Telluride Magazine Winter-Spring 2013-14 by Telluride Magazine

W I N T E R / S P R I N G 2 013 -2 014 V O L U M E 31, N O . 2

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Perfect Balance of Quality Hard Assets...

1 • Lots 7 & 11A Gregory Avenue, Telluride Unique combination of lots with over 17,000 SF, commanding views from an exceptional vantage point. $1,950,000

2 • Willow Building Unit 2R, Telluride Luxury 3-bed condo w/views of tranquil beaver ponds within walking distance to shops and restaurants. $2,050,000

3 • 766 Golden Eagle, Horsefly Mesa This rustic home features 180˚ Sneffels Range views on 40 pristine acres with aspens, meadows and pond. $495,000

4 • Lot 912R, Mountain Village A secluded 1.3 acre lot on exclusive Victoria Drive with dramatic northern views & a private ski trail. $1,695,000

5 • 473 W. Colorado Ave, Telluride 6 • 133 Victoria Lane, Mountain Village This 6-bedroom 4-bathroom home with guest house resides Refined 7-bedroom home, luxurious interior, exquisite views, on a double lot and exudes Victorian charm. $2,295,000 mature landscaping, private drive & ski trail. $8,999,000

ewarding Lifestyle.

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1 • 116 Lawson Pt., Mountain Village Located in sunny Adams Ranch subdivision, this attractive 4-bedroom home affords unobstructed views. $1,675,000

2 • 101 Christina’s Way, Aldasoro Ranch Exquisite stone work and finish detail highlight this 4-bed residence with spacious decks, aspens & views. $3,395,000

3 • Little Cone Ranch, Species Mesa These 74 acres are adjacent to National Forest, afford superb Wilson Range views plus tranquil pond. $1,095,000

4 • Plunge Landing, Telluride Designed by award-winning architect, contemporary styled in-town 2 & 4 bedroom units plus commercial. $4,375,000

5 • Sundance Ranch, The Preserve Gorgeous 42.9 acre in-holding with a barn-style residence, ideal as a private getaway or guesthome. $4,900,000

6 • 8121 Preserve Drive, The Preserve A significant 13-bedroom compound on 28 idyllic acres with elegant interiors plus grand mountain views. $17,900,000

SERVICE

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Exuding a distinguished level of finish and ski-in/out location that is u n m a t c h e d i n t h e To w n o f Te l l u r i d e , t h e A u b e r g e R e s i d e n c e s a t E l e m e n t 5 2 offer two to five bedroom residences within an intimate community setting. Distinctive luxuries and services include a private ski funicular, full service concierge, spa, heated outdoor soaking pools, private club room, and expansive mountain and town views. Simply the best. Prices starting at $1,450,000 Photos & Info: element52.aubergeresorts.com Schedule a Showing: 970.708.5367

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1 • 101 Prudencio Lane - Lot 63, Aldasoro Ranch 2 • 143 Adams Ranch Road, Mountain Village Huge views of the ski resort & Wilsons, open space next Spacious, new 5-bedroom home located on the golf course door & a private homesite on 3.21 acres. $745,000 with tremendous views, sunshine & finishes. $2,500,000 3 • 101 Autumn Lane, Mountain Village 4 • 609 East Columbia Avenue, Town of Telluride Sophisticated 7-bedroom home captures the finest views in Beautifully appointed home directly slope side with dratown while embracing the highest level of finish & technology. matic views. This 5,480 sqft home has 5 bedrooms, 5.5 $6,549,000 www.609EastColumbia.com baths & is located on a private half acre lot. $4,495,000

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rom any perspective, it’s a beautiful investment...

1• 44 Spruce Way, Telluride Ski Ranches

This antique timber-frame home has a fabulous level of finish. Great views and a peaceful setting. $1,695,000

2 • Tract IV Big Valley Ranch Rd, Iron Springs Mesa

223 acres of rolling meadows & massive views. Subdividable. Productive 60 gpm well. Bank Owned $895,000

3 • The River Club 301 - Deeded Fractional, Telluride 4 • Sunny River Ranch - Ptarmigan 4 & 5, Ilium Valley Diamond/Platinum Membership. The one & only unit offering Christmas & New Years week each year. $139,590

5 • 567 A West Pacific Campus, Telluride

Two adjacent 10+/- acre parcels on the San Miguel River’s North Fork. Beautiful home, caretaker unit & barn. Minutes to Telluride. Rare, unique & very compelling. $4,750,000

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Elegant brick home with a high-level of finish and two heated parking spaces. $2,600,000

Supporting Telluride’s Youth

elluride, It’s everything YOU want to be...

1 • 31 Diamond Point Lane, Telluride Ski Ranches

2 • 14 Cortina Lane, Mountain Village

3 • 225 South Pine Street, Telluride

4 • 139 Adams Ranch Road, Mountain Village

5-Bedroom home on 1.17 acres, with significant sun, mature trees and wonderful mountain views. $1,795,000

Three separate commercial spaces and two deed restricted residential condos. Tenants in place. $2,600,000

5 • 123 South Oak Street, Telluride

Direct ski access to and from Sundance Ski Run with all day sun and nice southern views to Palmyra Peak. $650,000

Unparalleled views, huge sun & an extraordinary level of finish characterize this 7-bedroom home with 6,785 sq ft of livable space. $4,800,000

Steps to town & skiing. Zoning allows for many uses, including single family residential, for which sketch plans exist. $3,995,000

ne Way To Get Closer To Nature

Search all Telluride area real estate at S h i m m y. S e a r c h Te l l u r i d e R e a l E s t a t e . c o m

Mike Shimkonis, Director | shimmy@tellurideproperties.com | 970.708.2157, Cell 237 South Oak Street @ the Telluride Gondola

CALL ME OR ASK YOUR BROKER . . .

WHY THIS IS THE NEXT HIGH-END HOME TO SELL IN THE MOUNTAIN VILLAGE! VALUE. VIEWS. PRIVACY. LOCATION.

THE TRINITY RESIDENCE 522 Benchmark Dr.

Welcome to the Trinity Residence. This beautifully built home was designed to maximize the three essential needs for every mountain home - spectacular views, ski access and privacy. A highly desired open floor plan was designed to entertain family and friends. Special features include a wellness center (Sauna/Steam/Massage/Oxygen), one of Mountain Villageâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s finest ski rooms, an 8-person bunkroom, wine cellar and game room. The antique beams and siding came from a Sears and Roebuck warehouse where craftsman kit homes were stored in the early 1900s. The planks were the subfloor of the warehouse and buried under a layer of sand. The timbers are reclaimed fir timbers from trestle bridges near the Great Salt Lake. The balance of the wood used throughout the residence consists of cypress, fir and knotty alder. The stone found throughout the residence is a mix of sandstones from Oklahoma and Arkansas. For those looking for one the best values for a high-end home, this property should be on your list. $7,600,00 - MLS #29834

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

WINTER/SPRING 2013-2014

CONTENTS 36

DEPARTMENTS

WITHIN From the Editor

CALENDAR A look at this winter’s events

TELLURIDE TURNS Headlines and highlights from the local news

ENVIRONMENT Gondola goes solar, rare plant species found

SAN JUAN SCRIBES Books to read this season by local authors

FEATURES

Magic Bus

The Innovator

MOUNTAIN HEALTH Peter Ripmaster completes 50 marathons in 50 states

Michelle Wright’s essay about memory

Pete Wagner of Wagner Custom Skis partners with Microsoft

ASK JOCK Athletic advice from our mountain guru

BY ROB STORY

The Best in the World

Telluride’s Freestyle Club takes top honors

HISTORY Boxing: Telluride’s Cinderella Men

BY JESSE JAMES MCTIGUE

Cannabis: Colorado’s New Cash Crop?

TELLURIDE TREASURES Retail therapy for the winter months

Recreational marijuana is legal in the state BY D. DION

Gus Kenworthy

Q&A with Telluride skier and Olympic hopeful

W I N T E R / S P R I N G 2 013 -2 014 V O L U M E 31, N O . 2

ON THE COVER Garrett Russell goes big during a dusk session at Alta Lakes in the cover photo, taken by Ben Eng. A Colorado native, Eng is a freelance photographer specializing in snowboarding one half of the year, and weddings the other half. When not out shooting, he can be found snowboarding, mountain biking, skateboarding, or anything to get away from staring at a computer. Check out his work at benengphotography.com.

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Magazine

INSIDE ART Mélange Gallery

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TELLURIDE FACES Meet Honga Im, Dean Rolley, and Melanie Montoya

LOCAL FLAVOR Mezcal Vago, from Oaxaca to Telluride

A LAST LOOK Into thin air, by Telluride Paragliding

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Magazine

W I N T E R / S P R I N G 2 013 -2 014 V O L U M E 31, N O . 2

Contributors

~~~

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF DEB DION ~~~

ADVERTISING DIRECTOR JENNY PAGE ~~~

CREATIVE DIRECTOR KRISTAL RHODES

CARA PALLONE Colorado native and KOTO News Director Cara Pallone (“Running Down Cancer,” p. 28) walks the fine line between being genuinely curious and just plain nosy. She started asking questions when she was old enough to talk and she hasn’t stopped since. Her passion is people, and she believes everyone has a story worth telling, even if they don’t feel like telling it. By some miracle, she has been lucky enough to make a living prying into the lives of complete strangers. When she’s not writing, reading or wondering, Pallone can be found rockin’ out with her musician husband or teaching her mutt silly tricks.

MICHELLE CURRY WRIGHT Michelle Curry Wright (“Magic Bus,” p. 32), fourth child of a peripatetic US Army colonel and his French war bride, found Telluride in the early 80s. She has spent much of her down time writing (small town newspaper reporting, published and unpublished novels, produced and unproduced screenplays, and piles of personal essays) and an equal amount of time exploring the visual arts (cartoons, dioramas, oil pastels, mixed media paintings). Though she still does not know the names of all the local streets, trails, peaks, or wildflowers, she is very grateful to have grown where planted.

BRETT SCHRECKENGOST Local videographer, photographer, and powder-hound Brett Schreckengost (“Cannabis,” p. 44, “The Innovator,” p. 36) has been shooting photos of—and skiing on— Wagner Skis since the local custom ski company first started. Born in Caribou, Maine and raised in ski boots, mountains have always been the focal point of Brett’s life. A photojournalist at heart, his work has taken him on adventures near and far from his home in Southwest Colorado, where he lives with his wife Corinne and his dog Nessie.

~~~

COPY EDITOR / PROOFREADER MIRA PERRIZO ~~~

WEB DIRECTOR SUSAN HAYSE ~~~

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Thom Carnevale Suzanne Cheavens Elizabeth Guest Katie Klingsporn Jesse James McTigue Paul O’Rourke Cara Pallone Corinne Platt Emily Shoff Rob Story Michelle Curry Wright ~~~

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Ryan Bonneau Brenda Colwell Danielle DeRoberts Ben Eng Art Goodtimes Amy Levek Nori Lupfer Brett Schreckengost Ryan Taylor ~~~

WWW.TELLURIDEMAGAZINE.COM Telluride Publishing also produces San Juan Skyway Visitor Guide and the Telluride Calendar. Our products are for sale at retail shops in Telluride and on our website. For correspondence, subscriptions, and advertising email editor@telluridemagazine.com or call 970.728.4245. The annual subscription rate is $11.95. © 2013-2014 Telluride Publishing is a division of Big Earth Publishing, Inc. Cover and contents are fully protected and must n ot be reproduced in any manner without written permission from the publisher. ~~~

COVER PHOTO Ben Eng 14

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WINTER/SPRING 2013-2014

WITHIN

Making Tracks “Footsteps in the snow suggest where you have been, point to where you were going: but when they suddenly vanish, never dismiss the possibility of flight...” —Author Diane Duane

Hope you enjoy this issue, Deb Dion Editor, Telluride Magazine

Amy Levek

s we were finalizing this issue, I learned that Pete Ripmaster’s father was killed in a car accident. What made the news particularly tragic was that Ripmaster (Mountain Health, p. 28) had just finished his fiftieth marathon a few months earlier, having completed one in every state to raise money for cancer research as a tribute to his mother, who lost her struggle with the disease years before. Now he had lost both of the people whose footsteps he first followed, before embarking on his personal journey of 1,320 miles and the countless steps in between. Isn’t that true of all of us? We all follow in others’ footsteps before we set out to tread our own path. Michelle Wright speaks eloquently in this issue about her early memories of learning how to ski (“Magic Bus,” p. 32) before she moved to Telluride and started skiing as an adult. Honga Im (Telluride Faces, p. 52) learned about cooking from her parents, and about the world from traveling, before she opened her restaurant and became an environmental advocate. Dean Rolley (Telluride Faces, p. 54) took over the non-profit TCTV community station from others, honing his technology skills and learning about community service, which eventually led him to being honored as Telluride’s Citizen of the Year. Melanie Montoya (Telluride Faces, p. 56) served in a human rights organization in Chiapas, Mexico, before assuming her role as co-director of Telluride’s San Miguel Resource Center, a domestic violence and sexual assault crisis center. Pete Wagner (“The Innovator,” p. 36) studied engineering and business, and designed custom golf clubs for other companies, before

he became the entrepreneur behind Wagner custom skis. Caleb Martin (“The Best in the World,” p. 40) grew up skiing with Telluride’s Bump Club and coach Hugh Sawyer, became the top-ranked U.S. mogul skier in 1999, and then came back to Telluride to coach for what was honored as the Best Freestyle Club in the World in 2013. Judah Kuper and Dylan Sloan learned the art of mezcal-making from Oaxaca’s multi-generational mezcaleros, to whom they owe their success in marketing their new import, Mezcal Vago (Local Flavor, p. 60). And Howard Greager (“Passings,” p. 23), who passed away this summer, learned the ropes— literally and figuratively—from the cowboys he worked with in Colorado and the characters he met in his father’s pool hall, years before he wrote and published his literary collection of Western lore. It seems we all have someone to thank for where we are today. Everyone takes initial steps that have been taken before, by our elders, our mentors, our friends. Without the progress they have made, we would not be able to move forward. But it is how we make our own mark— the new tracks that we make in the world—that truly defines us.

WINTER/SPRING 2013-2014

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CALENDAR NOVEMBER 2013 2

30 Brett Schreckengost

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ONGOING EVENTS: AVALANCHE AWARENESS FORUMS AND RESCUE CLINICS Sponsored by the San Juan Field School, the San Juan Outdoor School/Telluride Alpinism, and Telluride Ski Patrol, the free series takes place on select Monday nights starting in December and educates backcountry travelers about avalanche safety. Free avalanche beacon rescue clinics are offered throughout the season, starting in January. Multiday avalanche safety courses with field sessions are also available. 970.728.4101

NOVEMBER 17 IMAGO THEATRE Imago Theatre’s “FROGZ!” combines mime, dance, original music and special effects in a menagerie like no other—frogs, lizards, windbags, cowboys, sloths and penguins fill the stage with mesmerizing Felliniesque mayhem at the Palm Theatre. 970.369.5670

GONDOLA OPENS 22 The gondola opens for the 2013-14 winter season. The chondola starts running Nov. 27.

COOKING PROGRAMS AT THE LIBRARY The Wilkinson Public Library hosts several free cooking programs. Children can attend Kids Cook on Monday afternoons at 3:30 p.m., there is a cooking class for teens every Wednesday at 3:30 p.m., and on the first Tuesday of the month at noon, the Books and Cooks program presents a culinary demonstration featuring cookbook authors and hosted by Chef Bud Thomas. 970.728.4519 FILMS AT THE LIBRARY Wilkinson Public Library hosts two film series. On the first Monday of each month, Telluride Film Festival Cinematheque presents a series of films featuring women directors. On the third Wednesday of each month, ITVS Cinema presents advanced screenings of PBS documentaries. All films screen at 6 p.m. and are free to the public. 970.728.4519 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 self-guided tour of the exhibits in downtown Telluride. A dozen 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. 970.728.3930

www.TellurideMagazine.com

OPENING DAY Telluride Ski Resort opens for the 2013-14 ski season.

DECEMBER AN OLD FASHIONED CHRISTMAS AT SCHMID RANCH 1 The Telluride Historical Museum presents an old fashioned Christmas 11/22

Ryan Bonneau

EVENTS CALENDAR

WINTER/SPRING 2013-2014

FITNESS AND MEDITATION AT THE LIBRARY Get moving for free at the Wilkinson Public Library’s zumba classes at 10 a.m. on Saturday mornings or yoga classes at 8 a.m. on Wednesdays and 8:30 a.m. on Fridays. Prenatal yoga is offered at 9 a.m. on Tuesdays. There is also a dharma talk and meditation program offered on the third Wednesday of every month, and a guided meditation on Mondays at 12:15 p.m. 970.728.4519

WINTER/SPRING 2013-2014

NOEL NIGHT 4 Shop early and partake of the holiday caroling, discounts, and cheer in Telluride’s retail stores.

TWENTY(BY)TELLURIDE 5 Join Telluride Arts for a presentation of twenty slides by a select local artist at the Historic Sheridan Bar. 970.728.3930

WINE 103 6 University Centers of the San Miguel hosts a wine and food pairing

seminar/fundraiser at the Hotel Telluride. The evening features wine tasting and a silent auction. Register online at ucsanmiguel.org, tickets are limited.

HOLIDAY ART BAZAAR 6–8 Local artisans vend handmade jewelry, sewn and knitted clothing and

accessories, toys, local foods, housewares, candles, and more unique items at the Telluride High School.

DECEMBER 2013 1

celebration at Schmid Ranch on Wilson Mesa. Bring the kids and step into Christmases past: Find your Christmas tree, make a wreath, enjoy homemade hot cocoa, and more. 970.728.3344

6-8 YOU’RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN Sheridan Arts Foundation Young People’s Theatre middle school actors perform the musical theatre production You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown at the Sheridan Opera House. 970.728.6363 WINTER CONCERT 14 Telluride’s Rock & Roll Academy students play at the Sheridan Opera House. 970.728.6363

Expressions of Beauty

EVENTS CALENDAR

2/11

JANUARY 2014

FEBRUARY 2014 1 2

PALM ARTS DANCE RECITAL 14–15 Palm Arts dancers take the stage to perform “Land of the Sweets” at the Palm Theatre. 970.369.5690

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

MOUNTAINFILM FRIEND-RAISER 26 Mountainfilm in Telluride hosts its annual “friend-raiser” to benefit the film festival and its programs. 970.728.4123

CIRQUE MECHANICS 30 The premier American circus, with acrobatics, mechanical wonders,

and a bit of clowning around—hailed as the “greatest contribution to circus since Cirque du Soleil.” 970.369.5690

HOLIDAY CONCERT SERIES 27-3 Catch these performances by

international music stars, and the special New Year’s Eve celebration at the historic Sheridan Opera House. 970.728.6363

TORCHLIGHT PARADE 31 Celebrate New Year’s Eve with a parade of lights down the ski slopes and fireworks in Mountain Village.

AH HAA SCHOOL FOR THE ARTS 31 Ah Haa hosts its annual New Year’s Eve Gala Fundraiser, featuring fine Brett Schreckengost

art, a champagne reception, a four-course dinner, entertainment, and a wine auction. 970.728.3886

JANUARY ELEPHANT REVIVAL 3–4 Catch the popular folk music group from Nederland, a bluegrass festival favorite, on stage at the Sheridan Opera House. 970.728.6363

GRASCALS 19 Nashville band the Grascals performs bluegrass and Southern gospel music at the Sheridan Opera House. 970.728.6363

KOTO LIP SYNC 24 Locals perform hilarious lip sync routines in costume on the Palm Theatre

MARCH 2014

stage, in a benefit event for local radio station KOTO. 970.728.4333

1 2

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GREASE 31-1&3 Young People’s Theatre high school actors perform the classic play Grease at the Sheridan Opera House. 970.728.6363

WINTER WINE WEEKEND 31-2 Telluride Wine Festival and the Hotel Madeline host sommelier-led

WINTER/SPRING 2013-2014

wine tastings, cooking and grilling demonstrations and classes, and food and wine pairings. 970.708.2204

ONGOING EVENTS: STORYTIME AND POETRY Celebrate the written word at 6 p.m. on the first Tuesday of each month at the Arroyo Wine Bar with the Talking Gourd’s free poetry readings, writing circle, and performances by a featured poet. Kids will enjoy Storytime at the Library, where stories are read aloud at 11 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. A special bilingual Storytime Thursday at 12:15 p.m. has stories in English and Spanish, and on the last Thursday of each month at 5 p.m. there are crafts for kids, and food is served, as part of the Noche de Familia program. 970.728.4519 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. 970.728.2173 RELIVING HISTORY Telluride Historical Museum hosts several programs periodically throughout the winter and spring, including historic ski tours at the resort and regional field trips. 970.728.3344 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. TECH PROGRAM AT THE LIBRARY The WPL Tech Guy is a program that offers free technology consultations on Thursdays from 2¬3 p.m. 970.728.4519 METROPOLITAN OPERA AT THE PALM The Palm Theatre presents opera performances on a large HD screen throughout the winter on Mondays and Saturdays, dates and times vary. This winter’s schedule includes Metropolitan Opera performances of Tosca (Puccini), Falstaff (Verdi), Rusalka (Dvořák), Prince Igor (Borodin), and Werther (Massenet). 970.369.5690 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. 970.708.4001 OPEN CLASSES AT THE AH HAA SCHOOL FOR THE ARTS The Ah Haa School offers an open ceramics studio with different projects and instructors each week on Thursdays from 5–7:30. Monday and Thursday mornings from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. you can join Robert Weatherford’s Painting From Within classes, and on Wednesday evenings, Canvas and Cocktails is a fun, open class from 6–8 p.m. featuring local artists. 970.728.3886

TelluridE Ceramic (pictured) and traditional Telluride Watches

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EVENTS CALENDAR

CRIBBAGE TOURNAMENT 11 Cribbage players congregate at Oak, the restaurant/bar, for a tournament and fundraiser in support of KOTO radio. 970.728.4333

PARSONS 11 Parsons Dance is an internationally renowned dance company based

in New York City, performing uplifting, family-friendly contemporary dance at the Palm Theatre. 970.369.5690

COMEDY FEST 14-16 The 15th annual Telluride Comedy Fest features famous comedians

from The Daily Show, Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock performing skits and improv. 970.728.6363

THE INFAMOUS STRINGDUSTERS 20–21 The newgrass-jam quintet takes the stage at the Sheridan Opera House for two performances. 970.728.6363

GAY SKI WEEK 21-2 Come out and ski at this annual event produced by Straight Out Media & Marketing in conjunction with the Telluride Mountain Village Owners Association in support of Telluride AIDS Benefit.

TELLURIDE AIDS BENEFIT 28-4 A multi-day event for HIV/AIDS prevention and education, the benefit

2/28-3/4

Brett Schreckengost

includes a signature fashion show, art and clothing auctions and a trunk show. 970.728.0869

ONGOING EVENTS:

APRIL 2014 1

2/1

SNOWKITE CLINIC Get an introduction to snowkiting on the first Tuesday afternoon of each month. Bring your own skis or snowboard, the rest of the gear is provided. Cost is $75 per student. 541.490.4401

Brett Schreckengost

MAY 2014 1

FEBRUARY CHOCOLATE LOVERS’ FLING 1 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. 970.728.5842

NAME THAT TUNE 7 Teams compete and test their music knowledge in this fun annual fundraising

7-10 20

TELLURIDE THEATRE The local theatre company performs an original play. 970.369.5675

www.TellurideMagazine.com

WINTER/SPRING 2013-2014

to celebrate women. 970.728.5842

TELLURIDE THEATRE MUSICAL 11-16 Local theatre company performs an original musical production at the Palm Theatre. 970.369.5690

UNIVERSITY CENTERS OF THE SAN MIGUEL UCSM offers a host of classes and seminars, some with college credit available. Topics include computers, business, Spanish, French, literature, and sustainability. Check out the full schedule and register online at ucsanmiguel.org.

event for KOTO radio at the Smuggler restaurant. 970.728.4333

MARCH PHENOMENAL WOMEN’S WEEK 3–7 San Miguel Resource Center presents film, arts and educational events

COVER BAND WEEKEND 13–16 Hear your favorite music, performed in tribute by select cover bands. 970.728.6363

ROCKIN’ AT THE OPERA HOUSE 14 Telluride Adaptive Sports Program hosts this annual Western-themed fundraiser at the Sheridan Opera House. 970.728.6363

TEDX TELLURIDE LIVE 19–20 Local discussions at the Palm Theatre surround video presentation of TED talks about science and innovation. 970.369.5690

BURLESQUE 28–29 Don’t miss Telluride Theatre’s annual risqué fundraiser, a vaudeville-style, strip-tease performance at the Sheridan Opera House. 970.728.6363

APRIL STREET DANCE 4 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 5.)

CLOSING DAY Telluride Ski Resort closes for the 2013-14 ski season.

GONDOLA CLOSES 6 Both the Gondola and the Chondola cease winter operations for the 2013-14 ski season.

MAY POETRY PRIZE 16 Telluride Arts awards the Mark Fischer Poetry Prize to the best poem submitted in the contest. 970.728.3930

23–26

36TH ANNUAL MOUNTAINFILM IN TELLURIDE ountainfilm in Telluride is a film festival that screens documentaM ries, and hosts symposiums, breakfast talks, and other events about mountain culture, the environment, and our global community. 970.728.4123

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TELLURIDE TURNS

Headlines & Highlights FROM THE LOCAL NEWS

Telluride Historical Museum Connects with Smithsonian

ou might think that folks in Washington, D.C., have never heard of the tiny, remote town of Telluride. Well, they have now. Telluride Historical Museum was chosen to become a national affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The museum has always been a tribute to miners and prospectors, Ute Indians and railroads, booms and busts, but now it will also host world-renowned scholars and curators, as

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become a Smithsonian affiliate last summer. Harold Closter, director of Smithsonian Affiliations, adds, “We are proud to partner with the Telluride Historical Museum, an organization dedicated to telling an important part of our nation’s history.” The Telluride Historical Museum joins a network of 177 affiliate organizations in 42 states, Puerto Rico, and Panama, and is one of only three Smithsonian Affiliate museums in Colorado. For the first year, the museum

will bring non-traditional things to Telluride through the Smithsonian such as oral histories, newsreels, audio recordings, documentaries, and visiting scholars.  “Becoming an affiliate enables us to further our mission and maximize the educational impact of the museum,” says Kinias. “It will be a wonderful asset to visitors and our community as we develop engaging programming and exhibitions in the years ahead.” e —Corinne Platt

Wounded Warriors Heal in Telluride

ome people perceive Telluriders as self-serving—forgoing careers for powder days and family time for outdoor adventures. But when it comes to helping people in need, Telluriders shine. On any given day, says Telluride Adaptive Sports Program Executive Director Courtney Stuecheli, volunteers from a pool of 160 trained staff show up at the TASP office in Mountain Village to donate their time and their skills to disabled skiers, snowboarders, mountain bikers, rock climbers, white water rafters, and horseback riders. With TASP’s relationship with 22

well as paintings, photographs, prints, and manuscripts. Telluride will have access to the Smithsonian’s collection, containing 136 million objects. When Executive Director Erica Kinias came on board at the museum, she says she realized that “even though we’re geographically isolated, there is no reason why we can’t be connected to recognized scholars, exhibits, and collections.” After a competitive process, Telluride was chosen to

the Wounded Warriors Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to assisting wounded veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, volunteers have an even better reason to step up. TASP has helped bring more than 100 Wounded Warriors to Telluride to attend both Project Odyssey retreats and their own programs. Project Odyssey and TASP use outdoor and recreational situations to help veterans discover inner strength and find the courage to

continue in their recoveries. “We offer a variety of recreational activities—skiing, snowmobiling, rock climbing,” says Stuecheli. “We try to demonstrate what’s possible in the outdoors while giving the vets a break from medical appointments and the stresses of their everyday lives.” Many of the vets who come struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression, and are invited to bring friends and family members for support. “We show them that the outdoors can

“We show them that the outdoors can be a way of life and a powerful way to heal.”

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be a way of life and a powerful way to heal.” With a name derived from Homer’s epic poem about defeating adversity and finding the way home, Project Odyssey encourages vets to create relationships with nature and friends and find support to overcome the stress of combat. The TASP program is so successful, Stuecheli says, because it offers the veterans the opportunity to step out of daily life routines and push their personal boundaries in a new setting. And because it lets the Telluride volunteers do what they do best: share their passion for the outdoors with others. e —Corinne Platt

PASSINGS

Howard Greager LOCAL HISTORIAN, AUTHOR, AND COWBOY PASSES AWAY

Rock and Roll Academy Hits the Road PROGRAM EXPANDS TO ASPEN, WISCONSIN, FLORIDA, AND PUERTO RICO

hen Mark Galbo created the Rock and Roll Academy, he had one thing in mind: he wanted to create and protect a space where children could make choices, take ownership of their learning, and develop independence of thought and spirit. But what began as a makeshift operation in the halls of the Telluride Mountain School in 2003—back when the school was still housed in a condominium in Mountain Village—has now become a full-blown business with locations in places as close as Aspen and as far-flung as Puerto Rico. There are now nine Rock and Roll Academies in a variety of schools—private, public, charter, even after-school programs. Galbo credits his success, in part, to the Telluride Mountain School, which houses Rock and Roll Academy’s inaugural location, and whose “unique culture and open atmosphere allowed me to explore and develop my methodology.” Yet, while there are now multiple places utilizing this program, the vision is still the same. Galbo is heavily involved in the growth of every new academy, traveling to new locations at the onset, and for additional visits. Rock and Roll Academy’s goal is to create an atmosphere (in Telluride, it’s a red-walled studio) where kids can build their own bands. In doing so, students learn music as well as life skills, in sort of a real-life version of the Jack Black comedy The School of Rock, and the program has become wildly popular in Telluride. Now

that the Rock and Roll Academy has hit the road, kids all across the country will get to share this experience. “My goal is to get as many students as possible into the magic red room.” It is not just the kids that get to experience it. Parents are thrilled to watch the transformation and are always stunned to see their children perform after they take the class. One Telluride mother said she could never have dreamed who her son, John Patrick Osborne, would become on stage, and that watching him perform was one of the best moments of her life. Galbo said that backstage, before each performance, he tells his students the same thing: That he doesn’t care about the notes, he cares about them, and to go out there and show the audience who they are and what they’ve done together. “Say that to a kid long enough, and really have the courage to mean it, and they will surpass any goal you could have imagined.” e —Emily Shoff

ome people were lucky enough to hear Howard Greager tell his stories in person. He would regale listeners with his wry humor and his eyes twinkling as he expertly shod their horses up on Wilson Mesa, sharing his wisdom and displaying at the same time the skills a person can learn during a lifetime in the West. He also chronicled these tales in several notable books, which he published later in life: The Company of Cowboys, The Hell That Was Paradox, The Mind Of A Fox (Cowboy Humor), We Shall Fall As The Leaves (about the Colorado Ute Indians), Posey’s Spurs and Smoke From Old Campfires and Forgotten Trails. Greager’s life itself is one of the great stories of the West. He was born in Placerville on May 31, 1924, and lived on Beaver Mesa until the Great Depression made it too difficult for his father to continue ranching. The family moved to Norwood, where his father Rudolph Paul “Dewey” Greager opened a pool hall. It was in that pool hall where Greager met the colorful characters who shared their experiences, which informed his writing when he later retired and became an historian and author. But Greager already had a collection of poetry he’d created and could recite by memory by the time he graduated from Norwood High School in 1942. He worked as a truck driver in the uranium mining industry for two years before being drafted into the military, working in the navy as a radioman in a diesel submarine in the South Pacific. He returned to Colorado in 1946 and became a cowboy, working in Dry Creek Basin, Disappointment Valley, Paradox Valley, and Southern Arizona. He rounded up “broomtail” wild horses and guided hunters with his brother, Oran. WINTER/SPRING 2013-2014

He married Betty Lou Edwards in 1949, and they had four children, William Edgar, Craig Everett, Kenneth Ray (who they lost shortly after his birth), and Rebecca Lynn. Greager worked in many different trades. He owned a butcher shop, worked as a logger, delivered propane and fixed furnaces and appliances, and worked as a journeyman mechanic at both Idarado Mining Company’s mill and one of Union Carbide’s uranium mines. It seemed he was capable of doing anything, or at least knew his way around every quintessentially Western industry that helped create this region. It was after arthritis forced him to retire from physical labor that he started writing. He started out contributing to newspapers, and then set out researching all over Colorado and Wyoming, authoring books, and publishing them himself— in an era long before self-publishing became popular. While he left us with these great treasures of history and cowboy lore, we still lost the soul of a truly great Western character when Howard Greager rode off into the sunset on July 10, 2013. e www.TellurideMagazine.com

Ryan Bonneau

ENVIRONMENT

Mountain Village Installs Solar Panels

By Katie Klingsporn

y hauling roughly 2.5 million passengers between Telluride and Mountain Village each year for free, the gondola keeps an estimated 45 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions out of the atmosphere. The region’s free transportation system has long been considered an environmentally friendly asset. And this summer, the gondola got even greener. Funds raised by the Green Gondola Project, which is administered by the Town of Mountain Village, enabled the installation of 10 kilowatts of solar panels at the Town Hall gondola terminal. Alternative Power Enterprises from Ridgway installed the system in early September. “It’s a real wonderful milestone for the program,” said Deanna Drew, director of environmental services for Mountain Village. “We’re thrilled to put solar out there … the council really wants the town to lead by example.” The project cost about $30,000 and the town was planning to take advantage of San Miguel Power Association’s rebate program, which would save $10,000. The Green Gondola Project is a program that aims to raise money 24

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for efficiency upgrades and alternative energy applications that can help offset the substantial amount of electricity used each year by the gondola. While it eliminates the need for its passengers to drive eight miles between Telluride and

the town chipped in for that work. “We’re kind of following the philosophy that the cleanest kilowatt is the one that is never used.” And with donations continuing to come in—including at the donation boxes, where people chip

“We’re kind of following the philosophy that the cleanest kilowatt is the one that is never used.” Mountain Village, the gondola also uses more than two million kilowatt hours of electricity a year—and the project hopes to mitigate that. The Green Gondola Project was launched in 2009, and the town took it over in January of 2012. It raises money through online donation forms, collection boxes at terminals, and other programs. Last year, project funds paid for efficiency upgrades at two terminals, switching fluorescent and metal halide lights to LEDs and updating heating systems. The upgrades resulted in a 70 percent reduction in electricity demand, Drew said. “That was kind of the first step, to make it as efficient as possible,” Drew said, adding that

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in with everything from coins to $20 bills—Drew said the town was able to follow up the efficiency measures with this solar project. “All along people have been wanting to see some tangible results.” The Town Hall terminal is a great location for a solar array because it’s in an open area that gets plenty of sunshine. The 10-kilowatt system won’t produce an enormous amount of electricity, but Drew said, “every step counts.” The gondola was built in 1992 to provide car-free transportation between Mountain Village and Telluride. The system, which is owned by the town and funded by the Telluride Mountain Village Owners

Association, costs more than $4 million a year to run and uses more electricity than any other town facility. And most of that electricity comes from coal-fired sources. “Anything we can do to start bringing that down can be wonderful,” Drew said. “We’re always encouraging locals to pull a quarter or a buck out of their pocket when they ride it, or to donate online.” It seems to be working. Drew said there was $800 in the collection box in July alone. The project is one part of a larger Mountain Village effort to push and implement green initiatives. The town also agreed this summer to put $20,000 toward a solar rebate program—matching $20,000 put up by the Clean Energy Collective. The program offers a 40-cent per watt rebate for Mountain Village homes and businesses purchasing solar power panels at the SMPA Community Solar Array in Paradox Valley. It will run through the end of the winter or until funds run out. The town is also planning to install two hydropower turbines in its water line next year. “We’re just doing our part to make sure that this town and the resort is as energy-efficient as possible.” e

Pilot Project to Protect Rare Plants a Success

Art Goodtimes

FOR THE RECORD W E AT H E R H I G H L I G H T S By Thom Carnevale NOVEMBER 2012 High: 62° (Record 73° in 1941) 5° (Record -22° in 1931) Low: Precipitation: .39” (Avg. 1.53”) Snow: 6” (Avg. 21.5”; Max. 57” in 1991) DECEMBER 2012 High: 57° (Record 66° in 1973) Low: -9° (Record -27° in 1949) Precipitation: 1.29” (Avg. 1.58”) Snow: 21.75” (Avg. 25.5”; Max. 107” in 1983) JANUARY 2013 High: 52° Low: -18° Precipitation: 1.53” Snow: 18”

(Record 58° in 1990) (Record -32° in 1963) (Avg. 1.64”) (Avg. 26.9”; Max. 80.5” in 1979)

FEBRUARY 2013 High: 52° -7° Low: Precipitation: 1.62” Snow: 27”

(Record 65° in 1986) (Record -36° in 1933) (Avg. 1.72”) (Avg. 26.8”; 97.9” in 1936)

MARCH 2013 High: 66° Low: -1° Precipitation: 1.23” Snow: 15.5”

(Record 73° in 1986 & 2012) (Record -20° in 1932) (Avg. 2.19”) (Avg. 33.9”; Max. 127” in 1995)

APRIL 2013 68° High: Low: 8° Precipitation: 1.18” Snow: 13”

(Record 79° in 2012) (Record -10° in 1992) (Avg. 2.17”) (Avg. 22.8”; Max. 64.5” in 1917)

pilot project launched by San Miguel County in 2010 has led to the discovery of a rare plant species on two properties in the county and, officials say, proven the worth of a new model of conservation work. Bolstered by the success of the test project, county officials plan to continue and grow the program in the future. The project, known as Payment for Ecosystem Services, provided private landowners money in exchange for allowing a field botanist to look for four rare plant species on their land. The idea behind it, according to County Commissioner Art Goodtimes, was twofold: one, to create a new kind of tool that benefits private landowners and protects resources, and two, to test out the model to see it if works in San Miguel County. Seven landowners opted to participate in the project, and in the summer of 2012, Peggy Lyon, a botanist with the Colorado Natural Heritage Project, searched the lands for Gypsum Valley Cat’s Eye, Cushion Blad-

By Katie Klingsporn

where Sally Collins, the founding director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Environmental Markets, introduced PES projects as a new conservation strategy that has begun to take root overseas. Goodtimes said he realized that the concept made sense. Goodtimes ended up receiving a fellowship from the Center for Collaborative Conservation at Colorado State University to initiate the project. The money was matched by funds from the county, $9,750 collected by a mil levy tax in support of protecting open space, and the project operated under the auspices of the Open Space Commission. The project entailed two and a half years of development, stakeholder outreach, fieldwork protocols and final survey results. After a committee identified several areas of potential habitat for the four plant species, they selected 22 properties that they determined would be appropriate and contacted landowners; seven agreed. Land-

The project, known as Payment for Ecosystem Services, provided private landowners money in exchange for allowing a field botanist to look for four rare plant species on their land. derpod, Lone Mesa Snakeweed and Parish’s alkali-grass—all species that are classified by the Heritage Project as “imperiled.” The search proved fruitful; Lyon discovered a healthy, “A-ranked” population of the Cat’s Eye on one property and a second poorly ranked population on another property. “It actually worked terrifically,” Goodtimes said of the project. The Gypsum Valley Cat’s Eye, which features clusters of white flowers with yellow centers, is an endemic plant that grows in barren landscapes in western Colorado. The plant is very limited in habitat and geographic range. The county is now working on developing long-term monitoring for the population that will ensure continued health of the species. The success of the program, Goodtimes said, has also emboldened officials to consider planning for a future PES project—probably habitat restoration of some kind—to aid ranchers in the county with the proposed listing of the Sage-grouse, a candidate species for an endangered listing. Goodtimes was inspired to test out a PES project after attending a presentation on ecosystem services in Fort Collins,

owners were paid $5 per acre for access, with additional bonuses if plant populations were found, and if they consented to adding the populations to the CNHP database. The landowner with the A-ranked population agreed to list it in the database to be reviewed by researchers only. Goodtimes believes the PES project was the first of its kind in the state and the nation, and said that since the concept is so new, a main objective of the project was testing it out to find if it works. For that reason, it was kept small and fairly simple. But the process taught the county some valuable lessons, he said, like how in the future, it should get more private landowner input early in the process and let those individuals do more to shape the project, which would give them more investment. Right now, the county is working on outreach with that in mind, and in the future Goodtimes hopes to embark on what’s known as a carbon ranch project. A carbon ranch aims to sequester carbon dioxide in plants and soils. “We did one that works, we showed the proof of concept,” Good times said. “Now we can look at some projects that take on a bigger bite.” e

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BOOK REVIEWS

San Juan

Scribes ART BOOKS TAILS OF TELLURIDE: GOOD TO THE BONE EILEEN BENJAMIN & STEVIE DECKER It is no secret that people in Telluride love their dogs. It is one of the most dog-friendly towns that exist, a place where your pooch is welcome in the bank (and can put their paws up on the counter and get a treat, rather than an admonishment), where leashes are only minimally required, and where puppy parking abounds outside of every establishment. The fondness for hounds here was responsible for the great success of the first Tails of Telluride, and for its sequel, Good to the Bone. The book is full of heartwarming stories by dog owners and is beautifully illustrated, featuring the dogs and some of the iconic places around town. The book was edited by local publisher Eileen Burns and the colorful, gorgeous drawings were

created by local artist Stevie Decker. If you love dogs—even just ones that belong to other lucky people—this is a great read and a collectible piece.

POETRY LOOKING SOUTH TO LONE CONE THE CLOUD ACRE POEMS By Art Goodtimes Art Goodtimes is a renaissance man. He is a longtime commissioner for San Miguel County, the master of ceremonies for the Telluride Mushroom Festival, a skilled basket weaver, a potato farmer, host of the Talking Gourds writing circle, and a poet—he was the Poet Laureate of the Western Slope in 2012. Goodtimes just released a new book of poetry, Looking South to Lone Cone, a meditation on life and nature. The book is a series of poems rooted in place, centered around Cloud Acre, his small ranch on the west end of San Miguel County in view of the iconic Lone Cone Peak. He finds beauty everywhere, the sky, birds, trees, plants, and seasons—even weeds and the thick mud of spring, and each becomes a metaphor for something deeper. He reflects on the detritus he hauls out to the dump in Broad Canyon, the king-size Super Sealy and “the exes who once shared it/And the children, blood and step/hatched in that family bed/Tangled memories/like the hedgerows/of yellow roses in Redvale.” Goodtimes has captured not just the rugged beauty of the place, but also the essence of the rural lifestyle, the real connection between people in the country rather than the virtual

Every day, writer and artist Marie Fouche goes for a hike in the forest surrounding her home in Norwood, and she used to

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THE WHISPERING TREE Reenchanted Earth Publishing/Kindle ASIN B00B1L94GI $2.99

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LOOKING SOUTH TO LONE CONE Western Eye Press ISBN978-0-941283-37-3 $5.95

Some of that understanding brings hope: The oxygen that travels through the phone line when talking to a brother, allowing you to breathe. The two small children curled together, their bodies forming parentheses, the whole world in between. The first snowflakes, “early, gossamer lattice” that eventually melt into the “bare, black earth/ripe and yearning/for new life to grow.”

post her photos and her musings about these walks on Facebook. Her friends on the social network suggested that she share her status posts in a book, so she chronicled her nature walks every day for one month, and published it.

THE WHISPERING TREE

Whether you are familiar with Lone Cone country or not, these poems are an opportunity to explore the region through Goodtimes’ eyes. The beauty he sees, in obvious places and in some not-so-obvious ones, will resonate with every reader.

first book of poems, Of Eyes and Iris, does much the same thing: it helps the reader to process and understand the world around us.

TAILS OF TELLURIDE: GOOD TO THE BONE Burns Publications ISBN 978-0-9882920-9-3 $34.95

The photos are striking, off-the-beatenpath glimpses of the rarely explored deep backwoods of the Uncompahgre National Forest and places beyond. Her journal entries narrate her story, of how she is “re-enchanted with the Earth” every time she sojourns into the forest. The book is named for a graceful, old cedar tree that has become the author’s silent confidante. Each entry is a peaceful meditation on nature and a reminder of how important it is to be connected with the natural world.

communication of the urban world. “Talking through fences/still takes place/in Lone Cone country/Neighbors face to face/untying knots of old news/ across barbed wire.”

OF EYES AND IRIS Poems By Erika Moss Gordon The iris is more than just a lovely, delicate-hued flower—it is also the part of the eye that gives it its color, and which widens and constricts to allow light into the eye, light that triggers brain processes. The iris isn’t just something to look at, it is also the way we see, and understand, everything we encounter. Erika Moss Gordon’s

Gordon is a longtime local, and a yoga teacher, mother, artist, and film buff who works for Telluride Film Festival year-round. She is also a poet, and in this book she has succeeded in sharing her vision of the world, its beauty and its melancholy, employing a Zen-like wisdom that illuminates even the most indescribable things. OF EYES AND IRIS Liquid Light Press ISBN 978-0-9883072-1-6 $9

TUMBLEDOWN ROBERT BOSWELL Great novels are built on great characters, but usually they only consist of a few central characters. Boswell’s latest novel develops more than a dozen characters, each carefully crafted, and every member of the ensemble cast is authentic enough to remind you of someone you know—maybe even yourself. James Candler is a therapist who has entrenched himself in debt, trying to earn a promotion as director of Onyx Springs Rehab, a job he doesn’t particularly want. He is awaiting the arrival of his fiancé Lolly Powell from England, someone he scarcely knows. He is being pursued romantically by a former patient, Lise Wray, who has transformed so much since he worked with her that he doesn’t recognize her. Under his care are several patients, including Mick, the handsome, young schizophrenic who is medicated to the degree that he becomes an entirely different person; Karly, who is severely mentally impaired but so beautiful that her impairment has become a footnote to her looks; and Maura, who has overcome her suicidal tendencies but effects her depression, not quite ready to graduate to the real world. Candler’s childhood best friend, Billy Atlas, is living with him after a recent divorce, but their only real connection is from the past, when their differences seemed less acute because of their proximity while growing up. Candler’s sister returns to the U.S. after the death of her husband, encountering a brother whose life trajectory has become something truly foreign to her. The other counselors at Onyx Springs are deeply textured, from the would-be rock star secretly living with her mentally challenged former patient, to the outgoing director who is courting Candler as his replacement, using elaborate subterfuge like taking a yacht to meet Candler at a bar to ensure that he was not followed, and leaving his beer glass on the bench rather than the table for “deniability.” The most intriguing character of all is Pook, Candler’s mentally ill brother, an artist who committed suicide in his teens, before the narrative even begins. Pook is perhaps the only character not buried in the shadows of some superficial self, the only character not working on some great reinvention of who they are. As a child, Pook does the animation for Candler’s and Atlas’s comic book, but every figure he draws is himself, so Candler

and Atlas dub the comic “Same Man,” putting the super hero Pook figure in each scene and working the narration around him. Candler’s reinvention starts to unravel when he finds himself racing in the Porsche he bought in hopes of impressing the people who might promote him, and causing an accident on the freeway. When a counselor whose job it is to help people inadvertently hurts someone, who can he talk to about it? The plot spills forth from there, at that same accelerated highway speed. What a reader might expect from such a complicated cast of characters is a huge tangle of a story, but Boswell uses the omniscient, first-person narrator, a rare device in contemporary literature, but he uses it masterfully. To drift between lanes from the voice of the calculating stalker Lise Wray to mental patient Karly (IQ 65) is no easy task, but it adds depth to the novel. It is a joy ride, from start to finish, and readers will be gripped as they steer the pages through tragic catastrophes, graphic sexuality, and chortle-out-loud mirth. Robert Boswell is the author of eleven books, most recently The Heyday of the Insensitive Bastards, a finalist for the 2010 PEN USA Award in Fiction. He earned two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Iowa School of Letters Award for Fiction, and the PEN West Award for Fiction. Boswell shares the Cullen Chair in Creative Writing at the University of Houston with his wife, author Antonya Nelson, as well as a home in Telluride where they live part-time. TUMBLEDOWN Graywolf Press ISBN 978-1-55597-649-1 $26

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MOUNTAIN HEALTH

Running down Cancer 50 Marathons in 50 States— And $60k for Cancer Research By Cara Pallone

hat started as a way to raise money for cancer research has become Peter Ripmaster’s life. Running: Not only does he do it daily, he also owns a running shop in North Carolina, where he now lives with his wife Kristen and their two young daughters. He recently completed the Mt. Sneffels Marathon—it was his 50th marathon in a five-year period, one in all 50 states. But his journey started in Telluride, when his mother died of breast cancer in 2000. During that time in his life Ripmaster was leading a party lifestyle here. “Once I lost my mom, it got worse,” he says. “I’m not really proud of the way I was.” He needed a change. He relocated to North Carolina, where he earned a college degree and became a teacher. As he straightened out his life, he found that many of his childhood friends were having epic experiences running marathons. Secretly, Ripmaster was envious. In 2008, while in the car with his wife, he declared he would run a marathon that very day. And he did. He ran 26.2 miles before collapsing. “Deep down inside, I was like, ‘I love this!’” he remembers with a laugh. Ripmaster learned about the 50 States Marathon Club, and, with his mother in mind, he set an extreme goal: 50 marathons in 50 states to raise $50,000 for can28

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cer research by the time he turned 50. He is just 36, and he finished his final race in August amid a crowd of cheering supporters here, returning to the place where his journey started. He didn’t just finish ahead of his goal timing-wise, he also surpassed his fundraising hopes, bringing in $60,000— mostly donations from friends and family—to help find a cure, and was overwhelmed by the reception he got when he pulled into town. His friends threw a party for him

wasn’t beautiful the first couple of races. Ripmaster ran his first marathon in the fall of 2008 in Chicago and the next 20 or so without a single training run between them. Race after race, he bonked, while other runners—even a woman with two prosthetic legs pushing a baby carriage—breezed by him. He found inspiration in such people and in the memory of his mother. “Anytime I started feeling bad for myself that I was tired or sore or broke, I would think about

“Running is my therapy. It’s where I feel closest to God and my mother’s spirit. It’s sacred to me.”

and his wife and brother surprised him with a Roger Mason painting they commissioned of Ripmaster running down the main street in Telluride. “The homecoming was incredible. I became the person I am today while in Telluride—all my life lessons have been in Telluride. I’ve lived in western North Carolina for eight years now and I still consider Telluride home.” It’s a beautiful story. But it sure

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my mom,” he says. “I would think about being with her as she had lines in and out of her throat and was losing her hair, and how she fought with grace and dignity.” The turning point came during a marathon in 2011 as runners of every age and body type sprinted ahead of him. With 20-some races to go, Ripmaster realized he had time to change his habits. He began training five days a week, eating

healthy and drinking less. He quit drinking soda and did his best to cut out sugars. He broke a new personal record every race. “I decided that if I was going to reach my potential as a runner I couldn’t be lugging around 30-40 extra pounds. So the eating/drinking habits along with the running did the trick for me. I really found that running gives you back exponentially what you give it. Running is my therapy. It’s where I feel closest to God and my mother’s spirit. It’s sacred to me. It’s deeper than words.” Today, he completes a marathon in three and a half hours, instead of the five or six it once took him. He is taking a break from fundraising but will keep racing, in the 350mile Iditarod Trail Invitational this February, a few 50-mile races, and the Boston Marathon in April. He said that crossing that 50th finish line here was surreal. “I was holding my oldest daughter crossing the finish line. It was a Colorado, bluesky day. I had close to 80 friends and family at the finish—I turned the corner and I heard this roar. I simply couldn’t compute the fact that I was done with this adventure. More than anything, I was just pleased that I was able to make good on a promise I made to my mother on her deathbed: I told her I was going to do my part to beat cancer. It started out as something I did to raise money,” Ripmaster says. “Now it’s my life.” e

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ADVICE

Snowmobiles and Avalanches Dear Jock, I bought a brand new snowmobile and am all kitted up to go high-marking in the backcountry with a top-of-the-line helmet and a warm one-piece suit. Now the sales guy says I need to buy avalanche rescue equipment. What gives? Can’t I just goose the throttle of my sled and outrun snow slides? —Young and Fast

Ask Jock

ATHLETIC ADVICE FROM OUR LOCAL MOUNTAIN GURU

Dear Young and Fast, Please read the following words out loud in the company of an adult who can help you interpret them should you be at all confused: The answer to your question is no, absolutely not. You cannot avoid avalanches on your snow machine unless you are very, very lucky. Before you make any marks in the steep basins, you must acquire the same avalanche safety gear that other backcounty travelers use, including an avalanche beacon, a rescue probe, and a collapsible shovel. You might also consider an inflatable avalanche float pack to help keep you on the top of moving snow. Shovels and probes are pretty basic; you can purchase them based on price point or color, though I’d recommend a shovel that is not made out of plastic. Avalanche beacons have become very high tech in recent years with a dizzying array of features. Fortunately, it doesn’t much matter which beacon you buy because they are all compatible. It does, however, matter that you know how to use all these tools effectively. The best way to learn those skills—and a number of others that will help keep you alive in the backcountry—is to take an avalanche safety course from one of the local guide services or the Telluride ski patrol. Good luck and go lightly out there, — Jock

Eating Before a Race

Building an Igloo

Dear Jock, I made a bet with my buddy that I’d beat him to the finish in the Butch Cassidy Nordic Ski Chase this spring. I’ve been training like a madman all winter, but I’m curious what I should eat before the race for maximum endurance and power during 15 kilometers of grueling cross-country skiing. What do you recommend for a pre-race meal to win the bet and crush my friend? What’s a girl to do? —Needing Nordic Nutrition

Dear Jock, Ever since I was a schoolboy, I’ve been infatuated with polar exploration. I’ve read all the accounts by Shackleton, Peary, Scott, Bryd and Admundson. Now I’m determined to live my childhood dreams and sleep in an igloo. How do I build one? —Pining for the Golden Age

Dear NNN, If you want to ski like a Norwegian, you should feast on salty dead fish and Wasa flatbreads washed down with shots of aquavit. However, not everyone can stomach a pile of herring on a gluten-rich cracker, and even fewer can stomach aquavit. The truth is everyone’s stomach—and metabolism—is different. Some top endurance athletes are strict vegans, while others prefer an animal-protein-rich Paleo diet. The conventional wisdom calls for a pre-race meal high in complex carbohydrates and protein, but nobody agrees on exactly what that means. The most scientific way to answer your question would be to eat different foods, wait a few hours, and then ski 15 kilometers with the clock running and see what works best for you under simulated race conditions. In conjunction with your pre-race nutrition, you should arrive at the starting line well rested, fully hydrated, and mentally prepared. Most importantly, you’ll want to maximize your glide with the right wax. Ski fast! — Jock

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Dear Golden Ageist, Go to igloobuilding.org or search YouTube for a complete tutorial on the art of igloo construction. Before you try to cut perfect rectangular blocks of snow like those you see pictured, please know that unlike the wet, dense, maritime snowpack of the Arctic or Antarctic, the snowpack around Telluride tends to be cold, dry, and full of air. This makes for excellent skiing conditions—think of that trail of billowing white smoke—but Colorado snow tends to have poor cohesive qualities, meaning you won’t be able to cut big, stable blocks until you shovel snow into a large pile and let it sit for three to four hours to compress and consolidate. Alternatively, if you burrow into the pile of snow, you can make a quinzee shelter, which is often easier than building a traditional igloo in Colorado. Another option is to form a frame of interlaced pine boughs and then pack snow over the top to create a cousin of the igloo, called a wickiup. No matter what style of shelter you create, never use a cook stove inside without adequate ventilation or you risk death by carbon monoxide poisoning. My other hot tip is to bring a friend on your sleepover. Two sets of hands will expedite the construction phase and another body sleeping nearby will increase the temperature inside substantially. Sweet dreams, — Jock

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ESSAY

A Trip Down Memory Lane By Michelle Curry Wright

here’s not a single snapshot of the ski bus parked in my memory banks, the one that has been idling and spilling intoxicating fumes into my head since the winter of 1970. The real version of this bus could be found stationed at Seattle’s Milk Barn at 5:30 a.m. every Saturday for six weeks in the dead of winter to haul a pack of adolescents off to slide around on wet northwestern snow and then haul them back, dank clothes steaming up the windows. There are no photos of my shiny, red “wet-look” parka with the belt, the solitary hip element in my measly trick bag, the one thing rescuing me from the indignity of the six-foot wooden skis my dad initially sent me off with, the poles with saucer baskets, the antiquated lace-up boots. No photos of the era’s own accessories, either—the Mad Magazines, Oh Henry bars, striped scarves, Converse sneakers, corduroy pants. This absence of visual souvenirs is due to the fact, of course, that this was the ’70s: the prequel to the prequel to Facebook and Instagram and iPhones. This was far before our ability—our odd and increasing obsession—to relive every moment before it is actually completed. To hit replay before the credits are over. To view smiles on a screen even before those very smile muscles have relaxed. This was a time long ago when, for the most part, we relied on a little something called memory for cataloging the moment. Remember memory? We used it to recall lots of things, in fact— things like phone numbers, directions, names, conversations, stories, faces, and, more to the point, our 32

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“Magic Bus,” mixed media on paper, 22”x26” Rob Schultheis, Telluride Gallery of Fine Art

past. We relied on it because it was the only thing we had, aside from a smattering of snapshots, some diary pages, and the very occasional home movie (if you happened to come from that kind of family). In the old days, before finger swipes on a screen, before conflating memories with memories of photos, events were replayed in the mind’s eye, over and over and over again. In this way, we would lock time and space into a kind of five-sense brain locus, often re-accessing the whole package by virtue of a single detail. Like the smell of bus fumes in winter, for instance. Even today, I get a whiff of that and wham! I’m back on that bus.

In my 1970, it’s the seventh grade. While the first wave of hippies, ski bums, and dropouts is about to arrive in Telluride (a decade before me) to ski a newly created mountain and live their wild-years utopia, I am having my very first encounter with a different kind of ski mountain, the old Warren Miller variety, about sixty miles east of Seattle. Not that I know the difference: to me it’s a miracle that I am on any ski bus at all, given my circumstances, which include a retired Army colonel for a father. So when I’m told I’m going skiing—through the grace of god or by some sort of gigantic mistake or implausible good fortune—it sim-

“In the old days, before finger swipes on a screen, before conflating memories with memories of photos, events were replayed in the mind’s eye, over and over and over again.”

WINTER/SPRING 2013-2014

ply does not compute. I don’t even know enough to know that canoelength skis will not be appropriate. I know my father has never believed in the extraneous, frivolous, or renegade, and that this verges on all three. I get on that bus feeling blessed, lucky, and light. To make a long story short, the wood skis are snatched from me and perfunctorily replaced with pint-sized Head skis. I am assigned, along with the other never-evers, to a beautiful blond ski instructor with a mustache. Someone who makes the whole world look good to me. And there, on those glorious days, skiing fundamentals are deliciously sandwiched between two slices of idyllic ski bus rides. I know enough never to seem too euphoric when I get home. It was fun, dad. I got some exercise. But later on, lying in bed, buzzing, I hold the whole experience inside me like helium, ready to burst. The day’s details circulate and coalesce into memory and create something so tangible it changes my heart. Years later, when I move to Telluride, a place I have never even heard of, I fall in love with a beautiful blond instructor with a mustache and relearn the fundamentals of skiing. For a while, anyway, life is like that magic ski bus, fashioned, it seems, on the memory I held so closely, so preciously inside. And it makes me wonder, as I consider the difference between then and now, if we shouldn’t be more careful with the present moment, defend it better against the ravages of snapshots, and protect the use of our actual memory. Because that is where the real magic begins. e

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THE INNOVATOR PETE WAGNER’S CUSTOM SKI FACTORY PARTNERS WITH MICROSOFT By Rob Story | Photos by Brett Schreckengost

ust a few miles down valley from Telluride is a dream factory: Wagner Custom Skis. The company occupies a long-abandoned gas station (a big red Texaco star, embedded in the façade, still looms above the front door) in Placerville, Colorado. Inside is owner Pete Wagner, a boyish 37-year-old with a messy Beatles haircut. Wagner grew up in Dayton, Ohio, skiing a 300-foot-vertical molehill ten min-

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utes from his house. After earning an MBA from the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado, Wagner could have gone to Wall Street. Instead, he came here. Walking back toward the presses and computer design stations Wagner dreamed up, it quickly becomes clear that he knows everything and everyone. He even knows that mohawked dude in the Mammoth Mountain (California) parking lot who’ll fire

WINTER/SPRING 2013-2014

up power tools at his nearby trailer and cut you a pair of skis during lunch if you slide him $300 or so. Wagner knows it’s a good story, knows how much skiers enjoy saying, yeah, I own custom skis. But he also knows you’d be a damn fool to waste perfectly good bindings or a minute of precious winter on skis built during lunch in a parking lot. You’d be better off buying Chinese-made mass production boards at a big box retailer. Describing the

differences between stock and custom boards, Wagner says, “All the big companies make nice skis these days. Our advantage is focusing on fit. As most experts know, a custom-fit boot performs better. Same with custom-fit skis. The big companies can’t tailor products to each individual skier. We can.” A well-fit ski maximizes a skier’s fitness and athletic potential, Wagner says. “World-cup racers get custom skis so they can ski their

“It’s labor intensive. Lots of craftsmanship goes into it. Lots of love, too.”

absolute best,” he says. “The way I see it, our factory’s basically a World Cup race room for recreational skiers.” Making a custom ski is a complicated process. Wagner has customers fill out and email back an eight-page questionnaire. The detailed questions—What are your top three terrain preferences? What do you like/dislike about your current skis?—determine your “Skier DNA.” Computers in an upstairs aerie digest your DNA and create a ski recipe just for you and your selfish needs. Then they transmit it down to the factory floor. Whereas some custom builders merely switch between a selection of molds, Wagner forms “a complex 3D jigsaw puzzle of your proposed ski, built from scratch.” So what? Custom builders less meticulous than Wagner have long delivered dream boards to skiers. Across North America, more than a dozen custom ski builders have opened for business in the last ten years, emboldened by computer design programs, cheap presses, and no-cost marketing via the Internet. Wagner, though, owns a résumé that garage tinkers can’t match. Before his MBA, Wagner studied mechanical engineering at the University of California, San Diego. He got a job designing high-performance golf shafts for Carbite Golf and Penley Golf, mastering carbon fiber models for pros such as John Daly. He spent seven winters in Telluride, working golf R&D at night and skiing by day. It dawned on him that skis involve variables that golf clubs don’t sweat. Differences in terrain, environment, and skiing styles are much more complex. So Wagner tweaked his software to conceive gear for mountains instead of country clubs. “We don’t need to reinvent the wheel,” Wagner says, “just focus on fit and design improvements.” Instead of injecting molds with chemicals, as mass producers do, each Wagner '

WINTER/SPRING 2013-2014

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“World-cup racers get custom skis so they can ski their absolute best. The way I see it, our factory’s basically a World Cup race room for recreational skiers.”

ski is built by hand, with workers carefully assembling sandwiches built with premium hardwood cores: maple and ash. (Plywood is not allowed in the building.) Structural layers blend fiberglass and Kevlar. I’m one of the local Telluride skiers that can’t get enough days on my Wagners. But I’m hardly alone in giving Wagner big props—they have earned a reputation not just in Telluride, but nationally. Not long ago, the American Solar Energy Society recognized Wagner Custom Skis’ energy and recycling initiatives. An article in the society’s magazine, Solar Today, praised the factory for heating the whole manufacturing floor with a large solar thermal array. It noted that Wagner purchases high quality wind-energy credits from turbines in the Midwest, and that it recycles wood scraps as kindling. But Wagner is not just environmentally conscious, they are also image conscious, and their skis are in vogue, the new cool gear. Wagner was featured on Jimmy Fallon’s late-night talk show, when Fallon and his guests drank from a shot ski made by Wagner—a fun public relations coup. This year, they’re taking innovation to the next level. Not only are they making skis that are designed for the rigors of backcountry skiing, they are bringing the sport into the digital age. Want to know how you’re skiing? There’s an app for that. “We’ve got a couple new technology stories: For one, cutting edge visco-elastically dampened carbon fiber technology that is optimized for off-piste skiing. We’ve also started a partnership with Microsoft in which we’re embedding chips in the skis that communicate with smart phone apps. This gives us real data about how people are skiing, which helps us design their perfect skis.” Wagner boards cost plenty, starting at $1,750. But that buys “the highest-quality materials we can get,” says Wagner, “like extra thick base material and oversized edges. Those make the skis less prone to damage from rocks.” In a good snow year, Wagner sells about a thousand pairs. “It’s labor intensive,” Wagner says. “Lots of craftsmanship goes into it. Lots of love, too.” Indeed, Wagner even worries what music plays during ski assembly. Recently, that music was pleasant World Beat. “It’s the same theory as Hidden Messages in Water,” Wagner says, “which holds that music can affect the health of a snow crystal. We think music also affects the pressing of skis.” While Wagner does carry some stock topsheets, those are also fully customizable. Pete himself skied last winter on boards adorned with screen-grabs from a favorite movie, Caddyshack. He clearly still likes golf; he just likes skiing better. e 38

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The BEST in the World Telluride’s Freestyle Club Takes Top Honors By Jesse James McTigue | Photos by Nori Lupfer

aybe this scenario is familiar: You’re riding up Lift Nine and you see a line of skiers ripping down Kant-Mak-M. No, I mean really ripping. Their upper bodies face down the hill and their legs move symmetrically. One after another they air over the “reef ” and then point it, leaving only a thin trail of snow billowing behind them. Winter’s dust. You decide you want to ski like them. Good luck. Chances are “they” are on the Telluride Ski and Snowboard Club’s freestyle team. And the reason they ski like they do is because beginning last spring, when the ski area closed, they began their annual dry land training regimen of strength, agility, and circuit training and con40

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tinued it throughout the season. In June, they jeeped up Imogene Pass to ski on a lone patch of snow in Savage Basin for an eight-day mogul camp. In July, they spent two weeks on the glacier in Mount Hood, Oregon, and in October, they trained in Zermatt, Switzerland. In between all that, they accumulated about

WINTER/SPRING 2013-2014

three weeks of water ramp training to perfect their aerials in Steamboat Springs and Park City. All of this training they completed under the leadership, coaching, and careful scrutiny of Telluride Freestyle Team Program Director, Caleb Martin, and Champion Mogul Team Coach,

Chris Pepe, who have developed a program so strong that USSA (the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association—the nation’s governing body of competitive skiing and snowboarding) named it the “Best in the World” freestyle club for 2013. But visiting Martin and Pepe’s office, you would never guess this to be the case. There is no glamour or glitz. There are a couple of ski posters on the wall, but no awards or medals displayed. Instead, Martin and Pepe sit facing each other at beat-up wooden desks, covered with radio batteries that are charging. Receipts are scattered about, a few shovels lean against the wall, and a broken ski pole is tossed to the side. These are mogul skiing’s geniuses? The scene resembles that of two young guys who traded in their jobs

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and ’90s who skied with Martin in the old-school days of the Bump Club, under the tutelage of Hugh Sawyer, one of the first coaches to put Telluride mogul skiing on the map: Darius Brooks, Kristin Taylor, Orion Helms, Justine Van Houte, and Thomas Riley. Then Martin mentions the ones who have made it to different levels of the U.S. Team during his own tenure—the Discoe brothers, Jimmy and Joe; Wade Parkinson, Troy Tully—and those who have most recently been inducted— Keaton McCargo, Thomas Rowley, Nicholas Keating, and Kelsey Albert. The list is impressive for a small program and a small town, but one look at Telluride Ski Resort and it’s no wonder why world-class mogul skiers are literally born here. “It’s starts with the mountain,” Martin said. “I believe in giving kids the fundamentals to ski the whole mountain—anytime, anywhere.” Martin, Pepe, and the athletes use terms such as “technical mogul skiing,” and “modern mogul skiing.” It’s their code. Their interpretation of it, and dedication to learning it, seem to be the seeds for their success. Whatever it actually is, it definitely paid off last season. In the 2012–2013 season, Telluride Freestyle Team athletes earned three of four available World Cup starts at an early-season selection event, and Keating placed in the top ten at a World Cup in Lake Placid while Albert narrowly missed the finals. Telluride athletes took home thirteen top-five finishes on The NorAm Cup, including three gold, a silver, and three bronze. At the Junior National Championships, '

r mie re sP

at Apple to start their own gig out of a garage so they could wear hoodies to work and do things their own way. Both have boyish charm, are in excellent shape, and seem way too mellow to have had such success. But behind the simple façade, there is something more going on. Martin has led Telluride’s Freestyle Team for the past twelve years and currently oversees forty-six athletes that make up the club’s Championship and Junior Mogul Teams. The competitive ski world is as innate to Martin as Facebook is to a teenager. Before directing the freestyle division of the Telluride Ski and Snowboard Club, Martin was an athlete in the club. He was successful at the junior level then made the World Cup team. In 1999, he was third in the overall world rankings and the top ranked U.S. mogul skier. But when discussing his own career, just as it is when discussing his coaching, he downplays his accomplishments and steers the conversation away from himself—in this case, to the great Telluride skiers who came before and after him. “I remember as a kid chasing Jenni Albin and Harold Enbohm [Telluride athletes who skied in World Cup competitions in the early ’90s] through the tourist moguls.” Quick clarification: What you and I ski on—The Plunge and Spiral Stairs runs—are “tourist moguls.” Competitive freestyle skiers ski competition moguls, those that Martin and his athletes carefully form on the team’s closed course under Lift 4, through the cooperation and support of Telluride Ski and Golf Company. He lists other elite Telluride mogul skiers from the ’80s

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“They’re the artists; we’re their paintings. Coaching is something they work hard at and they’re proud of.”

ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT: KEATON MCCARGO

Rowley took home two medals in moguls and dual moguls. The Telluride Freestyle Team also placed two skiers on the Junior World Championship Team that competed in Valmalenco, Italy. Rowley won dual moguls while McCargo took double gold in single moguls and dual moguls. McCargo, who also earned two World Cup starts before winning World Juniors, credits much of her success to the dedication of her coaches. “Caleb and Pepe are the best coaches,” McCargo says, “better than U.S. ski team coaches. They are so connected to each and every athlete—it’s their lives’ work. They’re the artists; we’re their paintings. Coaching is something they work hard at and they’re proud of.” Sitting in their office, Martin

and Pepe couldn’t be more unassuming. The two just returned from coaching a camp at Mount Hood. Pepe pounds the calculator, filling out an expense report and looking up intermittently to add details as Martin fields questions. Martin explains that the “Best in The World” award usually goes to larger freestyle programs that have success in every freestyle discipline—aerials, half-pipe, slopestyle, freestyle, and free skiing. In Telluride, however, the freestyle team includes only one discipline— mogul skiing. “It’s a nice feather in the cap, for sure,” Martin says. “It’s nice to be recognized … ultimately, it’s a lot more rewarding to see the athletes get better. Really, it speaks to the job the athletes did in buying into Chris’s and my plan.”

Martin is fidgety and would clearly rather be skiing, or surfing in Baja where he escapes during his time off, than talking—especially in an office—even if there is a pair of skis stashed in the back corner. But he continues to politely answer questions. What does he love most about coaching? “I still love being out on the hill everyday. We can talk about tour all-stars, but there have been countless more who have graduated and gone off to college. I like watching kids at any level, seeing their enthusiasm for the sport and skiing.” He pauses, a mischievous grin appears, and the former World Cup skier adds, “But don’t get me wrong; it’s great to go coach a World Cup. I want to win too.” e

eaton McCargo’s senior year in high school was far from typical. There were no proms, basketball games, or student council. No yearbook committee, no lazy weekends. Instead, 17-year-old McCargo began her senior year in high school as the United State’s top-ranked junior mogul skier. In January, she started in her first World Cup competitions competing against the world’s best skiers in Lake Placid, New York, and Deer Valley, Utah. In February, she finished 4th in the overall standings for the Nor-Am series (North-American series which are the feeder competitions to the World Cups); and in March she took gold at both the women’s single and dual mogul events at the World Junior Championships in Valmalenco, Italy. Typical? Not quite. But McCargo isn’t your typical kid—even in atypical Telluride. She was born and raised here, and like most of her pre-school peers, began skiing at the age of two. In those early days, there was no evidence of a prodigy. In fact, it was doubtful she’d continue skiing to the age of three. “I hated it,” McCargo says, “because I was put on this leash so I couldn’t go that fast, and I always fell out of my ski boots.” McCargo stuck with skiing because she didn’t have much of a choice—she was part of a family of skiers living in Telluride. As she got older, she began to like it. She joined the freestyle team when she was eight, and has been competing, training, and traveling with them ever since. This past spring, McCargo graduated from both the Telluride Mountain School and Telluride Freestyle Team. Her post-high school life has been as atypical as her high-school life was. No internships, no job applications, and no college roommates—at least for now. Instead, she has a physical therapist, sports psychologist, nutritionist, trampolines, and a water ramp. A week after her final class, she moved to Park City to train at the Center of Excellence, the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team’s training facility. And she has no regrets. “I’m stoked on my life right now. I’m exactly where I want to be.” e —Jesse James McTigue

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Recreational Marijuana Sales Start Jan. 1, 2014

CANNABIS Colorado’s New Cash Crop? by D. Dion

n a nondescript warehouse outside of Telluride, behind locked doors and covered windows and monitored by a fleet of security cameras, is a forest of towering marijuana plants in bloom. The purple and red flowering buds are covered with tiny crystals that shimmer in the yellow glare of the sodium lights. The aroma is pungent, a mix of florid and skunky scents. In between the tall rows walk the growers, not in the lab coats you might expect in this type of setting, but with shorts, T-shirts, and dreadlocks. The facility is just a few hundred yards away from the office of the San Miguel County Sheriff, and it’s completely legal. 44

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Legal in Colorado, that is. Colorado became one of the first two states, along with Washington, to legalize the recreational use of marijuana on Election Day in 2012. It is now lawful here for adults to grow it, possess it, trade it, and inhale or ingest it; and while Washington is still tooling regulations to allow the drug’s commercial sale, licensed dispensaries in Colorado and Telluride will be able to sell marijuana on January 1, 2014. There are some boundaries: state residents can possess up to an ounce, outof-state visitors a quarter-ounce; only adults 21 and older can buy or use it; and it can’t be used in public. “There are going to be big changes come January,” says San

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Miguel County Sheriff Bill Masters. “I think the world will be looking at us as the laboratory of experimentations. The rest of the states will be watching us very closely.” January won’t be the first time pot is sold legally here—medical marijuana has been legal since 2009, when Colorado joined the eighteen other U.S. states that allow medical marijuana. Existing medical marijuana dispensaries will get the first opportunity to become licensed sellers of recreational marijuana—Telluride has three such places in town, and one just outside of town. Tax revenue from marijuana sales in Telluride in 2012 totaled just $22,500, and another $21,000 during the first

three quarters of 2013. But medical marijuana sales statewide in Colorado brought in approximately $6 million in tax revenue during each of the last two fiscal years. That’s just money from medical marijuana; recreational marijuana sales could generate even higher revenues in 2014. While legal marijuana sales are no longer a black market, the financial aspects surrounding it are still a gray area. Federal law still prohibits its sale, and as banks are federally insured, those institutions don’t want to touch it. “I’ve been kicked out of three banks,” says the owner of the Telluride dispensary The Green Room, and Adam Raleigh of Telluride Bud

Company had his account seized, freezing all his assets for more than two weeks. Customers can’t pay for pot with credit cards, and so some shops have resorted to putting in ATMs to negotiate cash sales. The marijuana industry isn’t a cash cow—it’s a cash-only cow. The accounting and financial regulation of the industry is so problematic that U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.) recently drafted a bill to give licensed marijuana businesses access to the federal banking system. The bill attracted several co-sponsors, including U.S. Rep. Denny Heck (D-Wash.), but it still hasn’t been granted a hearing. The marijuana industry received more hopeful news, however, when the Obama administration declared in August that it would not sue to stop Colorado and Washington’s legalization of recreational marijuana, and that federal regulators would not target individual users or marijuana businesses. Instead federal enforcement will focus on preventing the distribution to minors and to states where it is still illegal, and stopping sales revenue going to criminal enterprises, gangs, and drug cartels.

In the Waiting Room

everything from gluten-free cookies to hash bath salts.

Not Exactly Amsterdam

Telluride’s marijuana scene won’t be anything like Amsterdam—teahouses and cafés with colorful menus, hookahs, and groups of people smoking pot. Nor will it be like Jamaica, where tourists are approached on every street corner and asked if they want to buy pot or “weed.” There is no on-site consumption in shops or public use of marijuana allowed under the state law. People who want to use the drug will have to do it in private, says Sheriff Masters, and there are no private pot clubs in the region yet—even though such an establishment created in Washington survived legal challenges in that state. He wonders where tourists will be able to use marijuana, since most of the hotels here are non-smoking. Masters is probably the most popular county sheriff in the history of county sheriffs: the tall, fit Libertarian is serving an unprecedented ninth term in the elected position, a post he has held since 1980, often running unchallenged

“We don’t want to be the pot capital of the world. But it’s an amazing place, with great skiing, scenery, outdoor stuff— and you can smoke marijuana.” room of sorts. In the meantime, the dispensaries are filing for the additional licenses necessary to sell recreational marijuana, the towns and counties in Colorado are creating their local regulations for (or prohibition of) its commercial sale, the state is voting on an excise tax of 15 percent, and in anticipation of what some shop owners believe could be a booming new market, local growers and chefs are cultivating more crops and producing a smorgasbord of marijuana-laced products,

for reelection. He jokes that he has served so long because nobody else wants the job. But his popularity is more likely because Masters is the personification of the modern West, a Libertarian who believes in personal freedom, whether someone wants to own a rifle or smoke pot, but also a pragmatist who believes just as strongly in personal responsibility. If someone wants a firearm or marijuana, they need to use it safely and not harm anyone else. His biggest concern about legalization is

people eating one too many cookies or mixing it with alcohol and trying to drive, resulting in vehicle accidents, injuries or fatalities. “We have spent a long time getting people to understand how much alcohol they can have before they are impaired. Nobody knows how long it takes you to metabolize THC.” Retailers here in Telluride are shooting for a more discreet, mellow type of business, not the in-your-face Amsterdam or Cheech-and-Chong model. Marijuana dealers in Telluride are still taking baby steps with the newly legitimate industry, operating with the same cautiousness and discretion as they did when it was a street drug. Michael Grady says he is making edible products with low doses, 10 mg, recognizing that some of his new clientele won’t be familiar with the effects. “We don’t want people getting wasted on main street, unable to handle it. We want to dose it so people feel good,” says Grady. “We don’t want to be the pot capital of the world. But it’s an amazing place, with great skiing, scenery, outdoor stuff—and you can smoke marijuana. It’s a destination resort. They don’t have to drive when they come here. After their day of skiing, they can come get an edible, or a bud, and go soak in their hot tub. It’s kind of a magical thing.”

Room to Grow

There are only three local commercial growers, located in the industrial-zoned area in Ilium near the Sheriff ’s office. But anyone in Colorado can already legally grow up to six marijuana plants at home for personal use. On the other side of San Miguel County, outside the Town of Norwood (which is prohibiting retail sales of marijuana), is Wright’s Mesa. Here, the abundant sunshine means an outdoor grower can bypass the high electric bills from the 24-hour sodium lights, and there are lots of smaller scale medicinal-personal '

Brett Schreckengost

Sitting in the comfortable black leather lounging area at The Green Room is nothing like being in the waiting room at a doctor’s office. These office hours are 11 a.m. until 7 p.m., and Pandora music blares over the speakers; there is a shelf of books with titles such as The Cannabible and The Marijuana Grower’s Handbook, tall glass cases full of water bongs, pipes, vaporizers, and other paraphernalia, and there are cameras mounted on the wall. It resembles a high-end head shop. Card-carrying medical marijuana customers are ushered into a back room for their purchase, and other would-be clientele shuffle through the front door. A welldressed woman in her 40s averts her gaze as she walks up to the

counter, asking in sotto voce, “Do you have any pot for sale?” She has no medical marijuana card, and gets turned away. Owners of the local dispensaries say that they field dozens of such requests every day, people wondering if they can buy marijuana yet. “In Colorado, we’ve been desensitized to it with the medical marijuana over the last few years. People are coming from places where this is totally foreign to them,” says Michael Grady, co-owner of Alpine Wellness, another Telluride dispensary. “I get a lot of phone calls, twenty or thirty a day, and people are already coming in asking if they can shop.” Raleigh says Telluride Bud Company had to turn away nearly 400 people looking for recreational marijuana during the Telluride Bluegrass Festival last summer. He says that the new law will boost business, and that there were not enough medical marijuana sales locally to be profitable. “Right now we’re just trying to stay alive, biding our time. It’s going to be a gamechanger.” Until 2014, all of the recreational users and pot shop owners will have to remain in a waiting

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Brett Schreckengost

pot farms taking advantage of the affordable acreage and favorable climate. These operations hold special “caregivers” licenses, allowing them to grow a prescribed number of plants for up to six patients, along with the additional six plants they are allowed for personal use per person residing at the location. Some of those Wright’s Mesa caregivers are growing a lot of pot, says Masters, close to 100 plants. While a few county residents have complained to officials about crime rates rising, Masters says that there has been just one serious incident—a violent kidnapping a couple of years ago involving the Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel, the type of criminal activity that might go away with legalization of the

drug. But with the price of marijuana hovering between $280-480 per ounce, depending on what taxes are applied here in Colorado, cannabis is truly a cash crop, almost one-third as expensive as

are valuable—they’re not wheat. There are going to be attempted thefts. But it’s a legitimate business, and they have the right to access law enforcement just like anyone else does.”

“I would guess we had the same problem when the Prohibition ended, with moonshiners underground while the above-ground economy and laws took time to start up.” gold. Masters says that if taxation is excessive, he thinks that people will still resort to buying it on the black market, and growers could be susceptible to theft. “The crops

Eventually the legitimate business community and the illegal sales will self-regulate the market, Masters believes. Taxpaying business owners won’t tolerate their

revenue being gobbled up by black market dealers, and the laws will be fine-tuned. “I would guess we had the same problem when the Prohibition ended, with moonshiners underground while the above-ground economy and laws took time to start up.” Grady is anticipating that the above-ground business will be a boon. He is expanding his growing space and says Alpine Wellness will employ about 15 people this year. “We don’t need to open up the whole Amsterdam café model, but I do think it’s going to create a major draw here. The tax revenue side is going to be big. It’s going to be an industry in this town. Economically, I think, why wouldn’t it work?”

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Gus Kenworthy A Conversation with the Olympic Hopeful

or someone who hits a double-cork 1620 with a blunt grab, was named the AFP (Association of Freeskiing Professionals) Overall World Tour Champion for the past three years, made the inaugural U.S. Freeskiing team and is likely headed to the 2014 Olympics, Gus Kenworthy is pretty grounded. The modest 21-year-old phenom was written up in Outside Magazine as “a favorite to bring home some serious hardware from Sochi.” But he says nothing is decided yet, with four more qualifying events before the games in Russia, although he did take second in halfpipe at this past season’s Olympic test event in Sochi. Kenworthy grew up in Telluride and went on to freeskiing fame, in a nascent sport that was just inducted into the Olympics this year and will debut with slopestyle and halfpipe events in 2014. He has stood on the podium at nearly every competition in the sport including World Cups, the X Games, the Dew Tour, the Dumont Cup, the Jon Olsson Invitational, and the World Ski Invitational—along with his unprecedented three overall titles. Unlike most of the elite freeskiers, who excel in one particular discipline, Kenworthy is a triple threat in slopestyle, halfpipe, and big air events. If the qualifiers go well, he could be the only U.S. male competing in both halfpipe and slopestyle events. Kenworthy started skiing at age two and is sponsored by Nike, Atomic, and U.S. Freeskiing, and despite being old enough now to sample adult beverages, he prefers ice cream—almost any flavor—and a good movie, especially The Count of Monte Cristo.

What does it mean to you that freeskiing’s slopestyle and halfpipe events have been added to the Olympic events, premiering in Sochi in 2014? Because our sport has never been included in the Olympic Games until now, I didn’t grow up with Olympic dreams. Instead I grew up dreaming about going to—and winning—the X Games. Obviously the Olympics are the biggest and most prestigious sporting event ever and my fingers are crossed that I will get to go and represent my country, but I’m doing my very best to remember that it’s just another event in the season. While an Olympic medal could certainly change my life forever, I have sponsorships, goals, and long-term aspirations that extend beyond just that event. Most freeskiing athletes only excel in one discipline, but you are in the top of your field in three: slopestyle, halfpipe, and big air. What kind of challenges does this create? My biggest fear is that by trying to divide my time between all three disciplines I’m running the risk of spreading myself too thin in each of them. Because there aren’t very many other skiers who compete in all three events, the schedules at competitions rarely cater to my needs and more often than not the training for one discipline will end up overlapping the qualifying round of another discipline. One advantage is that I have the opportunity for redemption in case one event doesn’t go as hoped for. What do you do off the slopes for training? What about entertainment? For both training and entertainment purposes I spend a lot of time on the trampoline, actually. My dad often says that the amount of time my brothers and I spent on the trampoline easily makes it one of the smartest investments he ever made for us. Although not all of the tricks translate perfectly from tramp to snow, it definitely helps develop air awareness and body control. My oldest brother, Hugh, is a personal trainer at Blunt Force Training in Denver and I’ve been working with him to stay in the best shape I can between winters. As far as entertainment, I like to keep it pretty mellow: I love going to the movies, going out to eat, reading a good book, taking photos, and exploring new places. Golf is a new hobby for me that I just started getting into this summer, but I’m already obsessed with it!

“Because our sport has never been included in the Olympic Games until now, I didn’t grow up with Olympic dreams.”

You have shelves full of trophies and awards. Which is the most meaningful and why? I have three AFP Overall World Champion trophies and they’re probably the achievement that I’m the most proud of. The award is given to the skier who, at the end of the year, has accumulated the most points in all of the three disciplines [slopestyle, big air, and halfpipe] and it’s something that I’ve worked hard to win every year and hope to continue to do so. Another reason that I’m especially proud of it is because the past two years that particular award has been graced with the late Sarah Burke’s name as a tribute to her legacy. Sarah was an amazing skier and an amazing woman and it’s a huge honor to win something with her name on it. Was there a turning point for you when you decided to pursue skiing as a career? After filming for a video contest to win a spot in a big air event in Sweden, my video started getting a lot of attention online and I was approached by a ski company in France who wanted to sponsor me. I went to photo shoots with them in Europe and New Zealand and they paid for me to go to some international contests and really just opened up a lot of doors for me. From that point on, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. How did growing up in Telluride influence you as a skier? Telluride’s world renowned for its all-mountain skiing, and because it has such a large variety of terrain I think that it really helped me develop into a good, strong skier with a solid foundation for any conditions. Do you have a “good luck” ritual or lucky socks or anything like that? After my friend Hoot passed away, my friend Victor bought me a shirt from some cafe in Idaho called Hoot’s and I wear it during finals at every event. What is your guiding philosophy and how has it contributed to your success? “To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.” e WINTER/SPRING 2013-2014

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TELLURIDE’S CINDERELLA MEN Boxing During the Great Depression by Paul O’Rourke

All the time he’s boxing, he’s thinking. All the time he’s thinking, I was hitting him. —JACK DEMPSEY

“Irish” Jimmie Smith, training in Norwood in 1936, was a crowd favorite at many Opera House boxing matches during the latter part of the 1930s.

adio reception in Telluride was excellent on the evening of June 13, 1935, and a good number of those huddled around their sets that night listened intently to the much-anticipated 15-round heavyweight championship bout between James Braddock and Max Baer. Braddock, a former longshoreman born in New York City’s “Hell’s Kitchen,” was a serious underdog going into the fight with Baer, who had gained international attention following his technical knockout of Adolph Hitler’s favorite fighter, Max Schmeling, in 1933. Overmatched on paper—Baer was taller, stronger, younger by four years, and the reigning champ—Braddock trained as though his life depended on the outcome. Baer viewed Braddock as little more than an easy payday and was unprepared for the relentless and stone-jawed fighter who sportswriter Damon Runyon dubbed “Cinderella Man.” Braddock’s unanimous decision over Baer was one of the most stunning upsets in boxing history; the Cinderella Man’s rags-to-riches story not only raised the spirits of a depression-weary country, but also served to inspire a new generation of boxing fans. Even in remote Telluride, whose population was just over 500 at the time, excitement for boxing was rekindled. The Telluride Journal announced in October 1936, “A revival of the high-class exhibitions of the manly art of which Telluride and the adjoining territory was justly proud in days gone by is to be effected Nov. 3 at the Sheridan Opera House.” 48

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The “Fat Lady” Doesn’t Always Sing Here

The Sheridan Opera House served Telluride as the town’s principal venue for theatre, variety shows, orchestral productions, dances, socialite parties, proms, and movies. It was also where Telluride fight fans went to watch boxing. “The main floor seats folded up and were stored underneath the Opera House stage,” recalls longtime Telluride resident, Billy Mahoney (Senior), “and the boxing ring was put up in the middle of the room, with chairs all around it.” Choice ringside seats cost $1.50, and the rest of the house, including the balcony, went for $1.25 or $1.00. George Kruckenberg, proprietor of the Coffee Cup saloon and restaurant, had taken on the task of bringing boxing back to Telluride and alerted fight fans by way of The Telluride Journal that he expected the Nov. 3 exhibition to be “a clean-cut type of sporting event,” where “any suggestion of rowdiness will be curbed.” “Of course, the place was filled with cigar and pipe smoke,” Mahoney says, “real noisy too, lots of shouting. Everyone was excited, and with the Sheridan Hotel bar right next door, well, some were a little more excited than others. My brothers (Bob and Poose) and I were excited. Our cousin’s husband, ‘Irish’ Jimmie Smith, was fighting in the main event.” The house was packed—standing room only—on the night of Nov. 3, 1936. Not to ignore the fact it was election night, too, The Journal informed its readers, “at

every opportunity the latest election returns, as gotten from the radio, will be announced from the ring.” Thus, while Chuck Thomas of Grand Junction, George Mares of the Basin CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) camp, and “Sokum” Yokum of the Norwood CCC camp were knocking out their opponents, incumbent Franklin Roosevelt was doing some heavy hitting of his own, scoring an impressive win over Alf Landon and garnering a second term as president. “Irish” Jimmie—to the Mahoney boys’ great delight—knocked out his adversary, Arnold “Young” Kristy, in the second round of the main event. That boxing had been revived in Telluride was clear, and Mr. Kruckenberg promised more fights in the near future.

“Everyone was excited, and with the Sheridan Hotel bar right next door, well, some were a little more excited than others.” Thomas won two of those fights, by decision, and Pete one, by knockout. On the afternoon of July 4, 1940, a crowd of 500, seated in an outdoor “pavilion” on the south side of Main Street, midblock between Pine and Spruce (currently Rustico’s patio), were witness to Thomas’ final fight, a disappointing loss—not to Cactus

The two still “discuss” their own and slightly different versions of the “donnybrook,” and when asked if they ever fought again, Senior said, “Well, not in public anyway.”

Corporate Warfare

The popularity of boxing in and around Telluride continued

Grudge Matches and Local Heroes

The excitement surrounding the return of boxing to Telluride was heightened by the fact—Telluride being the small and remote place it was—that local fight fans knew the fighters, knew where they lived and worked, knew them on a first name basis. Both “Irish” Jimmie and “Young” Kristy called Telluride home and were well known in town, amplifying the drama leading up to their fight. The Telluride Journal reported that, “the principal trouble the management is now having is to keep the gentlemen from settling the question of superiority before the big night on Nov. 3.” Jimmie’s knockout win confirmed his status as a local boxing hero; Kristy moved to Gunnison. The next “fight night” at the Opera House was staged Saturday, Dec. 12, 1936. Five bouts were scheduled for that night, but the match between the aforementioned Chuck Thomas and Corby “Cactus Pete” Ray of Alamosa caught the attention of The Telluride Journal, the newspaper calling it “the best fight of the evening.” That the contest was declared a draw did not go over particularly well with the Opera House crowd, not to mention with the boxers themselves. Fighters do not abide ties especially well, and a rematch appeared to be all but a foregone conclusion. Thomas—who’d taken up residence in Telluride in 1937—and Cactus Pete renewed their “grudge” three more times, each of which was billed as that night’s main event, the winner able to boast he was the Western Slope Bantamweight Champion.

Telluride’s popular bantamweight, Chuck Thomas, fought Vic Cordova in the Main Street boxing ring on July 4, 1940.

Pete this time—but to Vic Cordova, of Durango, in a ten-round decision. The next time Thomas got into the ring was the following March, where, still sporting a measure of local celebrity, he served as referee.

Boxing for the Ages

Preliminary to the main attractions on fight night was the popular and purportedly entertaining “Battle Royal,” a boxing contest involving four or five youthful combatants. The boys gathered in the ring and began the fracas with one arm tied behind their backs. The first two or three to be knocked down were eliminated; the two left standing, with both fists flailing, settled the issue. Fight night on Aug. 27, 1937, was overly warm, and as always, the Opera House was smoke-filled and raucous. The Battle Royal had just been concluded when into the ring stepped a pair of fighters The Journal described as representing the “mosquito weight class.” The two scrappers, Billy and Poose Mahoney—ages 9 and 8 respectively—duked it out for three one-minute rounds, fighting to an equitable yet unsatisfying draw.

Frankie Thomas and Jimmy Kruckenberg, two Telluride mosquito weights, fought to a draw on Independence Day 1940.

to grow during the late 1930s and early 1940s, and with the return to work at many of the area’s mines added a dash of corporate rivalry to the already high level of regional competition, most notably between the Alta and the Veta Mines in Telluride. Four hundred fight WINTER/SPRING 2013-2014

fans, from all across southwestern Colorado, including a good number of women, packed the Opera House on the evening of March 9, 1940. The scheduled heavyweight bout had sparked interest well in advance of fight night. The boys from the Alta had reportedly paid handsomely to bring in heavyweight Bud Johnson (41-3) from Burke, Idaho, to face off against Floyd Greager, of Norwood. According to The San Miguel County Journal, “Bud was down Friday night training his arm for Saturday night’s session, but he ‘hoisted’ so many the good right got a cramp in it.” Greager took care of Johnson twenty-seven seconds into the third round, and the Alta boys went home a bit lighter in the wallet. Fight night at the Opera House on March 25, 1941, featured several bouts between boxers from the Alta and Veta mines and one that Andy “The Shadow” Penasa, of Ophir, wished he’d never fought. Frank Harvey was scheduled to fight Penasa that night, but when Harvey failed to show, The Shadow boldly invited anyone in the house to take him on. Unfortunately for Andy, Fred “Red” Hess took the challenge and promptly, according to The Journal, “gave him a lacing.” The Veta boys had their way with the “pugs” from the Alta, at least on this one night. Joe Heald took care of Red Sickler in the 145pound weight class, and Fred Martinez, of Telluride, knocked out Basil Rexrode in 27 seconds. Basil had to be helped from the ring. In the final bout of the evening, “KO” Powell of the Alta was, in fact, “KO’d” by Lloyd “Cowboy” Pruett in the fourth round. The Journal reported, “both boys had lots of zip in their gloves and the impact of their blows could be heard all over the house.” No one in the Opera House that night could have guessed it would be some time before they’d hear those sounds again.

We Now Interrupt This Broadcast

On the morning of Dec. 8, 1941, the majority of Telluride’s 1,500 citizens were huddled around their radio sets, listening intently as President Roosevelt told them, “Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a day that will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked…” Telluride’s Cinderella men had a very different and a much bigger fight on their hands. e www.TellurideMagazine.com

Telluride Treasures 4

1 BOWLED OVER:

Local artist Dave Rec makes these gorgeous wooden bowls by hand from fallen aspen trees, and inlays turquoise and other stones. Rec also makes handmade lamps and shades. Available at Picaya, $75-250

2 FLASKS FOR FUN:

Stay warm with a flask full of hot chocolate or schnapps this winter, embossed with the retro Telluride logo. Telluride Trappings & Toggery features a whole retro line of items, including T-shirts, hats, sweatshirts, onesies, and re-usable shopping bags. Available at the Toggery, $25

3 TEA PARTY:

Whatever your flavor, from English black, to Chinese white, or African red (rooibos), Telluride’s specialty tea house has something to suit your palate. Choose from the selection of wonderful loose-leaf teas, sold by the ounce, by the pot, or by the to-go cup. Available at T Love, $6.25-9.95 per ounce.

4 GLOVES TO LOVE: 2

Slip on these soft and chic recycled-cashmere fingerless gloves, designed and handmade by Telluride’s Monique Toulouse, of July Five. Available in some local stores and online at julyfive.com, $38

5 BUBBLE JACKETS:

3 50

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Colorado manufacturer SKEA makes these effervescent “bubble” coats, using a special material with a 3-D hologram effect that catches the light—and catches the eye. These jackets were a fashion hit on the runway, but they’re also functional, with a heavy Thinsulate layer inside and seam-sealed to keep you warm and dry. There are also bubble skirts, vests, and pants. Available at AromaSpa, $614-858

PURE LANDSCAPE Walt Gonske, “On the Arkansas River-Colorado,” 24” x 28,” Oil on Linen

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TELLURIDE FACES

Honga Im

Honga’s Other Job: Sheep Mountain Alliance By Emily Shoff

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WINTER/SPRING 2013-2014

Brenda Colwell

t’s not hard to be impressed by Honga Im. As chef and owner of Honga’s Lotus Petal, she’s been delighting Telluride residents and visitors alike for years with her delicious Pan-Asian concoctions, minty mojitos, and top-notch sushi. Whether she’s greeting guests at her restaurant or shuttling her children around on her bike, there’s a beauty and grace to everything she does. But as if running a restaurant “It’s always and parenting weren’t enough, been about the Honga has a third job, about which animals. I kept she’s equally passionate: she’s thinking about all president of the board of Sheep Mountain Alliance (SMA), Telluof the animals out ride’s environmental non-profit. there that have no Although Honga downplays her work at SMA, describing herself voice.” as “the mother bear” who provides support for the hardworking executive director, Hilary White, Honga plays a vital role in the organization. It’s Honga who hosts all of SMA’s fundraising events, and it’s Honga who you’ll see out alongside White on Noel Night, trying to drum up new members and financial support for the organization. For the past 25 years, Sheep Mountain Alliance has helped to shape the San Juan Mountain region in vital ways. We have them to thank for leading the charge on keeping the Valley Floor free of development, and for persistently halting the efforts of the Piñon Ridge Uranium Mill. They’ve been involved in protecting the Gunnison Sage Grouse, a bird whose population has been rapidly declining in areas mined for gas and uranium, and they’ve worked tirelessly with conservation leaders on the San Juan Mountains Wilderness Bill, a bill that protects more than 61,000 acres of critical public lands in San Miguel, Ouray, and San Juan counties. Although Honga’s been involved with SMA since its early years, she took a number of years off when her children were young. She was also building a new restaurant and writing a cookbook. Her daughter Raven is now 11, and her son Clark is 6. “It just became too overwhelming, trying to keep up with everything I love,” she explains. Honga was born in Seoul, Korea, and started her restaurant in Telluride in 1989. She was introduced to the culinary arts by her mother and the cook her family had while she was growing up. Her passion for cooking was ignited when she traveled in her 20s. “I loved and lived for travel back then, which was pos-

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sible since I lived in the seasonal town of Telluride.” When the Valley Floor issue unfolded, Honga decided to step up her involvement with the alliance. She had recently rejoined the board and felt that this was a fight that she wanted to lead. “I just couldn’t stand back and watch it all get destroyed,” she says, leaning into the arm of one of the cozy chairs that line the lower level of her restaurant. “For me,” she explains, “it’s always been about the animals. I kept thinking about all of the animals out there that have no voice.” She smiles shyly, as if self-conscious of how hokey this might sound. Yet because it’s Honga, who’s as authentic as the sushi she serves, her words ring true. This is the voice of a woman in love with the mountains she calls home. Everything she does supports that, from the way she speaks of living in a tent and hiking to work when she first moved here, to the way she runs her restaurant. “I want this to be a place where everyone feels welcome,” she says. Honga is devoted to Telluride. The Valley Floor issue was also the perfect place to regain her footing with SMA. “We learned through the Valley Floor that getting a broader membership was important,” she says. “It didn’t matter what someone could contribute; what mattered was that they cared.” Honga goes on to explain that while she believed that the Valley Floor would eventually be preserved as open space, she was stunned by the quick turnaround of opinions in town. “It went from people accepting that there would most likely be a golf course and a series of 12,000-square-foot mansions to— almost overnight—people resisting any development.” She believes that it was the groundswell of support that brought about this shift in attitudes and eventually led to securing larger donors. Honga is quick to clarify that she’s not suggesting that they don’t need to write grants or work hard to fundraise. “It just that we’ve learned that it’s more important to reach out to peoples’ hearts and get community-wide support at the same time.” Honga pulls her glossy hair back into a bun and glances around the restaurant. Guests are just starting to arrive; it’s almost time for her to shift back from the SMA Honga to the restaurant Honga. “This place taught me the importance of valuing everyone,” she explains. “I’ve got 30 employees; we all need to work together to make this place great.” Looking around at the groups of friends filling tables around us, it’s easy to see why Honga’s restaurant is as popular as it is. It’s the same reason why people in town rallied behind the Valley Floor and the Piñon Ridge issues. It’s Honga. Humble and kind, yet magnetic Honga. e

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Brenda Colwell

TELLURIDE FACES

Citizen Dean Gets his Due

Dean Rolley By Suzanne Cheavens

ean Rolley finally agrees to meet at one of his favorite haunts in town, a bustling coffee cart on Colorado Avenue, where the street hums with activity and morning caffeine addicts come and go. It’s one of the few times of the day he allows himself to sit still and chat with friends. The Telluride Foundation’s 2013 Citizen of the Year deflected efforts to schedule an interview before finally settling on a date. “I don’t like the attention,” he says. Rolley garnered the recognition for his years spent behind a 54

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camera or a soundboard at every imaginable event in town. Children’s dance recitals and plays, lectures by visiting luminaries, adult theater, innumerable concerts of every genre, interviews with Telluride’s old-timers, KOTO events … the list of what he has documented as a videographer or sound technician is endless. Let’s just say if it happened, Rolley was there. Rolley cuts a distinctive figure. He is bespectacled and usually clad in a T-shirt with some witticism emblazoned across his chest. His lanky frame stretches more than six feet and this summer he grew

WINTER/SPRING 2013-2014

a massive beard that would have made Grizzly Adams envious. (He cut it off for charity at the Ah Haa Art Auction.) But it is his voice that sets him apart from the crowd. When he had the time to DJ for KOTO, he called himself Basso Profundo. It is apt. He speaks in a deep, melodious rumble and his laugh is like a river tumbling over large rocks. Rolley’s Telluride story begins in his native Chicago, where he was raised with “too much Protestant work ethic” and a decidedly counter-cultural worldview. A burning need to live in the mountains drew

him to Denver where he was working making videos for corporate clients. It wasn’t long before he made his way to Telluride where he knew he’d found his home. “This was a town full of old hippies like me. I thought to myself, ‘This is where I belong.’” He didn’t know a soul and, like many arrivals in those days, called Town Park his home for some months. It wasn’t long before Rolley visited the cluttered, little office of TCTV 12, Telluride’s public access television, where a couple of burnedout staffers were more than happy to hand the reins over to the eager new-

comer with a degree in radio, television, and film production. “I never thought I’d end up using my degree here.” He set to work providing programming for the station, mostly working solo save for volunteer assistants who aided in starting the vast catalog that became the backbone of TCTV’s daily programming. Live programs were interspersed throughout the day, keeping Dean virtually married to his work. The station’s physical location bounced around before settling in the Telluride High School, where he mentored students in exchange for use of the space. By the 1990s, the room was crammed to the ceiling with videotapes, each one labeled and dated for posterity. Dean didn’t just need programming for TCTV, he also believed in the importance in documenting Telluride’s every move. “There was so much great stuff happening; it was worth preserving,” he says. “It was culturally significant for both the entertainment value and for the people involved.” Capturing history also captured his imagination and he found himself at various Telluride reunions, recording tales told by the town’s former miners. “I got some great stuff with the old miners, which led to The YX Project.” That film, the brainchild of Eileen McGinley and taken up by Dean and his friend and fellow filmmaker, Amy Levek, is a gem of a local history documentary, crackling with lively, first-person narrative and colorful memories. The more than 200 hours of stories they recorded are now part of the Telluride Historical Museum’s collection. “This was a Dean has since left TCTV 12 (now town full of known as Telluride TV), but remains on as a consultant, shooting kids’ theater and proold hippies viding programming for the station. like me. His induction as Telluride’s latest CitiI thought to zen of the Year was in October. He is typically understated about the accolade. “I’m myself, honored but I don’t really like attention. In ‘This is where some ways it’s embarrassing.” Telluride Foundation’s honorees are I belong.’” given a plaque and $5,000 to give to the local non-profit of their choice. Rolley opted to split the award, giving $2,000 to Telluride TV and $1,000 each to San Miguel Resource Center, One To One Mentoring, and Telluride Arts. “It’s nice to give away other people’s money. It was hard to choose who to give the money to because I’ve worked for pretty much every non-profit in town and they’re all worthy of support.” Dean calls himself lazy, but that’s impossible to conceive. The man cannot say no to anyone in need of his technical expertise (“Much to the detriment of my relationships,” he says), and rarely ventures outside of town. When he does roam, it’s astride his motorcycle in the off-seasons, when his schedule demands melt away and scenic destinations beg for attention from one of the two cameras he always carries in his backpack. His stunning photos have hung on many a gallery wall in Telluride, but he confides that he still covets a show at the Telluride Gallery of Fine Art. Revealing a glimpse of his good-natured curmudgeonly side, he states firmly that he doesn’t shoot people. “People are fine in small doses when they’re having fun,” he says with a broad smile. The many folks who know Dean and deluged the Telluride Foundation Citizen of the Year selection committee with nominations in his name might be hard-pressed to buy his gruff façade. The kindness of Telluride’s good citizen is belied by his own generosity. “My usual donation is not sending an invoice.” We, the people of Telluride, thank you, Dean. e

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Melanie Montoya By Cara Pallone

hen Melanie Montoya was in her early 20s, she and a friend planned to travel Central America for six months. They envisioned visiting the beach, stopping in little towns along the way, and enjoying the uninhibited bliss of a vagabond lifestyle. But as they embarked on their journey, it took an unexpected turn. Inspired by the work of a human rights organization called Enlace Civil, Montoya spent most of her time in the State of Chiapas in southern Mexico. She slept in a hammock under a tin roof and risked her safety defending the rights of the indigenous “I’m fiercely people who live there. determined to do More than a decade later, as the co-executive director what I say I’m of a domestic violence and going to do.” sexual assault crisis center, she looks back on that trip as a pivotal experience in determining her life direction. It was in Chiapas that she learned how to align herself with people who are in danger. It was there that she discovered her “otherness” in the world and how it can serve as a bridge to equality. It was there that she learned about politics and corruption, and more importantly, the role hope plays in all of it. “If you are going to have a long career in a field like this, there has to be some sort of foundation and framework that gives you both endurance and a sense of connectedness with what you’re doing,” says Montoya, who has worked for Telluride’s San Miguel Resource Center since 2003 and was hired as co-executive director in 2009. Working at a crisis center commands a certain personality. Friends might describe her as gentle and compassionate—two obvious characteristics—but the petite wife and mother chooses a more aggressive set of adjectives to explain her individuality. “I’m fiercely determined to do what I say I’m going to do,” she says. “And my mission is this.” “This” refers to eliminating domestic violence and sexual assault in her community through intervention services, prevention education, and social change. The center receives more than 2,000 calls each year on its emer-

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WINTER/SPRING 2013-2014

Brenda Colwell

TELLURIDE FACES

A Resource for People In Need

gency hotlines, and staff and volunteers conduct about 1,300 in-person meetings with victims from all walks of life. “There’s a pretty big misconception that it’s a class or race issue and these things only happen to poor people or people of color,” Montoya says. “It happens to everybody.” When asked what her typical day is like, her serious eyes soften and she smiles. “A typical day at a crisis center…” she says. “Hmmm.” With one royal blue tennis shoe propped on the coffee table in front of her, she explains her eclectic spread of duties: hiring and managing staff, leading group therapy sessions, paying bills, handling complicated crisis situations … the list goes on. She also oversees fundraisers, the largest of which is the Chocolate Lovers’ Fling, held annually during the first week of February. Money raised at the event constitutes about a third of the center’s annual budget and helps with a variety of needs that may arise in any given year. For example, in the first six months of 2013, the center served more sexual assault clients than it has in an entire year. Montoya believes the higher numbers mean fewer people are suffering in silence. “The way I choose to look at it— because I might otherwise be crushed by sadness—is that the outreach we’re doing is effective,” she says. Born to a father from Mexico and a mother from the Midwest, Montoya was raised in Ventura, Calif. She studied language at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and later received her Master’s degree in counseling from Prescott College in Arizona. Prior to her career at the San Miguel Resource Center, she “lived out of a backpack,” working winters in Telluride and traveling back to Central America in the spring and fall to continue her work with Enlace Civil. She met her husband, Craig Wasserman, who teaches at the Telluride Mountain School, in 2003. They married in 2007 and have a 2-year-old son, Waylon. In her limited spare time (she also serves on the board of directors for the Telluride Foundation), Montoya enjoys snowboarding, soccer, fly-fishing, and hunting—a hobby she took up in 2008 that stems from her desire to live sustainably and connect with her home. As her life continues to evolve and she works to better her community, Montoya will forever be grateful for that trip in her early 20s that propelled her toward a meaningful path. “I think it really solidified my direction,” she says, “and my orientation to the world.” e

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INSIDE ART

Banking On Art

contrasted by sensual poses, curly hair, red lips, and high heels. Doerge is just one on a long list of Mélange’s unique artists. “We feel artists are an important part of what makes Telluride special and unique,” says McCormick. “We like to think of Mélange as an Artist Community Boutique—it’s a place that showcases what the best artists of Telluride are creating.” McCormick, the third owner, is a new mom and works mostly behind the scenes, running the financial and operational gears of the business. She also does clothing design and her latest fabrication, reusable cloth diapers, is available at the boutique. All four of Mélange’s founders are active artists. In a smaller space to the right of the main gallery, DeRoberts displays her indie clothing line, Onerary, Miller shows her

says Harris. “We had string art class all day so that people could participate and it was a great way to showcase our craft room as well as our entire space so that people got to see what we’re up to and what’s possible.” Fellow artists helped weave string in their own style and color. Miller connected her mixed media fine art works—painted mannequins on reclaimed cabinets with red yarn—to her portion of the string theory. Visitors entered the myriad of string and followed the various currents of color while looking at art. Along with the paintings on the wall, there were other interesting shows including songs by local vocalists, performance art by Colin Sullivan in the vault gallery, and a food demonstration—liquid nitrogen ice cream—by Roscoe Kane of the Floradora Restaurant. It was a fanfare

here is a treasure chest full of silver and gold in the back room of 109 West Colorado Avenue. A six-yearold girl digs her hands deep inside and fills her arms with pieces of purple sequins and light green lace, then gasps out loud when she finds a long swatch of copper lamé. Melissa Harris steers her from the enticing chest to a craft table where they cut, glue, and create fabric bowls at a Tuesday “Crafternoon” art class. It’s one of many offerings at Telluride’s newest art addition, Mélange. Aptly named, Mélange is a mix of art gallery, design boutique, and artist studio. The space is a funky combination of old and new. On the outside, two Ionic columns flank the entrance beneath the engraved word “BANK.” Built in 1920 for the Bank of Telluride, the brick building now houses a wealth of local creativity, from contemporary fine art works and installations to avant garde fashion design and craft classes. Mélange is not only a collection of artwork, but also a collaboration between founding artists Harris, Brittany Miller, Meghann McCormick, and Danielle DeRoberts. Harris, Miller, and McCormick are owners and opened the business in May. “After a few years living here and getting to know the many working artists, I sought out and spoke to the three people I thought would make a dream team,” says McCor58

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mick. “They had many new ideas they added to the pot—Mélange really is a conglomerate effort from all four of us.” Setting up shop on the main drag in Telluride is an expensive, daunting task, but together the grassroots group of young, working artists was able to succeed. But even artists have to eat, and that’s why Mélange seeks to generate revenue for artists who live here and in Colorado. “Our main vision is to always have a collection of local artists,” says Miller. “Co-op is not a term we like to use because we’re running a business. It’s more of a curated process.” Miller manages the exhibitions, which include more than twenty-five different artists and that change each month. On the same Tuesday as craft class, Miller is in

leatherwork jewelry, and Harris has sweaters and parasols for sale. Both Miller and DeRoberts have paintings on the walls in the main gallery, which displays a medley of fine art, furniture, and craftwork. Mélange is also a unique venue for events held inside its minimalistic concrete interior or outside in the lush green backyard in the summer. “We want

“We feel artists are an important part of what makes Telluride special and unique.” the gallery hanging new pieces for the upcoming Art Walk, a gallery tour in Telluride on the first Thursday of each month. Her focus is the “vault gallery,” in a genuine, antique bank vault, which features a new artist each month. This round it’s Joslyn Doerge, whose watercolor paintings of linear nudes play on the scientific and the sensual— details of arteries and veins in one and striated muscles in another are

WINTER/SPRING 2013-2014

people to come in here and have an experience,” says Miller. “We want people to feel comfortable.” That is exactly what happened at the Art and Architecture event in July. Mélange won the audience choice prize in a field of thirty-five entries. Harris had a heavy hand in the success—she pioneered a string art installation that wound through the interior of the whole space. “It ended up being an interactive piece,”

of local creativity and it generated a huge buzz in the community. Although a $5,000 check for first place is always favorable for a young business, the recognition and success that Mélange has found is even more valuable. Every day, visitors express their gratitude, and the founders spend much of their time just talking with passers-by. “It’s fascinating … the non-stop appreciation and the thank-yous,” Miller says. “People seem pleased to discover a place full of things that aren’t factory-made, and we do our best to offer something to all demographics.” There’s something in the mix for everyone, of all different tastes, whether you’re buying, looking, or taking a craft class. “I want people to feel a sense of ‘wow’ when they come here, like they found a treasure chest of jewels,” says McCormick. “I want people to see and appreciate what creative people are doing in Telluride and Colorado, and to support them.” e

Danielle DeRoberts

Mélange is Part Gallery, Design Boutique, and Studio

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They were indoctrinated into the world of elite mezcal-making, the family palenques in the Sierra Madre Mountains that produce mezcal in a process that is a thousand years old.

he story behind Mezcal Vago is one of wanderlust, the tale of two friends who traveled together all over the world before settling in different countries, but who remain connected, one in Oaxaca and one in Telluride. Dylan Sloan and Judah Kuper first met almost two decades ago, ski bums who pitched tents near one another on Firecracker Hill above Telluride Town Park. They lived in the communal hippie scene of “woodsies” before the ski resort really took off, in the days when it was still legal to camp within walking distance from the chairlifts. Telluride remained home base, but the friends wintered in Verbier, Switzerland, and spent seasons in Maui, skiing, snowboarding, and surfing. Eventually Kuper’s passion for surfing won out, and he traveled the coasts of the Americas looking for waves, with Sloan meeting up with him during every off-season in Telluride. It was in Oaxaca where they both took their first sip of illicit mezcal. “I’ve always been a huge fan of trying whatever food or liquor available that is unique to a specific region, so drinking mezcal in Oaxaca seemed like a great way to try something different and get to know the people,” says Sloan. “I can’t say I particularly liked it that day in Oaxaca, but it led to an 60

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epic night of trying new things and bonding with the Oaxacan people.” Fortunately that initial taste of mezcal was not their last. Kuper settled in Oaxaca, marrying into a family of traditional mezcaleros who produce artisanal, highend mezcal and eventually he and Sloan became connoisseurs. They were indoctrinated into the world of elite mezcal-making, the family palenques in the Sierra Madre Mountains that produce mezcal in a process that is a thousand years old. They pull down the agave plants by burro, clean the agave piña by hand and roast it in an earthen pit oven, then grind it with a cement wheel pulled by a donkey, wild-ferment the mash with natural yeast, and distill the concoction in copper pots or clay barrels.

WINTER/SPRING 2013-2014

These small batches of exquisite, clear, joven (young) mezcal are distinctive—the special plant varieties and traditional distilling methods are something that can’t be reproduced anywhere else in the world. In these hills they discovered mezcal that was unrivaled by even the top labels on the market, blind taste-testing to be certain. They decided to export it, selecting the finest batches, and developing the brand Mezcal Vago. Vago is Spanish slang, short for vagabundo, or vagabond, a reference to their passionate journey and fanatical quest for something special. Says Kuper, “Who knows better where the powder is, or where the secret waves are, or where the best mezcal is, than someone committed obsessively to their pursuit?”

Fine mezcal is the latest trend in the mixology scene, and the family palenques are benefiting from the exposure they are receiving in Telluride and the United States. Kuper and his wife, whose father is one of the region’s finest mezcaleros, now have a daughter, and at the same time Kuper’s compadre Sloan settled in Telluride with his new wife and their baby boy—so Mezcal Vago has become sort of an extended, international family business. Kuper handles the certifying of the palenques and the exporting logistics, and Sloan is the importer, helping to market the product in Telluride. A seasoned local bartender, Sloan has discovered lots of fun ways to blend and serve Mezcal Vago, and shared his favorite recipe with Telluride Magazine: Rosa Amargo. e

Rosa Amargo: 1.5 oz Mezcal Vago .5 oz Combier Pamplemousse (grapefruit liqueur) .5 oz Dolin Blanc (blanc vermouth) .25 oz Campari (bitter aperitif, infused with herbs and fruit) Add each of the liquors to a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Stir, strain the mixture into a glass, and serve up (no ice), with a grapefruit twist garnish.

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Telluride Pioneer Jerry Greene came to Telluride in the summer of 1973. He thought this was the ski town that had it all, except radio, so he helped Jim Bedford get community radio KOTO 91.7 on the air. Tune in Jerry’s Nordic Commando radio every Thursday at 6 AM. Then he thought Telluride lacked a bakery, so he built Baked in Telluride. His community involvement has never stopped, from involvement in sewer planning, Streetscape Design committee, Town Council, County Planning and his current service on the Open Space Commission. Over the years Jerry accomplished other things he always wanted to do. Show movies in the Opera House and the Film Festival’s outdoor theater, run 27 consecutive Imogene Pass Runs, climb half the state’s 14ers, ski patrol, EMT, mentor a local kid, rebuild his historic home, and manufacture organic corn and flour tortillas. The bakery sponsors the Sneffels Highline Trail Run the first Saturday of August. Jerry’s prime work continues, providing a full-scale retail bakery-deli that runs 24 hours a day producing the finest and broadest array of bakery foods in the state. He still regularly adds classic baked treats like the almond macaroon (gluten free) and the refreshing Chocolate Egg Cream (right). Taste what’s new and traditional at B-I-T.

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A Last Look Into Thin Air No, the parachutes you see occasionally above the mountains in Telluride did not drop from a plane. They are paragliders, and they launch from the slopes of Telluride Ski Resort and climb above the valley on thermal columns of air. The high altitude means thin air, and the flying is challenging here, but the thermal conditions in Telluride are perfect for soaring. PHOTO BY RYAN TAYLOR OF TELLURIDE PARAGLIDING

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WINTER/SPRING 2013-2014

SAVOR THE

UNPARALLELED CUISINE

WHATEVER YOUR PALATE MAY BE, our tailored menus will serve you. Select from one of three fine establishments and delight in some of the best cuisine in the West. Dine in style at our signature restaurant, the Chop House – world renowned for its dry aged USDA Black Angus. Chef Erich Owen creates our delicious fare using only organic free range fowl, non-threatened fish species and local ingredients. Pair a red or white from Telluride’s only nitrogen wine bar with a scrumptious meal for an unforgettable experience.

FAVORITES FROM BREAKFAST, LUNCH AND DINNER CLASSIC EGGS BENEDICT 14 English Muffin, Canadian Bacon, Poached Eggs & Hollandaise Sauce. Served with Roasted New Potatoes HOUSEMADE WAFFLES 10 Fresh Berries, Whipped Cream, Maple Syrup RUSSET POTATO SOUP 9 Buttermilk Espuma, Oyster Mushrooms PAN SEARED PISTACHIO ENCRUSTED TROUT SPINACH SALAD 15 Warm Bacon, Sherry & Mustard Vinaigrette, Grilled Bread & Poached Egg CAESAR SALAD 9 Parmigiano Reggiano, White Anchovy, Orange Zest & Crostini STEAK TARTARE 16 Smoked Oyster Aioli, Pickled Radishes, Farm Egg, Fresh Horseradish STEAMED PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND MUSSELS 16 Grilled Baguette, Coconut Milk, Lemon Grass, Ginger & Thai Chili

AHI TUNA BURGER 21 Ginger Soy Glaze, Pickled Ginger, Smoked Red Onion PULLED PORK SANDWICH 12 Hickory BBQ Sauce, Coleslaw, Red Onion, Toasted Fresh Baked Bun CHOP HOUSE BURGER 21 Toasted Fresh Baked Bun, Quick Pickles, Ancho Chili Ketchup, French Mustard & Cheese (Blue, Aged White Cheddar, Gruyère) LASAGNA 19 Butternut Squash, Wild Mushrooms, Fried Spinach ROCKY MOUNTAIN ELK SHORTLOIN 38 Sweet Potato Risotto, Pear Chutney, Sage, Apple Chip, Hard Cider Reduction ALASKAN HALIBUT 28 Crab Risotto, Sweet Corn, Heirloom Cherry Tomatoes, English Pea Nage 30 DAY DRY AGED BISON RIBEYE 48 14oz – Grass Fed “Prairie Harvest,” SD PRIME FILET MIGNON 48 10oz – Corn Fed “Stock Yards,” Chicago

Seasonal menu. Items and pricing subject to change.

THE NEW SHERIDAN HOTEL has shared in the rich history of Telluride, Colorado since 1891. Offering modern amenities paired with historic ambiance, the New Sheridan invites you to experience a new level of old world service.

NEWSHERIDAN.COM PHONE 1.800.200.1891 or 970.728.4351 ADDRESS W. Colorado Ave, Telluride, CO 81435

ouT sTanding in ThEir fiEld teaM CatSMan

Because of my 40+ years as a talented sales professional and developer in the Telluride region, and my partner, Marty Stetina, a broker and real estate attorney with land use, zoning and planning expertise, Team Catsman offers twice the knowledge, service and skill to our clients.

Elevate your Expectations with Team Catsman Steve Catsman â&#x20AC;˘ Marty Stetina steve@catsman.com

marty@catsman.com

970.728.6629