Lifestyle

Editor's note: For eight years, Telluride local Ben Clark and a few friends/business colleagues have made Spring treks to the majestic mountains of the Himalayas. Follow his adventures on Telluride Inside... and Out, including links to his regular podcasts.

Benbioshotlr-254x300 "Dispatch 2: Thuli Kharka/13,900'.

""The hiss of stoves, songs of porters and cries of ravens fill the damp air here at 13,900'. Our team has traversed a 15,000' pass to reach a granite filled bowl and crossroad of expeditions exploring the Hunku valley. This is day three of our eight-day approach, and we are in a crude site known as Thuli Kharka.

"The trekking here has been magnificent. In addition to being immediately surrounded by jagged thrusts of granite and icy 20'000' plus summits, we are charmed by the presence of French, Dutch and Nepali accents as we ascend and descend into our approach valley, the Hunku. This year is far different from last...There are people here and we are happy to greet old friends and porters I've expeditioned with in years past.

by Tracy Shaffer

What a wonderful morning! One of those where it’s a bit overcast and you’re wishing you’d never scheduled one of those outside meetings, especially on a Friday. You'd be oh so content to work from home.
The light looked silvery in my golden room as I roused myself, vowing to keep my commitment. I’d set up coffee and an interview with Brooke Young, Autism Specialist with the Colorado Department of Education to discuss autism: not something I would normally bounce out of bed for, but April is National Autism Month and Brooke is headed for the Telluride region to mentor a Model Autism Team. I write for Telluride Inside... and Out. You get the picture.

I headed downtown to one of 15 Starbucks in a five block radius, ordered my Joe, asking if any of the many blondes in line was Brooke. Feeling luckily out of luck, I sat down to write and enjoy my overpriced java, secretly hoping I was at the wrong Starbucks as I guiltily scrolled through my Blackberry to find her number. One minute later in walked Brooke, apologetic for having gone to the wrong Starbucks, along with Gina Quintana, Significant Support Needs Specialist, also with the CDE.

Telluride folks travel to a wide variety of destinations, and much of that travel takes place in Telluride's slower seasons, early Spring and late Fall. TIO is no exception. But this Spring we decided to see some parts of Colorado we haven't spent enough...

[click "Play" to hear Kristin Holbrook talk about cashmere] In Telluride, it is the quiet before the storm of summer activities, the perfect time for Spring cleaning, which includes swapping sweaters for t-shirts, cashmere for cotton – or maybe...

IMGP1122 It's a long way from Telluride to TAG. Start by jumping into a rabbit hole.

If you are lucky enough to get in – the place is one of the hippest, read jammed, in Denver's oh so hip Larimer Square district –  expect the unexpected in this Wonderland of food, where, for example, onion soup winds up inside a dumpling. (Try it, you'll love it.)

Ignorance is bliss – or we have a guardian angel. We showed up without reservations with friends, former Telluride locals Jade and Ernie Graham, also TAG virgins, and managed to waltz right in. (With a little help from the charming young man at the front desk.) But it was a Monday night and TAG was merely full: pulsing, but not hyperventilating.

[click "Play', Annie talks with Susan about the retreat]



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9D63565C-188B-3B72-2EE2529693A0530F Get anywhere near this human tornado and you will be blown away – this time to Mexico.

Telluride local and yoga instructor Annie Clark joins certified Pilates instructor Lauren Ferioli, founder of ReSource Pilates & Yoga Retreat. The restorative getaway takes place May 1 – May 8, 2010, in Maya Tulum Spa & Resort in Mexico, a gorgeous resort on the Caribbean Sea with pristine white sand beaches. Resource Retreats likes alliteration, suggesting its week-long immersions offer opportunities to reinvigorate, rejunvenate, recuperate, reconnect, realign, refresh, and relax.
[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Brooke Young]

Brooke cropped
Brooke Young

The Telluride region's Autism Behavioral and Consultation Team (ABCT) received one of two model autism teams in the state just before Christmas.

The local team is headed by occupational therapist and yoga instructor Annie Ripper Clark. April is National Autism Month and in honor of the occasion, Clark's mentor at the State level, Brooke D. Young, Autism Specialist/Senior Consultant, Colorado Department of Education in Denver, pays a visit to the district – Telluride, Ouray, Ridgway, Norwood and the West End – the week of April 19.

Among the activities planned for Young's visit are a parent chat, and an assessment of basic language and learning skills (revised) training.

IMG_1715
Ivar & Susan

It was time to stretch our wings, and so we sprung ourselves from the anodyne Spring of Telluride and headed for our second home: Denver.

Our loft is downtown, just on the edge of LoDo in Curtis Park, a neighborhood in the throes of a full-throated appeal for gentrification, but still a bit rough around the edges.

Here at Telluride Inside... and Out, one of our primary goals is to show off the twin jewels of Telluride and Mountain Village at their sparkling finest. If you ever ask anyone outside the region about Telluride, though, you're probably used to hearing "Tellu-what?" as often as you hear, "I totally love Telluride!" - with a smattering of, "Telluride - they ski there, right? Somewhere in Colorado?" thrown in for good measure. 

Knowing that striking the right balance between being a "best-kept secret" and bringing in tourists who occasionally fall so much in love with the place that they just have to live here (at least part of the year) is part of what keeps Telluride thriving, I love when I run across outside coverage of my favorite microcosm (in the fullest sense of the term). 

Two different people shared clippings about Telluride with me recently - one from Sunset Magazine, and one from New York Times featuring a review of Capella, one of TIO's most recent sponsors to come on board. That got me curious - who else has become enamored of Telluride lately? 

IMGP1105 2 Another great thing about being in Telluride: even the mundane can be a mini-adventure. Perhaps the errand is in town and could as easily be accomplished on a bike. In a month there will a number of choices about which route to take: quickly on the bike path, almost as quickly on the dirt track along the San Miguel, or a real adventure (and a fair amount more time) up Mill Creek Road and down the Waterline. See what I mean?