Telluride, Colorado — It’s not a great time to be a local Telluride skier or mountain biker.
A drama-filled ski season that’s worthy of a time slot on Bravo led to economic headwinds for the local economy. This included a ski patrol strike, more interesting decisions by an outspoken owner, and an alleged quid pro quo by town officials that attempted to sell the mountain. Unfortunately, the drama has continued into the offseason. The ski resort’s recent announcement about mountain biking is bound to reduce tourism.
The Telluride Times reports that Telluride Ski Resort (TelSki) won’t be operating its downhill mountain biking park this summer. TelSki’s reasoning was that they needed to devote their time to upgrading Lift 4. However, the multi-use cross-country trails for bikers will be open this summer.
“Due to the complexity of this project, the resort will be closing the Bike Park for the summer. This will include all downhill, technical and free-ride trails. The cross-country trails will remain open and be accessible free of charge from Station San Sophia for pedaling uphill,” said Telluride Ski Resort.
Local Impacts
This means that rather than visiting Telluride, mountain bikers will instead go to places like Angel Fire and Purgatory. Local businesses told the Times that they have heard of people canceling their trips there this summer due to the closure.
The move is predicted to impact between 30 and 40 full-time employees. While the resort denies it, some locals wonder whether the move was in retaliation for the patrollers who went on strike in December. The strike resulted in a multi-day closure at a pivotal time of year. Affected workers fear that they won’t have enough hours to be eligible for health insurance, which is kinda a big deal in the United States.
One individual affected was David Wernet. The trail architect and assistant snow groomer helped build out the biking trail network beginning in 2016. However, he was not rehired by the ski resort for this summer. Wernet will be working on trail building elsewhere instead.
“I tried to convince them that this was a really bad idea,” said Wernet to the Telluride Times. “I was holding that hope for a while, but it’s not like there’s another bike park — there’s not another manager job to move me into. If I wanted to rake bunkers on the golf course to keep my benefits, I could have done that, but I’m not going to not pursue my career. I’m gonna still build bike trails, just not for Telski this summer.”
Whoever’s right in the situation, one thing is clear: the damage done over the past year could take years to recover from. At least it’s looking like an El Niño winter for 2026-27.
For more info, you can read the Telluride Times’ full piece here, which further discusses the potential impact on business and employees.
Image/Video Credits: Jesse Paul, Minnesota MTB, Telluride Ski Resort
