World Cup Comes to Town Dec. 17-20

MOUNTAIN VILLAGE – Of the many blessings to be thankful for this holiday, the wintery white start to the 2009-2010 ski season will surely be repeated around many local Thanksgiving tables. And for good reason. Not only have generous snowfall and cold temperatures helped incite a rousing start to the upcoming ski season, new mountain upgrades and a historic early-season event are setting the stage for an exciting winter.

Small Projects Mean Big Improvements

“I call it the summer of one hundred small projects,” says Telluride Ski and Golf Company CEO Dave Riley of the myriad of on-mountain improvement projects undertaken last summer. “Although, in reality I think it was more like 120,” he adds, referring to the long list of summer projects work crews managed to finish during Telluride’s snow-less months.

While there are no major additions to the mountain this year compared to last year’s new chairlift and two new on-mountain restaurants, Riley says this winter’s improvements will be evident to skiers. Perhaps most notable of all the “small projects” is the biggest project of them all, the construction of a snowcat-accessible road from the top of Lift 15 to the apex of Gold Hill Chute 8.

The summer’s biggest construction project began as a means to two different ends: A new graded road will make access to the upper Gold Hill terrain both faster for ski area staff as well as easier for the hiking public. And the completed grading work represents an important first step toward the future construction of a new surface lift conveying skiers to the apex of Gold Hill Ridge. (The surface lift was originally approved as part of the 1999 Prospect Bowl expansion, but has never been built.) Riley says he cannot estimate when a surface lift would be built in that location, but “by doing the grading and the survey work, we are now able to do the engineering work and get it priced out.”

By carving a road big enough for a snowcat around the steep knob known as the Hillary Step and further up the Gold Hill Ridge, hikers wanting to explore the Gold Hill chutes – and especially the wide, treeless, powder-hoarding slopes of Palmyra Basin beneath GH chutes 1-10 – will now find a much faster and easier route to this high alpine terrain. Ski patrol and other mountain crews will have better and faster access to the area, via snowmobile and snowcat, for control missions as well as rescue operations.

“From a patrol perspective, if you can get a snowmobile up that high it makes everything a lot faster, from emergency response to doing control work. But in addition, Palmyra Basin is one of the most incredible areas in our permit area, but is rarely skied because it was difficult to get to,” Riley says, noting the scramble up the Hillary Step as the first major hurdle for some would-be Gold Hill skiers.

The next hurdle was the “sketchy” section between GH 8 and 9, where exposed rock and steep sidehills made crossing that section in ski boots fairly daunting. Crews installed two steel foundations there this summer. In a few weeks, a 30-foot bridge and 100-foot stairway with handrails is expected to be installed. Finally, a new “goat trail” was cut laterally through the rocks just down the ridge from GH 9, improving access to the easiest-to-ski Gold Hill 9 Chute. Large boulders that once served as obstacles at the top of GH 9 were removed, making the chute even more skier-friendly.

“Basically all those little projects make it possible for a skier who could ski the Plunge to now be able to ski Gold Hill 9,” says Riley. “It’s very inviting now, and getting there is much more gracious. It’s also going to allow people to get into Palmyra Basin, which was the goal.”

Riley anticipates that the easier access up Gold Hill Ridge will also change hiking patterns on the mountain. “People will discover Gold Hill 9 and Palmyra Basin, and so you won’t see so many people hiking up Prospect Ridge. It will spread more people out over more acres, which is a good thing.”

More Outdoor Seating at Slopeside Restaurant

Alpino Vino, the high-alpine chalet tucked into the trees not far from Gold Hill’s Electra and Dynamo, opened last winter to rave reviews. The quaint, European-styled wine bar had just one drawback: Very limited seating.

While Alpino Vino’s indoor seating hasn’t changed, the restaurant’s outdoor seating area has grown threefold. A new, three-tiered deck was built this summer on the south side of the building. Trees downslope of the new deck were thinned out offering more sun and spectacular views of the Wilsons.

Meanwhile, decorators have given the resort’s other European-themed bar and restaurant – the Hop Garden in the Mountain Village Plaza – a facelift. “We’re working to make it more authentic,” Riley says of the German-styled beer garden, adding that local European interior furnishings business Alpen Schatz is helping with the revamp.

This winter will also brings Hop Garden’s new outdoor, heated bar, which was built early last summer under a giant yellow umbrella on the Hop Garden patio. “We’re hoping it’s going to help create an incredible après-ski scene at The Beach, which is what the Village needs,” Riley says.

New Cache and Cat to Assist Ski Patrol

Opening much of Telluride’s uppermost (and notoriously avalanche-prone) terrain after a significant snowfall has, historically, been a major undertaking for Telluride’s Ski Patrol.

Opening the mountain quickly and safely continues to be a huge task for the resort’s avalanche professionals, but a few upgrades this year will make the task a little less challenging. A new bomb cache has been built to replace the one located near the top of Lift 6, and has been approved to store larger quantities of explosives. This means patrollers won’t need to shuttle explosives from their main cache each control morning to complete their routes.

Ski patrollers will also be able to access the higher reaches of the resort faster this winter, thanks to a newly purchased snowcat that seats 16. Rather than shuttling patrollers two-by-two up to Patrol Headquarters via snowmobile, the snowcat can bring a large crew in just one trip.

“To be able to get 16 patrollers up to the top of the mountain at 7 a.m. is really going to help our ability to get things open on time,” Riley says.

New Terrain and Mountain Upgrades

This winter’s unveiling of Gold Hill Chutes 2-5 will make it possible to ski every single chute on the expansive Gold Hill Ridge – in theory, that is.

Because of their location above the open slopes of Palmyra Basin, ski patrol must control the chutes for avalanches whether they are open to the public or not. As a result, according to Riley, it “wasn’t a huge leap to open” GH 2-5 this winter, but skiers should be aware that the often wind-stripped slopes may be subject to frequent closures.

“We don’t know how much they’ll be open, but if the conditions are right we’ll be in a position to open them,” Riley says.

Summer crews also improved the goat trail between the bottom of GH 1 and 1.5 this year, lengthening and widening the old trail.

The Revelation Bowl lift (15) underwent some improvements this summer as well. The unload platform has been revamped, offering four more feet of elevation change from the top to the bottom of the ramp. All of the materials excavated for that project were moved to the west, nearly doubling the size of the flat area near the top of the chairlift.

World Cup Brings International Distinction for Telluride

From December 17-20, Telluride will be in the international sports spotlight as it hosts its first-ever World Cup; the second in a series of five Olympic qualification events for the snowboard disciplines of PGS (parallel giant slalom,) SBX (snowboardcross,) and Team SBX.

Thirty-five nations will vie for supremacy during the four-day event, which begins with the PGS competition on Upper Misty Maiden on Thursday, Dec. 17. On lower Misty Maiden, individual SBX qualifications take place Friday, Dec. 18; SBX individuals finals take place Saturday, Dec. 19; and team SBX competitions take place Sunday, Dec. 20.

“This is an Olympic qualifier event for all teams, so there’s going to be some intense competition. We can put on a really amazing event, and I’m excited to show the world that,” says Elizabeth Howe, Telluride’s Executive Director of Resort Services and the Director of the Telluride World Cup Organizing Committee.

As the head of all things World Cup in Telluride, Howe knows how much effort it will take for the resort to put on a World Cup caliber event. What makes it all worth it – in addition to the pure thrill of seeing the world’s best on our home slopes – is the huge amount of exposure Telluride will receive on behalf of the event.

She reports that there will be around 18 million “impressions” of the resort generated thanks to media coverage of the event, which will include an hour-long program on NBC, four hours on Versus, and close to 40 hours of international coverage. That, she says, equates to around $1 million in marketing for the Telluride Ski Resort.

Planning for the event is on-track, Howe says, thanks in great part to a major community-wide effort; from the lodging community to an army of local volunteers (of which the event will require more than 500.)

According to John Jett, Telluride Resort’s Competition and Events Manager and the Telluride World Cup’s Chief of Competition, so far weather and snow conditions have been favorable for creating the two competition venues.

“Natural snow means nothing to this event – it’s all about the manmade snow,” he explains, noting that temperatures have been cold enough for crews to get a good start on their snowmaking operations on Misty Maiden. “Right now it’s looking like we’re moving along just fine. I don’t foresee any problems with getting the quantities of manmade snow that we need,” he says.

Internationally renowned SBX course designer Jeff Ihaksi, from Canada, will arrive in Telluride on Dec. 3 and could begin the hands-on course design work as early as Dec. 4. The goal, says Jett, is for Ihaksi to create an SBX course early so that US snowboard team members, arriving as early as Dec. 6, can begin their on-snow training. The competition venue won’t be constructed until just before the event.

Both PGS and SBX courses will not be open to the public, either before or after the event, Telski officials report.

The Bottom Line

With a shaky economy still making business-as-usual appear grim, how will the Telluride Ski Resort hold up this winter?

According to Riley: “It’s hard to gauge.”

He reports that airline reservations are up for this winter, but so far lodging numbers are down compared to this time last year. Advance ski school reservations are up so far, and season pass sales are close to the same as last year.

Riley thinks the numbers suggest that more second homeowners will be visiting Telluride this season, while tourists may be waiting longer to make their winter vacation plans.

“The booking window is much shorter,” he explains. “People who used to plan six months out are now making their reservations six days before coming.”

Riley stresses that he feels Telluride can and will continue to weather the economic storm. A new resort initiative to provide the highest-level customer service possible is currently underway – a trend he hopes will reverberate into the Telluride community at large.

“I’m optimistic that we’ll have decent volume at the resort this winter, but I think we’ve got to work real hard as community help people feel comfortable spending once they get here – and that’s where a community-wide culture of customer service comes in,” he says.

Looking Into Telluride’s Crystal Ball

It’s no secret that the Telluride Ski Area is a resort in the midst of evolution. It’s also been made clear that the future of the mountain – whether there will be lifts in Bear Creek or a zipline down Misty Maiden – is in the hands of the community as much as the ski resort.

Following on the heels of the Telluride Ski Resort’s first public forum discussing what the community wants from its ski resort (this summer’s “Imagineer Your Perfect Ski Resort”), ski area officials are hosting additional public forums on the future of the ski area. The ski area’s planning objective, called Vision 2025, will again come to the public drawing table this Friday, Nov. 27. From 4-6 p.m. there will be a discussion and a town hall-style meeting; from 6-7 p.m., Telski will host a complimentary beer and wine reception. The meeting will take place in the Capella Ballroom in Mountain Village.

There will be another public meeting during the Christmas holiday, on Monday, Dec. 28. The discussion and town hall meeting will be from 5-7 p.m. and the beer and wine reception will be from 7-8 p.m., also at the Capella Ballroom.

“By asking people what their vision is for the ski resort, taking that information and massaging it into a plan, and bringing it back to the public to refine it further, I think we’ll end up with something that Telluride deserves,” Riley says.