Unhappy with the direction home mtn (TELLURIDE) is taking. what to do?

DERS.

DERS.

Active member
Telluride seems to be questioning the economics of catering to "extreme skiers" and would like to push the mountain to be more appealing to"intermediate skiers" (aka where the $$ is in skiing).

while this may be possible for resorts like vail or breck it just does not work here due to the terrain. the san juan mtns are in general steeper/provide more extreme terrain than its i70 counterparts.

the owner of the mountain Chuck Horning fired or rather moved the former CEO Dave Riley to a bs position within the parent company so he (the owner) could have more influence on the day to day operations of the mountain. Rileys accomplishments during the past few seasons included the "opening of Black Iron Bowl, expanding access to Palmyra Peak, the Gold Hill Chutes and the opening of Revelation Bowl, serviced by the new Revelation Lift."

now heres where im starting to get mad as i write this...

the owner of the mtn was not happy with this expansion of extreme terrain and basically decided to take over. the owner brings up these utterly BULLSHIT questions "What’s the value of Telluride’s hike-to extreme terrain, considering how much it costs to open it? Why does Telluride Ski and golf Company’ s marketing focus on promoting extreme terrain, since most skiers are intermediates? Why do we need to host the World Cup? Is it necessary to run all of our lifts all the time?"

whats that mean? this season today december 26th, all that is open is EVERY FUCKING INTERMEDIATE trial with 0 of the black or harder runs currently open . while yes the snow hasnt been the best, never in my ~18 years of skiing at this mtn have i seen them open the terrain in this order.

http://www.teddyerrico.com/blog/?p=798

/rant. fuck me if nobody reads this.

tldr/sparknotes:

the owner of telluride is a huge fucktard and is focusing on drawing intermediate skiers and as a result, believes major "funding" should be cut from the expansion and opening of hike to/more extreme terrain.
 
Briefly scanned over your post... From your OP it seems like the owner is trying to do what is best for the resort. If I were in his shoes I would do the same thing, although it would kill me inside. It seems like he is trying to maximize profits by bringing in the most amount of customers he can. Not every is as hardcore as us so why start with the difficult terrain first if many of the riders cannot even do it? Quite honestly opening up some intermediate trails first isn't that bad...and besides the mountain is in colorado, how long could it take to open up the whole mountain?
 
Sounds like standard money-savvy businessman move who appears not to care for what made the resort what it is. It's likely with the economic situation the numbers expected did not bring the revenue to pay for the expansion and running of it all on a day to day basis. While its shit many resorts are struggling to break even. The only way to try and deal with this is to get a petition together supporting keeping the hike to/extreme terrain open to present to the owner to show him the revenue he currently has from experienced riders and what he would stand to lose if his actions continue. A simple 2 or 3 question questionnaire/petition and a solid pitch to the owner and magement is all you can do.
 
So what if he is money hungry? I'd rather have a successful resort than a risky resort struggling to stay a float for the sake of the experienced skiers.
 
When I think Telluride I think gnarly big mountain terrain, not great intermediate groomers. Telluride probably makes more money off of extreme skiers than it does gapers. That guy is a dumbass for doing that.
 
its all about the $$$ which sucks for people who just want to ski the same mountain they did growing up.i think resort should limit the number of tickets/ passes sold but that would mean they dont make as much green. at my local resort i saw more people skiing the "chutes" than i ever have in my 5 years skiing there and it make me sad because it got skied out within and hour and this isnt a squaw or big resort. if i were an investor i would invest in some new resorts, snow sports are blowing up big time and everyone is getting getting at skiing/snowboarding and want to ski the gnarly stuff.

sorry if that doesnt relate to the ops post but i kept thinking about it all day and i felt this was a good place to let it out
 
from that article you posted

"One other aspect that Horning is really pushing is Skier Safety. He wants Telluride to be the safest mountain in North America."

well your fucked... say goodbye to those blacks man
 
I'll be honest, I have never been to telluride and have little to no interest in going there. But my understanding is that this has been going on for a very long time.

 
hah yeah i would have never imagined myself saying those words or let alone anything positive about Riley last season. but i think Chuck's newfound "interest" in the resort makes me really question the motivations of the company. like rasta stevie says, id hate to see this town go to the corporate dickheads and the rout of aspen but im afraid it already has. at least we still got silverton a lil ways away...
 
I'm with ya man.

I grew up in northern NM and southern CO has always been my playground. I remember first coming to Telluride when the tickets were $50 or $60. It was actually a ski town with a feel like Pagosa but a little more upscale. Things have gone to shit...the park is utter shit and the town to just feels different. Such a fucking yuppie breeding ground.
 
I doubt that he plans to close down terrain that's previously been open. And there's not that many more places worth expanding as it would only serve about 10% of the clientele. Just leave it as bakcountry IMHO. The owner is right in that the money comes from gapers; I don't think many of you plan on spending $1000 a night to rent a chalet.
 
Yeah I haven't been to Telluride but I think of it as the one CO resort that is steep and badass unlike the I70 ones which are not terrible mountains but do leave something to be desired in terms of gnarly terrain. Got to think anyone chosing to go there instead of Aspen or Vail does so for the expert terrain. So this guy is a fucktard.

That said, here in Reno/Tahoe I am sure the asian families from the bay area (who are the only people I regularly see staying in the casinos that are clearly here to go skiing) provide way more money to the hills than someone like me. They aren't going to Squaw to ride KT22.
 
Telluride is fucking amazing! It's one of the sickest ski towns on planet earth, I was on the bump team there for 1 year and I must say that the bump skiing there is the best ive ever seen.. I saw Rasta stevie in line once and I was so impressed! Fuck Money hungry ass holes Like rasta Stevie said Tellurides gotta be funky !!

 
I didnt say being smart with brining in revenue for the resort was a bad thing and used appears as i dont know him personally and dont know how he feels about keeping the expereinced skiers coming to the resort. As i went on to say he is clearly thinking anout trying to save the resort from financial instability but he doesnt have to do that by closing the serious terrain and if you can show there is still money to be made from experienced riders and that the gnar terrain is what draws people to telluride then he might see things differently.
 
I think it is best for the resort, but for "actual" skiers, I think this stupid. This is sort of starting to happen at my mountain as well, sort of mad
 
the thing is i dont think its "best" for the resort. there is not a whole lot of intermediate terrain and the resort is not very large. you cant get lost on catwalks all day like you can at vail. plus all the terrain surrounding the mountain is very extreme so further expansion would just add more extreme terrain, not add more greens and blues. telluride is too far away from everything to draw the crowds vail does. its an extreme niche destination. and they by appealing to the intermediates they are just destroying the real reason ppl come to this resort.

and to the people saying it wont have any affect on the terrain. yet again no new terrain is opening today, BUT THEY GROOMED THE NORDIC TRAILS FOR THE FIRST TIME LAST NIGHT. never once has the resort gone 2 days past Christmas with ~30% of the terrain open all of which being greens and blues. on this day last year, a worse snow year, the entire mountain was open.

the reason, Chuck wants telluride to be the "safest mtn in america" and instead of using patrols to work on opening terrain hes got patrols making it "safe as possible" surrounding every slow sign with 2 patrols.

/rant. for now.

so frustrating.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top