What it takes to be great:

Greatness comes from grit, determination, hard work, focus, and dedication. Greatness comes from consistency, support, systems, and collaboration. Greatness comes from triumph.

For the Telluride greats, this is no different. For as many times as Lucas Foster, Gus Kenworthy, Hagen Kearney, and Keaton McCargo triumphed, they worked 100x to get there. We revel in their glory, name streets after their greatness, and promote triumph in the name of Telluride and all its greatness. However, to reach that level, these athletes needed us, they needed our help, our support, and the facilities that fostered their success. In the eyes of our community, the question of what it really takes to be great isn't asked enough. The importance of our support and those facilities needs more conversation; and the value that greatness brings to Telluride, as a resort and as a business, needs respect.

As young athletes beg the resort management to build a terrain park for the second time this year, following rumors that Telski plans to permanently remove the Hoot Brown Terrain Park, we wonder who will be the next Telluride great. There is certainly no lack of talent in this town, certainly no lack of effort, hard work, focus, or dedication; we have coached more than enough athletes to wonder not which of them would make it to a World Cup, but how many of them would. However, the question that runs through our minds today is, how can that be possible if they lack the necessary support? The Hoot Brown Terrain Park has been far more than just a vessel for practice; it is a place in the history books of modern freestyle skiing & snowboarding. This park has bred greatness, and the town of Telluride has benefited from the wave of that success for years. It's difficult to quantify, but it's not an outlandish statement to say the attention provided by Gus Kenworthy's greatness was far more beneficial to tourism than any marketing campaign we have ever run. The story of Hoot Brown could fuel this article with a passionate and powerful argument based simply around the culture and impact of Hoot and his park. However, we have a feeling that there is a better way to go about this, since the agenda of the Telluride Ski Resort is not one of cultural preservation and community service. The irony here is that this isn't a story of corporation vs. culture, it's a story of misguided priorities and lack of information.

If the goal is to produce more athletes in the likes of those professional slopestyle and halfpipe skiers/snowboarders, then we should build a slopestyle park, some big jumps, and a halfpipe… but maybe that's not the goal. Maybe the goal is to drive growth as a business, please the customers of this fine resort, and make sure to sell tickets. However that’s exactly where the paradox occurs; we can’t find any sound reasoning to not build a terrain park. A study by the Aspen Skiing Company found that terrain parks generate an average of $10 million in revenue per year for the company. A study by the Burton Snowboards Foundation found that 60% of parents say that a terrain park is an important factor when choosing a ski resort for their family, and a study by Boyne Resorts found that 80% of skiers and snowboarders who visit a terrain park say that they would be more likely to visit the resort again. So, the resort wants to produce more Olympic athletes, and of course wants to increase tourism in order to drive revenue. So where is the park?

Many might write this question off to one of these possible answers: Telluride is behind schedule, snowfall has not been great, the ski area has had tons to deal with, and the park is resource-intensive; so it's totally fair that there is no park. Except is it fair? For a company with season pass prices over 280% the national average and almost 3 times the cost of an epic pass, how does this make sense? We understand that the snowfall data will forever be controversial, but according to Ski North America, Telluride gets more snow than Crested Butte, Copper, Purgatory, & Eldora. Yet, all of those resorts opened the 2024 season with a terrain park, and all of those resorts have significantly cheaper passes and longer seasons. You could also argue that other resorts have removed their parks and we should follow-suit, however we are unlike Snowbird or Sun Valley that are short drives away from world renowned terrain parks. Also, is that what Telluride is really about — Just doing what the industry ruining titans like Vail resorts is doing? We certainly don’t think so, but thats not a decision for us to make. What is certain is that the budget is there, the snow is there, terrain parks statistically benefit tourism, and we want more athletes like Gus Kenworthy expressing their love for Telluride in the New York Times. So where is the park?

As TDL organization we are in no position to critique without providing support, we don't know the ins and outs of ski area management and to simply complain is not fair. We are currently working to try and find an equitable solution and we invite suggestions from all viewpoints on the subject. Telluride ski resort has blessed us and so many others with an incredible mountain and we will forever cherish it. We claim the athletes that use these facilities to succeed as our own and we boast the greatness of this small town. Yet, a time must come when we evaluate what the priorities of this ski area are, and if those priorities are even understood by those who run it. If profitability is the goal, the park should stay, if generating more Olympic athletes is the goal, the park should stay, and if the goal is to please the tourists, the locals, the athletes, & the spectators: then the park must stay.