Telluride Ski Resort Offers Activities and Education for Adventurers of All Ages

MOUNTAIN VILLAGE – Stepping into Telluride Ski Resort’s new Eco Adventures office in Mountain Village is akin to stepping into a nature center/kids club/mini-natural history museum.

Parched skulls line long windowsills. Different-hued pelts hang in spots where eager hands can touch and feel. One corner boasts a mini-version of the Camp Bird Mine, while in another a small stand of real aspen trees creates a forest standing in front of a painted wall mural of the Wilson Range. A stuffed eagle hangs in a window, flying above a compost bin full of worms busily turning leftover food scraps into useable soil.

On Monday morning, three children sat before a long picnic-style table loaded with art supplies, each working on what Eco Adventures Interpreter Ashley Coady called their Nature Journals. When they were finished documenting the different plants, animals and scenery they had already taken note of during their trip to Telluride, the group would be grabbing snowshoes and heading for the Topaten trails (near the top of Lift 10), where Coady would show them how to identify animal tracks in the snow.

Upon their return, three hours later, the kids made their own animal tracks, in Plaster of Paris, to bring home.

“We’re really just trying to take the resources we have here, using an indoor as well as an outdoor classroom, to help people develop a better appreciation for our environment,” explains Eco Adventures Manager Amy Laubenstein of the Telluride Ski Resort’s newest educational initiative.

Eco Adventures, which opened a month ago in the ground-floor Franz Klammer space previously occupied by Slopestyle, has had a highly praised inaugural season, was borne of the fast-growing success of the San Sophia Nature Center and its summertime Children’s Program, explains Executive Director of Resort Services Elizabeth Howe.

“The San Sophia Nature Center has seen more and more visitors each summer,” she said. “This year’s children’s programs were so popular and we had so many queries about what we would be doing in the future, the Nature Center staff thought, why don’t we continue this in the winter, as well?” Howe says.

The goal, she further explains, is to offer a custom-made experience for any type of guest, whether child or adult.

“The idea is to help everyone create the experience they want to have … guided, unguided, family, individual, strenuous or relaxing … incorporating local outfitters and local knowledge, with a basis in education,” Howe says.

Customization is the basis of Eco Adventures’ offerings, Laubenstein says. If a child is interested in ice skating, he or she could visit the Mountain Village rink where Eco Adventures interpreter Lexi Tuddenham will explain the Laws of Motion – while spinning and sliding on the outdoor ice, of course – followed by a lesson on freezing points during a delicious, homemade ice cream-making lesson.

A youngster who loves animals could wind up on a nighttime snowshoe with Coady, and learn how to call to an owl (and maybe even get it to call back), and come home with a mouse skeleton dissected from a real owl pellet.

A group looking for adventure could be taught how to make their own snowshoes out of willow branches, and then head into the forest for a test.

“We’re able to be flexible and tailor a program that includes components of what people are truly interested in. We customize lessons as much as we can, and in the end, that makes for some special experiences,” says Laubenstein.

While the Children’s programs at Eco Adventures won the most kudos from this ski season’s holiday crowds, the office is also a great resource for any kind of adult excursion. Eco Adventures can book trips through local outfitters offering adventures like dog-sledding, snowmobiling, Nordic skiing, snowshoe tours, ice climbing, heli-skiing, fly-fishing, horseback rides, and more. Again, customization is the big draw: If a group wants to take a moonlight snowshoe tour through the forest, ending with a wine and cheese reception in a cozy teepee atop the ski area, Eco Adventures can make it happen.

And, of course, they can make sure the kids are happily involved in their own adventure while parents are out enjoying theirs.

“Telluride offers so many different, beautiful areas, and we want to show people how to get there,” Laubenstein says.

Environmental education programs and snowshoe tours are offered daily, with programs starting at $30 including all equipment and materials. For more information, visit the Eco Adventures office in the Franz Klammer breezeway in the Mountain Village core; call the office at 728-7300; or visit www.tellurideskiresort.com/ecoadventures/ecoadventures.