MAGIC MOUNTAINS
Nestled in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, the ski resort of Telluride has become world-renowned for its beauty, alpine adventures, food, culture and celebrities, writes Edwina McCann.
The ski resort of Telluride in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains has become world-renowned for its beauty, alpine adventures, food and culture.
At this time of the year, many people I follow on Instagram head to the northern hemisphere for snowy holidays during our summer, and so my feed becomes a mix of contrasted surf at home and snow on the turf overseas.
My father attended university at Notre Dame on a track scholarship – a very rare thing for a Sydney boy in the 1950s. It left him with an enduring love of the United States and a life-long passion for skiing in Colorado. My parents started travelling to Aspen in the late 1970s when it was still very much a western town, albeit one that Hollywood and the well-heeled had already discovered. When I started skiing there with them in the 1980s, we regularly line-danced in saloons. I had heard that Telluride is more like the ‘old Aspen’: more country-western than bling … and an old mining town with a wonderful character. But my passion for Aspen always kept me away from Telluride, which is trickier to get to (you can fly direct to Aspen from LA, but need to drive about two hours from Montrose to reach Telluride). As I now know, though, it’s well worth the extra effort, and for a family holiday it’s hard to beat.
The drive up to Telluride takes you past the huge ranch belonging to Ralph Lauren. Legend has it that Ricky Lauren didn’t like the way the cross posts were placed inwards on the ranch’s beautiful fence (to provide resistance for the very large cattle they famously farm), so had them placed on the outside of the fence at huge expense. It is a very, very long fence.
For meat lovers, Ralph’s herd supplies restaurants in town, and my partner and I agreed the cuts we sampled at the Chop House in the New Sheridan Hotel were the finest we had ever tasted.
It’s a common theme in Telluride: the food is simply exceptional. Ski resorts often let themselves down with poor dining experiences, but Telluride excels. It boasts the highest-elevation restaurant and wine bar in the world, Alpino Vino, with a small but perfect menu; Bon Vivant, an outdoor, on-mountain French restaurant with a sumptuous menu created by a top local chef Jared Campbell; Gorrono Ranch, halfway up the mountain, for family dining with good honest chili, a Colorado favourite; and the High Camp Warming Hut at the top of Prospect Express chairlift, which serves delicious healthy wraps and a good breakfast, too.
The reason I think Telluride has taken off with Australian families is because it offers a safe and contained set-up for kids mixed with a sophisticated atmosphere for parents. It’s all held together by a free gondola, which ferries guests from the old town to the Mountain Village and then on to the third stop, a modern shopping mart with a supermarket for supplies if you prefer to eat in-house.
The Mountain Village offers apartments and singleroom accommodation surrounded by casual restaurants and an ice rink, all just a short walk from the chairlifts. But you can take the gondola to town in less than 15 minutes to enjoy fine dining or a western saloon. The Madeline Hotel in the Mountain Village, where we stayed, has a ski concierge, making it a truly ski in and out experience, complete with a spa and huge heated pool.
Nearby, the Lumière Hotel is also a favourite with Australians, and is run by a very hospitable English couple who host a warm communal bar area with welcoming humour.
But for someone who loves skiing as much as I do, that’s what it all comes down to, and Telluride has exceptional slopes with easy-to-access chutes and bowls for experts, and lovely long rolling green and blue runs for kids and beginners. The mountain is also exceptionally beautiful in terms of vistas. You can also heli-ski out of the Mountain Village.
In summer, the Telluride Film Festival attracts yet more Australians for different reasons. I met an American family who said they occasionally come for winter, but would never miss a summer, which in their opinion is even more special. This loyalty to both seasons is probably what keeps restaurants competitive and standards high in the old mining town.
In the 1870s, when silver and gold were discovered in Telluride, it would have been a rough and mostly miserable place. Butch Cassidy robbed his first bank here (there’s a plaque on the building in town), and as hopeful miners boarded the train to the town at the end of the line, they were warned: “To hell you ride.”
I still think Aspen is heaven, but if this is hell, then I’m more than happy to burn in it. For more details on visiting Telluride, go to tellurideskiresort.com.