Telluride is the pick of the US ski resorts, hands down.
One of our crew described Vegas as epic and Telluride as sublime. That is accurate. Telluride is a good antidote to Vegas.
High in the Colorado Rockies, its air is fresh and sharp. The main town is small, unspoilt and does not advertise itself. Residential weatherboards and civic locally quarried brownstone buildings are just as they were when gold, silver, lead, zinc and copper attracted fortune seekers here in the 1870s.
The outlaw Jessie James made his very first bank heist here. An inside job if you ask me - there is only one way in and out of this box canyon.
What has emerged to accommodate Telluride’s second post-mining boom, commencing 100 years later, has been managed exceptionally well. It has destroyed neither the look nor feel of the town.
Modest expansions and the addition of camping facilities comfortably accommodate the influx of visitors for the Spring and Summer music and cultural festivals.
Well conceived, attractive, stone and wood constructed homes and lodges, located discreetly within the folds of mountain ridges and pine forests, house those seeking skiing adventures. At a price, of course. One that, in addition to remoteness, keeps numbers down.
I hadn’t skied since 2004, on some unremembered glacier in Austria following a conference at the University of Innsbruck, an hour or so bus ride away, with ill-fitting boots and skis and zero fitness.
Our first 3 days at Telluride offered groomed runs on a base lacking a half metre or so. Fun, but a reminder of climate warming and the vicissitudes of weather dependent adventure.
Then it snowed all day, all night, and into the afternoon of the next day. Big fat fluffy flakes with classic sixfold chaotic symmetry.
I made my way through various gondolas and chairlifts up to High Camp at 3,600m, where there was a hut that served hot chocolate and tomato soup, and a 12km green line run all the way back to the bottom. Perfect for my needs.
Where I slept: Ballard House: Basic but clean and functional.
Where I ate: The Chop House: Good steakhouse.
