Mountain Village at Telluride

My brother Christian's one big wish before leaving on his impending 2-year church service mission was to go on a ski trip. Matt and I made his dreams come true at the beginning of January by taking him to Telluride, Colorado. Conde Nast just ranked Telluride the #1 ski resort in North America so it seemed like the perfect destination. We scored an incredible deal at The Inn at Lost Creek, which is Conde Nast's 20th-ranked ski hotel, and therefore stayed at the bottom of the ski lift right in the heart of Mountain Village. It was amazing.

Getting there, however, was a little less-than-amazing. The snow storm that wasn't supposed to come until that Friday came early and we found ourselves driving on the edge of winding cliffs in a windy blizzard for more than 7 hours. We've driven in our fair shares of storms before, but this was by far the worst. And the fact that it was on one of the most dangerous roads in Utah? Let's just say we were grateful we made it to Telluride in one piece. The ride home, although clear, presented a few road blocks of its own -- in the form of first an elk and then a cow crossing the road right in front of us. Yes, a cow. That was a new one.

Even with the difficulties we encountered actually getting to Telluride, it was so completely worth the drive. Mountain Village is what ski town dreams are made of -- so perfectly cozy and quaint and secluded and convenient and mountainous and modern and beautiful all at the same time. We arrived just in time to crawl into our comfortable beds on Thursday night, and we woke up Friday to fresh powder, a soft snowfall, and beautiful views of the mountains and village. We'll save the snowboarding for another post, but for now, just trust me when I tell you that it was wonderful.

That night, we came in from the slopes, warmed up, made ourselves a yummy gourmet dinner of spaghetti in our suite, and then bundled up again to explore. On our way to the gondola that would take us to the town of Telluride, though, we passed the most picturesque little ice rink -- and it was empty. How could we not? We'd never had an ice rink all to ourselves before, and there in the middle of the village underneath the twinkling lights with the snow lightly falling... it was perfect. We had so much fun skating to our hearts' content, practicing tricks, playing tag, holding hands, and doing crazy things like going counter-clockwise around the rink. When we'd had our fill, we headed once again toward Telluride. It was very reminiscent of Park City's Main Street, so while we enjoyed it, we definitely preferred Mountain Village for its unique identity.

On Saturday, I sent the boys out to the slopes to conquer the black diamonds without me. And then I sat in my pajamas by the fire all by myself, relaxing and reading and going through pictures (which is basically the only reason I'm remotely caught up on this blog!). Oh, it was so nice. Later in the afternoon, I met up with Matt and Christian for a final exploration of Mountain Village before embarking on our trip back home. It was the best kind of getaway!

That would be my freezing-huddle picture pose that happens when I'm, well, freezing. It was three degrees.