respiratory infections and recovery time.

The main thing to remember is that while low oxygen levels are easily remedied, at our altitude it’s especially important to make those initial well-baby visits to see if they require treatment. “We try to get babies in for an oxygen check within a day or two of coming back to Telluride, and again three to seven days later to make sure they’ve made the transition back to altitude,” says Gaylord. “After that is usually a twoweek check.” \

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30 • ADVICE

Ask Jock

Athletic Advice from Our Local Mountain Guru

Is bigger better?

Dear Jock, I have a pair of all-mountain skis with a 98 mm waist, and I’m plenty happy with them. But I’ve noticed many others on the hill skiing absurdly larger boards. I know a pair of monster fatties are great in bottomless powder, but—with the rare exception of a couple early morning turns on a handful of powder days—there’s usually a solid base on the Telluride ski hill. So why are people gearing up as if they’re going heli-skiing in Alaska? Am I missing out on something?

Q

—Puzzled by the Proliferation of Giant Planks Dear Puzzled, I share your sentiments. My best guess is that the folks surfing the pontoons have succumbed to either hubris or hope. Crafty industry marketers have fostered the illusion that bigger skis create a more badass skier. And the human propensity for hope fuels the delusion that owning giant powder boards might make it actually snow more.

Truth be told, some skiers in the know are swinging back toward more svelte waists. Last season, I enjoyed the crisp feel of a pair of skis with a relatively slender 78 mm waist. They’re nimble in the bumps, bite on firm snow, and add interesting challenge to powder and crud. Plus they’re lighter to carry.

In my mind, unless you plan to stack laps in upper Bear Creek all day, more than about 100 mm underfoot is unnecessary on Telluride Ski Resort.

Ski you out there, — Jock

A

New skates blues

Helmet debate

Q

Q

Dear Jock, Last year I started playing hockey. I began playing on a pair of borrowed skates, and I was moving pretty well. This season, I got a pair of new skates, and now I can barely stand up on the ice. My buddy says I need to get them sharpened, but the blades feel clean and smooth to the touch. So do I need to do that? If so, what do people mean when they talk about different angles of bevel on the edges?

—Rookie in the Rink Dear Rookie, According to local skate-sharpening guru Dave Schlegel, you should pay him a visit immediately. Schlegel says new skates are sold without a bevel, which makes skating pretty much impossible.

Although you can’t see it with the naked eye, skate blades are shaped like an inverted “U.” The edges of the “U” must be beveled to allow the blade to carve and release the ice. Manufacturers don’t pre-sharpen skates in the factory because skaters want different degrees of bevel depending on their skill level and personal preference. For a newbie, Schlegel advises a half-inch bevel. As you progress, you may want to experiment with other angles.

Before you take to the ice again, drop off your skates at the Telluride Nordic Center in town park and have Schlegel set you up for success.

Then all you have to do is put the puck in the net!

— Jock

Dear Jock, I’ve skied all my life and never bothered to wear a helmet. Now my wife has asked me to start wearing one “as an example” for our daughter who is beginning to ski. I’m all for helmets on kids, downhill racers, or anybody who feels unstable, but I’m a solid skier so I’m not worried about falling on my head.

Also, ten years ago I tried on my friend’s helmet, and it was hot, heavy, and uncomfortable. I’ve already got my kid’s ski gear to manage, so I don’t want to lug around another thing. How can I convince my wife that it’s OK for me to schuss the slopes without a brain bucket?

A

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—Hardheaded Dear H2, Give it up, pal. You don’t have a logical leg to stand on, especially with a little one who’s counting on you to be around for years to come. Sure, you’re an expert skier. But what if some out-of-control shredder plows into you while you’re stopped on the side of the trail with your kiddo, or you catch an edge in the tight trees? You’re like the guy driving into the desert on bald tires—nothing bad has happened yet, so I’ll keep going.

Here’s the good news: Modern helmets are light, ergonomically shaped and padded for comfort. Most even have vents to open on warm spring days. So in the interest of domestic tranquility and personal longevity, buy a hard hat.

— Jock

A

32 • ESSAY

Through the Window of the Bus

Observations from the daily commute

By Katie Klingsporn / Photos by Gus Gusciora

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By Katie Klingsporn

Such are the excitements of commuting to work in the San Juans.

Sometimes the bus rumbles over rock fall on Norwood Hill, avoiding chunks of stone as big as microwaves. Sometimes it crawls through white-out blizzards, the highway blotted out except for the previous vehicle’s tracks.

Sometimes I see rainbows, spot blue herons in San Miguel Canyon, or marvel at the beauty of scrub oak in the fall, its burgundies and oranges like a tapestry over the land. Sometimes we slow to a stop, construction blocking our progress. And often, I bury my nose in a book and barely look up until it’s time to disembark.

I never planned to become a commuter. I don’t think anyone does.

I lived in the town of Telluride for a decade, renting apartments with friends, bopping to festivals and movies, walking out the back door for hikes and mountain bike rides. I didn’t touch my car save for weekend excursions and obligatory trips to Montrose, and it was a point of pride. My bike and my feet were my modes of transportation; I was a townie to the max.

But somewhere along the line, latent dreams began to clamor. I wanted a home of my own. A yard for chickens. A garden. A little room to breathe. The only places my husband and I could even think about affording in town were postage-stamp-sized condos. And so, in what is a familiar story for many people who fall in love with beautiful and pricey mountain towns, we had to look elsewhere. We found a yellow two-bedroom house in the town

CHERYL©-ADOBESTOCK.COM

orning sunlight spills over the mountains onto the Valley Floor as the bus rolls toward Telluride. Suddenly, a violent lurch, a swerve to the right. We passengers hold on, craning our necks to see the cause. A baby elk had darted directly into our path from the willows, barely escaping its demise. We sigh collectively. Rick, the bus driver, is a hero.

of Norwood that fit the bill. It was wonderful. It was affordable. It was also a 45-minute drive from Telluride.

We got those chickens, planted that garden, breathed in the open space. But in the complex housing puzzle of San Miguel County, working-class people can’t have it all. So where we gained a house that we love, we lost the convenience of living in the town where we work. We became commuters, joining the river of vehicles that flows into Telluride each day.

I never put much thought into that river until I was a part of it.

But at 6,000 to 10,000 vehicles a day according to traffic estimates, it’s a significant daily migration.

Who are the occupants of these cars? All stripes. Construction workers from Montrose, nonprofit staffers with homes in Ridgway and county employees who have commuted from Redvale for years. Librarians who live

in Lawson, teachers from Placerville, ski patrollers whose homes are in Ophir, schoolchildren from Fall Creek.

They are seasonal workers, decadeslong residents, artists, housekeepers, architects, lifties. All of them streaming daily into Telluride: the hub of the economy, the source of their scratch.

Some commuters left because they felt forced out by Telluride’s housing crisis. Others live elsewhere on their own will. They like the views of Hastings Mesa, the peace of Norwood, the milder weather of Placerville. Telluride is too dark for them, too exclusionary, too touristy. And the parking? A nightmare.

I also enjoy life outside of the hubbub of Telluride. I relish the way the skies open up when we leave the box canyon, the way natural light spills through my kitchen windows, the absence of bar hoppers waking me up at night, the ability to grow summer squash and tomatoes.

So I’ve shoehorned it in, the commute. I hop on the Galloping Goose bus when I can, paying the $2 fare, finding a quiet seat by the window.

Sometimes I chat with fellow riders.

Mostly though, I read, write, listen to podcasts, look out the window.

It’s not perfect; sometimes I get annoyed by noisy passengers, or feel stressed by the rigidity of the bus schedule. In general, though, I’ve found that commuting’s not bad. Forty-five minutes of quiet time before and after work bookends the day nicely.

Plus, I’ve discovered things. Riffles in the river, cascades in the cliff faces above, high outcroppings of rock I’d like to hike to, shadowy gulches and mining remnants I’d never noticed before. I’ve plugged into the moods of the canyon and the nuances of the seasons. The bighorn sheep perched on the steep red-rock hillsides in late spring, the mudslides of summer monsoons turning the river into chocolate milk, the first dustings of snow on the mountaintops in the fall, the sparkle of hoarfrost on the willows on cold winter mornings.

At home we often listen to KQED, the public radio station from my husband’s hometown of San Francisco.

I hear the traffic reports of the East Bay, bottlenecks and lane closures and accidents, and realize it could be so much worse.

Instead of lane-to-lane vehicles, we’ve got a river-carved canyon, dramatic skies and some of the prettiest mountains in the county.

That, and the occasional baby elk to watch out for. \

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34 • FEATURE

Thinking Outside the Box Canyon Telluride Ski Resort takes up the challenge to build housing for workers

L

ocals nicknamed the neighborhood “Whoville” after it was built in 1998.

The new Two Rivers homes in Ilium valley resembled the fictional Dr. Seuss village, especially at night. From Keystone Hill you could see the glow of a cluster of lights nestled in a snowy plateau, surrounded by tall mountain peaks. It grew into an idyllic mini community in its picturesque spot at the juncture of the Howard Fork and the San Miguel River.

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Housing—as in a real house, a starter home for people who had decided that Telluride was their forever place—was in short supply when Two Rivers came to fruition. Real estate in the town of Telluride was already too expensive for most working-class young adults, and the nearby neighborhoods of Hillside and Lawson Hill were mostly full and prices were climbing. So Whoville was the next great place to buy: deed-restricted, small houses for locals just a short commute from town. County planning officials intended the development to be a way for locals to buy into the housing market. “Two Rivers was meant as an ownership ladder for people working in the Telluride region,” said Mike Rocyzki, the planning director for San Miguel County. “And then when they had family or kids, they would move into other homes.”

As it turned out, it wasn’t just a first rung into the housing market— real estate values continued to float out of reach for most of the residents working here, and these 900-squarefoot homes in the peaceful neighborhood became more of a safety net. “A lot of people that originally bought or built are still there,” said Rocyzki.

The deed-restricted neighborhoods in Lawson Hill and Two Rivers were built by a private developer working with the county. There were other lots available in Ilium, but as the real estate boom gained momentum, it became more lucrative for developers to focus on free market lots in Telluride or Mountain Village, and the Ilium lots sat idle. The housing crisis grew more acute; the region flourished and the influx of

Many resort towns are facing the same conundrum that exists in Telluride.

Vacation rentals are displacing long-term rentals, and gentrification prices most working class locals out of home ownership opportunities. tourists and business increased the need for employees, but there were fewer and fewer places for employees to live. Telluride and Mountain Village governments ticked off small affordable housing projects, building rental and ownership units when they could piece together the land and the funds. But the need for affordable housing still outweighed the supply. What was really needed was for a private entity to step up and build large-scale development.

And then, one did. It was the Telluride Ski Resort.

Resorts pitching in to help

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any resort towns are facing the same conundrum that exists in Telluride. Vacation rentals are displacing long-term rentals, and gentrification prices most working class locals out of home ownership opportunities.

The more popular a tourist destination gets, the tougher it becomes to find places to live for the people who work on the mountain, in the restaurants, in the shops, and even in the schools and municipal jobs.

Telluride Ski Resort isn’t the only ski resort trying to tackle the problem. Vail Resorts pledged $30 million in 2015 for employee housing. Vail Resorts has a huge portfolio of ski areas— four in Colorado, three in Lake Tahoe, and others in Utah, Vermont, Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Vail Resorts also owns resorts in Australia and Canada (Whistler Blackcomb). Aspen Skiing spent $4 million on 40 tiny homes the company is building in a former campground in Basalt.

Bill Jensen, who joined Telluride Ski Resort as CEO in late 2015, was keenly aware of the housing crisis.

He knew that as the largest employer in the region, he had to act. The resort took immediate steps to get rentals for seasonal workers, buying and refurbishing the Telluride Apartments in Mountain Village, which had sat dormant with expensive-tofix mold issues for years. That added 55 beds to the 175 beds the company owns at Big Billies and the 20 other units that they lease and rent out.

Jensen also picked up another 25 beds in Rico, and one-bedroom units in Telluride and Lawson Hill. He said

that was still not enough. “It’s a challenge. Our community is short 500 or 600 pillows, but I acknowledge that those people are already here— couch surfing, car camping, making it work, but they’re in our community. It’s a pressing issue that needs to be addressed.”

Jensen said that with the additional units added, the ski resort was able to house about 30 percent of the company’s peak level winter staff.

But their goal is to accommodate 40 percent. So he started looking at those empty lots next to Two Rivers.

Building a large-scale development would take more than time and money. The ski resort would need an exception from the deed restriction to purchase multiple lots. The deed restriction had only anticipated municipal entities owning and developing multiple lots for affordable housing, not a private entity like the resort. And the company would also need to do something else: talk to their neighbors in Two Rivers.

The reception Jensen got was chilly, at first. These were longtime locals, a cohesive community of workers with kids, dogs, jobs, and what had been for decades an uncrowded neighborhood with ample parking and a huge playground in the backyard with boulders to climb, rivers to fish, and a network of quiet hiking and biking trails to enjoy. The homeowners were wary of how a large number of rentals next door might affect the neighborhood. Renters and owners live a different lifestyle, and the homeowners were concerned about the mix. But their biggest concern was not about preserving their

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36 • FEATURE

“It’s a challenge. Our community is short 500 or 600 pillows, but I acknowledge that those people are already here—couch surfing, car camping, making it work, but they’re in our community. It’s a pressing issue that needs to be addressed.”

— Bill Jensen

own rights; it was about preserving the rights of others in the community. Scott Stewart, the president of the homeowners’ association at Two Rivers, said that one of their most important requests was that renters get a “lease-to-own” option, a pathway to ownership. They wanted to make sure that their new neighbors were afforded the same opportunity that they had. If the original intent of the neighborhood had been a first rung on a home-ownership ladder, then they wanted some assurances that the same opportunities would exist for others looking to make a permanent commitment to the region. “We loved the idea of using the Telluride Ski & Golf Resort proposal to help a lot of people, potentially some of our friends, find a way to ownership that otherwise might not be able to swing this,” said Stewart.

Two Rivers had a short list of www.TellurideMagazine.com

other requests, mostly concerning the logistics of parking, transit, and lowering the density. Ultimately, it was not up to them how the development would play out, but they asked for what they wanted. And Jensen did an unusual thing, especially for the CEO of a corporation: He listened. Jensen changed the development proposal to accommodate all their requests; he scaled down the density, agreed to have longer rental terms and the lease-to-own option, offered to preserve the existing parking, build a bus stop, assist with snow removal, and provide transportation for people in the neighborhood. “We got to the point where Two Rivers stood up and said they were in support of the plan.

Ultimately building out that neighborhood will make it a more vibrant community, and when we start paying HOA dues it will help support the infrastructure,” said Jensen.

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I

Keeping Telluride in the sweet spot

ncluding the Two Rivers development, Telluride Ski Resort will have spent more than $15 million on its workforce housing initiatives—a lot of money compared to other resorts, even much larger ones like Aspen and Vail. The new development will add 68 bedrooms to the housing inventory in the community, and it will help Jensen to get closer to his 40 percent housing goal. He is quick to say that he’s not a developer, and that his intent is to help take the pressure off the community and not to make money. They are keeping the rents low to meet income levels, and he says that he is also sensitive about over-doing it, or adding too much to the housing inventory. “What we don’t want to do is encourage more growth and change the culture here.”

Jensen feels the same way about growth with the resort. There are about 500,000 skier visits per year, roughly 3,800 to 3,900 people a day.

Besides the two peaks during the holidays and spring break, the resort is consistently uncrowded and the lines to ride the chairlifts are short or non-existent. Telluride Ski Resort is in the sweet spot, with enough skiers to sustain operations without sacrificing the skier experience and the charms of a small resort town.

“We’re not volume-focused at all,” said Jensen. “Our vision for Telluride is not to be a mega resort. We are always in the top of the resort rankings by ski magazines, and our rankings always emphasize the importance of the character and experience. The bigger resorts tend to drop out of the top ten. Our vision is to maintain the character here, to keep it special.” \

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38 • FEATURE

Despite the lack of an engine, paraglider flights in the West can last many hours and cover hundreds of miles.

Winging It Telluride’s love affair with gliding

By Rob Story / Main Photo by Ryan Bonneau

Talk about counter-intuitive: Ryan Taylor has based his career on the dubious and terrifying practice of running off cliffs.

www.TellurideMagazine.com

WINTER/SPRING 2017-2018

RYAN TAYLOR

Taylor, you see, embodies the new generation of Telluride paragliders, people who hurl themselves off steep faces in order to inflate their wings with air—gifting them the ecstatic, rapturous joy of flight. Not to mention the ecstatic, rapturous feeling of soaring through cerulean skies 15,000 feet above the magnificent Four Corners for several hours at a time. Paragliders (the ones who survive, anyway) must be the happiest people on the planet.

Taylor operates Telluride Paragliding, the only permitted and fully insured outfit in town and the only one approved to offer tandem flights off the Telluride Ski Resort. Flying tandem with Taylor (or the two pilots who work for him) is a no-brainer, because it requires no previous flying experience. Customers simply strap into an utterly secure harness in front of the pilot. Then both run toward the edge of the ski area’s Gold Hill. Before plummeting to their death, their wing fills with air and lifts them gloriously above the San Juan Mountains. Telluride Paragliding flies about 150 tandem missions per year. According to Taylor, the typical client is a “teenager from Texas...or maybe an adult from Texas... at any rate, it’s a thing tourists love.”

As Taylor knows all too well, paragliding does not only get confused with another sport, but with two others. To be clear: It’s not hang gliding, because hang gliders go much faster thanks to their long, stiff wings (a paraglider, meanwhile, can be folded up in a backpack). And it’s not parasailing, which any fool on spring break can do in Mazatlan since parasailing is merely a parachute towed behind a speedboat.

Paragliding certainly would not exist were it not for hang gliders: After all, they’ve been working on foot-launched, winged flight since

Da Vinci’s famous drawings. Yet even paragliding is somewhat old for an extreme sport, starting in the American West and Europe’s Alps in the early 60s, when adventurers in both regions imagined fun things to do with skydiving parachutes. Why not deploy chutes while running off steep mountains, then glide down to the valley floor?

The pioneers rigged up a system in which a pilot sits in a harness sus-

pended below a fabric wing lined with lots of interconnected baffled cells.

The pilot controls pitch, yaw, and roll with suspension lines. The whole shebang is held aloft by the force of lift as it glides to the ground. Skilled pilots can catch thermals, the warm columns of air that form above the ground, and climb higher in a corkscrew maneuver to soar to cloudbase.

As fresh powder is to skiers, strong

thermals are to paragliders.

Despite the lack of an engine, paraglider flights in the West can last many hours and cover hundreds of miles. As such, Telluride flying and Telluride pilots are well known among the sport’s cognoscenti, from Torrey Pines to Chamonix, Cape Town to the Brazilian Andes. Why? “Big air!” exclaims Taylor. “It’s a wonderful place to fly, with dynamic conditions and opportunities to soar as high, 18,000 feet, as anywhere in America.”

Owing to the confluence of nearby desert and the nation’s highest concentration of 14,000-foot peaks, thermals here are especially vibrant.

One of Telluride’s local legends, “Captain” Jack Carey (who has a ski run named after him), actually moved here for big air. He was skiing and hang gliding in Steamboat in 1974, when a fellow hang glider was killed. The local peaks were abruptly closed, so Captain Jack moved to the Telluride area. He set a hang-gliding record in the 80s when he became the first to fly above 20,000 feet; indeed, he got to 21,000 feet, not very far below the cruising altitude of transcontinental jets.

Telluride remains far too small to have a traffic helicopter. But it’s had a community radio station for decades.

So Jack periodically strapped a remote broadcasting unit to his back, launched off Gold Hill, and reported to amused listeners his birds-eye views of mountains, forests, and—in his untamed New Hampshire accent—“rivahs.” Though Carey died in 2009, KOTO still plays a promo of him celebrating the region’s “big ayah.”

Local pilots eventually formed the Telluride Air Force: a nonprofit hang gliding and paragliding organization that oversees local flights and keeps a close eye on the weather, monitoring several meteorological sites. Due

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www.TellurideMagazine.com

39

40 • FEATURE

www.TellurideMagazine.com

WINTER/SPRING 2017-2018

RYAN TAYLOR

to the complex and rapidly changing atmospheric environments here, TAF requires visiting pilots, without exception, to fly with supervisory oversight of a member holding “Guide Pilot” status. In the old days, most local pilots used hang gliders. However, improvements in paragliders—which are not only more portable, but also much easier to land in tight spots like Town Park—have made them the wing of choice. These days, the group numbers 40 members, down considerably from TAF’s 1990s heyday, when T.R. Youngstrom and Scott MacLowry convinced seemingly every hardcore in town to try flying.

Alas, Taylor doubts the sport will ever regain its past popularity here. “Telluride has lost pilots for the same reason it’s lost ski bums and climbers and kayakers,” he says. “This remote place is too expensive, so lots of people don’t have enough money to spend on paragliding or other sports that require lots of dedication. It simply takes too much to live here.”

Not to mention the inherent dangers. Critical injuries and deaths happen regularly. The U.S. Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association actually maintains a “Fatalities” page; causes range from mid-air collisions to mid-air heart attacks, from tangled lines to “major deflation which resulted in a high-energy impact with the ground.” A former TAF member, Travis Spitzer, was once preparing to launch when a draft blew a visiting pilot violently back against Gold Hill. “It sounded like a sack of potatoes slammed against the ground,” he laments. “I was an EMT then, and tried to revive the guy, but it was no use.”

Taylor attributes most accidents to “poor conditions or pilot error.” He then invokes the grim truism of flying off cliffs: “There are old pilots and there are bold pilots but there aren’t any old and bold pilots.” Of course, he absolutely refuses to conduct tandem rides if he’s at all uncomfort-

RYAN TAYLOR

RYAN TAYLOR

able with conditions. “Making smart decisions is what customers pay me for,” Taylor says. It can be frustrating to frequently reschedule trips, “but you gotta have the ability to say ‘No.’” Yours truly took a tandem flight a few months ago in Panorama, British Columbia. I found it absolutely exhilarating, an unparalleled way to enjoy mountain terrain. Yet I know I’ll never invest in a chute or learn to fly solo. And I certainly won’t push my gravitational limits like Taylor does now, with the new sport of “speed flying.”

To “speed fly” is to use a wing not to launch into space, but to skim barely above a slope at high, thrilling velocity. Lots of its practitioners also wear skis, so they can skip merrily from peak to peak, never mind the chasms between. When performed atop skis, Taylor says, the activity is called “speed riding.” As you might imagine, YouTube is packed with speed flying/riding videos, and Red Bull has thrown lots of Euros at ski resort competitions.

On this side of the Atlantic, Taylor’s company is currently teaching youngsters how to speed fly and ride. Of course it is: The home of the Telluride Air Force will always, forever and ever, push the proverbial envelope. \

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42 • FEATURE

SNOW GEEKS Avalanche forecasters in the San Juan Mountains

By Martinique Davis / Photos by Matt Steen

T

he harsh whirr of a snowmobile engine firing to life shatters the pre-dawn stillness outside the Telluride Ski Patrol’s locker room at the base of the Coonskin chairlift.

The Ski-Doo’s single headlight slices through the deep winter darkness like a visual detonation, catching the twinkling reflection of slow-falling snowflakes in its monocular view of the just-groomed cat track ahead. Lumbering figures wearing red coats with white crosses plod through shin-deep snow, loading skis and backpacks onto their chariot.

Wordlessly they climb aboard. Burrowing their chins into their jackets, the driver revs the accelerator and the two ski patrollers unceremoniously disappear into the storm, on their way to Patrol Headquarters.

www.TellurideMagazine.com

WINTER/SPRING 2017-2018

TAMING THE TIGER… or at least avoiding its claws

This scene replays each time a snowstorm blankets the slopes at the Telluride Ski Resort, as members of the Ski Patrol’s Snow Safety Team begin the process of assessing the day’s snow and avalanche conditions. And while the scene may be the same, the players in this complex chess match are ever-changing: Wind speed, wind direction, temperature, snow density, snowfall intensity—a multitude of factors influence how dangerous the snowpack may be on any given day on the ski resort, in the backcountry, or on the highways bisecting avalanche-prone slopes all across the San Juan Mountains. It is up to a small but ardent group of men and women trained as avalanche forecasters to assess the risk to users in all of these settings. And to them, the task of keeping the public informed of what’s happening in the snowpack—and out of the deadly grasp of an avalanche—is much more than a job. It becomes an obsession.

Colorado Avalanche Information Center’s backcountry forecaster for the Northern San Juans Jeff Davis is up at 4:30 every morning. His first order of business is to analyze weather maps, read any new avalanche or snowpack observations on the state-wide database, and communicate via Skype with other forecasters around the state…after he brews a large a pot of coffee, of course.

Davis, along with state’s other backcountry forecasters, is responsible for producing two weather reports, three radio spots, and ten backcountry zone forecasts a day—all before 8 a.m.

His analyses, along with those of other forecasters working in the area, help paint the picture of the day’s avalanche conditions across this extremely avalanche-prone part of the state.

But as another local forecaster, Matt Steen of Helitrax (Telluride’s helicopter skiing operation) explains, a single day’s avalanche forecast is a microcosm of a much greater whole.

“Throughout the course of the winter, a timeline of storms and weather patterns play out and create different weaknesses in the snowpack,” he says. Those weaknesses are created by an almost endless array of variables which forecasters like him must look at before making decisions about what slopes to send clients to on any given day.

Avalanche forecasters evaluate hazard by analyzing existing or anticipated avalanche “problems.” These might include a recent storm or wind event, which could lead to unstable conditions by overloading the existing snow structure under any new snow; or a persistent problem like an instability deep in the snowpack caused by changes in weather and temperature that actually change the shape of the snow crystals, thus rendering them less capable of withstanding added stress (such as the weight of a skier). When these kinds of conditions converge, avalanche hazard increases.

The people tasked with the complex job of assessing avalanche hazard have an array of tools at their disposal, which can help them piece together a complete picture of what is going on in the snow. Online resources, such as remote weather stations and the CAIC avalanche database, provide both real-time observations and relevant reflections on what is currently hap-

pening and what has transpired—from weather events to avalanche incidents.

But forecasters must see and feel what’s going on in their immediate forecast zone too, which means getting boots on the ground. Forecasters utilize snow stability tests, snow pits, and in-the-field observations to gather additional data that adds to the intricate forecasting equation. “I try to get into the backcountry every day, so I can keep my finger on the pulse, stay as current as possible and collect as much information as possible,” Davis says.

He’s not alone. For members of Telluride Ski Resort’s snow safety team, daily field observations feed conversations about what avalanche problems exist and where they might be found, which ultimately lead to decisions about what terrain will open and when.

Despite the intricacies involved in such high-stakes decision-making, Telluride’s Snow Safety Director Jon Tukman says that those conversations usually take place fairly quickly on a “snow morning,” after the resort receives new snow and ski patrollers are called in to work early to mitigate hazard. “A lot of our workers, from the snow safety team to the rank-and-file, understand these things intuitively. We have a solid professional team that collectively has centuries of local knowledge about snowpack and avalanche paths,” of which the Telluride Ski Resort has roughly 300. “They are providing us with eyes and ears all over the hill.”

Having access to a wealth of local knowledge and experience is crucial for forecasters charged with calling the shots in avalanche country, especially here in the San Juans. Along with the region’s steep, rocky topography, the area is also home to a continental snowpack. Characterized by shallow snow depths and large temperature gradients that together nurture the perfect recipe for the creation of large, faceted snow crystals that don’t bond together well, snow conditions in the San Juans are considered some of the most treacherous in the world. This convergence of factors means that avalanches are frequent and plentiful in the San Juan Mountains; and while this equates to the potential for deadly avalanche accidents, the upside is that is has become an incubator for avalanche research.

WINTER/SPRING 2017-2018

www.TellurideMagazine.com

43

44 • FEATURE

THE LIFE OF A SNOW GEEK: Snow science’s roots run deep in the San Juans Snow science is continually evolving thanks to ongoing research and advancements in technology, but back when folks like Craig Sterbenz and Jerry Roberts started poking their heads around in the snow the field was still very much in its infancy. Without the extensive base of knowledge that now exists thanks to decades of research, these self-titled “snow geeks” were at the forefront of a burgeoning field and honed their craft without many of the tools and resources available to avalanche forecasters today.

“What internet? It was more like a finger in the air,” says Jerry Roberts of forecasting weather and avalanches back at the start of his career. Roberts was one of the first graduates of the newly minted Silverton Avalanche School in the early 70s, and went on to work on CU Boulder’s INSTAAR (Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research) San Juan Avalanche project. The resulting report is widely regarded as the keystone of early avalanche and snow knowledge, and primed Roberts for a four-decade career in avalanche forecasting for the CAIC, the Colorado Department of Transportation, and as a highway forecaster in Chile.

Now retired, Roberts remembers the many years he spent working as a forecaster in Silverton as more than just a job. “It becomes your life,” he says, remembering times he simply couldn’t bring himself to leave Silverton to drive to Montrose to buy groceries because he would be afraid he would “miss something,” such as a four-hour wind event that could have the potential to drastically change the avalanche conditions.

Sterbenz, who was the Snow Safety Director at the Telluride Ski www.TellurideMagazine.com

Keeping the public informed of what’s happening in the snowpack—and out of the deadly grasp of an avalanche—is much more than a job. It becomes an obsession.

Area for nearly 30 years, describes that same period of time in the snow science realm as the “wild West.”

Sterbenz says there was really nowhere to get outside information about weather and avalanches in Telluride in the mid-70s and early 80s when he started forecasting for the ski resort. His best resources were tuning into an a.m. radio station out of Grand Junction to find out if a

WINTER/SPRING 2017-2018

storm was on the way (but reception was only good early in the morning when it was clear), or by skiing down to Gorrono Ranch restaurant to use the one phone on the mountain to call the Colorado Avalanche Center (but at that time the organization was so understaffed he was lucky if anyone answered the phone).

With so few readily accessible resources at their disposal, both Rob-

erts and Sterbenz quickly recognized that it would be up to them to bolster knowledge across the entire industry; so Roberts began taking on interns (many of whom, like Mark Rikkers and Ann Mellick, went on to work as forecasters for the state), while Sterbenz trained ski patrollers and formulated plans and protocols for Telluride’s snow safety program (most of which are still in practice today).

In addition to overseeing the safety and welfare of all those living, playing, and working in their broadcast zones, Sterbenz and Roberts also dedicated time to sharing their findings and observations farther afield.

Both have published research papers and taught avalanche courses; Roberts co-authored the book Living (and Dying) in Avalanche Country; Sterbenz co-founded and served as the Director of the Telluride Avalanche School; and though both are technically retired, their passion for the field remains steadfast.

Now Roberts is a member of Mountain Weather Masters, a group of veteran avalanche professionals (or as he jokingly describes, “a group of old, washed-out forecasters and mountain pimps looking at weather from the comfort of our little huts”) who provide weather forecasts and consults to the motion picture and television industries. Meanwhile “Sterbie,” as he’s known among the ski patrol ranks, still answers his phone (an untold number of times) to answer questions from his successors in Telluride’s Snow Safety Department.

At the time they were interviewed for this article, news of the first avalanche deaths of the season had just circulated through the ski community. For guys who cut their teeth as avalanche professionals in the pitiless jaws of the San Juan Mountains, and whereby paved the way for today’s snow science advancements, news of a death is still difficult to swallow. “As snow people, we also look at it from an emotional side—we can’t help asking why. Every year this happens…why?

This is our compulsion,” Roberts says.

Though the field has changed radically in the last four decades, what has remained constant is the borderline obsessive sense of responsibility all good avalanche forecasters possess. To them, avalanche forecasting represents a nexus of the known and the unknown; the observed, and the unseen. A forecaster’s job is to bridge these gaps in knowledge, and disseminate what they uncover to the masses in a language all users—from the savvy backcountry skier to the CDOT plow driver—can understand.

As Sterbenz puts it, “The snow gets in you, and it doesn’t go away.” \

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45

46 • INSIDE ART

A Cathedral of Aspens Artist Eunika Rogers documents life with handmade clay paints

By Sage Marshall

E

unika Rogers’ career as an artist started as a lucky accident.

While attending the University of Memphis MFA program and studying ceramics, she was eager to develop her own style of pottery. She dug up her own clay, a particularly red color, from Mississippi. Before long, said Rogers, all of her studio clothes were permanently stained from the clay. And then came the eureka moment. She started using the clay to make her own paint, and stumbled onto her unique medium. Instead of sculpting or molding forms, she began painting with the clay.

Over the years, she’s built up a diverse palette of different shades, all natural hues, by digging it right up out of the ground on hikes. Since moving to Telluride recently, Rogers has found clay near creek runoffs in the surrounding region. She’s dug up clay in places ranging from Sawpit, to Gold Mine on Red Mountain Pass, to the Four Corners region. She names each color based on the location; the clay that she found near Gold Mine is named Sneezeweed because its coloring is similar to the common mountain weed that shares the same name.

After growing up in Czechoslovakia, moving to Canada, and then Memphis, Rogers has at last found the perfect www.TellurideMagazine.com

location here in Telluride to make her art. “I like the small town atmosphere.

From an artistic point of view, it’s obviously a very inspiring place,” said Rogers. “I get a lot of visual inspiration here. I paint landscapes, primarily aspens, which I know is kind of a cliché

WINTER/SPRING 2017-2018

thing, but I paint it with the clay that they actually grow on. Just being here, I feel like I’ve become a part of nature as opposed to living in a big city.”

Besides painting, Rogers is also a photographer. In fact, it might be more apt to simply describe her as a docu-

mentarian. Her photography is integrally connected to her painting. “I just love documenting stuff,” said Rogers.

“I don’t stand outside like a plein air painter because painting with clay is a very slow process. It’s not an easy technique, as opposed to oil or acrylic where you can easily stroke with it. Painting with clay is more of a stippling process where you have to put the clay on the brush and then rub it in.”

Besides aspens, Rogers also paints female figures, many of which are self-portraits. For her, nature and the female body are inherently linked. “I find peace and spirituality in nature,” said Rogers. “So, nature and the female body have a direct connection for me when I feel like I’m a just a small little particle on the big scale of things. I’m interested in how I actually fit into the process of time passing and natural cycles of nature.”

Her tendency to do self-portraits is tied to her interest in documenting the passage of time. She says she often remembers the events that occur during the time when she makes certain paintings. She also recalls growing up in communist Europe, with all the beautiful churches and buildings.

“I always admired architecture,” she said. “I loved going to historic sites and seeing cathedrals–how tall they

were, and the light streaming through the windows. I felt the presence of something bigger in there.”

Rogers experienced something similarly inspiring on a hike in the sub-alpine forests near Telluride. “My husband and I went to an aspen grove and I just had that feeling of something being there. I had a sense of déjà vu. I was seeing cathedrals. The way the light passed through the leaves as they quaked reminded me of bells.”

Her paintings have that same profound, natural style. They carry the same subtle colors and luminosity that exists in humans and trees and land-

scapes, and they are stunning. As she continues creating art and documenting her life, Rogers plans to focus on her connection with aspen trees and the way aspen stands create an almost mystical setting. “When I first came here I was just trying to grab attention, so I painted three or four paintings of aspens. In some ways it felt like I sold out to the crowd who wants aspens,” said Rogers. “I should paint aspens the way that I want to, which is with the idea of them being a temple.”

Eunika Rogers’ work is on display at the Kamruz Gallery, on Colorado Avenue. \

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47

48 • INSIDE ART

Looking Forward

Telluride’s longest-running art gallery gets new owners, new look

By Elizabeth Guest

A

shley Hayward was enamored with Telluride at first sight. It wasn’t just the natural beauty, but also the strength of the arts community here that drew her in. She and Michael Goldberg have been in Telluride part-time since 2013, and when the Telluride Gallery of Fine Arts founders/owners Will and Hilary Thompson retired after 32 years, the couple seized the opportunity.

Hayward and her husband Michael, an entrepreneur and venture capitalist, were longtime patrons of the gallery. The transition from clients to owners was a joint venture with their employees, all of whom maintain the same positions. Many of the in-house artists also remain the same—including world-class studio jewelers—although there will be some new modern artists. “We’ll see how the community responds, but most of the changes and new programming came from the requests and allied vision of ourselves and our team,” says Hayward. “Although we have clients interested in traditional landscapes, we also needed something fresh.”

Longtime employee and local www.TellurideMagazine.com

icon Bärbel Hacke started at the gallery in 1987, and continues under the new owners with as much enthusiasm as ever. Since the turnover, the gallery also received a full remodel, new quality lighting, and a streamlined layout so that the space is even more focused on the art.

Hayward has a lifelong link to the art world—she is the daughter of major American abstract painter James Hayward, an undiscovered great in the art world. “His paintings are about process and pure paint, gestural marks and color and how they play off one another in a beautiful, harmonious way,” Hayward describes her father’s art. “There’s something so simple and so beautiful in the subtle nuances you notice as your eye moves across the canvas.”

Hayward received her BFA in art and art history from University of California Santa Cruz. For the past two decades, she’s taught art to elementary students, led museum tours, worked in galleries, and done restoration at the Getty Museum’s Antiquities Division.

Now at the gallery she collaborates

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with her father, who regularly exhibits his highly textured abstract paintings. In December, James Hayward will curate and contribute to a show of contemporary abstract paintings titled “Non Objective.” The second of a two-part series, the show is the counterpoint to last summer’s “Objective” show which featured more recognized figurative art. “The work in this show doesn’t represent the outside world,” says Hayward. “It’s a wonderful opportunity to get involved with the inner world of the artist.”

The show is dedicated to the late John Miller (1939-2017), a close friend of the Hayward family known for his hard-edged geometric paintings that helped shape the movement of Los Angeles minimalism. “E002” will be on display for the show, a meticulous piece with repeating angled black and white bars on an unprimed canvas.

“The deep Zen balance and simplicity of this particular piece,” says Hayward, “reflects the man who has inspired all of us involved in this show.”

The show runs from Dec. 14 through Jan. 14, and also includes paintings by thirteen abstract artists from the West

Coast with short documentaries available on each painter at the gallery’s on-site media center. A reception on Dec. 29 offers an opportunity to meet the artists in person, followed by the town’s monthly Art Walk on Jan. 4, a fun and social way to keep up with Telluride’s thriving art scene. While the show is up, James Hayward is also planning an artist talk based on material from his new book Indiscretion.

The exhibits at the gallery will run on a monthly rotation. A two-person show opening on March 1 will feature the work of the widely known artists Christian Burchard and his wood sculptures and Rebecca Crowell and her cold wax paintings.

There are more than 20 galleries in town, but Telluride Gallery of Fine Art displays its own unique, and now more contemporary, collection in a refreshed space with new art-savvy owners. Most importantly, however, the owners encourage everyone to come in and check out the upcoming shows. “Many galleries have an intimidating feel,” says Hayward.

“This gallery is just so welcoming, and our staff is so knowledgeable.” \

Ed Moses, 30e, 2017, acrylic on canvas, 60” x 48”

Non-Objective D E CE M B ER 14 - JA N U A R Y 14, 2018 1 3 0 E . CO LOR A D O AV E. T EL L U R ID E, C O W W W .T EL L U R ID EG A L L ER Y. C OM

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52 • TELLURIDE FACES

Telluride Faces h

Choose a job you love, and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.

—Confucius

I

nstitutions are more than buildings and budgets and business—they’re about the people that breathe life into them. In this issue, we celebrate three people who lead local nonprofit arts organizations—Judy Kohin at the Ah Haa School for the Arts, Colin Sullivan at Telluride Theatre, and Geoff Hanson at KOTO community radio. All three have helped their respective organizations to thrive, and they are all passionate about the work they do.

Art is for Everyone h

JUDY KOHIN

A

rt has a way of transforming a person. That idea was the basis for establishing the Ah Haa School for the Arts decades ago—to provide a space where people could express themselves, and have those “ah haa” moments of epiphany and evolution.

And when Ah Haa’s executive director Judy Kohin took her first class there the year the school opened in 1991, she had no idea exactly how transformative that experience would be.

At the time, Kohin was an accomplished mountain bike racer. She was also an artist who majored in printmaking and painting at Bates College, and was running a print shop in town to support her biking and Nordic skiing habit. When an injury sidelined her from racing, she decided to take a letterpress printing class at Ah Haa. The school had just opened, and it was focused on the book and story arts and only staffed for the summer.

Kohin asked the school’s founder Daniel Tucker what was going to happen in the fall and winter, and he shrugged. Did she want to be the director? There was no agenda and there were no financial constraints.

“I didn’t think I was qualified but I decided to help,” said Kohin. “After just a few days, I realized it was an amazing job and an opportunity to develop something from scratch.”

Kohin took the organization in a much broader and more inclusive direction. Tucker’s book and storytelling arts programs splintered off into the world-renowned Telluride Academy of Bookbinding, and the Ah Haa School blossomed. They hired local instructors, www.TellurideMagazine.com

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they held community exhibitions, they added dance, theater, music, kids programs, lectures, and even yoga classes.

They moved into the historic Silver Bell building, and the school became what Tucker had envisioned: a creative space for everyone and anyone. It became, and still is, a hub in the town for arts education and much more. “It just evolved,” says Kohin. “It really diversified, but the focus was always on education and creative expression.

We spawned a lot of ideas now being shepherded by other organizations— theatre, dance, and lectures .“ It was as educational for Kohin as it was for the hordes of students who came through the door. She learned how to manage a nonprofit institution—developing a board, fundraising, finances, programming, and marketing. “I’ve spent most of my adult life here,” said Kohin. “It’s such a huge part of who I am.”

And somehow, while administering the burgeoning institution, she still managed to keep up with her art.

Among other projects, she had started a local political cartoon, the Valley Cows, which chronicled life in the Telluride valley. The Valley Cows became an institution unto themselves, and the cartoons spanned decades, were anthologized in a book, and even became the “faces” of the town’s effort to preserve the Valley Floor. Her senior thesis in college had been about cows, but just as she did with the Ah Haa School, she grew the study into something iconic and timeless. “I did my first cartoon when the Grateful Dead came to town in 1987. Somehow those cows just spoke

PHOTO BY MATT KROLL

creates educational and creative opportunities at the Ah Haa School

“It’s fulfilled that desire for me in terms of doing work that is meaningful, fulfilling, and in an area I love— the arts.”

to me. They’re funny animals. I loved doing the cartoon and I miss it.”

In 2004 she was bitten by a tick and contracted Lyme Disease. She kept working through her suffering and was even on an IV for four months. She finally had to leave her position at Ah Haa and focus on her health, but she counts herself as one of the lucky ones because she has been able to manage her disease. She has had to scale back her skiing and biking and stress, but said she’s doing okay.

Not everyone fares so well, she said. “It’s serious. It’s chronic. And it’s invisible.”

Kohin did a stint managing the Bookbinding Academy and working on documentaries with Reel Thing Productions, and after six years she returned to manage the school. When she left, she was unable to train or help her predecessors, and she felt some emptiness because she’d left without creating a playbook, template, or guide to the organization she’d helped to create, like a mother who is unable to leave instructions for a babysitter.

When she came back, the Ah Haa School had moved to the historic Depot building, a move that left it with some debt—and the school was already outgrowing its space. Kohin jumped in, put a huge effort into fundraising, hired a great staff, and got the school back in the black. From there, the board started looking for a bigger space to accommo-

date classes and programs, and in its next iteration, the Ah Haa School will have a brand new building on the corner of Fir and Pacific Streets, across from Baked in Telluride, with 10,000 square feet of space. The school is partnering with the Town of Telluride to build the space, which will include affordable housing units and underground parking desperately needed in Telluride. Kohin has a long-term goal for the cultural institution: to make it financially sustainable, to secure the school’s permanent home in town and have a healthy organization that is supported by its programs. “The goal is to generate more revenue through programming, and we’re hoping the new building will allow that to happen.”

As the Ah Haa School has flourished and grown, so has Kohin. She never imagined herself at the helm of a nonprofit, but she says she always wanted to do something meaningful, like activism or social work. Her work at the school has allowed her to expand not just as an artist, but as a leader, and an advocate for the arts.

“It’s fulfilled that desire for me in terms of doing work that is meaningful, fulfilling, and in an area I love—the arts. Working here has been so rewarding. Seeing other people make art and what a transformative experience it is.

That’s what has kept me going all these years. It’s a gift to be able to do that.” \

Center stage at Telluride Theatre h

COLIN SULLIVAN brings theatre acumen to helm of nonprofit

By Katie Klingsporn

PHOTO BY MATT KROLL

A

s the executive director of Telluride Theatre, Colin Sullivan performs many of the tasks you would expect of the leader of a small arts nonprofit. He writes grants, fundraises, manages operations, oversees the day-to-day.

But instead of simply sitting at the helm making directives, Sullivan—a seasoned actor and educator—also participates in every aspect of the production side of the company. He stars as a riveting Peter in Peter and the Starcatcher. He directs Romeo and Juliet for Shakespeare in the Park. He sets up chairs, passes around hats, builds props. He pro-

duces musicals like Hands on a Hard Body. Writes original plays such as Alice Underground. Dances, sings, genuflects. He even strips down to a G-string during Burlesque.

And with his fellow actors, stagehands, and collaborators at the company, Sullivan pushes the limits of community theater with provocative, innovative, hilarious, and audacious stage works, creating unforgettable moments of magic on stage.

Sullivan, who has been the ED for seven years, is one of those people who moved to Telluride in their 20s for the love of it and despite being qualified enough to make it on a larger platform.

Lucky for us, this one didn’t get away.

Instead he and his wife Sasha Sullivan found a springboard with Telluride Theatre and from it, have provided a steady output of exceptional theater to this small mountain town for the better part of a decade.

Sullivan is quick to deflect credit, saying the company’s success relies both on the town’s deep resident talent and Telluride’s curious and intelligent audience. “Knowing what makes [Telluride Theatre] great is a major part of being executive director,” Sullivan said. “Supporting those people and that audience that make it great, is what I see as my major job.”

Sullivan, who has tight blond curls and signature scholarly spectacles, is gregarious and animated, with a dynamic and occasionally childlike energy that pulses from his wiry frame.

It’s easy to see why he’s an actor.

But it wasn’t always obvious to him. Sullivan grew up in the small city of Queensbury in upstate New York. He was an athlete, running cross-country and Nordic skiing. Theater never occurred to him until he was dating a girl who was trying out for the school play. He tagged along, and landed the part of the Artful Dodger in Oliver. “I never had done theater. I stepped on stage and peo-

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54 • TELLURIDE FACES came full circle for me. It confirmed everything I know about theater.”

He decided that this community on the fringe of the world, where people are into live entertainment and a theater scene was growing, was a good place for him after all.

He and Cucciniello struck up a relationship, collaborated, fell in love. Sullivan became the managing director of SquidShow. And when the Telluride Repertory Theatre approached Squids about merging the two small companies, the couple decided to accept. Telluride Theatre was born, and Sullivan and Cucciniello (who has since become Sullivan) took the helm of community theater in Telluride.

The result has been a prolific stream of thoughtful, cutting-edge, challenging and highly entertaining theater. Telluride Theatre puts on everything from its uproarious and educational Bear Aware plays to highly technical musicals like Little Shop of Horrors, and complex original works that could easily find traction in larger venues, such as Dinner with Dionysus. Its annual Burlesque fundraiser has become a not-tomiss winter staple, and it has even spawned offshoots like The DownLow, a popular live storytelling event.

Most recently, Telluride Theatre created an ensemble of actors, musicians, and designers with the aim of supporting the artists whose contributions it depends on. “As soon as you start pushing the envelope and you start putting on great things, what you have to do is sustain those things,” Sullivan said. “You can’t do that without sustaining the people who make it great.”

The Sullivans had a son a little over a year ago, and recently bought a house in Placerville. Colin acknowledges that he probably could have stayed in New York City all those years ago and made a better living. But, he said, “theater isn’t about money. Theater is about connection, and about speaking to an audience who is speaking back to you.”

Plus, he said, the amount of talent and dedication and scrappiness in Telluride’s theater scene easily matches New York.

And the town’s audience?

It’s better.

“It’s more attentive, more willing to ask questions, it’s more involved in the story,” Sullivan said. Theater, he concluded, “means more here. And that’s our job — to continue to have it mean that for people.” \

“Theater isn’t about money.

Theater is about connection, and about speaking to an audience who is speaking back to you.”

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On the Air and Behind the Scenes at KOTO h

GEOFF HANSON brings new energy to community radio

T

here are a lot of people in Telluride and beyond that love KOTO. But there is no one who loves it more passionately than Geoff Hanson, the community radio station’s director of development. He says radio is in his blood, and it’s been a part of his whole life. His father owned a commercial radio station, and he was a DJ in college at WYBC in Yale, a professional DJ later in North Carolina, and he has one of the legendary radio shows here in Telluride, “One Step Ahead of the Blues” (which is also the name of his weekly music column that runs in The Watch).

Hanson burst onto the local radio scene in a literal way, charging through the doors at KOTO in 1991 during a staff meeting between Cindy Obrand, Ben Kerr, and Joan May. He was ebullient and insistent, said he wanted to volunteer, get involved, and get on the air. He didn’t just get a show, he and his friends also started Greenbucks, a program that brought big acts like Los Lobos and Warren Zevon to town, and community members earned tickets by cleaning up

the town. “Anything we partnered with Geoff to do turned out golden for us,” says Obrand, the former station manager. “He had radio chops, and he was a super articulate kid and really enthusiastic. We were so impressed with him.”

You could argue that Hanson is passionate about everything he does, not just radio, and you wouldn’t be wrong.

He was a hockey goalie at Yale, and despite fracturing his pelvis in the net during his college years, he was back on the ice in Telluride playing for the LizardHeads. An ardent music aficionado, he was front and center at every show, dancing with abandon, his curly black mop of hair bouncing, and interviewing artists for his music column and blog. He dreamed of screenwriting, and unlike most people who have an idea for a movie, he and his brother Chris Hanson actually wrote one, found funding for it, and directed, produced, and acted in the full-length feature film Scrapple.

The movie was set in the fictional ski town of Ajax, Colorado in the 70s, and they filmed it here in Telluride, and it

PHOTO BY MATT KROLL

ple were like, wow. You’ve got a lot of energy and can do stuff,” he said.

He enjoyed it, but didn’t see his future in it. When he went off to college at St. Lawrence, he planned to study creative writing. But he met two professors there, a married couple, who became mentors. They taught him that acting is a craft, that theater is an endless world of intellectual possibilities, and nudged him in that direction. This time, he went willingly.

He ended up double majoring in creative writing and theater. He spent a tremendous amount of time in small black-box theaters playing other people. He got experimental with performance art. And he wrote hundreds of pages. The fire was lit.

Following college, he was accepted into a prestigious apprentice program at the Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, which provided an unpaid and intensive 10-month immersion into all aspects of theater, from physical acting to puppetry.

After that, at the age of 22, he did what so many budding actors do: headed to New York City. He lived in Queens and Brooklyn, worked at a bike shop and began auditioning. At one point, he scored a part in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. The cast performed it in the city once or twice, and then traveled to Poughkeepsie, N.Y., to do a run in a small Dutch church that was built around 1600. It was packed every night.

It didn’t have the status of New York City, but the intimacy and audience investment electrified Sullivan. A lightbulb went off. “I was like, this is what I want to do with theater,” he said.

Fast forward a couple of years. Sullivan completed a teaching fellowship and earned his masters in education before moving to Telluride to work at the Mountain School. He did that for awhile, worked a stint at the Ah Haa School, and was thinking about leaving town when Brian Werner and Meghann McCormick gave him a job at the Steaming Bean.

He fell in with the thespian scene, and started getting involved in local theater productions like Celebritology and live readings. He knew of Sasha Cucciniello and the edgy and fledgling SquidShow Theatre company she had started. And when he went to see the SquidShow original The Love Show at Fly Me To The Moon Saloon, he was blown away. “That brought me back to that experience in the Dutch church,” he said. “It

“The spirit of the community is intrinsically tied to KOTO.”

has become a cult classic.

The soundtrack, as you might guess, is particularly well curated. Scrapple played at film festivals all over the world including Cannes and Melbourne, Australia, and it spawned annual “Scrapple Fest” celebrations in Idaho, Crested Butte, Breckenridge and even Baton Rouge, Lousiana.

Most recently, the movie inspired the band “Al Dean and the Temple Balls.”

Scrapple took on a life of its own. “It still has a life. It’s like an organism,” says Hanson.

He also fell headlong in love, so much so that he followed his wife to Baton Rouge, where she attended vet school, and to North Carolina, where she practiced veterinary medicine.

They started a family and then were drawn back to Telluride, where they’d met, and had their fourth child. (Hanson never does anything halfway, and is extremely devoted to his family.)

When the Hansons came back to Telluride in 2013, KOTO was in transition. The station was still beloved by listeners, and has always been a community institution, but fundraising had lost its momentum. There was a new generation of people in town, people who listen to Pandora and satellite stations, who had not fully tuned in to the treasured free-form station. They needed someone to help fundraising, and Hanson stepped up. He galvanized the fundraising efforts and they invited him on staff. He started new events: a Soul Train Disco Party, a Grateful Dead cover band at the annual Street Dance, and he even initiated an autumn Street Dance with the popular local band Niceness. He started an online calendar of events. He re-engaged the community.

“Anything new that you can bring to an institution, anything fresh, is a big deal.

If you ain’t trying, you’re dying. They seem like small things, but they’re big things. You’ve got to inject new ideas,” says Hanson.

Having the support of its listeners is what keeps the station alive. KOTO is one of only a few noncommercial, non-underwritten community stations in the country. “That’s a big deal because it makes us so unique, and it’s why it’s so special. We run almost entirely on the support of the local community. The community is the engine that drives the station as opposed to commercial radio stations, where commercials are the engine. The spirit of the community is intrinsically tied to KOTO.” The peak of Hanson’s success with the station has been Jim Looney Day. He invited the extraordinarily popular postman in Telluride to be the guest DJ during fundraising. Typically, several different local people take the

guest spots during the day and solicit money from their friends and acquaintances. But instead, Looney took the helm all day, and if he raised enough money, the station would send him to Ireland on vacation. It was unbelievably successful, and the station raised $40,000 in a single day, an all-time record. “Jim Looney Day was the single biggest fundraising day in KOTO history, and it wasn’t just the money that made it so successful. It brought the community together in an amazing way.”

Looney did get to go to Ireland this fall, with his family, no less. But it isn’t just the fundraising efforts that get Hanson jazzed about the station, it’s the nature of the actual programming they broadcast. He has a lot of experience with all forms of radio, and he says that the free-form aspect is what makes KOTO such a treasure. There are precious few radio stations that are truly free-form, that let DJs play whatever they want. It becomes what the very best media strive to be, a true reflection of a community, an amalgam of its citizenry and an exquisite representation of the people, time, and place.

Not everyone likes everything they hear, he says, but the music is eclectic, and everyone has their favorite DJ. “There’s so much variety. But when KOTO cooks and the DJ is on fire, it cooks as hard as any radio station in the country. I believe that. When it’s on, boy, is it on.”

The foundational strength of KOTO is what has kept it relevant. The opportunity for amateur DJs and would-be talk radio hosts to get some air time and hone their talents. The station’s ability to connect a community with local news, lost-and-found notices, and ride-share and event announcements.

But Hanson delivered a new generation of listeners and devotees. “I’ve always felt KOTO was the most righteous institution in Telluride. I love the station so much that I try to bring that passion to it, and If you burn for your organization, you can light a fire under it.”

He doesn’t have any expectations for the future. But he does say that KOTO is an institution that means more than anything he brings to the table, or any single era of its existence.

The town may change, the people and the politics and the demographics may tilt in ways we can’t imagine, but the station will continue to be its pulse.

“We’re terra firma for Telluride—irreverent, homegrown, rootsy; a link to 1975, the year the station was founded.

We keep Telluride real, and maintain a voice for the people here. Our supporters get it and understand what we represent. We’re a microphone into the soul of Telluride.” \

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56 • HISTORY

…People couldn’t quite get it through their head that a woman would doctor.

(Ed Ress, Conversations at 9,000 Feet)

Telluride’s Lady Doc The town’s most prominent physician at the turn of the last century was a woman

By Paul O’Rourke

A

nna Frances S. Lee stepped onto the Rio Grande Southern depot platform. A bustling throng of passengers—recently arrived European immigrants if the style of dress and the symphony of dialects filling the air was any clue—muscled their way off the afternoon train, unmindful of the tall, well dressed woman in their midst. As Dr. Anna Lee moved guardedly through the crowd she examined the curious faces as she passed, perhaps intuiting she might be seeing some of these fellow travelers again, as patients.

The year was 1894. Telluride was humming.

Hammers hammered and saws sawed; everyone was hell bent to get the town built up in a rush, it seemed to Dr. Lee. Telluride was so much different from Albion, New York, her hometown, and a far cry from Chicago, where she had recently graduated from the Hahnemann Medical College.

“Telluride’s no place for a 26-year-old woman,” many of her friends and family must have cautioned, “especially no place for a woman on her own, even if she is a doctor.” From all she’d heard about Telluride—its booming mining camp reputation, the gunplay, more saloons

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than churches, as many women prostitutes as, well, “proper” women—she was convinced it was not only a suitable place for a woman, but just the place for a woman doctor. After all, she’d heard about Jean MacKay, a woman, and a woman doctor in Telluride no less.

What immediately caught Anna Lee’s attention after she arrived in Telluride was that the population seemed to grow overnight, and that with just four doctors in town there were simply too many patients and not enough time to treat them all. Days and nights were occupied with births, bumps and bruises, injuries of a

more serious nature, and a good deal of death and dying. But what also caught Anna’s eye had nothing whatsoever to do with medicine.

Ira E. Brown held the fairly prestigious position of Cashier at the First National Bank, one of Telluride’s two financial institutions at the time.

And while it’s unclear whether their attraction for one another constituted anything like “love at first sight” their engagement was rather short-lived.

Brown and Anna Lee were married on February 12, 1895, in Gunnison, Ira’s hometown. No sooner had they returned from their honeymoon “tour” than the newlyweds set up residence and Dr.

Brown’s practice at 127 North Oak Street in early October. Dr. Anna F. S. Brown—as she was known both professionally and privately—went to work.

Dr. Harry C. Hall sponsored the construction of the two-story, 30-bed hospital located at the top of Fir Street. Its much-anticipated opening in late spring of 1896 coincided with minor outbreaks of scarlet and typhoid fever, providing the good doctors in town with additional demands above and beyond their normal duties. Dr. Brown’s practice in that year, mixed as it often was with equal doses of sadness and joy, was perhaps best characterized by the grueling long hours. The grief in losing her patient, Mrs. J. Dunlap, to peritonitis (infection of the abdominal wall) was compounded when 5-year-old Bessie Moore succumbed after six agonizing weeks to complications stemming from a bout of whooping cough. Back-to-back deliveries on the same night (to two families) of bouncing baby boys were recorded with no little rejoicing in the local newspaper.

In late April 1897 the Daily Journal announced that Mrs. J.W. O’Bryan, “who has been seriously ill for several weeks is again able to take short walks on the streets every day. Her recovery is entirely due to the skill and attention of Dr. Anna F. S. Brown.” Several weeks later the Journal reported on Mrs. T.L. Sloan, “who has been so seriously ill for the past few days that her recovery was considered very doubtful, is now improving under the skillful treatment and care of Dr. Anna F.S. Brown.”

The flu—or “la grippe” as it was commonly called—was an ongoing medical issue in Telluride, especially from late fall to spring time. In October 1897, Dr. Brown was quoted in the Daily Journal as stating, “There are more cases of la grippe in Telluride now than ever before known at this season of the year.” Her over-attention to treating the outbreak may have contributed to her own illness later in the month. That or the strain of her around-the-clock practice may have precipitated a re-thinking of her wish to remain in Telluride.

In early February 1898 a notice in the Daily Journal warned, “I expect to leave Telluride early next week.

All persons indebted to me will please call at my office and settle immediately.” From the Daily Journal a week later: “Dr. Ida Putnam, of Chicago, who succeeds to the practice of Dr. Anna F. S. Brown was an arrival on Wednesday evening’s train.” What occurred in the space of 24 hours is anyone’s guess, but one day after arriving, Dr. Putnam left town unexpectedly with the announcement she would not return. The Daily Journal happily reporting, “This will necessitate Dr. Brown’s remaining here, for the present at least, greatly to the gratification of her many friends.” The following day, Dr. Anna F. S. Brown delivered a son into the home of Grant Snider.

The doctor, according to the newspaper, “reports all parties to the interesting event doing nicely.”

With what could only be seen as an abrupt change of heart, Dr. Brown took on an associate, Dr. O.L. Marion Wall, and relocated her business and her residence in town.

On November 1, 1898 the Browns sold their home on North Oak and moved to 425 Columbia Avenue, one door east of the new, brick, three-story schoolhouse. Anna’s sister, Isabelle Lee, arrived just after the New Year, for what would be, according the newspaper, a “lengthy visit.” And while the business of delivering babies and returning health to the sickly continued apace, it seems the arrival of her sister may have been just what the doctor ordered. Life, both professional and personal, seemed to blossom as the new century turned.

Dr. Anna F. S. Brown was appointed Telluride’s and San Miguel County’s Health Officer in 1900, administrative positions that perhaps added some weight to her already excellent professional reputation in town. With a population expanding to 4,000 and a directory of at least eight physicians it’s certain these new responsibilities also added hours to her already busy schedule.

Nonetheless, the patient calendar didn’t appear to prevent the Browns from enjoying social life in Telluride. Ira’s position at the First National Bank afforded them contact with the town’s preeminent if not somewhat self-contained business and professional communities. On the evening of August 28, 1900 at what the Daily Journal referred to as “her handsome home on Columbia Avenue,” Doctor Brown entertained close to two hundred people. “An orchestra discoursed sweet music to the constant stream of coming and departing guests, the whole combining to constitute the reception one of the social events of the season.”

The Browns moved again during the summer

of 1901, purchasing the property located one door west of the San Miguel Courthouse. Like their other homes, the new house was to serve also as Dr. Brown’s place of business. And like any new home it was symbolic of a new and hopeful chapter in their lives. The summer of 1901 was also the beginning of a new chapter for Telluride, one, however, more dire than promising.

On July 3, just as the town prepared to celebrate Independence Day, a gun battle between striking miners and their non-union replacements at the Bullion Tunnel left three dead and several wounded. From that day until a good many years later, Telluride was a tale of two cities, one prounion and the other pro-management. Adding to the already divisive climate in town a fire at the Bullion Tunnel in November killed 28 union miners. A series of deadly snow slides in February 1902 took out the bunkhouse at the Liberty Bell mine and killed 18. The tragedies were, depending on who one listened to, the fault of the “other side.”

The doctors in Telluride, including its Health Officer, were called on to treat gunshot wounds, smoke inhalation, avalanche-related injuries, and to deal with death and the heartbreak of grieving families, not to mention go about their normal rounds. In her monthly report to the city council in November 1903 Dr. Brown advised that during October fifteen deaths had occurred in Telluride, five of which were “violent,” along with eight births. For Anna Brown, it must have felt like Telluride was losing ground.

In early March 1904, the Daily Journal announced that Dr. Brown, “whose professional duties have recently been very strenuous and exacting has found it necessary to take a vacation to escape a possible break down.” The San Miguel Examiner elaborated: Dr. Brown “expects to be away probably six months.”

Never doubting his wife would return home, Ira remained in Telluride during Anna’s absence.

Telluride—and Dr. Brown—had recovered only some of their vigor by the time Anna returned home in early 1905. In May, the doctor supervised extensive improvements to her home and office. And she dove back into her practice and her administrative responsibilities as city

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58 • HISTORY and county health officer with renewed hope she’d be up to the task. But winter approached and signs reading QUARANTINE KEEP OUT were posted on an increasing number of front and back doors in town. An epidemic of both scarlet fever and diphtheria had descended upon Telluride and its children, some critically ill with both diseases. Dr. Brown and her colleagues were, according to Alma Mary Midwinter Clifton, “on duty day and night for many weeks.”

Dr. Anna Brown understood her limits; she could only do so much. Her travels away from Telluride became more frequent and more extended. Drs. Hadley and Wrightsman were

in New York with relatives and, according to the Daily Journal, “taking a post-graduate course,” enough was, the good doctor figured, enough. Dr. Anna F. S. Brown returned to Telluride in late December 1913 and with niece, Leona Holmes, took an apartment and offices in, of all places, the First National Bank Building, where Ira had spent so many years of his professional career.

Following her return, Dr. Brown made every effort to restart her medical practice and at the same time, Anna Brown tried her best to resume her life. She stepped back into her familiar roles as city and county health officer in 1915 and she jumped back into Telluride social life when,

…It was a woman doctor who delivered me. Her name was Brown, Dr. Brown. And her first name was Frances. That’s where I got the Frances.

(Frances Coleman Jens, Conversations at 9,000 Feet) asked on numerous occasions to fill in for her as health officer. Her sister, Carra Holmes, and her daughters, Marjorie and Leona, were regular visitors to Telluride following the death of Carra’s husband in 1909, and became permanent residents until Carra remarried in June 1912. If her extended family helped fill a void in Anna’s life without children, Dr. Anna F.S. Brown had never imagined a life without her husband.

Ira Brown, like many in Telluride, was lured to mining, like a moth to the flame. When the lease on the Nellie Mine up Bear Creek became available, he and George Hall took a fateful leap of faith. The Nellie had a decent reputation; one, however, long on potential and a little short on actual ore production. But the mine had produced in the past and with a little development work it might just produce again. And that was just what Ira Brown was attending to on the morning of February 29, 1912 when he fell 50 feet, apparently losing consciousness after being overcome by noxious fumes inside the mine. He died instantly.

Most assumed Anna Brown would leave Telluride following the passing of her beloved husband.

And after selling the Nellie lease to Gio Oberto in September and the house on Colorado Avenue to George Painter in October, she did. But after a year

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as reported by the Daily Journal, she “very delightfully entertained nearly a dozen of her friends at a splendidly appointed dinner party (on November 23) at the New Sheridan.”

Dr. Brown dreaded the coming of winter each year. Not so much because of the cold and the snow. She’d grown accustomed to that. What she knew—from painful experience—was that winter was the season of disease. The scarlet fever, diph-

theria, and the whooping cough in previous years had been bad, deadly, but manageable. Small pox in 1911 had been frightening in its extent and severity. But in the fall of 1918 she feared something worse, if that was possible. The newspapers reported Spanish influenza outbreaks all over the world. A military encampment in nearby Kansas had been completely overrun by the virus in March. As Dr. Brown looked out her office window and down on Colorado Avenue, as school children and shoppers made their way up and down Main Street on a warm early October afternoon, she knew it was only a matter of time.

When it hit, it hit quick and it hit hard. In Telluride hundreds succumbed to the disease from October through the end of the year. Dr. Brown— along with Drs. Klotz, Tidd, and Egeness—were overwhelmed. Neither enough nurses nor beds existed for all of the patients. The Roma Hotel was converted into a 60-bed hospital for stricken miners and mill workers. Everyone who had avoided the contagion pitched in to help, including businessman, E.L. Davis, who opened his home on North Oak Street to treat the sick.

The lull in new cases in early December was short-lived. A more virulent version of the same deadly virus hit again, in early January 1919.

Fifty cases were reported in both Norwood and Telluride, an equal number from Placerville to Vanadium. As Health Officer, Dr. Brown initiated a ban on dance and card parties and all public entertainments. Public funerals were prohibited. Though the school remained open, Superintendent Baker kept a close eye for any signs of sickness. Any symptoms resulted in immediate dismissal and quarantine. While tragic in that 16 deaths occurred during the first week of the limited ban on public activity, Dr. Brown was encouraged. The apex of the epidemic appeared to have been reached. By the end of February—after two weeks of no new cases—Dr. Anna Brown relaxed.

Telluride had been restored to good health. It was now time to tend to her personal wellbeing.

Dr. Brown relinquished her position as Telluride’s health officer to Dr. Klotz in 1919, and if the Daily Journal can be believed as an accurate chronicler of her activities thereafter, Anna Brown passed the next several years in the company of friends and playing a good deal of bridge.

At which, according to newspaper reports, she was quite good. Anna’s niece, Marjorie, then living in Denver, visited her aunt in late January 1923. It was perhaps during that stay when Dr. Anna F. S. Brown decided to retire from Telluride.

Anna Brown stood on the depot platform and gazed up at the San Sofia ridgeline, the sky as blue as blue could get on a mid-April morning. Hard to believe, she must have thought, it had been 29 years earlier when she’d first set foot in this beautiful, sometimes frighteningly sad, but always wonder-filled place called Telluride. There’d been so many difficult times, but she wouldn’t change her experiences for the world. As the north bound train prepared to depart she straightened her shoulders and turned to go, one last time, leaving as quietly as she’d arrived, and comforted in the knowledge she had made a real and lasting difference in the lives of a great many people. Dr. Anna Frances S. Brown could feel good about that. \

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60 • FICTION

THE LONG HAUL: A TRUCKER’S TALES OF LIFE ON THE ROAD

BY FINN MURPHY oveland Pass, Colorado, on US Route 6 summits at 11,991 feet. That’s where I’m headed, having decided to skip the congestion at the Eisenhower Tunnel. Going up a steep grade is never as bad as going down, though negotiating thirty-five tons of tractor-trailer around the hairpin turns is a bit of a challenge. I have to use both lanes to keep my 53-foot trailer clear of the ditches on the right side and hope nobody coming down is sending a text or sightseeing.

L At the top of the pass, high up in my Freightliner Columbia tractor pulling a spanking-new, fully loaded custom moving van, I reckon I can say I’m at an even 12,000 feet. When I look down, the world disappears into a miasma of fog and wind and snow, even though it’s July. The road signs are clear enough, though— the first one says runaway truck ramp 1.5 miles. Next one: speed limit 35 mph for vehicles with gross weight over 26,000 lbs.

Next one: are your brakes cool and adjusted? Next one: all commercial vehicles are required to carry chains September 1—May 31. I run through the checklist in my mind. Let’s see: 1.5 miles to the runaway ramp is too far to do me any good if the worst happens, and 35 miles per hour sounds really fast.

My brakes are cool, but adjusted? I hope so, but no mechanic signs off on brake adjustments in these litigious days. Chains? I have chains in my equipment compartment, required or not, but they won’t save my life sitting where they are. Besides, I figure the bad weather will last for only the first thousand feet. The practical aspects of putting on chains in www.TellurideMagazine.com

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a snowstorm, with no pullover spot, in pitch dark, at 12,000 feet, in a gale, and wearing only a T-shirt, is a prospect Dante never considered in enumerating his circles of hell. The other option is to keep rolling—maybe I’ll be crushed by my truck at the bottom of a scree field, maybe I won’t. I roll.

I can feel the sweat running down my arms, can feel my hands shaking, can taste the bile rising in my throat from the greasy burger I ate at the Idaho Springs Carl’s Jr. (It was the only place with truck parking.) I’ve got 8.6 miles of 6.7 percent downhill grade ahead of me that has taken more trucks and lives than I care to think about. The road surface is a mix of rain, slush, and (probably) ice. I’m one blown air hose away from oblivion, but I’m not ready to peg out in a ball of flame or take out a family in a four- wheeler coming to the Rocky Mountains to see the sights.

I downshift my thirteen-speed transmission to fifth gear, slow to 23 mph, and set my Jake brake to all eight cylinders. A Jake brake is an air-compression inhibitor that turns my engine into the

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primary braking system. It sounds like a machine gun beneath my feet as it works to keep 70,000 pounds of steel and rubber under control. I watch the tachometer, which tells me my engine speed, and when it redlines at 2,200 rpm I’m at 28 mph. I brush the brakes to bring her back down to 23. If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen now. My tender touch might cause the heavy trailer to slide away and I’ll be able to read the logo in reverse legend from my mirrors. It’s called a jackknife.

Once it starts, you can’t stop it. In a jackknife the trailer comes all the way around, takes both lanes, and crushes against the cab until the whole thing comes to a crashing stop at the bottom of the abyss or against the granite side of the Rockies.

It doesn’t happen, this time, but the weather’s getting worse. I hit 28 again, caress the brake back down to 23, and start the sequence again. Fondle the brake, watch the mirrors, feel the machine, check the tach, listen to the Jake, and watch the air pressure. The air gauge read 120 psi at the summit; now it reads 80. At 60 an alarm will go off, and at 40 the brakes will automatically lock or just give up. Never mind that now, just don’t go past 28 and keep coaxing her back down to 23. I’ll do this twenty or thirty times over the next half an hour, never knowing if the trailer will hit a bit of ice, the air compressor will give up, the Jake will disengage, or someone will slam on the brakes in front of me. My CB radio is on (I usually turn it off on mountain passes), and I can hear the commentary from the big-truck drivers behind me.

“Yo, Joyce Van Lines, first time in the mountains? Get the fuck off the road! I can’t make any money at fifteen miles an hour!”

“Yo, Joyce, you from Connecticut? Is that in the Yewnited States? Pull into the fuckin’ runaway ramp, asshole, and let some men drive.”

“Yo, Joyce, I can smell the mess in your pants from inside my cab.”

I’ve heard this patter many times on big-mountain roads. I’m not entirely impervious to the contempt of the freighthauling cowboys.

Toward the bottom, on the straightaway, they all pass me. There’s a Groendyke pulling gasoline, a tandem FedEx Ground, and a single Walmart. They’re all doing about 50 and sound their air horns as they pass, no doubt flipping me the bird. I’m guessing at that because I’m looking at the road. I’ll see them all later, when they’ll be completely blind to the irony that we’re all here at

the same time drinking the same coffee. Somehow, I’ve cost them time and money going down the hill.

It’s a macho thing. Drive the hills as fast as you can and be damn sure to humiliate any sonofabitch who’s got brains enough to respect the mountains.

My destination is the ultrarich haven called Aspen, Colorado. This makes perfect sense because I’m a long-haul mover at the pinnacle of the game, a specialist. I can make $250,000 a year doing what is called high-end executive relocation. No U-Hauls for me, thank you very much.

I’ll take the movie stars, the ambassadors, the corporate bigwigs. At the office in Connecticut they call me the Great White Mover. This Aspen load, insured for $3 million, belongs to a former investment banker from a former investment bank who apparently escaped the toppled citadel with his personal loot intact. My cargo consists of a dozen or so crated modern art canvases, eight 600-pound granite gravestones of Qing Dynasty emperors, half a dozen king-size pillow-top beds I’ll never figure out how to assemble, and an assortment of Edwardian antiques. The man I’m moving, known in the trade as the shipper, has purchased a $25 million starter castle in a hypersecure Aspen subdivision. He figures, no doubt accurately, he’ll be safe behind the security booth from the impecunious widows and mendacious foreign creditors he ripped off, but I digress.

I’m looking downhill for brake lights. I can probably slow down, but there’s no chance of coming to a quick stop. If I slam on the brakes I’ll either crash through the vehicle in front of me or go over the side. I want to smoke a cigarette, but I’m so wound up I could never light it, so I bite off what’s left of my fingernails. I’m fifty-eight years old, and I’ve been doing this off and on since the late 1970s. I’ve seen too many trucks mashed on the side of the road, too many accidents, and too many spaced-out drivers. On Interstate 80 in Wyoming I watched a truck in front of me get blown over onto its side in a windstorm. He must have been empty. On I-10 in Arizona I saw a state trooper open the driver door of a car and witnessed a river of blood pour out onto the road.

The blood soaking into the pavement could be mine at any moment. All it takes is an instant of bad luck, inattention, a poor decision, equipment failure—or, most likely, someone else’s mistake.

If any of those things happen, I’m a dead man.

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62 • FICTION

THOSE LOUD BUT LOWLY FREIGHTHAULERS

up on Loveland Pass would have mocked any big-truck driver going downhill as slowly as I was, but I’ve no doubt they were particularly offended because I was driving a moving van.

To the casual observer all trucks probably look similar, and I suppose people figure all truckers do pretty much the same job. Neither is true. There’s a strict hierarchy of drivers, depending on what they haul and how they’re paid. The most common are the freighthaulers. They’re the guys who pull box trailers with any kind of commodity inside. We movers are called bedbuggers, and our trucks are called roach coaches. Other specialties are the car haulers (parking lot attendants), flatbedders (skateboarders), animal transporters (chicken chokers), refrigerated food haulers (reefers), chemical haulers (thermos bottle holders), and hazmat haulers (suicide jockeys). Bedbuggers are shunned by other truckers. We will generally not be included in conversations around the truckstop coffee counter or in the driver’s lounge. In fact, I pointedly avoid coffee counters, when there is one, mainly because I don’t have time to waste, but also because I don’t buy into the trucker myth that most drivers espouse. I don’t wear a cowboy hat, Tony Lama snakeskin boots, or a belt buckle doing free advertising for Peterbilt or Harley-Davidson. My driving uniform is a three-button company polo shirt, lightweight black cotton pants, black sneakers, black socks, and a cloth belt. My moving uniform is a black cotton jumpsuit.

I’m not from the South and don’t talk as if I were. Most telling, and the www.TellurideMagazine.com

other guys can sense this somehow, I do not for a moment think I’m a symbol of some bygone ideal of Wild West American freedom or any other half-mythic, half-menacing nugget of folk nonsense.

Putting myth and hierarchy aside, I will admit to being immensely proud of my truck-driving skills, the real freedom I do have, and the certain knowledge that I make more money in a month than many of the guys around the coffee counter make in a year. The freighthaulers all know this, of course, and that’s one reason bedbuggers aren’t part of the brotherhood.

in the eighteenth century. Long-haul movers don’t live in the rarified world of broad interstate highways with sixty-acre terminals purpose-built for large vehicles. We’ve got to know how to back up just as well blind-side as driver-side; we’ve got to know to the millimeter how close we can U-turn the rig; and we’ve really got to know that when we go in somewhere we can get out again. A mundane morning’s backup into a residence for a mover will often require more skill, finesse, and balls than most freighthaulers might call upon in a year.

It even trickles down to waitresses and cashiers. A mover waits longer for coffee, longer in the service bays, longer for showers, longer at the fuel desk, longer everywhere in the world of trucks than the freighthauler. It’s because we’re unknown. We don’t have standard routes, so we can’t be relied on for the pie slice and the big tip every Tuesday at ten thirty. We’re OK with being outside the fellowship because we know we’re at the apex of the pyramid. In or out of the trucking world, there are very few people who have what it takes to be a long-haul mover.

A typical day may have me in a leafy suburban cul-de-sac where landscapers have trouble operating a riding lawn mower, much less a 70-foot tractor-trailer. Another day may put me in the West Village of Manhattan navigating one-way streets laid out

Since I now work for a boutique van line doing high-end executive moves, all of my work is what we call pack and load. That means I’m responsible for the job from beginning to end. My crew and I will pack every carton and load every piece.

On a full-service pack and load, the shipper will do nothing. I had one last summer that was more or less typical: The shipper was a mining executive moving from Connecticut to Vancouver. I showed up in the morning with my crew of five veteran movers; the shipper said hello, finished his coffee, loaded his family into a limousine, and left for the airport. My crew then washed the breakfast dishes and spent the next seventeen hours packing everything in the house into cartons and loading the truck. At destination, another crew unpacked

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all the cartons and placed everything where the shipper wanted it, including dishes and stemware back into the breakfront. We even made the beds.

We’re paid to do all this, of course, and this guy’s move cost his company $60,000. That move filled up my entire trailer and included his car. It was all I could do to fit the whole load on without leaving anything behind, but I managed it. I do remember having to put a stack of pads and a couple of dollies in my sleeper, though.

How well a truck is loaded is the acid test of a mover. I can look at any driver’s load and tell at a glance if he’s any good at all.

Drivers are always comparing themselves to other drivers and always learning new tricks from each other. Often when sitting around over coffee or beers, preferably not at a truckstop, we’ll talk loading technique into the wee hours.

The basic unit of loading a moving van is called a tier. A tier is a wall of household goods assembled inside the van. My 53-foot moving van contains 4,200 cubic feet of space. Household goods average 7 pounds a cubic foot, so my truck can hold over 30,000 pounds. A standard tier is about 2 feet deep and goes across the truck 9 feet and up to the ceiling 10 ten feet, so a tier takes up 160 cubic feet. In a fully loaded van there will be twenty-five tiers each weighing 1,100 pounds, more or less.

When I arrive at a residence to begin a move, assuming I’ve gotten into the driveway and close to the house, the first thing I’ll do is prep the residence. My crew and I will lay pads and then Masonite on any wood floors, carpets will be covered with a sticky durable film that gets rolled out, and we’ll lay out neoprene

64 • FICTION

runners throughout the house. Banisters and doorways will be padded with special gripping pads. Anything in the house that might get rubbed, scratched, banged, dented, or soiled is covered. Next, we’ll go around with the shipper to see exactly what is going and what is staying. Then we’ll pack everything in the house into cartons. I don’t love packing; it’s inside work and mostly tedious.

I do enjoy packing stemware, china, sculpture, and fine art, but that stuff is getting rarer in American households. Books are completely disappearing. (Remember in Fahrenheit 451 where the fireman’s wife was addicted to interactive television and they sent fireman crews out to burn books? That mission has been largely accomplished in middle-class America, and they didn’t need the firemen. The interactive electronics took care of it without the violence.)

After packing, which usually takes at least a full day on a full load, I’ll write up an inventory where I put numbered stickers on everything that’s moving and jot a short description on printed sheets. The numbers all get checked off at destination so we know everything we loaded has been delivered. The inventory includes not only a description of the item but also its condition and any www.TellurideMagazine.com

It’s called a jackknife. Once it starts, you can’t stop it. In a jackknife the trailer comes all the way around, takes both lanes, and crushes against the cab until the whole thing comes to a crashing stop at the bottom of the abyss or against the granite side of the Rockies. marks or damage. It’s essential for me to catalog the origin condition of an item in the event a shipper files a damage claim. A lot of criticism about movers has to do with how claims are handled. Moving companies require considerable documentation before paying a claim. Do you know why? It’s because so many people file bogus claims. Lots of folks want to get the moving company to pay for a refinishing job on Aunt Tillie’s antique vanity.

Guess what? The moving company doesn’t pay these types of claims, nor does some nameless insurance company. The driver pays them. Me, personally, out of pocket. My deductible is $1,600 per move. That’s one reason why I’m going to be careful with your stuff, and it’s also why I’m going to write up an accurate inventory.

After prep and packing, the crew will break down beds, unbolt legs

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from tabletops, and basically take anything apart that comes apart.

Next we’ll bring in stacks of moving pads and large rubber bands, and cover all the furniture. Padding furniture with rubber bands is a working-class art form. The bands are made by cutting up truck tire tubes into circles. Down south I’ll often see an old black man sitting on a bench at a truckstop cutting up tubes with his knife and putting them into piles.

Fifty bands go for five dollars.

Upholstered pieces like sofas will be padded and then shrink-wrapped.

Nothing on any of my jobs will ever leave the residence unpadded. The whole point is to minimize the potential for damage, thereby minimizing the potential for a claim. Movers don’t like claims. We don’t like to get them, we don’t like to deal with them, and we certainly don’t like to pay them.

After all this preparation, I’ll have a very clear idea how I’m going to load my truck. Smart drivers will always load problem pieces, called chowder, first. Chowder slows you down, takes up too much room, and is usually lightweight for the amount of space it takes up. Chowder also has a greater potential to damage goods loaded around it. Obviously I wouldn’t load a leather sofa next to a barbecue grill. All drivers hate chowder, but it’s a fact of life, and how you handle it is one of the things that separate good drivers from bad. The general loading rule is chowder first, cartons last.

Now I’m ready to start loading. I’ll start my tier with base pieces like a dresser and file cabinets. On top of the base I’ll load nightstands, small desks, and maybe an air conditioner.

Now the tier is about eye level, with two rows of furniture going all the way across. The next level I’ll load end tables, small bookcases, and maybe a few cartons to keep it all tight. The next level I’ll lay some dining room chairs on their backs, starting with the armchairs and then interlocking the other chairs. Any open space in the tier gets filled with chowder like wastebaskets and small, light cartons.

Now the tier is about eight feet high, and I’ll be up on a ladder. The next level will be light, bulky things such as

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66 • FICTION laundry hampers, cushions, and plant racks. At this point there will be a few inches open to the roof, and I’ll finish the tier with maybe an ironing board and any other flat and light stuff I can find, like bed rails. When I’m finished I should have a uniform and neat tier from floor to ceiling with no gaps or open spaces anywhere.

A well-built tier is a beautiful thing to see and lots of fun to make. It’s basically a real-life, giant Tetris game with profound physical exertion incorporated into the mix. When I’m loading I go into a sort of trance because I’m totally focused on visualizing everything in the house and mentally building tiers. This is one of the sweet spots where—as anyone who has done repetitive manual labor understands—the single-minded focus, concentration, and hard physical work combine to form a sort of temporary nirvana. Helpers who regularly work with the same driver will anticipate what piece the driver wants next before he even asks for it, and furniture will disappear into a tier the instant it’s brought out. This makes loading go very quickly, and it resembles nothing so much as an elegant, intimate dance between crew and driver. Because I have a picture of everything in the house in my head, I’ll often leave the truck to fetch a particular piece for a particular spot.

It’s hard work. On a standard loading day I’ll spend ten to fourteen hours either carrying something heavy, running laps up and down stairs to grab items, carrying furniture and cartons between the house and the trailer, and hopping up and down a double-sided stepladder building my tiers.

In addition to the mental and physical strain of packing, loading, and keeping my crew motivated, there is also the presence of the shipper.

Shippers are frequently not at their best on moving day. They are, after all, leaving their home and consigning all their possessions over to strangers.

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Shippers can be testy, upset, suspicious, downright hostile, and occasionally pleasant and relaxed. It’s the driver’s job, in addition to loading and carrying, to make sure everything and everybody runs smoothly.

To put it all in a nutshell, the long-haul driver is responsible for legal documents, inventory, packing cartons, loading, claim prevention, unpacking, unloading, diplomacy, human resources, and customer service. The job requires an enormous amount of physical stamina, specialized knowledge, and tact. I am, as John McPhee called it, the undisputed admiral of my fleet of one.

My share of that Vancouver job came to around $30,000 for ten days’ work. I had to pay the labor, of course, and my fuel and food. Still, I netted more than $20,000. A first-year freighthauler for an outfit like Swift or Werner won’t make that in a year.

I guess that’s worth being insulted in the mountains by my brethren.

THE LONG-HAUL DRIVER PORTRAYED ABOVE

is the kind of guy you want moving you.

That’s me, nowadays. There are lots of guys like me out there and lots of a different kind. I’ve been both. My own baptism into life as a driver for a major van line was not smooth. I was nervous and cocky when I first got on the road.

Those might appear to be contradictory characteristics, but they are not for a twenty-one-year-old white American male from the suburbs who’s operating way out of his element. Before I was taken on at North American Van Lines, I’d worked several summers as a local mover. I was known as a hard worker, which made me cocky, but was out on the road all alone, which made me nervous. I was consumed with getting the day’s work done, getting the next load, and making the monthly revenue goals I’d set for myself. I was careless loading

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and unloading and extremely touchy with both shippers and helpers. I was in over my head. At the ripe old age of twenty- one I shouldn’t have been doing that job, given my emotional maturity.

The fact that I was there says a lot about the moving business. The industry will pretty much take anyone willing to do the work. I was willing enough, but lacking the other qualities that make for a good mover or a good truck driver.

Almost forty years later, I am a calm, meticulous, and imperturbable driver. I am highly sought after and exorbitantly paid. That didn’t happen overnight.

You’re about to go out on the road with me, a long-haul mover. It’s a road uncongested by myth. You’ll see the work, meet the families I move, and visit with the people who populate this subculture. You’ll smell the sweat, drink in the crummy bars, eat the disgusting food, manage an unruly labor pool, and meet some strange people.

But I hope you’ll also experience the exhilaration and the attraction of the life . . . out there.

You’ll also see what really happens behind the scenes when a family calls in the van line to pursue that all-powerful American imperative: The Next Big Thing. More than forty million Americans move every year.

Careful people, who lock their doors, carry umbrellas, and install alarm systems, casually and routinely consign everything they own over to “the movers” without a second thought.

I find that a bit odd, don’t you?

Come on, let’s take a little ride. \ Excerpted from The Long Haul: A Trucker’s Tales of Life on the Road by Finn Murphy. © 2017 by Finn Murphy. Used with permission of the publisher, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

I’m No Longer Pretty I’m no longer pretty, no longer June-y, moon-y, swoon-y, and even if I ever were, I wouldn’t want it back.

No longer dewy, willowy, lissome, precious, or newly-budded, if I ever were.

But I am loved and cherished and desired and held as if I were some kind of vaunted prize, which I’m not.

But I weep at the dance of alpenglow across the snowy brow of the ridge And I marvel at the deep belly print of a deer in the drifts, And wonder where the bobcat slinked outside my door when he thought no human saw him.

And coyotes clamoring in a caravan down by the river give me pause. Deaf as I am I hear them just fine and imagine them laughing and shaking their cinnamon hides at the idea of pretty.

Whatever that is.

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67

68 • TELLURIDE TURNS Headlines & Highlights from the Local News

TAB turns 25

Dreaming of an AIDS-free future

By Regan Tuttle

H

as it really been that long since the first Telluride Aids Benefit debuted? Does anyone recall the dance-a-thon in 1994 on Telluride’s main street, or the trash bag fashion show that followed? Could anyone have imagined that the seeds planted back then would blossom into one of Telluride’s premier philanthropic and social events?

In 2018, the Telluride AIDS Benefit (or TAB, as it’s known locally) turns 25.

Over the years, the small-town fundraiser has evolved from its humble beginnings. In the last few decades, it’s included appearances from celebrities Kristie Brinkley, Kate Spade, Bobbi Brown, Sunny Griffin, Jewel, and others. It’s grown up to be one of the town’s most celebrated events, and it now includes an entire week full of various artistic and educational offerings.

Still, to this day, TAB producers say the event holds true to its mission: to fight HIV/AIDS by raising awareness and generating financial support for prevention and care.

Is the topic still important after all these years? Oh yes, say TAB officials, and they have the statistics to prove it. Currently, one in five people with AIDS are unaware of their status. In Colorado, 32 percent of new HIV diagnoses are young people between the ages of 20 and 29. And there are 39 million people worldwide living with the disease.

TAB’s 25th anniversary theme is “Dream a Future without AIDS,” and officials say 2018 is about looking forward, rather than backward.

The show, they say, will ask audiences to consider how the world can come together to make that dream possible.

TAB officials will start the anniversary with a dance party on Dec. 1 (World AIDS Day) at the Liberty Bar in Telluride. There, tickets for the Gala Fashion Show will be on sale from 5 to 9 p.m. They’ll also be available online.

On Jan. 20, auditions for the fashion show (held every March) happen at the Palm Theatre. Young people, too, participate in the AIDS Benefit, and the Telluride High School will have its own fashion show on Feb. 23—a

www.TellurideMagazine.com

WINTER/SPRING 2017-2018

One in five people with AIDS are unaware of their status. In Colorado, 32 percent of new HIV diagnoses are young people between the ages of 20 and 29. And there are 39 million people worldwide living with the disease.

presentation that is directed, choreographed, and cast entirely by students.

The big deal, the 2018 Gala Fashion Show, happens Saturday, March 3. Directed by Shawn Rozsa (artistic director) and Jessica Galbo (co-director and choreographer), the runway event has matured into a professional performance, an uplifting show that is the highlight of the season for many locals and visitors.

Most people don’t realize that the majority of TAB’s funds are typically raised through the live auction that happens after the fashion show.

Through it, past winners have walked away with Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show tickets, Custom Wagner Skis, NASCAR Grandstand passes, fine wines, and more.

Other TAB events—art presentations, free HIV testing, the designer sample sale and more—are held throughout the first week in March.

Executive Director Michelle Maughan says not to miss this year’s Twenty(by) Telluride presentation as it will offer a much deeper understanding of TAB’s cause. The Twenty(by)Telluride events are fast-paced narrated slideshows— twenty slides, twenty seconds each— that tell unique stories. Telluride Arts hosts them on various topics.

Maughan says 2018, her fourth year of leading the benefit, will be extra special. “We are so excited for the 25th anniversary show, as a way to celebrate the Telluride community and all that it has done for this cause,” she says. “Instead of doing a retrospective for this milestone anniversary, TAB will look to ‘Dream a Future Without AIDS.’ It is sure to be an incredible show.”

She says the bulk of funds raised from TAB events go to support people that donors will never meet. That, she says, shows the incredible compassion of the Telluride community.

All TAB events support AIDS service organizations locally and abroad.

One is in Utah, two are based in Denver, and three are on the Western Slope of Colorado. There are also three beneficiary organizations based in Africa, where 25.6 million people are currently living with HIV or AIDS. \

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70 • TELLURIDE TURNS Headlines & Highlights from the Local News

RYAN BONNEAU

Striking a Balance

Telluride ponders downtown commercial/residential mix

By Samantha Tisdel Wright

Z

oning and land use may sound like boring terms, but in Telluride, them’s fightin’ words. The community has lately cleaved over the question of how to maintain a vibrant downtown business district while balancing residential and commercial interests.

The 2017 Telluride Town Council election cycle saw candidates and their supporters taking sides over whether (or not) lucrative residential uses like penthouse condos might be threatening to push out business uses within Telluride’s commercial core, and what, if anything, should be done about it. “We are all trying to balance the different needs in our community,” said Ann Morgenthaler, Telluride’s interim building and planning director. “This is one of those balances between different interest groups. But in the end, we are all trying to support business owners and locals and have a great, vibrant economy.”

Current land use regulations require that buildings on large lots in Telluride’s Commercial Zone District and Commercial Historic Zone have no more than 35 percent residential use. There are no restrictions on what kind of residential use that may be— whether it’s affordable housing, shortterm rentals, or luxury vacation condos www.TellurideMagazine.com

that remain vacant for much of the year.

Buildings on smaller lots are subject to other restrictions to encourage commercial use on frontage along Colorado Avenue. But lately, said Morgenthaler, some project proposals have been pushing toward more residential use. “We know that residential development is valuable to developers, and have seen some projects that propose penthouse uses with minimum commercial space.”

Why does that matter? Many community members fear that as the town’s commercial core tips more toward more residential use, the soul will get sucked out of Telluride’s vibrant, quirky, and unique downtown area.

While the issue has been quietly brewing for years, the most recent brouhaha can be traced back to the Southwest Corner Planned Unit Development, a large-scale subdivision at the southwest corner of Fir Street and Pacific Avenue that was granted a variance to override the town’s existing 35 percent residential limitation to allow for an increase in residential use of up to 85 percent.

The application put a spotlight on just how valuable residential uses are to developers in Telluride’s downtown core, and left some community members wondering if that amount of residential use was appropriate there.

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In 2016 a commercial zoning task force convened to examine Telluride’s residential/commercial mix, and to explore existing challenges and desires in the town’s commercial core. The group, comprised of a broad mix of community stakeholders, town staff, and elected officials, met consistently over the course of the year and ended up proposing several amendments to the town’s land use code, which the Telluride Town Council in turn adopted in January 2017.

One of these amendments—the controversial one—limits residential use in Planned Unit Developments in the Commercial Zone District to 65 percent. While this is significantly lower than the 85 percent residential use that was granted for the Southwest Corner project in 2015, it’s also much higher than the designated 35 percent for individual buildings. Prior to January 2017, Morgenthaler said, residential use in PUDs was unlimited.

In the ensuing months, some residents have argued that this amendment is unreasonably restrictive while others counter it is not restrictive enough.

“People are wrestling with this in our community,” Morgenthaler said. “Some feel it is a good place to start and some feel that we should have—or need to— further cap it. The underlying concern

is, what is the right mix, and are we there, and are we losing it?”

The debate is not unique to Telluride, and neighboring mountain resort communities have been grappling with similar questions in recent years. In Aspen, things have gotten so bad that residential development is no longer permitted in the commercial downtown area, except for affordable housing. “It’s not really controversial,” said Aspen City Manager Phillip Supino.

“The community all saw the effects of residential development downtown and realized how important it was to have commercial uses and commercial vitality downtown.”

“Obviously,” he added, “there is a difference between the feelings of individual interest groups and the community at large. Developers and real estate groups are not pleased.”

While the town government has amended the land use code, there is still room for debate about the issue. Telluride is updating its master plan for the first time since 2006, and residents will have plenty of opportunities in the coming year to explore what their own priorities are in regard to maintaining commercial uses and whether there need to be further restrictions on residential uses in the commercial core. \

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72 • TELLURIDE TURNS Headlines & Highlights from the Local News

On Track

New youth Nordic skiing team in Telluride

www.TellurideMagazine.com

MELISSA PLANTZ

T

he Telluride Ski and Snowboard Club (TSSC) has a reputation for creating high-level competitors in all alpine disciplines—racing, freestyle, park, big mountain, telemark and snowboarding. TSSC skiers have medaled at the Olympics, skied on the World Cup circuit, and stood on the podium at numerous USSA regional and national events.

This winter, the TSSC is adding a new discipline: Nordic skiing. The club will partner with the Telluride Nordic Association (TNA) to offer a competitive Nordic skiing program for local youth.

Deanna Drew is the manager of the new program. She is an avid Nordic skier who spearheaded the creation of Nordic ski trails in the neighboring town of Rico. A self-proclaimed organizer “who keeps trying until it comes together,” Drew was inspired after seeing local families out on the trails. “My kids have always loved to get out on Nordic skis,” she says. “Last winter, they participated in a junior race in Durango and had a blast. After the race, I was talking with the Durango coaches about their program and I thought ‘Why don’t we have more kids Nordic skiing here in Telluride?’ So I started making phone calls to put the pieces together.”

She found Justin Chandler, director of the TSSC, to be supportive. “The TSSC has an existing structure for the program’s registration and administration,” he says. “And the TSSC can provide space in the clubhouse, access to the vans for travel, and an insurance umbrella.”

The other part of the puzzle is the nonprofit Telluride Nordic Association. According to board president Eric Trommer, the association can supply equipment and a financial contribution to help keep the program affordable for local families.

“The association believes that Nordic skiing benefits all ages,” says Trommer. “We’re happy to be in a position to lend kids gear and help defray costs to get them out on the track.”

Lance Waring and Becky Peternel will serve as lead coaches. Waring has a long history of coaching local youth, while Peternel is a recent arrival from New Hampshire. She brings a Nordic racing background and fresh energy to

“I’m excited to see the kids grow during this first season, and I look forward to seeing how far they want to take it.” the team. “I’m excited to see the kids grow during this first season,” she says.

“And I look forward to seeing how far they want to take it.” Over the winter, the two also plan to feature a number of local experts as guest coaches. “Katrina Cornell, Ivar Eidsmo, DeAnne Gabriel, and Max Cooper are already committed,” says Waring. “And I expect we’ll have visits from other Nordic luminaries over the course of the season.”

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As of press time, around 15 kids from third grade through high school have expressed desire to participate in the nascent Nordic program. Some may choose to train and travel to regional races. Others who already have a passion for running or cycling may take advantage of the opportunity as a way to maintain their fitness through the winter in preparation for the spring track season. And, there

will be some kids who’ve never liked the heavy gear or high speeds of alpine skiing and simply want to get out and glide around on snow.

Whether the young Nordic skiers choose to compete or cruise, Eric Trommer sums up the philosophy of the program: “The goal is to help younger generations develop a love for the lifelong sport of cross country skiing.” \

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73

74 • TELLURIDE TURNS Headlines & Highlights from the Local News

New Home Base for Scientists

Telluride Science Research Center plans to buy historic depot building

By Samantha Tisdel Wright

W

hat a difference a year makes.

As 2016 drew to a close, the Telluride Science Research Center was wrapping up a rigorous strategic planning process to figure out how to thoughtfully grow into the future, and whether to build a new 30,000-square-foot, world-class science center in the heart of Telluride, giving the organization a muchneeded permanent home.

The wheels were in motion— TSRC already had an agreement in place with the Town of Telluride to lease town-owned land upon which to build this new center. But a year later, the strategic planning process has led TSRC down a completely different road.

Rather than trying to build a huge new facility that could well stand empty for much of the year, the organization shifted gears and is instead working toward purchasing and renovating the historic Rio Grande Southern Railway Depot at 300 South Townsend Ave., which is currently occupied by the Ah Haa School for the Arts.

The pending $5.25 million acquisition reached an important milestone on Oct. 21 as TSRC’s due diligence period ended, and its earnest money became non-refundable. If all goes according to plan (including TSRC’s capital campaign to raise funds for the purchase and renovation, and Ah Haa’s plans to purchase its own new facility elsewhere in town) the deal will close in May or www.TellurideMagazine.com

June of 2019, and TSRC will be utilizing a remodeled space at the depot by 2020.

TSRC Executive Director Mark Kozak thinks it’s a match made in heaven—or at least in a very nice test tube. The depot, a National Historic Landmark built in 1890, is elegant, intimate, and totally unique—much like the organization itself. “It’s such an inspiring building; it has a really unique sense of place and our scientists love it,” Kozak said. “Telluride has a great history of technological development going all the way back to Tesla. We would like to enhance Telluride’s reputation as a place where the world comes to solve scientific and technological challenges.

That would be very exciting—another aspect of the Telluride brand.”

TSRC, founded in 1984, attracts more than a thousand of the world’s best molecular scientists for workshops and conferences in locations throughout Telluride each summer. It is the only independent molecular science center that is not affiliated with a sponsoring organization or institution, offering scientists the freedom to work together in a noncompetitive atmosphere surrounded by the awe-inspiring beauty of the San Juan Mountains.

The center’s informal, small-meeting format nurtures a sense of community and collaboration as scientists discuss unpublished research, explore blue-sky ideas and build new collaborations.

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Perhaps for this reason, TSRC has become an increasingly important incubator for molecular science research. Indeed, over the past six years, five TSRC scientists have been Nobel Prize laureates. “We believe the best way to address complex problems—whether in the world of medicine, materials, energy, or the environment—is through collaboration,” Kozak said. And the depot building, with its peaceful, beautiful riverside setting among evergreens and aspens, would provide the perfect venue for that kind of collaboration to take place.

Up until now, TSRC has gotten by quite well without a permanent facility. It has made use of multiple venues around town, including the depot and the public schools when they are out of session for the summer. But as the organization has grown in both popularity and prominence, TSRC’s lack of a brick-and-mortar home base has begun to hamper its effectiveness.

“We are limited to the amount of time we have in the schools, and we have had to turn away scientists,” Kozak explained. “After a certain time in the year we don’t have anywhere to offer them to gather. It seems tragic.

Come the second week of August, scientists want to come here but there’s nowhere to host them.”

The other tangential issue has been lodging. “The limited time we

can operate in the schools causes us to host more scientists per week during the summer than what is ideal,” Kozak said. “If we could spread the quantity of scientists out over a longer period with fewer of them coming at one time, we could get a greater percentage of scientists into more affordable lodging, and at the same time enhance the experience for the scientists.”

TSRC has five goals with the pending depot acquisition: To extend the impact of scientific knowledge in critical areas such as interaction between academia and national laboratory scientists with industry scientists and engineers, creating a venture-industry-academic collaboration. To assure TSRC’s position as the intellectual cornerstone of Telluride through the power to convene and nurture new ideas. To expand workshop programming into shoulder seasons and winter. To provide more educational events including summer schools and internship opportunities for students. And to grow its economic impact on the region from $8 million to $15 million.

“What it comes down to is we have an opportunity to not only expand TSRC’s primary programming but also have a greater impact on the Telluride community,” Kozak said. “The scientific world knows TSRC is the place to go. So many scientists say the time they spend here is their most productive time.” \

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76 • TELLURIDE TURNS Headlines & Highlights from the Local News

Sign of the Times Vehicle message boards get creative

By Emily Shoff

www.TellurideMagazine.com

CRAIG CHILDS

T

here were 608 vehicle deaths in 2016 alone. Laws such as banning texting while driving hadn’t notably reduced traffic fatalities, and the Colorado Department of Transportation, or CDOT, knew they had to do something different if they wanted to change how motorists approach safe driving.

So instead of pushing another law through at the government level, which can waste both time and money, they looked at what they already had in place: vehicle message boards and a concerned public. In the summer of 2016, they ran a contest on social media soliciting creative and unique messages to use on their electronic boards. The response was overwhelming.

Some of the best messages people came up with were also the simplest: “Just relax; you’re almost there” and “Texting while driving makes good people look bad.” There were also several slogans linked to the uptick in marijuana-related accidents, such as “Plan a ride before you take a hit” and “Drive high; get a DUI.” To discourage people from texting while driving, CDOT generated “Drop the phone, make it home” and “Texting while driving? Oh cell no!”

And finally, to promote seatbelt safety, they came up with “Beware the beltless” and “You’re an awesome driver. But only this protects you from a drunk driver.”

Says Lisa Schwantes, CDOT’s communication manager for Southwest Colorado, “We are always trying to educate drivers about the importance of safe driving practices including work zone safety, driving high, DUI, distracted driving, and teen driving. Yet, we also realize it takes some creative ways and messaging to reach the public.”

Her own personal favorite vehicle message emerged during the height of the Pokémon craze last year: “Beware the Pokémon! Don’t Game and Drive!” According to Schwantes, “It was a perfect opportunity to hook on to a pop culture craze and grab some attention.”

The boards were originally put in place to educate drivers about road

conditions, closures, and construction. While they will continue to serve that role, Schwantes says CDOT has already started partnering with the Traffic Safety Program and the Colorado State Patrol to create new messages. They know that keeping them fresh is vital to their effectiveness.

Accidents in Colorado happen for a number of reasons. Texting while driving certainly plays a major role. Last year, the state averaged 40 accidents a day related to distracted drivers. Marijuana has also played a part in the increase in accidents. According to the Denver Post, “Nearly a dozen (drivers involved in fatal crashes) in 2016 had levels five times the amount allowed by law, and one was at 22 times the limit.”

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Colorado is not the first state to try and use humor to address a serious public safety concern. Iowa ran a similar contest in 2015 and came up with several winners including “Get your head out of your apps; drive safely” and “Tailgating is for football, not for driving.”

Studies have long shown that comedies can be far more effective at teaching morals than tragedies.

Millennia ago, Aristotle observed the catharsis of comedy, describing the ways in which laughter could clarify our intentions and how, in contrast to tragedy, comedy removed our embarrassment, leaving only a “purified emotion.”

And as any teacher worth her salt in the classroom knows, humor

is often far more effective than lectures. Master teacher Mary Kay Morrison, who wrote a whole book on the subject called Using Humor to Maximize Learning, says laughter can be a game changer when people are learning something new—or as in the case of the highway signs, learning better behavior. “Humor actually lights up more of the brain than many other functions in a classroom.”

Researchers are still investigating as to whether the new roadside messages will significantly alter drivers’ approach to safety and reduce accidents. One can only hope that these humorous lines will not only get us chuckling, but will also get us to stop sending texts while driving and focus instead on the task at hand. \

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77

78 • INNOVATIONS

Getting Down to Business Telluride Venture Accelerator helps innovators to flourish

By Katie Klingsporn

S

tripped down and bombproof outdoor equipment without bells and whistles to weigh it down. Holistic, raw and custom diet plans for pets. Mountain apparel that performs equally well in morning hikes or midday staff meetings.

Affordable and toxin-free haircare products for kids. And a service that turns raw footage into edited videos.

Such are the fledging company ideas that have gone through the business boot camp of the Telluride Venture Accelerator, the five-year-old Telluride Foundation program that aims to turn Telluride into a magnet for business innovators and start-ups.

Businesses selected to undergo the accelerator program move to Telluride for three and a half months, where they receive office space, are matched with mentors and go through a sort of fasttracked MBA-lite course. TVA invests $30,000 in them, connects them with other potential investors and equips them for the rocky landscape of business start-ups. The program ends with a dramatic flourish as the teams pitch their businesses to a room filled with www.TellurideMagazine.com

investors. Think Shark Tank, only in a mountain town and sans network-manufactured plot twists.

It’s a sweet opportunity for the businesses, sure. But Program Manager Ashley Nager says that what people might not realize is that TVA doesn’t just launch businesses into the world, never to hear from them again. It is also playing the long game with a model that comes full-circle for Telluride.

The accelerator world is filled with

tion they need to be acquired or have a liquidity event is seven to ten years,” Nager said. “We’re still early on that.

We just finished our fifth year. But the idea is that would double or even triple our initial investment.”

So $30,000 could turn into $60,000 or even $300,000 for TVA, she said. And that money would come back to the Telluride Foundation, which then infuses it through the community with grants and initiatives. “TVA really is a long-term

“TVA really is a long-term investment in this community. We’re still super early in the long-ball game that we’re playing.” enough high-level jargon to addle a layman. But in simple terms, that $30,000 TVA invests in promising businesses is in exchange for 5 percent equity in the businesses. That means that when and if that business reaches a major milestone, TVA’s investment could mushroom. “Usually for growing start-ups, the point at which they get that trac-

WINTER/SPRING 2017-2018

investment in this community,” Nager said. “We’re still super early in the longball game that we’re playing.”

TVA makes an effort to support Telluride entrepreneurs, and its alumni include locals like pet food guru Marney Zafian (see Local Flavor, p. 26). It also encourages businesses to lay down roots in Telluride, Nager

said. “Our core mission is to really help diversify the economy here,” she said. “Our long-term strategy is that some of these businesses will move here and hire here so we can have jobs outside of tourism or skiing.”

The thrust of TVA, she said, is to bolster Telluride’s middle class by weaving new industries into the fabric of the local economy and creating more high-level jobs here.

They might not all end up here, and sure, they won’t all be the next Facebook, but Telluride’s not the right place for a mega company like that anyway. TVA is looking for midsized businesses that would fit with its mountain culture. “That’s really our main focus,” Nager said. “If we have five $10-million-companies here servicing not only the region but the nation … that would be a lot of jobs.”

So far, twenty-six companies have graduated from the program.

Which one will rev up Telluride’s economic engine? Time will tell. \ For more information, contact Ashley@tellurideva.com.

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82 • ESSAY

ODE TO DARKNESS AND OIL LAMPS An homage to the long, starry nights of winter

By Craig Childs

I

PHOTO BY JACK BRAUER

’m writing from a brighter time. It is October and the sun is golden. Solar panels are sucking in the clear skies, house at 98 percent. A couple snowstorms have passed through and melted; warm Indian Summer days keep sliding back in.

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WINTER/SPRING 2017-2018

I know what’s coming. It’s like the obligation of tides: Winter will happen. When it comes, December and January will be drifted in snow, nights so cold and clear the stars feel like they might crack in their settings. The sun at our longitude of 38° is in the sky five and a half fewer hours than summer, fourteen and a half hours of dark between dusk and dawn.

I pay special attention to this change because the house is on solar power, with a backup generator that has a habit of failing. Pulling a cord at belowzero temps and getting nothing, engine hardly turning over, you think of when the sun shone most of the time and you could keep the house lights on all night long, walking around barefoot like nobody gave a damn.

I’ve been living this way for more than half my life, since the early 90s in a ten-by-ten cabin above Dallas Divide, and before that a fine canvas tipi erected back in the ponderosa pines on Loghill Mesa. My electrical needs back then were served entirely by a bubble-eyed 1980s vintage solar panel as narrow and tall as me. With kids and a wife in a house outside of Crawford, Colo., it became two panels and then four, electric lights, computers, washing machine, fridge. No matter how many panels we put up, the dark months always sent us into blackness, nights hooded in obsidian. Inverters blew or batteries went too low, and in response, we decorated in flickering lamplight, glass globes and candles placed on countertops, tables, and shelves. This is called decking the halls. Otherwise, the halls in winter become gloomy, sealed in, doors shut, corners darkened.

Winter Solstice will come December 21, the longest night of the year. It is when the Northern Hemisphere dips away from the bright center of the solar system, leaning as far as the planet can into space. Last winter the generator went down around the solstice. The batteries in the house fell asleep, too low to power anything. Not even the phone would ring. For those many long nights, I put out a constellation of oil lamps, lighting up the kitchen and the writing table. Flickers through wood stove glass sent shadows across the room and up the walls.

There are many ways to call in the new season, to recognize where you are in the turn of the year. These days, I do it with oil lamps. Sometimes I go out for it, watching stars glide past from the hood of my sleeping bag, lying motionless on the ground, the frozen high-desert radiant around me, snow and sandstone glowing under moonlight. On long nights out I play a game, watching airplanes blink across the breadth of the sky, seeing if one will pass directly through a star.

I get a point for every hit, a ding on a slow, quiet pinball machine,

plain and Siberia 25,000 years ago, bound for the land bridge. Some of their frames used mammoth bones instead of bent limber branches, some late Pleistocene habitations in Ukraine made entirely out of mammoth bones, the skirt around the bottom holding down skins made of nearly 100 mammoth jawbones. Hides and shelters were the only way people could survive the far north.

The earliest people in Tasmania 36,000 years ago hunted wombats and wallabies and used bone points which were hafted onto wooden shafts. About the

A far arm of the galaxy is laced from horizon to horizon. The constellation of Orion chases the beautiful Pleiades nonstop, her gathering of bright, newborn stars clutched in the sky like a legend.

You are in winter’s cave. maybe one or two a night. It’s something you do when in a bag for thirteen hours, temperatures nearing single digits. Planes will stop coming around two in the morning and it’s only stars and the dutiful arc of satellites. Sometimes you swear you can see all the stars moving, the sky turning around you.

This is a way of life we know from our oldest generations, a memory in our genes of how we used to live. Anywhere from Colorado north you’d hole up for winter.

The earliest human architecture in world history appears in the north. Ice Age pole-and-hide structures spread across the Russian

same time, in Borneo, Paleolithic people were fashioning stingray spines into barbed spearpoints and used them to take down wild pigs, monkeys, turtles, and civet cats. No evidence of clothing or stitch-work has been found. Farther north, people hunted larger animals, and their tools became more robust, made of knapped bone and rock to match the size of their prey. They needed skins and furs. At an Upper Paleolithic site in southern Portugal, firecracked rock and stone anvils have been found among the systematic smashing of bones from deer, bison, reindeer, and horse, indicating marrow rendering. Up

to Alaska and the Bering land bridge archaeologists have found Ice Age sewing needles made of mammoth ivory and tiny stone blades for precise cuts, indicating tailored clothes that would have been drawn up tight. For a species hailing from Africa and warmer parts of Indo Eurasia, winter nights up here would have been notably long and dark. They watched fires flicker on hide walls, stories told, families gathered with skins and robes.

A far arm of the galaxy is laced from horizon to horizon.

The constellation of Orion chases the beautiful Pleiades nonstop, her gathering of bright, newborn stars clutched in the sky like a legend. You are in winter’s cave.

This is the sky people from northern latitudes have watched for countless generations.

Even if you hurry through your day between offices and city streets, you see how low the sun is, and how long the night is. This is when you paint the walls with your dreams, and watch taillights as they pass.

I was actually glad when the house’s system conked. I got my season back. No email, no undying glow of a laptop. I made dinner in skeletal light and wrote by hand, lapsing back into the form like a gift. When I slept, it was near the fire, curled under blankets, stars dazzling through every window.

I carry countless winters in me, bloodlines Germanic and Welch, northern rituals, the leaving of the sun and its eventual return. I come from Christmas and decking the halls, evergreens cut down and put inside, decorated with lights and the glint of tinsel.

My people, like many around the world, rendered animal fat and gathered around stone lamps waiting out the hollow rind of winter.

We knew it would always come. No prayer could stop it. You did what you had to, taking up the hem of darkness and covering yourself.

Though October is richly apportioned and the sun is low and brilliant, I find myself leaning toward winter. It is the same way come February that I lean toward spring, muddy roads and budding leaves to come. The planet pulls and for now, the dark rises. You can’t live outside of the tropics without bowing to it. I look forward to the annual blackouts, the oil lamps set out, nights of memory, story, and sleep so deep you forget to dream. \

WINTER/SPRING 2017-2018

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83

84 • NATURE NOTES

Digging In Ophir’s Carribeau Mine cleanup

By Corinne Platt / Photos by Randy Barnes

D

riving into the town of Ophir, it’s hard not to train your eyes on the scenery. Thirteen-thousand-foot ridges rise from the ground on either side of the valley—you can almost get a neck ache from craning your head to see the tops of the peaks. Ophir, like Telluride, carries the cachet of stunning vistas that endear both its residents and the throngs of tourists who drift through from places beyond.

Driving into the valley today, your neck might crane in a different direction—toward the almost apocalyptic desecration of land that is the Carribeau mill site. Decades-old evergreen trees lie toppled, dragged across the property and piled in heaps. Vegetation that isn’t being used for remediation burns in piles around the property. Dirt, rocks, and

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boulders are strewn between tractors, backhoes, and enormous yellow hauling trucks that arrive hourly with fill to replace the ground where so far 90,000 cubic yards of toxic tailings have been scraped away.

Since last July, nearly all of the ground on the 27.5-acre mill site, plus a bit of the adjacent 35-acre parcel, have been excavated and tailings heavy with lead and arsenic moved to a repository just east of the property, near the mine adit owned by the United States Forest Service (USFS). The adit itself, which had long flowed through the tailings, is now diverted into a natural wetlands.

The wetlands serve as extra ground where sediment can settle out before the runoff enters the creek, though the metals in the drainage water itself were never the concern.

WINTER/SPRING 2017-2018

A massive amount of tailings has been found on the property.

Hays Griswold, the on-scene coordinator for the Emergency Response Program at EPA, says when they began digging on the property, they assumed that where trees were growing there were no tailings. In fact, they found places where 50-foot pine trees grew in a foot of topsoil on top of five to six feet of tailings. “Nobody expected trees would grow like that,” Griswold says. “These things come up on these sites sometimes. I haven’t seen anything quite like this though. Records we found showed production rates at the mill much lower than we’re finding them to be.”

Ophir, like Telluride, was a productive mining town between the late 1880s and the early 1950s. Sadly, many of its abandoned mining sites

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continue to degrade water quality in Ophir’s main artery, the Howard Fork. A three-year study by the Trust for Land Restoration (TLR) identified the Howard Fork as the top restoration priority in the entire San Miguel River watershed. For years, metals leeched across the property and into the river.

Since 2003, when Harley Brooke-Hitching bought the 27.5-acre Carribeau mill site, (now owned by her son; her home is on an adjacent 35-acre parcel to the west), she has been gunning for the EPA and the USFS to clean up the toxic tailings left from Ophir’s mining days.

The Carribeau Mine cleanup crew moved off the site in early November due to incoming weather and the completion of the 2017 funding.

The cleanup is funded partially by a settlement the EPA reached with the Chevron Corporation along with Forest Service funds and Superfund money (the site is a removal action under CERCLA). The plan is to have EPA return to the project again next June for two months to finish removing the rest of the tailings and to remediate and revegetate the land. Forest experts will replant as many of the small trees and willows as possible and the large trees will be used for retaining walls and to mitigate soil erosion. One can only hope the money is still available next summer.

Brooke-Hitching maintains a positive attitude.

“I was expecting a little cleanup here and a little cleanup there,” she laughs. “I guess you have to be careful what you ask for.”

The cleanup ended being a huge endeavor.

Brooke-Hitching can’t speak highly enough of the workers on her property. “They are so professional.

They work twelve hours a day, six days a week.

They are doing it right. They try to accommodate me in every way they can.” In appreciation, she bakes them cookies.

She says she’ll wait until 2018 to host her next BBQ. “This time it will be a real celebration, right in the middle of the Carribeau. It will be beautiful when it’s finished.” \

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85

86 • ENVIRONMENT

A MONUMENTAL DEBATE Trump administration considers public lands revisions

By Deanna Drew

S

outh of Telluride lies a crown jewel of our nation’s historical and cultural treasures, where long-abandoned villages of a tenth century civilization lay hidden in the vast Southwest landscape of rolling piñon-juniper woodlands and sagebrush meadows.

Carved into the alcoves of red sandstone cliffs and tucked into canyons incised over thousands of years by seasonal streams, seeps, and springs, Canyons of the Ancients National Monument contains the largest concentration of Native American archaeological sites in the United States.

Tens of thousands of Ancestral Puebloan artifacts and structures are documented throughout the monument’s 175,160 acres, which together with nearby Mesa Verde National Park and Hovenweep National Monument make up a region that was once home to over 25,000 Ancestral Pueblo men, women, and children who farmed and hunted there until their mysterious departure in the mid-1200s. For these reasons, in 2000 President Clinton designated Canyons of the Ancients a national monument under the Antiquities Act of 1906, a law authorizing presidents to reserve federal lands for the protection of their landmarks, structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest.

Since the Act’s creation, nearly 200 monuments have been declared by presidents of both parties to preserve public lands throughout the United States, with protected sites ranging from geological formations, archaeological ruins and historical sites, to landscape areas, view sheds, and war relics.

However, the legitimacy of Canyons of the Ancients and other national monuments in the West was questioned this year when U.S. Pres-

ident Donald J. Trump directed U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke to review for compliance with the Act all monuments made since 1996 over 100,000 acres in size, as well as those designations that the Secretary finds lacked adequate public outreach.

The Act defines federal land worthy of protection as “historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest” and requires monuments to be “the smallest area compatible” to protect the sites.

But Trump’s executive order suggests that under recent presidents, the Act’s guidelines have been expanded in both scope and size, resulting in impacts to local economies and unnecessary loss of other, traditional Western land uses such as hunting, ranching, and mining.

The Zinke study scrutinized the boundaries, protected objects, and current management plans of twenty-seven total monuments— twenty-one of which are in the West—then reassessed land uses to determine each monument’s impact to local economies. A public com-

ment period generated 2.8 million responses, which the report says were overwhelmingly in favor of maintaining existing monuments.

Regardless, Zinke’s findings, leaked to the public in September, challenged the executive authority of several monument designations that he says do not adhere to the purpose of the Act. At some sites reviewed, the report states, “protected objects” were so loosely defined that the appropriate quantity of land needed to protect them cannot be determined. At others, monument boundaries overlap with private land or other federal designations and according to the report unnecessarily restrict access and hinder maintenance of necessary infrastructure. The report adds that national monuments which span millions of acres are difficult to police and fund, and that many state, tribal, and local stakeholders feel they are further losing revenue from limitations placed on land development.

Zinke recommended that the president exercise his discretion granted by the Act to make bound-

ary and management revisions at ten national monuments, but not at Canyons of the Ancients, the only monument studied in Colorado.

“Canyons of the Ancients is gorgeous land, but its monument status as the most high-density Native American archaeological sites in the Nation is clear,” Zinke stated. “The history at this site spans thousands of years, and the federal protection of these objects and history will help us preserve this site for a thousand more.”

Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument targeted

However, two nearby monuments in southern Utah—a state with a long history of political strife over the fact that over half of its land is already federally owned—may not fit the bill.

The 1.87-million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was designated by President Bill Clinton in 1996 for its geologic, paleontological, archaeological, and biological resources but was recommended for changes by Zinke. According to Zinke, the monument’s restrictions have resulted in reduced cattle runs and controversial road closures that are blocking motorized vehicle use and hindering public access. The report also says an estimated several billion tons of coal and oil deposits exist within the monument, that the site did not include public outreach efforts before the designation, and that almost half of the land is also under review for a wilderness designation.

Bears Ears National Monument is 1.35 million acres of scenic rock formations and sacred Native American sites in San Juan County, Utah that were designated by Barack Obama in December 2016 after a lengthy public

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debate. Criticized by many locals and Utah politicians as a federal land grab, the report says Bears Ears is a confusing patchwork of federal, state, and private lands with overlapping designations, authorities, and uses. The Zinke report recommends that the Bears Ears boundary be revised and more appropriate conservation designations such as national recreation or conservation areas should be considered. He further suggests a process be developed for allowing some land to be co-managed with tribes to preserve cultural and ceremonial traditions.

Zinke reports that in some cases, his meetings with stakeholders revealed new sites that merit protection, and suggests the president or his executive branch should develop a new, transparent and public process for designations under the Act in the future.

This new national monument process, Zinke says, should clarify the criteria for designations and include methodology for meeting conservation and protection goals.

This way, the report says, the public could evaluate the benefits of protection versus economic impact and have a say in the need for monument designation.

He mentions a 4,000-acre civil war site and civil liberties home site in the South that could be designated, as well as an area in northwestern Montana that could be co-managed with the Blackfeet tribe under the new process.

Who gets to decide the fate of National Monuments?

Although the Antiquities Act gives the president executive authority to unilaterally designate lands as national monuments quickly in case of emergency, some public lands proponents believe the power to change them lies with

Congress, the authority who creates other protective land designations such as national parks, wilderness, and national conservation and recreation areas.

Conservationists argue that in 1976, Congress overhauled many earlier public lands laws with the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, but did not change the Antiquities Act. And they say documents from the House Committee that drafted the 1976 law prove it was purposely intended to prohibit a president from modifying or abolishing a national monument under the Antiquities Act, and left that authority with Congress.

Less than a month after the release of the report, Utah Representative and Republican Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee Rob Bishop introduced the new National Monument Creation and Protection Act. Bishop’s bill would narrow the definition of what the Antiquities Act protects, require environmental reviews depending on the size of the land, require approval from state and county officials for smaller designations while requiring Congressional approval for larger ones, establish minimum distances from other monuments, and create temporary designations, among other changes.

In October, the bill was approved by the house resources committee and sent to the House floor for further review. The measure is still wending its way through the bureaucratic process, but the question remains about who wields the power to designate and revise the boundaries of these protected lands. Despite passionate feelings from all citizens about our public lands and how they are used, ultimately it is in the hands of the federal representatives we elect to act on our behalf. \

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88 • BOOK REVIEWS

San Juan Scribes JUST MY LUCK

By Jerry Vass Vass Publishing $14.95 978-0-9629610-9-0 Jerry Vass is one of those delicious storytellers who makes a reader feel as if they’re listening to a stranger pour out his unbelievable life history. Vass lived in Telluride during the 70s, and his previous novel, Sleeping Big in Smallville (2015), was a risqué memoir of the town during those halcyon years of lawlessness and hedonism. Vass changed most

of the characters’ names, but longtime locals recognized the people and events and savored his account of the era.

His latest novel, Just My Luck, is a collection of stories from throughout the author’s life. Each chapter is a like a rosary bead, and when strung together they form a narrative of a man who emerged from a Dickensian childhood to become a successful corporate advisor and who lived to recount his wild, rollicking, and sometimes dangerous adventures. This is not your typical navel-gazing memoir; Vass has lived an interesting life and he is a relatable, engaging narrator. Some of the tales

are heartbreaking, some are harrowing, some are hilarious; most of them are a little off-color, but all of them are written in the author’s signature voice.

Readers will find themselves transported to another time and place, aboard a dangerous sailing mission, lost on horseback and fearing a father’s drunken wrath, laying in the snow half-frozen trying to fix the outdoor lights, or on the wrong flight to the wrong destination. Vass is lucky…he emerged from all these misadventures and encounters unscathed and with enough stories to keep his lucky readers entertained throughout the recounting.

TRACKS IN THE SNOW

the Western Slope, and is the author of several novels, a columnist, and a frequent contributor to Powder, Ski, and Outside magazines.

This collection traces the arc of his life and career, and his passion for skiing. The stories cover the full spectrum of Shelton’s experiences with the sport: racing, high-alpine touring, navigating avalanche terrain, traveling to exotic mountain destinations on assignment, and raising a ski family.

Even readers who don’t share his ob-

Stories from a Life on Skis

By Peter Shelton Western Eye Press $15.95 978-0-9412-8347-2

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Peter Shelton, one of America’s most prolific ski writers, has a new memoir that is comprised of fifty stories reflecting on his five decades of chasing powder. Shelton spent a lot of time here on

sessive love for carving perfect turns in bottomless snow will appreciate the way he brings these moments to life in his writing. Shelton’s prose is lyrical and enchanting, and he takes a deeper, more meaningful look at the way skiing affects the indoctrinated enthusiast.

“Skiing is endlessly fascinating for me, and for whatever reason its intrigue has never dissipated…. It’s like living with an addiction. I’m sure there are skiers out there that can relate to this feeling,” said Shelton in a recent interview.

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90 • BOOK REVIEWS

San Juan Scribes Perhaps the hardest part of owning your own business is managing the finances.

Norwood resident Christine Odle, a certified financial coach for small business

owners, has created a step-by-step workbook and guidebook to help you navigate the fiscal side of your enterprise.

Rockin’ Your Business Finances offers advice on complex topics in plain, simple terms that everyone can understand. Odle helps readers lower their tax liability, create benefits that exceed what large employers can provide, budget for their business and cash flow, understand financial statements, and learn how to

as a child. Then one morning, she wakes up in her tent to realize that she has been caught in an early snowstorm and needs emergency shelter—and is forced to ask a stranger to stay in his cabin. From here, the story pivots and Jenny is introduced to new friends and slowly learns to trust in the kindness of people. Little by little, and with much pain, she opens up and is able to process what happened to her and to her twin brother on the commune in Northern California where she grew up.

The author Edward Lehner is a Durango native, and readers will recognize the

backcountry terrain he describes. There is also something achingly familiar about the characters—the reclusive writer who takes Jenny in and cares for her, the yoga teacher, the therapist, and especially the young protagonist seeking solace in the mountains and struggling to reconcile her past trauma with her life as an adult. The story is not just about Jenny’s journey of self-discovery and forgiveness, it is also a glimpse of mountain-town life and the way people support and care for each other even in places that can seem remote and lonely.

SEEDS OF LIGHT SOWN

suffers from ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease, a diagnosis that came way too early in the life of a young man, at the age of just 29.

You would expect his poems to be mournful, angry, or full of self-pity. Instead, they are beautiful and uplifting, full of wisdom and optimism and love, and his words resonate.

He has a very Zen take on life, and an intense appreciation for the natural world—oak trees, birds, the moon, seeds, water, and soil are just some of the literary vehicles he uses to carry his ideas. And it is obvious from his work that this disease

By Christine Odle $19.95 978-0-9991351-0-5

SAN JUAN SUNRISE

By Edward J. Lehner $18.99 978-1-5043-8379-0 San Juan Sunrise is a fictional tale of a young college graduate who lives in seclusion, backpacking all summer long in the San Juan Mountains and spending winters alone in a primitive cabin north of Durango. Jenny is hiding from the world, disconnected from people and unable to come to terms with the abuse she suffered

By Ryan Farnsworth $12.99 978-1535202237 Former Telluride local Ryan Farnsworth has written a debut book of poetry that everyone needs to read. This is one of those nightstand books by the bed that you can reference when you need to lift your spirits and remember the universal truths about life. And these universal truths come from the most unlikely of sources—Farnsworth

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WINTER/SPRING 2017-2018

operate debt free and grow their business. There is also a workbook to fill out and discern the economics of a particular business according to the principles Odle has explained and identified.

The book is a must-have for entrepreneurs, a Business Finance 101 crash course for people who need some help managing their finances. Locals and visitors can also attend Odle’s financial workshop this winter at the Ah Haa School for the Arts.

has given him the opportunity to evolve and see things from a different perspective. He writes of his growth: Wisdom herself watched, While I daily built my shell, Waited while I re-learned, The same old lessons, And smiled as I finally began, To unmake what I had made.

Seeds of Light Sown is a meditation on the world and our time in it. The book is a comforting reminder of how precious that time is and how lucky we are to be here in the present moment.

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92 • INDEX

COLOR BY NUMBERS SNOW SAFETY

FOOD FOR OUR FURRY FRIENDS

Between 2007 and 2016, Colorado had the most avalanche fatalities of any state: 63. Montana had 38, Washington 36, and Wyoming, Utah, and Alaska had 32.

The most common fatalities between 1950 and 2016 happened while backcountry skiing and snowmobiling: 260.

Pet industry spending for 2016 came in at a record high of $66.75 billion, up from $60.28 billion in 2015, or 10.7% growth.

GOING THE DISTANCE

LADY DOCTORS

The longest paragliding distance flight on record is 350.6 miles, set by 3 Brazilian pilots in October 2016. The highest altitude paragliding flight on record reached 26,762 feet in elevation in Pakistan.

By the end of the 19th century there were approximately 7,000 female doctors in the United States, representing just 5% of all American physicians.

PRESERVE AND PROTECT

COLOSSAL CLEANUP

Former President Barack Obama designated 26 national monuments comprising 88.3 million acres during his 2 terms; Obama also added 465.2 million acres to existing monuments, more than any other president since Roosevelt signed the Antiquities Act in 1906.

There are 117 national monuments in all.

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There are 64,883 abandoned metal-producing mines in the United States that would cost an estimated $50 billion to clean up.

The 2015 spill at the Gold King Mine in Silverton spilled 3 million gallons of toxins.

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LIVING WAGES Renters in Colorado need to make $21.97 per hour to afford a 2 BR home, and would have to work 95 hours per week at minimum wage to make rent.

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96 • LAST LOOK

Ups and Downs Nordic skiing feels a little like flying. But what goes up, must come down.

PHOTOS BY MELISSA PLANTZ

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