Skiers in Telluride will have a new place to play next winter. Telluride Ski Resort CEO Dave Riley announced this week that a new lift will be constructed this summer, opening the Revelation Bowl on the northeastern side of Gold Hill.
The new lift comes on the heels of a season during which the ski company opened up large swaths of new hike-to terrain on Gold Hill and Palmyra Peak. As if that weren’t enough, the new Revelation Bowl Lift will not only open still more terrain, but will make portions of the new hike-to terrain on Gold Hill far more accessible.
By delivering skiers some 400 feet higher on the Gold Hill ridge than the existing Gold Hill lift does, the Revelation Bowl Lift will also drop skiers at the threshold of the existing back country gate, accessing the vast out-of-bounds terrain of Bear Creek.
The new $2.2 million fixed-grip quad “is a small lift that does a lot,” Riley said this week.
Skiing in Revelation Bowl itself promises to be epic. The bowl, formerly called the San Joaquin Bowl, offers 800 vertical feet of terrain. Advanced intermediate skiers will be able to descend a groomed pitch down the middle of the bowl, while shots off the bowl’s sides are steeper. The bowl receives deposits of snow blown by the westerly winds over the Gold Hill ridge, and should offer the best lift-accessible powder skiing on the mountain.
From the top of the new lift, at 12,570 feet, the formerly long hike to Gold Hill Chutes 6-10 and the expansive Palmyra Basin will require only 160 vertical feet of climbing. The Telluride Ski Area’s total vertical drop will now be 4,425 feet from close to the summit of the hike-to Palmyra Peak, which opened this past season, with 3,845 vertical feet lift-served.
The ski company underwent a lengthy in-house discussion about whether to build the new lift, Riley explained, given the fact that the ski area as it is rarely experiences lift lines and that the existing terrain is rarely crowded. Moreover, he said, the company remains concerned that the region’s limited bedbase makes investments in the ski area risky.
His discussions with the ski area’s principal owner Chuck Horning revolved around the question of whether “it is timely for the ski company to show a good faith effort to the community that we want to play our part in helping Telluride become the greatest resort in North America,” Riley said. Riley said that he discerns a “positive trend line in the community’s awareness and willingness to act on behalf of Telluride’s future.”
Riley was explicit in expressing the hope that the gesture of building the new lift will help him forge the kind of relationship that will be necessary for him to work with the community to generate more bedbase. He has been especially encouraged, he said, by a proposal now in the Mountain Village approvals process for a new 189-room hotel. The so-called Mountain Village Hotel would be built in what is now a parking lot behind the Westermere Building, and would be “moderately priced.”
“Our purpose in building this lift, quite frankly, is to signal our commitment to the community to the long-term success of this region,” Riley said. “We wanted to act in-kind, to demonstrate that we are willing to play.
“I believe there are a lot of other great things that can happen to the ski area,” Riley continued. “I hope the community will focus in on a long-term plan for Telluride. To the degree that we see progress in correcting our bedbase problems, it will make it far simpler for us to move forward.”