Telluride Ski Resort Opening Weekend: A Great Kickoff to the Season

Selfies Are Even Sweeter When You’re Skiing at Almost 12,000 Feet the First Day of the Season with Your Sweetie

Nice Corduroy

Woo-hoo! What a fun few days it has been. I’m giving my legs a rest today after having skied a bunch with friends, my hunny and by myself over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Telluride Ski Resort had one of its best openings ever, thanks largely to an abundance of storms in November, improved snowmaking, blue skies and pleasant temperatures. There was so much of the mountain to explore off of our familiar loop—the network of trails connecting lifts 4, 5 & 6—that my legs are screaming.

It was all so good that it was hard to stop. (Usually when I ski into shape—from my sedentary writer’s life—I start out with just an hour a day and increase an hour each day out. But no, this year the snow was too sweet.) We also received a lot of nice, wet snow last month which pasted in the mountain amazingly well. Indeed, the coverage is fantastic and with more snow forecasted for tomorrow, it looks like we’ll have one of the best early seasons ever.

Me and Mary Dawn: Early Season is the Time to Have Fun with Friends Before We Become Too Busy with the Visitors

Forego all the Christmas craziness and holiday hoopla and come on out to Colorado now where you can still enjoy lots of great deals on lodging through December 15. Check out my Faves page for some of my recommendations. In addition to excellent skiing, the charm factor in our shops, lodges and restaurants is off the charts, too. That’s not just my opinion either, since Telluride was ranked No.1 in Condé Nast Traveler’s readers’ survey for the second year in a row.

If you’re looking to book a private lesson with an instructor from Telluride Ski & Snowboard School, one of the best ski schools in the country, do it now, since instructors’ schedules are filling up fast, especially for the busy weeks. As a Telluride ski instructor myself (entering my tenth season), I’m looking forward to skiing with many of my clients that I’ve known for years and meeting new ones, too. I’ll be training most of these next couple of weeks and teaching by mid December. (For more on Telluride Ski & Snowboard School, read my story and listen to my podcast at Talking About Telluride Ski & Snowboard School.)

It’s such a fun time of year when the mountain comes alive around here; I’m glad I’m right where I am and not fighting the crowds at Walmart! Hope you’ll join in this good, wholesome mountain fun as well.

MD is my friend Mary Dawn DeBriae, from Alpen Schatz, a beautiful boutique in Telluride that specializes in alpine treasures. She also has a fantastic online business, so she’s probably cranking since it’s cyber Monday. Shop there and type in the code Bonjour to receive a 10% discount today and every day. You can read more about Alpen Schatz and some of my other favorite online purveyors that offer a 10% discount to my readers at my Shopping page.

Michael and MD