Sharon Shuteran: Telluride’s Traveler Extraordinaire and So Much More

Sharon

Telluride, Colorado, my home base for nearly nine years, is a community of travelers. It’s funny since it’s such a drop-dead gorgeous place you’d think no one would ever leave. Plus our remote location requires a good effort for exploring faraway destinations. (The nearest major airport is a six-hour drive away.)

We do, however, have two so-called off-seasons, one in the spring, the other in the fall. During these periods our awe-inspiring scenery might not show the full measure of its glory and most activities—tourist and other-wise—experience a lull. Plus intrepid travelers and adventuresome types of every ilk—from well-to-do trust funders to starving lifties—populate the town and these people give “being on the go” new meaning. (If they’re not out climbing a mountain at home, they’re likely surfing in Nicaragua or helping the needy on the other side of the globe.)

Indeed, Telluride and travel go together like skis on snow.

So it’s with tremendous sadness that our community is dealing with the loss of one of its most beloved residents, Sharon Shuteran, a longtime Tellurider in every sense of the word, a traveler extraordinaire. Truly Sharon embodied the spirit of Telluride like no one else. And there’s no doubt that she served as an excellent ambassadress of the United States and our little mountain town wherever she went on this planet. Officially she worked as the judge of San Miguel County for many years, something that I always liked telling others since that information and one look at Sharon—whether in her Bohemian-inspired dresses or in her style-y ski outfits—spoke volumes about the outdoorsy, fun, open and warm zest for life of our community.

Sharon on the Road

Throughout the eight and a half years I’ve been doing my Travel Fun radio show, I interviewed Sharon three times. She was as comfortable in Paris—our original connecting point—as in Thailand. I’ve taken excerpts from our interviews about her travels to southeast Asia and her service work in Bhutan and prepared a special tribute to Sharon that you can listen to below.

I encourage you to tune in to this forty-minute program. If you’re like me, Sharon will inspire you by her often touching recounts of her travels and the connections she has made along the way. “I’m a big people person,” Sharon tells me during the interview. “It’s not about the places; it’s about the people,” she emphasizes.

Sharon Instructing at the Bhutan Cleft Care Project

This commitment to establishing genuine, heartfelt contact with the people she encountered on her trips, was taken to a new level when she began working for the Bhutan Cleft Care Project. In our interview she talks about how this service work stretched her limits and expanded her horizons. “I get more out of it than I give,” she says about her time in Bhutan where she would often work ten to twelve hours a day.

Sharon passed due to natural causes while hiking on her own in Baja, Mexico during this past off-season. She left us way too soon, but boy did she live a full life while she was here.

As with so much else, she seemed to really get it right with travel. “People travel differently,” she tells me in our interview. “Some people take tours. The bulk of people from Telluride just go.” And then Sharon follows this up by saying, “I tend to freelance travel.” Said by a true Tellurider.

Telluride along with so many destinations across the globe will miss not having Sharon Shuteran brighten their day by her wisdom, kindness and compassion. Yet if we remember how she approached life and travel, her spirit will live within us. That way, Sharon’s terrific joie de vivre will enrich our own journeys tenfold.

Click on the play button below to hear Sharon Shuteran talk about her travels to southeast Asia and her service work in Bhutan.

Check out Service Travel:  Two Different Approaches to read and listen to my complete story on volunteer tourism.

Another Image from Sharon's Collection: She Would Want You to Take Note of the T-Mobile Card Next to this Sculpture from Bhutan

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