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I walked to "work" this morning. Telluride Adaptive Sports Program (TASP) is doing it's early season instructors' training. Not a bad commute, eh? ...

01 December, 2008 /

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Birthday Cakes for Vivien and Clint

The Residencia Historica is located just a few kilometers from the toy town of Marchihue and 40 minutes from the much larger Santa Cruz in Chile’s Colchagua Valley. Colchagua is one of the centers of the country’s rapidly growing wine industry and the Chilean outpost of blue chip labels such as Domaines Barons de Rothschild-Lafite. We first visited the place in 2005, when it was still a work- in- progress.

When Vivien Jones and her partner Silvio Castelli discovered what has become the hotel six years ago, the sprawling 18th-century home had seen better days. The bones remained, but they were buried in a tangle of old eucalyptus trees. Dead fruit trees and the thorns of roses tortured the grounds like a hair suit. Undaunted, the couple pursued a vision that can only be described as a labor of love: the promising wreck received the makeover it deserved. The result is a fabulous boutique hotel, where old and new artfully co-exist. To celebrate, on November 8 Vivien threw a joint birthday bash, a traditional Chilean BBQ or asada, for herself and Clint.

01 December, 2008 /

Take a left turn out of Telluride and people wind up some place wonderful in the great wide world, where they do wonderful things in a state of wonderment. That’s part of what we mean by the “Out” in the name of our blog: we will be documenting Telluriders when they are out and about having fun, making a difference.  

Local landscape designer Elisabeth Gick and Judge Sharon Shuteran both recently traveled to the Far East, as tourists and ambassadors of goodwill.

30 November, 2008 /

Thanksgiving has come and gone, we're still eating the leftover turkey and stuffing, and that means TASP is open for business. We'd love to have more snow, but the weather looks hopeful, and we remember last year, when a slow start resulted in a banner snow year in Telluride.

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We do have a few runs open, and I have just spent two days skiing with James Colt, who has been ready for the opening since probably August.

James had a bad rockfall accident two years ago while climbing on the Ophir Wall, not far from Telluride. This resulted in a traumatic brain injury. It has been a rough go for him in the meantime, but he is a fighter. Last year James and I had an encouraging start to the ski season, but our hard work aggravated some old injuries, and we had to call it quits - but just for that season.

James spent the Summer in Telluride walking untold miles, and even more miles on his recumbent bicycle, culminating in a 75 mile ride across the west end of San Miguel County. In addition, James drove himself to Seattle this Fall.

29 November, 2008 /

You're going to have to take my word on this one, at least for now: there is a Telluride connection. It goes through Rick Silverman and Telluride Mountainfilm. Sus can tell that story later. We've been off the radar for a while now, partly because we've been moving fast, partly because internet connections have not often been dependable.

We may have been off the radar, but that doesn't mean we have not been having a good time. We left Telluride on 3 November, watched the election returns on 4 November with a number of sympathetic people with Telluride local Jo Schernoff at her Denver condo. The next day we left for Santiago, Chile, where we were met by our young friend, Tomas Correa. Tomas came to Telluride in the Northern Summer, 2006, and stayed with Damon and Elaine Demas for nearly two months.

IMGP2130 The ostensible reason for our trip was to celebrate the 60th birthday of our hostess, Vivien Jones, combined with an early birthday for me, at Residencia Historica de Marchigue, a new resort in the Colchagua Valley wine growing region of Chile that Vivien and her partner, Silvio Castelli have created from the ruins of an old monastery.

24 November, 2008 /

"Come to Telluride for break - I'll fly you in." It had sounded like just the distraction I needed after having going through a monumental breakup. Dropping down below the level of the surrounding fourteeners, the approach into the blind canyon was the sort of bumpy that was disconcerting to the women talking architecture near me. I just admired the skill of the pilot; seeing the runway ahead of us and more mountains beyond, I remember thinking it would be a good idea to make the approach a good one the first time.   

10 November, 2008 /

The late Steve Butts, who fell victim to an avalanche while skiing in Canada in 2005, dreamed of introducing people to the unique lifestyle of Telluride. Telluride Properties became his means to that end. Steve’s spirit remains top of mind as his brokers/friends continue to carry the torch he lit.

Now 22 years old, Telluride Properties has long been recognized as a marketing innovator among industry leaders and its peers. “Truly Telluride” is the company’s award-winning publication.

The magazine began modestly as a 20-page booklet. Today, “Truly Telluride” features 50 pages of the region’s finest real estate offerings and candid stories about residents who spice up the town.

For its fourth issue, Telluride Properties’ marketing director, Wendy McKeever, asked me to write about three part-time locals: Richard Holbrooke, Ed Barlow, and Bonnie Cohen. “Full-Time Change Makers, Part-Time Telluriders” profiles three extraordinary individuals, who have lived very different lives and have strikingly different personalities, but share an understanding that blessings come with obligations: each is a dedicated philanthropist/activist committed to making a difference in the world.   

Look for “Truly Telluride” on the newsstands around Thanksgiving.

08 November, 2008 /

African_children_5 The news we get out of Africa is generally one-sided and not good. In America, “Africa” spells “t-r-o-u-b-l-e”: AIDS, malaria, genocide, impasse in Zimbabwe, fighting in the Congo, slavery in West Africa. Although the continent is comprised of 54 distinct countries, we tend to think of it as a monolith conjoined to the word “darkest,” suggesting a backward, dangerous, remote corner of the world where hope disappears in dense jungles. But hope is not dead – far from it. Signs of hope are headed our way in the form of The African Children’s Choir.

04 November, 2008 /

Barack Obama (actually a manequin left over from a Mudd Butts play) made an appearence in Telluride's Halloween parade on Friday. Reaction was favorable. ...

31 October, 2008 /

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Tim McGough took some time out of a crowded schedule to talk to me last week. Tim is the new program director at Telluride Adaptive Sports Program, and is very busy getting up to speed in this new position. There is training to schedule for the instructors and volunteers, returning and new, for the upcoming season. In addition, school groups, who represent a large part of TASP's client base have to have their time blocked out, and requests for lessons are beginning to come in from our out-of-town guests.

So I was glad that Tim was able to spend some time with me. In the interest of full disclosure, this will be my 10th season as an instructor for TASP. So the conversation was much more about how to make the most out our mutual relationship than an interview. I'll do that later in the season, but I did want to introduce Tim to our readers. Following is the bio I received from TASP.

30 October, 2008 /