Telluride PhotosPhotos of Telluride Ski Area, Snowboarding, Hiking

… big time! …. and more ways than one. As much as I personally didn’t miss out on seeing them perform, I won’t forget what went down here in Telluride! It was a lot of fun to catch this unique ensemble which delivered very colorful, true, and often times delicate arrangements. While Neil Young made a joke before playing “For What It’s Worth” that it was their only “hit”, there were only a couple of tunes which they played which I did not recognize. They also threw in a couple Neil Young tunes “I Am a Child” and “Rockin’ in a Free World”. Here’s a shot of the Fox Theatre in Oakland. I had seats on the floor level but wandered around the venue prior to the start of the show to check things out:

While the venue was excellent as an indoor venue, it doesn’t compete by a long shot had Buffalo Springfield played outside in Telluride Town Park! It was a loss for the town & ultimately I believe for Blues and Brews as well. I suppose I keep wavering on “understanding where they were coming from” and on the other hand extremely angry that the town as a whole missed out! I won’t hold on to the anger, but I also won’t support the Blues and Brews festival for a long time … it would take a lot for me to get back on board with that festival!

Otherwise, Gillian Welch opened up the show … who I was given rave reviews by many people I spoke with prior & she definitely lived up to them! Would be interesting to see her in the context of a full band.

I’ll save my review of Furthur at Shoreline (which brought me out there in the first place) for another day soon … but can say for now they were both excellent shows!

The weather held out for the ice cream social during the Telluride Mountain Film Festival in 2011 which marks the official and what has also been the traditional beginning to the festival season in Telluride.

Below is a shot of a bluegrass trio playing on the San Miguel County Courthouse steps during the ice cream social. An appropriate precursor to the upcoming Telluride Bluegrass Festival. The mandolin player used to be my neighbor in Ophir:

According to the press release on the Telluride Ski Resort website, the competition begins on 12/15 and concludes Sunday 12/18.

It’s definitely a great thing to see some of the top athletes in their discipline compete at such a high level … especially in a sport which I happen to love, snowboarding!

What kind of gets at me though is the way the ski resort has set the pricing of a single day lift ticket in Telluride during the “early season” at $73 for an adult through December 17 (then it goes up to regular rate of $98), even though only a limited number of runs are open …. most of which are not exactly within the most challenging terrain to ski or snowboard either.

It’s also easy to see a big chunck of terrain closed off to the public (with a lot of energy being invested to shape it no less). I’m not really sure of the exact percentage of overall open terrain, but I would venture a guess it’s about 10% of all currently open terrain give or take … which is a fair amount even in light of snowmaking/patrol’s best efforts to deploy the rest of the mountain (which to their credit have recently opened up peek-a-boo, ophir loop, and most notable Woosley’s Way [in that it will allow people to do limited-laps on 6]).

Again, I don’t begrudge the competition at all & am all for it’s mutual use co-existence with public use of the ski area; however, what I am opposed to is what I believe to be a disproportionate early season fee of $73 for a single day lift ticket given that:

1.) There is a relatively small amount of terrain open to being with
2.) Complete public accessis curtailed due to the competition is using at least a statistically significant portion of skiable acreage

Again, it’s not the competition, it’s the pricing I don’t like.

If I had the time (maybe I’ll re-visit this later), I’d compare a calculation of the percentage of terrain open vs. the early bird rate as a percentage of the regular rate. My suspicion is there would be an enormous disparity in so far as the early bird rate being a much higher in “cost per open acre (or runs/lifts)” … even if a seasonal average were utilized vs. a best possible total acres open.

I don’t know, maybe the high rate could be intentional as a means of delivering “negative advertising” to dissuade larger numbers of skier visits due to safety/capacity issues?

I realize the competition will be over within a week, so it’s not a permanent issue and I’m not looking harp on competitors for doing what they love to do … especially since we share a similar “love of the game”. It’s really about how the ski area is “rolling with this” in so far as keeping the lift tickets at $73 which bothers me.

I suppose it might be considered arbitrary for me to say $50 is fine, but $73 is not … although I’m willing to bet a lot of business owners would agree that lower ticket rates during times of relatively lean snow would have a positive influence on the local economy … especially when visitors are more keen on following weather and snowfall trends online and deciding where to go more at a moment’s notice. I realize the ski company needs to cover it’s costs and so forth, but I wonder if they’ve considered building in a “reserve fund” to make flexible downward adjustments as needed? I’ve seen lots of capital improvements recently, almost too many to mention … so it’s difficult to say. Having the full rate pushing $100 might also be a part of the equation … maybe from their current starting point, a $73 ticket represents a sufficient discount. Not looking to minimize the number of factors at play in pricing considerations, but just saying that it’s kind of getting out of hand from my perspective. Who knows really, but I just know I’m not exactly a fan of the pricing.

Regardless of all my ramblings, I do wish all of the competitors the best of luck and to enjoy the moment (& your stay)!

I saw Pretty Lights at the Telluride Mountain Village Conference Center this weekend. It wasn’t exactly my cup of tea, but it was still fun. Mostly a younger crowd, many of whom were visiting from out of town, I barely saw any of the usual locals suspects who see live music on a regular basis around town.

Pretty Lights Telluride Mountain Village Conference Center 2010

Speaking of which, there really hasn’t been a lot of live music lately … which is a shame given that many bands will visit Colorado mountain towns yet Telluride seems to get skipped a lot. I believe Pretty Lights is the only show which was booked at the conference center between now and the recently announced Leftover Salmon show on February 25, 2011 … which you can still get tickets at:

http://leftovertickets.jambasetickets.com/evlist.php

The annual Ophir Hill Climb took place this past Sunday morning at 10am on a beautiful fall day which felt more like summer and typically bodes well for those who ride their bikes.

The race begins in Old Ophir in front of the town hall and proceeds up to the top of Ophir Pass and back down to the finish line. The race is open to mountain bikers, runners, and of course dogs.

Traditionally, when the weather is bad or there is snow on the course, the advantage goes to the runners; however, when there’s a dry course, bikers tend to have the advantage. In addition to a dry course this year, much of the dirt road has been graded by the National Forest Service who have been doing a lot of work in the area with large equipment … so I’m sure it only helped the bikers that much more. I am not 100% certain, but believe this is how it turned out with local biker Pete Dahl taking the first place slot.

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.

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.

Below is a short clip of the finale of the 4th of July fireworks show in Telluride taken from Tomboy road looking down on Town Park. I really liked the large shells (can be heard at the very end) which send off a booming sound which reverberates a big bass sound throughout the entire box canyon.

While I’ve always known the 4th of July celebration in Telluride is one of the larger events of the summer and draws a large number of people, I seem to forget that it apparently brings in more people in their cars and trucks than any other festival. It was major gridlock getting out of town last evening with police stationed on mainstreet at the major intersections. Even the alleys were jam packed. It’s interesting, because there are probably more people in town for the Telluride Bluegrass Festival; however, most of them are staying overnight at either a local Telluride hotel or will be camping …. where as many folks visiting town for the 4th are driving back to Durango, Farmington, Cortez, Grand Junction, etc. that night.

The Fouth of July in Telluride is always a traditional sort of celebration with a parade, bbq, hokey games, and of course fireworks. There was supposed to be a flyover this morning at 10:40, but being in Ophir and not going to town until later, I can’t say for sure if it happened and/or whether they were jets. I’ve seen old war relic prop planes before, but the jet formation is definitely a spectacular sight to see … where they fly information very low through the mouth of the box canyon, then pull up into a rapid climb at the very last second before approaching Ajax.

The 2010 Telluride Wine Festival is the first year they put on a music segment on the big stage in Town Park. Jackie Greene headlined on Friday and I forgot the name of the headliner on Saturday (something like Kavorka), although the 2nd to last act (voitzen drizen or something like that) received good reviews.

On the heels of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, music could be heard throughout the valley for a second weekend in a row. While I am a BIG fan of music in general, I have to admit that I was kind of annoyed at having to hike an hour on the Sneffels Highline trail to escape the booming sound of the bass and simply hear the sounds of birds and other wildlife.

I did not officially attend the festival, but walked up to the fenced boundary which was posted directly south of the basketball court in Town Park. The shot below was taken from this vantage point:

It was difficult to say for sure what the attendance was from where I was standing, but my guess is about 400 – 600 people (give or take) were present. It is interesting to note the Telluride Blues and Brews Festival once had it’s boundary fence in the exact same location … which allowed for anyone to walk up to the basketball court or play frisbee on the north softball field while the music was playing. Now, Blues & Brews is just shy of Bluegrass in terms of attendance and their overall footprint. Jazz Festival has migrated to the main stage from the big white “DIA Tent” and has increased their attendance a bit over the past couple few years … although I believe they will always try to keep their event as intimate as possible as a matter of philosophy. Nonetheless, this could change. Same goes for the Telluride Wine Festival. I don’t know about the ambitions of the Telluride Wine Festival, but it could very well turn into another 10k x3 day event. Similar to Blues & Brews, the wine festival seems to attract and promote a particular vibe which isn’t exactly my favorite. It’s kind of a “pass the gray poupon” flavor of drunken stupor vs. the more mellow fanaticism of the bluegrass crowd. Nonetheless, I’m sure local area businesses don’t mind the extra revenue, but what about residents who simply want to relax, hike, bike, fish, etc. with a little peace and quiet? Maybe the answer is to grow the Nothing Festival into a major event!

Here’s the kid’s fishing pond in Telluride Town Park at sunset: