By Rachael Wright

Special to the Gazette  

“We all were able to take a moment to breathe and to celebrate,” said Telluride Town Manager Zoe Dohnal. “As a community it was the most necessary first step forward.” 

On Jan. 8, the 72-member Telluride Professional Ski Patrol Association (TPSPA) and Telluride Ski Resort (Telski) reached an agreement, ending the longest ski patrol strike in U.S. history. Details of the agreement weren’t immediately released.

TPSPA’s strike narrowly surpassed the length of the 2024 Park City Ski Patrol strike, which wiped out an estimated $400 million in market value for its owner, Vail Resorts.  

While the relief was palpable in both Telluride and Mountain Village, the economic effects of the thirteen-day strike are already considerable. According to San Miguel County Manager Mike Bordogna, the ten days between Christmas Eve and New Year’s account for half the annual income for many Telluride and Mountain Village companies.  

“Ski businesses have been unable to rent skis or sell apparel, restaurants and retail establishments reduced hours and staffing,” Bordogna said. “All of that on top of the 15,000 ski resort employees who were without work.” 

The data available now from Telluride shows that January occupancy was down 8% overall, air travel was down 12-15%, and in the last week, bookings were down 56% from last year. 

Although the strike is over and Telski announced that it would be opening Lift 4 as of Saturday, Jan. 10, less than one third of the mountain was open. Bordogna said he was optimistic that Telski would aggressively open more terrain and lifts in the days to come. 

“We are hopeful that by creating new attractions, by getting the message out to old and new visitors we can get back on a steady footing,” Bordogna said. “But we are under no supposition that we can make up for the total business lost.”  

Both Telluride and Mountain Village have worked closely with the non-profit Telluride Foundation, which runs the 22-year-old Good Neighbor Fund (GNF). The GNF provides emergency assistance to local families and individuals with limited resources in times of financial crisis. The goal of the Good Neighbor Fund is to help individuals stay in the community and households stay intact during times of financial crisis.  

April Montgomery, VP of Programs at the Telluride Foundation, said that right after Christmas, the foundation realized that thousands of people were going to be laid off.  

“We reached out to our donors, to the community, and said we need to ramp up our Good Neighbor Fund,” Montgomery said. “This community is so incredibly generous, so coming together and helping everyone out. After COVID was second-nature to us.”  

Through the generosity of its donors, the Telluride Foundation raised over $500,000 for the GNF. 

“The Good Neighbor Fund is a safety net support for everybody impacted by the strike, not just patrol,” said Telluride Foundation CEO Jason Corzine. “That’s the beauty of the Good Neighbor Fund; it is there to serve all community members.” 

Cozine described The Telluride Foundation as “good at pivoting,” and when the foundation realized that its residency requirements did not fit the type of person applying for assistance, they immediately amended the policy. Anyone who’d had a job in Telluride or Mountain Village as of Dec. 15, 2025, could apply for assistance.  

“We wanted to accommodate that,” Montgomery said. “In the past, you had to live here for a year, because we really wanted to serve the local workforce. We also increased the amount we can give to $2500 per person as a reflection of the rising rents we have here.” 

In addition to the nearly 100 different events and programming during the difficult two weeks, town management was discussing ways to alleviate the long-term impacts on its most vulnerable populations. 

“Telluride and Mountain Village have discussed rent relief for the two large apartment complexes that they manage,” said Bordogna. “Mountain Village has also pledged another $100k for the Good Neighbor Fund if they should exhaust their reserves.” 

Tri-County Health Network, which administers the GNF, also increased their navigators so that applicants can get through the process quickly and receive their funds. Montgomery said on a single day, Friday, Jan. 9, Tri-County Health had 30 applications. 

The Telluride Foundation also focused heavily on providing food. Local food banks in 2025 had seen a 30% increase because of the SNAP benefit disruption in November 2025. The foundation partnered with the Telluride Food Pantry, Angel Baskets, and the Food Bank of the Rockies to supply food boxes and have them available at the Telluride Library. 

“Next week, anyone can go grab a box of food,” Montgomery said. “No questions asked. We want to make sure that they don’t have to go into a food pantry.” 

It will take time, Montgomery explained, for people to get back on their feet and the Telluride Foundation was committed to making sure that support doesn’t end with the strike. 

Katherine Devlin, vice president of the TPSPA, said that for their part, the ski patrol was going to donate “a large chunk” of their GoFundMe ($162,000 as of Jan. 10) and encouraged people to donate to the Good Neighbor Fund “if they want to help others in the community not on ski patrol.” 

According to the Telluride Foundation, Telski had not made any donation to the GNF, although Bordogna said during phone calls with Telski owner, Chuck Horning, that Horning said he had donated to a GoFundMe. 

The relationship between the town of Telluride and Horning, a California commercial real estate developer who bought Telski in 2003, has been fraught. Horning fired a succession of industry-leading resort executives, including Ray Jacobi, Dave Riley and Bill Jensen. In 2024, Horning even fired his son, Chad Horning, after the two engaged in a fist fight in a resort-owned restaurant. 

Colorado Flights Alliance, CEO Matt Skinner, said that a lack of marketing and investment by Horning has meant Telluride has been “leaking destination skier visits” over the past three years. 

This is due to the fact, Skinner said, that Telski hasn’t kept pace with marketing like other comparable resorts since COVID. Steamboat invested $250 million in its base area, and Park City and Big Sky spent $50 million on gondolas. According to Skinner, almost all marketing and infrastructure investment ended in 2020, with Telski manager Bill Jensen’s firing, which left the Telluride Tourism Board and the Colorado Flights Alliance as the sole supporters of marketing spending.  

The gap in marketing funding is something both Telluride and Mountain Village are actively working on. 

“The towns and the county are discussing increased donations for marketing efforts to the Telluride Tourism Board,” Bordogna said. “There have been no amounts discussed thus far, but it’ll probably be between half to double the budget.”  

With a lot of the winter left to go, Dohnal said they are taking an active role in shaping it. February and March are holding steady with bookings and occupancy. 

“We are working with the Telluride Tourism Board, our marketing arm,” Dohnal said. “The town has already contributed $1.5 million to that annually. We are looking at additional contributions to get the people back here to enjoy this destination for the rest of the winter and the summer season.” 

As the town moves forward, one business owner, who requested to stay anonymous, said the community needed to keep in mind its reliance on Telski for survival. Another point of contention was that Telski representative Steve Swenson was not asked the same difficult questions that TPSPA was during town council meetings. 

“I’m disappointed with how Telski handled things,” the business owner said. “We are a company town. It’s like being a mining town all over again. There are property owners who are concerned that Chuck Horning is going to degrade the worth of our town through a lack of management.” 

The business owner was contacted directly by a ski patrol member who offered to do anything the patrol could to support their business, whether that was by promoting them on social media or verbally.  

Telski Marketing & Communications representative Nancy Clark declined to answer any questions and stated: “Honestly, we are all just ready to move on.  We are not releasing the details of the final arrangement. It was a compromise for both sides and was a successful outcome. Everyone is back to work, and we are reopening as quickly and as safely as possible.”