The towns of Telluride and Mountain Village have gained a reputation among resort communities for jaw-dropping mountain views, world-class skiing and riding, one of the highest-elevation golf courses in the world, and legendary music festivals. These things combined help paint the fundamental portrait of Telluride and Mountain Village, but a key aspect to the success of the two towns is the Telluride-Mountain Village Gondola.

Serving as the umbilical cord between the two towns, the gondola conveys upwards of 2.5 million skiers, cyclists, hikers, visitors, and commuters over San Sophia Ridge every year. Since its opening ten years ago, the gondola has transported more than 26 million riders, and unlike lifts in other ski resorts, it's free.

Opened in 1996, the gondola was the first no-fee public transportation system of its kind and continues to operate as the only free public gondola in the United States. Envisioned by Mountain Village developers in the 80s, financed and built throughout the early 90s, and slated to maintain its status as the largest regional public transportation well into the new millennium, the gondola has made an indelible mark on the pages of contemporary Mountain Village and Telluride history. By many accounts, it is one of the region's most evident success stories.

The gondola opened for its tenth winter season this morning. To celebrate the milestone the Town of Mountain Village has planned a full year's worth of birthday festivities, with details to be announced soon. To kick-off the events, the first 150 people to catch a ride on the "G" on Monday morning will be greeted with a commemorative, limited edition travel mug reminiscent of those given to the gondola's first-ever riders a decade ago, as well as free coffee and hot chocolate, and a Mountain Village merchant goody bag.

A Vision Realized

Although the tangible elements of the gondola – namely, its corrugated-metal stations, tall towers, and cabins splashed with the Telluride logo – were put into use only a decade ago, the concept was conceived close to twenty years prior to the gondola's first run. In 1979, representatives from the Town of Telluride, San Miguel County, and the Telluride Ski Company traveled to Zermatt, Switzerland, where they found an example of a thriving village-to-village gondola transit system.

At that time, the town of Mountain Village was little more than a glint in the eyes of developers Ron Allred and Jim Wells, the then-president and chief financial officer of Telski. The two knew that building a viable community on the large, aspen-covered expanse of Turkey Creek Mesa, on the opposite side of the ski mountain from the town of Telluride, would necessitate a workable transit link between the two towns. The fact that a gondola could also serve as a ski lift for the burgeoning Telluride Ski Resort was an added bonus.

"When we planned the Mountain Village, we envisioned a transportation system back and forth between the two towns. The group that went to Zermatt saw how it worked there, and before you knew it the gondola was an actual requirement in the Mountain Village town plan," explains Wells.

Telski obtained financing for the project in 1985, but the company's primary lender balked at the young business taking on more debt. Gondola construction plans stalled, and its architects were driven to restructure their strategy.

It was eventually determined that Mountain Village's government, then the Mountain Village Metro District, would own and operate the gondola system. A separate entity called the Telluride Gondola Transit Company was formed underneath the Metro District to oversee financing the $16 million project.

While the Gondola Transit Company eventually acquired all the necessary bonds to pay for the system, it required that Telski eventually repay the cost of the two gondola legs that would connect Telluride and Mountain Village, or approximately 70 percent of the total cost of the project. Telski sold four lots in the Mountain Village core to cover the cost of repaying the Gondola Transit Company.

With financing secured, construction finally began in the early 90s and was nearly completed by 1994. But the project stalled again, this time due to complications stemming from a small area of wetlands near the under-construction Mountain Village Gondola Plaza.

After two years the wetland issue was settled with the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Telluride-Mountain Village Gondola opened to the public in late November 1996. The first part of the system, the Chondola (also known as lift 1, a mixed high-speed quad/gondola system connecting Big Billies in the Meadows to the Mountain Village Core), had opened the season prior.

Within just a few months of its opening, the gondola was deemed an overwhelming success. In a February 14, 1997, edition of The Telluride Watch, the front-page headline proclaimed "Gondola Surpasses Even Its Earliest Proponents' Hopes and Expectations." The article cited ridership that far exceeded its early expectations, a noticeable reduction in car traffic and air pollution, and an increase in business in Mountain Village as evidence of the new gondola's success.

"One of our original driving forces behind the project was to limit the amount of automobile traffic between Mountain Village and Telluride," Wells says. "And with 2.5 million riders every year, it's clear that it is a popular and necessary public transportation system."

The Evolution of

a Village

Today the gondola continues to serve its purpose as a now-irreplaceable transportation system and community benefit. Thanks in great part to this free service, the once-always quiet Mountain Village Center is now bustling with skiers and snowboarders on winter afternoons, and a steady influx of visitors use the system to take advantage of Mountain Village restaurants, concerts, summer bike races, and other special events.

"People still like to say that the Mountain Village is a ghost town – but they don't know what a ghost town looks like if they hadn't seen the Mountain Village before the gondola," says Mountain Village resident John Horn, who built the first house in the area twenty years ago.

According to Horn, in the early days the Mountain Village was more an "outpost" than a town, and when he and wife Carlotta would invite friends over for dinner, "it was like they thought they were going to the North Pole." When the Peaks Hotel (then called the Doral) was completed in 1992, more energy and life began to trickle in, but there remained the feeling that the Mountain Village was still in the middle of nowhere.

It wasn't until the gondola began delivering pedestrians to the town that the air in the Mountain Village began to change.

"Suddenly there was this tremendous access, and things started to become viable," Horn recalls.

Construction of the Telluride Conference Center and the steady growth of restaurant and retail businesses in Mountain Village, as well as the town's most recent addition of the Market at Mountain Village, has helped maintain that viability. Fast, convenient, and free access via the gondola is a vital part of the evolvement of the Mountain Village community.

"The gondola is used by everyone in our community. We do not see the division that other public transportation systems see. There is not one economic class, age group, social class, or type of visitor that doesn't use the gondola. It is truly a system that benefits the entire community," says Mountain Village PR & Marketing Assistant Michael De Leon. "Kids commute to school on the gondola. People go to work on the gondola. Visitors use it for skiing and getting to either town. Everyone uses the gondola."

Air and Traffic Effects

While the gondola has undoubtedly helped pave the way for financial sustainability in Mountain Village, it has also created another tangible benefit for the two communities it serves: less pollution. When people opt to take the gondola rather than drive a car, the obvious outcome of less traffic, noise and air pollution becomes a major perk.

San Miguel County Environmental Health Department Director David Schneck reports that although population in the county has doubled in the past decade, air pollution has been cut in half. While he is wary of primarily crediting the gondola for the remarkable improvement in air quality, he agrees that it has been a significant factor.

"Any time you take traffic off the road it's going to help air quality, so there is no doubt that the gondola did help," he says. Other factors, including reducing speed limits, placing a ban on wood-burners, de-icing roads with chemicals rather than gravel, and upgrading the town's street-sweeping system have also contributed to the county's improved air quality.

Although commuter traffic traveling in and out of Telluride can by no means be considered light (the majority of traffic originates from Down Valley locales), the gondola does offer those who already live in Telluride or Mountain Village a fast and free ride.

"The gondola has helped to unite the two towns and created a dependable, safe, and reliable public transportation system for everyone to use," said Metro District Transportation Coordinator Candace Kjome. "It has also helped to reduce traffic on our roads, which helps to reduce roadway-related costs like traffic enforcement, emergency services, and road maintenance. People can relax and have less stress while commuting to work, and it has provided mobility for kids, adults, and guests in our community."

The Gondola's

Next Decade

Perhaps the most valuable, albeit intangible, impact of the gondola is its demonstration of the potential of a few big thinkers in two small communities. Although it was an unprecedented, one-of-a-kind project that met setback after setback, the Telluride-Mountain Village Gondola not only survived its pitfalls, but now thrives.

But there is still room for the gondola to evolve.

With mounting oil prices, will mass public transit systems like the gondola become less of an anomaly in the U.S.? Construction of automobile-free housing developments like The Ridge atop San Sophia Ridge, prove there are those who think outside the box when it comes to transportation.

Horn, developer of the gondola-only accessed Ridge project, admits that the concept of a home that cannot be accessed by a car elicits some cynicism.

"There are some people that are so married to their cars that they roll their eyes at the idea. Other people, who are more accustomed to using public transportation, see the gondola as a very unique mode of transportation that allows them to be in a location that at first blush appears very remote, but when looked at in context is really one of the most convenient locations in the area," Horn says.

Just over a month ago developers of The Ridge received zoning approval to build 31 condos alongside a smattering of single-family homes already under construction in the area surrounding the San Sophia gondola station. Heated golf-cart paths are already in place, ready to transfer homeowners and guests from the gondola to their respective home sites. Will prospective buyers go for the idea of a home without year-round vehicle access? "We'll just have to wait to see how it all unfolds," says Horn.

As Horn and many more of Mountain Village's original developers know, there is no easy means of transportation toward realizing a visionary, never-been-seen-before concept. You just have to go for it.

FUN GONDOLA FACTS

• This gondola is the first and only free public transportation of its kind in the United States.

• The gondola is owned and operated by Mountain Village owners and taxpayers. The gondola officially opened on December 20, 1996.

• The ride from Telluride to Mountain Village is three miles and takes approximately 13 minutes.

• Roughly 2.5 million passengers ride the gondola each year. To date, it has safely transported over 26.7 million riders.

• A cabin travels 11 mph at full speed, which means that each cabin travels over 52,000 miles per year.

• The operation and maintenance of the gondola requires over 100,000 man-hours per year, and costs approximately $3.1 million annually.

• The original capital cost for the system was $16 million.

• The Gondola is open from 7 a.m. to midnight during the winter and summer seasons – approximately 285 days per year.

• The longest section of the gondola has a vertical rise of 1,778 feet and is over 5,750 feet long. The highest station is Station St. Sophia at an elevation of 10,500 feet above sea level.