Season's First Turns in Telluride

My 2008-09 ski season has begun in brilliant sunshine and on well-groomed snow

Telluride is one of my favorite places in Colorado -- not just one of my favorite places to ski but one of my favorite places. Period. The downtown, a National Historic District, is an immaculately preserved jewel. Boutiques, restaurants, nightspots and way too many real estate office line the broad main drag of what was once a gritty mining town, but the beauty of the box canyon still eclipses the glitter of the businesses. The lifts serving the original ski terrain were strung right on the outskirts of town. Further ski terrain expansion began in a stellar glacier-carved basin where the new resort development called Mountain Village has taken shape.

A handful of runs above Mountain Village are currently open -- a very limited percentage of Telluride's expansive 2,000 acres of terrain. I don't usually travel this far to ski for a weekend, but I am happy to be here -- really happy. I know that resorts closer to Denver/Boulder have more terrain open and a deeper base, but I also know that weekend traffic along I-70 is horrific as snow-starved Coloradans head for the high country -- and back again.

This morning, I made my first turns of the 2008-09 ski season on Telluride's immaculately groomed runs under the big blue dome of the Colorado sky. The resort is making snow like crazy, and a storm is forecast early this coming week. During the first part of any winter, a few perfect runs that invite setting skis on snow are all I ask for. Later, I'll be looking for morem terrain -- and Telluride will soon offer it.