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It’s Kris Holstrom here. I’ve lived in the Telluride region for 22 years now. Can’t think of anyplace I’d rather be. My family, husband John, son Kirk and daughter Kelsey lives on Tomten Farm, Hastings Mesa.  You reach our place by turning “up” at Sawpit, climbing through the switchbacks and leveling out in one of the most beautiful places in the world.  I love my job as the Executive Director for The New Community Coalition where I act as the Regional Sustainability Coordinator for Telluride, Mountain Village and San Miguel County.

The Women’s Travel Company is owned and operated by Telluride locals Wendy Brooks and Donna Fernald.

P1010008The Telluride Academy is the local institution Wendy Brooks founded in her backyard in 1981. A single mom with three young boys of her own, Brooks started the daycare/camp to help her friends. The initial enrollment was six kids. Today, up to 850 students, ages 5 – 17, attend about 100 unique summer course and specialized programs.

Once the cat is out of the bag  – the directors of the Telluride Film Festival are notorious for keeping their selections top secret – and the weekend is in full swing, the “buzz” drives the traffic. Perfect strangers become fast friends chatting on line and at venues all over town about what’s hot and what’s not.

At a Monday morning screening of Götz Spielmann’s classic-in-the-making “Revanche” (see Views below), the elegant woman next to me introduced herself to talk the talk. “My name is Linda Clough. I am Chuck Jones’s daughter,” she said.

The Telluride Film Festival was going on both inside theatres and out on the street. Not everyone was interested in the movies: several young people were jumping on trampolene/bungee setups in the Mountain Village, only a few yards from the Chuck Jones Theatre. On...

Everyone knows my white minivan. It is the standard suburban working mom mobile. At least it is all-wheel drive so I can make it to the local ski slope and distinguishable from the multitude of other white minivans only by the flames that adorn the quarter panels. My flames are my little rebellion against the soccer mom image I now embody.


Oddly enough I drive a minivan by choice. Yes, yes, I realize this surprises you, no one actually chooses to drive a minivan – except me. My reasons are simple; it is the one vehicle into which I can load all (and I mean all) of the necessary toys for a family of four. Bikes, surf boards and kayaks can go on top, skis, snowboards, wake boards, skim boards, appropriate foot wear, coolers and all of the necessary apparel plus the four of us can fit inside. The kids even have enough room so they aren’t killing each other along the way. It all makes my life in Pittsburgh tenable.


That is another choice that some may question. How does someone so committed to the mountain lifestyle find herself in Pittsburgh…by choice? The answer comes in a package that is about 6 feet tall, dark hair and bedroom eyes – and now the father of my two children. Having lived in Colorado for longer than I’d lived anywhere in my life I found it hard to understand why anyone would want to live anywhere else. When Greg told me he was from Pittsburgh I said “That is a great place to be from.” Little did I know two years later I would willingly pack all of my belongings, my cat and my dog to move here.


I'll let Susan spill the beans about just what it is that we're building when she's ready. In the meantime, I want to introduce myself briefly too as chief technical guru on this project  - at least till my skills are tapped out and it...