The White Gold of Telluride

After living 4 years in Colorado, I finally went skiing in Telluride yesterday. The last time I had gone skiing was in Winter Park, Colorado 10 years ago as was mentioned in the previous post. The weather was great as we loaded the ski gear in Expedition at 9am and headed out of Ouray, but not before stopping to load up some orders to be delivered to Rocky Mountain Scenics (RMS) customers in Telluride. Thus, the entire day would be a business trip since the plan included taking pictures of the town and the slopes.

I had put on my old ski bibs that were probably about 15 years old. They also had some tears in them at the leg bottoms because I had used them for ice climbing and had caught my crampons on them a few times. It made them look like that down jacket of the physical therapist mentioned in the previous post. I pushed the stuffing back in and wondered if the Telluride chic on the slopes would notice.

The first stop was at the ski rental shop. I got some 160 carved skis, and some front buckle ski boots. That was the first time in a long time I wore front buckle boots as all my previous boots had been the state-of-the-art-at-the-time rear-entry types and my last skis had been straight edge 210s. Some new goggles were also in order since the last pair that had been stored in my boot bag had deteriorated. The boot rental place also does business with RMS, so after I had the ski gear fitted and paid for the goggles, I asked how much for the ski rentals. The owner, Eric, said, “Comp,” I said, “Sweet” and Tamara and I headed to the slopes. Tamara is fortunate enough to have bought her gear before the financial crisis.

By the time we parked the truck at Mountain Village (a community up the slopes from Telluride), put on our boots, and skied to the bottom of the lifts to purchase our lift tickets, it was noon thirty. We asked the ticket seller when the half-day price kicked in. She responded, “Noon.” Sweeter! Since Tamara and I knew we were good for only a half day of skiing, anyway, this fit in with our plan and our budget.

Having made it to the bottom of the hill with little incident, I was getting my ski legs back – just like riding a bicycle. On the advice of Eric, we road a lift high up the hill and took a long, easy green run down the groomed ego snow. The next time we went up even higher and took a 4-mile green/blue run back to the same starting point. By now we were getting a bit bored with the easy stuff, but first a break for some food and a beer.

After sharing a chicken sandwich and each having a New Belgium Fat Tire, we headed for new terrain and adventure. On the way up on the chair lift, I finally spotted some more steep runs and some with bumps. Once off the chair lift, I directed Tamara towards the blue run with the bumps. She has never been thrilled by bumps, but we headed down. I had been carrying my camera in a small backpack all day, and halfway down the first bump run I took a spill. Tamara found me falling to be amusing. No spills, no thrills! By the time I reached the bottom of the bumps I was feeling my confidence build. Tamara slowly made her way down. She likes long straights and speed.

Once we reached the bottom again, we took the same chair up. This time Tamara opted for the groomed run as I headed back to the bumps. I was able to navigate the bumps non-stop and non-spill but lots of thrills, and Tamara and I ended up back at the chair lift at the same time. By this time we had gotten our fill of the first day of skiing, and jumped on the gondola to get back to the parking structure. We both agreed it was a great first day and had to return to do it again soon.

I turned in my skis and gear and Eric asked how it went with the carved skis. I responded, “They made me feel 10 years younger, but I know tomorrow I will feel 10 years older!” The pain was already setting into the bones and of the muscles used in the day’s activities.

We went to the RMS customers and delivered the orders and took additional orders. By the time we left Telluride it was nearly 7pm. We had intended to stop at the new brewery in Ridgway, but when we reached Ridgway it was getting late. The brewery does not serve food and our stomachs were growling, so we headed to a nice restaurant, Drakes, and had a wonderful dinner. We got some of the staff into trouble because we talked to them too much, or should I say they talked to us too much. We enjoy talking to people and getting to know them.

Thus ended our day, and it was good.

On another note, for some reason when I buy Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and take it home, I always store it in the same place – second shelf to the left side of the refrigerator. And, I always make sure the labels are turned out toward me. Maybe in a past life I was a product placement director for movies, or maybe I’m very anal. And another thing, why is there no “d” in refrigerator, but there is one in the fridge?