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[click "Play" button to hear Susan's interview with Elisabeth Gick]

Fear-emai[1] As part of Telluride's week-long "Phenomenal Woman" Celebrations" Telluride Inside...and Out honors longtime local Elisabeth Gick and her crusade for Tibet.

Elisabeth is bit like Alice of Wonderland fame: her native curiosity always gets the better of her. She falls down holes and meets amazing people in exotic places. She also tries to make a difference.

For several years now, Elisabeth has been traveling in Asia, particularly in Tibet, where she has made friends and made a difference. For example, she is doing what she can for 82 young girls, all orphans, whom she met with daughter Lesley in October 2008, while visiting the town of Ganzi in upper Kham. Thanks to her efforts and the generosity of family and friends such as the Lifton-Zolines, the girls now have two solar hot water showers and will soon have a library. A third initiative involves raising funds for traditional outfits. Elisabeth is $800 short of that goal.

10 March, 2009 /


Capella Telluride's GM, John Volponi, donates to online auction for Med Center's FEAST. See Susan's videocast with John at the end of this article.

It really did take a village – in this case, Telluride's sister city, The Mountain Village, to get the job done. But with two visionaries – architect/developer Robert A. Levine, and hotelier Horst Schulze, former president of Ritz-Carlton – driving the train, plus a cast of thousands willing to do the grunt work, the Telluride region's newest hotel is likely to become its crown jewel. Capella opened triumphantly on February 12, 2009.

Aptly named for the alpha star of the constellation Auriga, Capella Telluride is a tour de force. The complex of 100 hotel rooms and about 50 condominiums should transform its new address from a launch pad for intermediate skiing and hang-out for the Prada brigade into a go-to spot for food, drink and events, even for townies. The spa and the restaurants have the welcome mat out for the entire community.

07 March, 2009 /

Dirk DePagter talks to Kate Wadley about Hotel Columbia's donation to Telluride Medical Center's Feast. See the videocast at the end of this article.


Dirk DePagter remembers Telluride's wild and wooly days of the 1970s. A  master carpenter/contractor back when, he was hired to do the remodel that transformed a shed owned by the Idarado Mining Company into the building that is now the Telluride Medical Center. What remains of his handiwork is the eastern part of today's structure.

Dirk, who became a developer, is now the proud owner of his first hotel: he and his partners purchased the Hotel Columbia from close friends Jim Lincoln and Jeff Campbell in January 2008.

07 March, 2009 /

One thing Telluride people love to do is dress up (or cross): witness Halloween, 4th of July parade, Chocolate Lovers' Fling, etc. The In-Drag Race is an annual tribute to TAB's muse, the late Robert Presley. This year's event, another good example, was held on...

05 March, 2009 /

The Telluride Adaptive Sports Program holds its annual "Goin' Cowboy at the Opera" Friday evening, March 6, 6:00 pm until 11:00 pm. Music is by the great Anders Brothers Band, and there will be a live and a silent auction. Check out the TASP website...

03 March, 2009 /

FEAST baskets 005 Dr. Jeff Ptak wears two hats in the Telluride community: he is a board certified plastic surgeon with a private practice and the dermatologist at the Telluride Medical Center. In both contexts, however, he regularly confronts the vicissitudes of altitude and aging on skin and finds solutions.

Dr. Ptak first visited the Telluride region 40 years ago. Since then, he has watched the community grow and change, and the town's small "clinic" grow into a Medical Center now bursting at the seams, just as the demand to deliver more and better state-of-the-art services is growing.

01 March, 2009 /

The Telluride AIDS Benefit is Robert Presley’s legacy. It now reaches out in many ways to many different places/institutions: locally, through its education initiative; regionally to the Denver Children’s Hospital Immunodeficiency Program (CHIP) and Brother Jeff’s Health Initiative; internationally, through The Telluride Project in Manzini, Swaziland, Sub-Saharan Africa and Ethiopia; and to neighbors on the Western Slope through TAB’s primary beneficiary, the Western Colorado AIDS Project or WestCAP.

In 1994, WestCAP  was still a very small nonprofit operating out of Grand Junction under the direction of a small board of directors and administered part-time by a nurse, Shelley Nielsen. Nielsen did great work with the Mesa County Health Department and as part-time executive director/case manager for WestCAP. Clients being served lived primarily in Mesa County, until Presley worked his magic.

26 February, 2009 /

by Dr. Susannah Smith

Hypnosis is a natural, normal state of consciousness, characterized by the focus of attention on one concept to the exclusion of others.  We experience hypnotic states all the time: when we are reading a book and don't hear someone who is calling our name; when we drive to work and are lost in thought, not really focusing on each turn and location; when we are listening to an "entrancing" story; or when we are in the mystical state drifting on and off into sleep.

I took my first course in hypnosis because I was fascinated.  I did not think anyone could snap their fingers and make me bark like a dog!  What I discovered was a profoundly helpful understanding of hypnosis in general, and what we clinicians call "therapeutic hypnosis."  For most purposes, a light trance state produces the beneficial results we are seeking.  For those who want to experience the deep states of hypnosis, practice is required.  We can learn to put ourselves into a hypnotic state and to choose our areas of focus.

Why would anyone want to practice hypnosis?  The benefits are infinite.  Athletes use hypnosis to focus on the game and to exclude the anxiety of the crowd and noise.  We cleanse ourselves when we go into hypnotic states, feeling refreshed and rejuvenated.  We can teach ourselves how to use hypnotic states to help overcome phobias and anxiety attacks.  In a deep trance state, surgery without anesthesia can be performed.

24 February, 2009 /

[click the "Play" button to hear Susan's conversation with Lauren Fong]

Itsola on Telluride AIDS Benefit runway

Designer Lauren Fong is cut from a different sort of cloth.

Her career in fashion began improbably at USC Business School. A move to Tokyo for a career in banking sharpened her aesthetics perhaps more than her numbers skills.

Back home in the U.S., Lauren obeyed her muse. Good-bye suits, hello Itsola.

24 February, 2009 /