Telluride PhotosPhotos of Telluride Ski Area, Snowboarding, Hiking

Joint Point, one of Telluride’s best local jam bands (and also the name of a Telluride Ski run), is seen playing below in the Telluride Mountain Village for Telluride Sports’ annual Blizzard sale. This is a short clip during the middle of a Shakedown Street jam.

Telluride Sports’ held a raffle for a ski pass and other great items, but I did not win. I did purchase a great pair of Oakley googles at 40% off at Alternative Edge.

The Ice House Hotel is located on South Fir Street in Telluride. It is about a block away from the gondola and the San Miguel River runs directly behind the property.

Telluride Hotels - The Ice House

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… is coming to a close today. It’s always an interesting festival to observe from the outside, and I’m sure is even moreso if one participates directly. Below is a photo of some specimens which were harvested in the region and placed under it’s proper location (with full name and photos) after it’s been positively identified.

They normally partition the tables into poisonous and non-poisonous species of mushrooms.

The wet weather might not always be the most comfortable to be in, but it certainly makes for some great photos around Telluride and in the mountains. Below is a sunset which lit up the sky in the Ophir Valley a couple of days ago:

Sunshine Mountain

Here’s a double rainbow looking into Waterfall Canyon and the orange clouds on the south side (acid chutes can be seen) taken a little over a week ago in Ophir:

Phish took the stage in Telluride Town Park on August 9th and 10th for what was a very memorable set of shows. The band seemed to be in excellent form and was one of the more sought after tickets on the summer tour. Tickets were being scalped on the street for upwards of a few hundred dollars per ticket; however, there was not the major crowds of ticketless phans which people had feared might show up and overwhelm the town.

Given that the past few weeks have been VERY rainy, it was amazing to see the weather as almost perfect with clear skies and zero precipitation.

The highlights for me were the covers: Quinn The Eskimo, Light Up Or Leave Me Alone, A Day In The Life, and Walk Away, but also liked the Possum from the first night and Divided Sky the second.

Here’s a shot of the tarp line heading into the venue on the 9th at about 5:15:

Phish In Telluride

Phish

Telluride sunset at Phish Concert

I took a counter-clockwise hike on the Deep Creek to the Eider Creek trail loop.  I can’t remember how long it took, but it was about 2-3 hours and I took my time … actually traveling up the ridge line for 10 minutes past the junction where the Sneffels Highline and Deep Creek Trail head converge to get a view up and over the canopy of trees. The shot below was taken from this vantage point, where you can see the Telluride Ski Area on the right (lift 9 area):

Below is a macro shot of a cool looking mountain wild flower I came across. You might want to click on the photo and then go to the actual album and look at the largest size to really see the detail of this flower … which is truly amazing.

Below is a photo taken in macro mode of an Osha plant in Waterfall Canyon near Ophir, Colorado which has flowered recently.   It seems we’re pretty much in the peak season with respect to mountain wild flowers in the high country.

The roots of the Osha plant are often harvested for medicinal purposes; in particular treating upper respiratory cold and flu symptoms.

Osha is the term used for “bear root” by the Ute’s who apparently witnessed bears seeking out and consuming Osha root after hibernation or when sick or wounded.

Cow parsnip flower looks very similar to that of Osha, but normally has much broader leaves.

Here’s a shot of the Steep Canyon Rangers playing at the Sunset Mountain Concert Series in the Telluride Mountain Village on July 7, 2010.  The concert venue is located in the Heritage Plaza in the TMV and offers free weekly music during the summer.  The Steep Canyon Rangers are pretty much a traditional Bluegrass band which sometimes features the actor/musician Steve Martin on the banjo … although he did not appear at this show.

Located in the Telluride Mountain Village, The Peaks one of the area’s largest hotels which offers a full spa.

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Includes an item titled “9. Bear Creek & New Lift“, with subtext and question as follows:

Delta Chair Lift
This would expand the ski area, offering new intermediate, advanced, and expert terrain above tree line.

1. Should we add a lift in upper Bear Creek?

The survey question provide the following selection options:

Choose the level of importance to you:

Comments (with an input box)

First off, I need to say that this survey’s questions are probably not setup to solicit the most accurate responses. For those survey takers who are simply checking off selections and DO NOT enter comments, the questions are not posed in such a way as to ask whether or not the survey taker actually “approves” of the particular item, but rather asks about the “importance” of this lift. A beginner level skier who might be taking the survey might feel an expansion with a lift into Bear Creek is simply not relevant to him or her, since the respective terrain might be beyond their ability level. In which case, they might check off “Not Important” or “Indifferent”.

However, if the question were posed to be something along the lines of “Do you support an expansion of the existing ski area boundary to include a lift in to upper Bear Creek?”, it would be an entirely different question and might invoke an entirely different set of results … since there might be a significant population who opposes such an expansion, yet considers the actual terrain as not having ANY significant relevance to their particular world in so far as suitable accessible terrain.

The question also asks “Should we add a lift in upper Bear Creek?” … which essentially jumps ahead of itself in so far as not first inquiring: “Should we seek an expansion to our existing boundary to add more terrain?” … which of course is the sticky wicket question.

Other items in the survey I found somewhat disturbing:

Plans to add a tram to Palmyra Peak from the top of Gold Hill Chute 3. WTF? Talk about a MAJOR EYESOR OF THE MILLIONTH DEGREE!!! Apparently, there is a surface lift currently being constructed atop the Gold Hill ridgeline which will provide access to the tram. Hellooooooo …. not sure if they realize how darn windy it gets on the Gold Hill ridge and the top of Palmyra Peak?!?!!!!!! … let alone the cost to bring this system on line?!!!!!!? I can only imagine the engineering & construction costs of what would almost certainly require a line which is completely suspended in the air (minus the two grounded terminals). Yet, this tram might not be used very much … especially during sparse snow years … given the nature of the exposure of the terrain underneath. Let’s keep the cost of lift access down to what is actually necessary so as the greatest number of U.S. citizens can have a reasonable opportunity to afford access to the lift system which serves the ski resort; the vast majority of resides on National Forest Service (i.e. public) lands.

I almost wonder if this tram idea is a “foil” or “decoy” to divert attention away from a lift in Bear Creek? It’s just THAT hair brained … in my opinion.

There’s also an item for a Palmyra Basin lift which is apparently already approved byt he USFS. By the map on the Telski survey, it appears to start near the base of Gold Hill Chute 2 & traverses high up into the Palmyra Basin just below the cliffs. In additional to selecting the “level of importance”, there’s a secondary question which asks:

2. This lift could be considered an alternate to the Delta Lift in Bear Creek. What option do you prefer (choose one only):

-Build both Delta Lift and Palmyra Basin Lift
-Build neither lift
-Build only the Delta Lift
-Build only the Palmyra Basin Lift

Gee … where do I begin?!? (I selected (build niether lift”)

Wow, it keeps getting better, here’s the next question:

In lieu of a chairlift in upper Bear Creek, a tunnel would be built from the bottom of the proposed Delta Lift to the bottom of Gold Hill Express (14).

… again, it’s a “choose the level of importance to you” question.

and “better”:

1. Should we add a lift from Gorrono Ranch to the top of Gold Hill?

… looks like they’re raising the possibility of summer use for this lift too

Again, they’ve just totally missed the mark on how they’re asking questions. Here’s another:

“Should we upgrade Plunge (9) to a high-speed quad in the same alignment?”

… yet were’re supposed select the level of importance without any indication of whether we’re FOR or AGAINST such a measure.

This survey just gets more and more off the charts … beyond the scope of “Save Bear Creek” … it should be “Save the San Juans” … lifts to Ophir & Silverton are apparently on the table.

and it goes on:

“Chairlift connection to Red Mountain Pass
Three chairlifts would connect Telluride to HWY 550 at Red Mountain Pass. A shuttle bus would connect the existing ski area to the first lift at the end of the valley.”
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