Telluride: Telski announces resort to close beginning on Dec. 27

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Telski announces resort to close beginning on Dec. 27

Cites stalled contract negotiations with ski patrol and the union’s decision to strike

By Owen Perkins News Editor Dec 24, 2025


Telluride opened its ski mountain on Dec. 6 after a delay due to poor snow conditions. On Christmas Eve the resort announced it will close beginning on Dec. 27. Sonja Ames / Courtesy photo

While the Telluride region had been hoping for a Christmas miracle in terms of the standoff between Telluride Ski and Golf (Telski) and the ski patrol, the news has been more along the lines of lumps of coal for the community. ... On Wednesday, Dec. 24 – Christmas Eve – Telski announced that it would be closing the resort on Saturday, Dec. 27 in response to the Telluride Professional Ski Patrol Association’s (TPSPA) vote to strike after negotiations with Telski yielded no fruit.

“The Telluride Ski Patrol rejected the resort’s last, best and final offer and has made the choice to strike on Saturday, December 27 during the community’s busiest holiday period,” Telski said in a Christmas Eve statement.”

“Due to the Ski Patrol’s unfortunate choice to strike, we have made the difficult decision to close the resort on Saturday,” Telski representative Steve Swenson added as part of the statement. “We have no idea how long their strike will last, so we will continue to work on a plan that allows us to safely open again as soon as possible.”

Swenson has been part of the negotiating team and has taken some of the responsibilities of Telski’s CEO after Telski owner Chuck Horning earlier this year fired the previous CEO, his son Chad.

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[snowybirdie]

1. Awwww

Where in the world will the super rich go now? All the best places are booked!

[surfered]

2. A lift ticket at Vail today costs $356

[Cha]

6. omg... I'm from Denver... I skied all over

The Mountains back then in the late '50s and early 60s ... What the Heck would make it Cost That much now? That is for the Rich!

TY!

[surfered]

7. Although I live at sea level, I skied 27 Februarys in a row.

A season pass was about the same cost as a week of day passes. Then there was a veteran discount. It wasn’t a cheap sport, but I do miss it.

[Cha]

8. Good on you! I miss it too... Aspen, Vail, Breckenridge

Winter Park.. I love Colorado. 💙

[3Hotdogs]

3. I blame it on Chad.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. Is Telluride ready to 'chuck Chuck?' Why the opulent ski town turned on the resort's longtime owner

Is Telluride ready to ‘chuck Chuck?’ Why the opulent ski town turned on the resort’s longtime owner

Chuck Horning’s leadership of Telluride Ski & Golf has led to deteriorating relationship with community

By Sam Tabachnik | [e-mail] | The Denver Post
PUBLISHED: October 30, 2025 at 6:00 AM MDT | UPDATED: October 30, 2025 at 12:41 PM MDT


Mountain Village gondola cars move along the route overlooking the town of Telluride, Colorado, on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025. (Photo by William Woody/Special to The Denver Post)

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As corporate consolidation leads to fewer and fewer independent ski mountains in the United States, the fate of the 53-year-old Telluride ski resort — and the future of the entire region — lies at the whims of an 81-year-old real estate mogul with no known succession plan. Horning is now the acting CEO of the ski company after recently firing his own son from the job.

Horning’s behavior over the years, meanwhile, has become legendary in its own right. It appears that everyone in town has a Chuck Horning story: The time he was booed out of an upscale restaurant. The time he engaged in a fist fight with his son or traded blows with his chief executive. The time he carried a riding crop everywhere he went. ... Many of these stories are open secrets in Telluride but have never been publicized until now.

The Denver Post spoke to four women who allege Horning sexually harassed or assaulted them during the last 17 years. Another woman alleged in a lawsuit that he forced himself upon her and had sex with her against her will. A former employee, in another court filing, accused Horning of violently shaking her after he grew upset over a landscaping issue. (Horning, in court filings, denied the allegations in both lawsuits.) ... “There is no safe way to be a woman around Chuck,” said one of these women, who alleges Horning touched her inappropriately in 2023. She spoke to The Post on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation.

Horning, through a company representative, declined several interview requests for this story and did not answer questions about the allegations of sexual impropriety or the lawsuits filed against him. The Post could not find any record that he was ever arrested for these allegations.

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[mahatmakanejeeves]

5. Slopes Are Empty as a Labor Dispute Shuts Down a Colorado Ski Town

Slopes Are Empty as a Labor Dispute Shuts Down a Colorado Ski Town

Now, vacationers looking to ski are wondering what to do and merchants are hoping it doesn’t last.


Members of the Telluride Professional Ski Patrol Association picketed on Saturday to demand higher pay. William Woody for The New York Times

By Jack Healy
Reporting from Telluride, Colo.
Dec. 27, 2025

The ski runs above the mountain town of Telluride, Colo., sat eerily empty on Saturday. Chair lifts hung as motionless as icicles. Tourists slumped beside outdoor fire pits, trying not to think about the money they had spent on ski vacations now upended by a labor dispute.

“This is the first time I’ve seen snow in six years,” Alexander Caro, 23, who flew in from Miami with his family, said as he looked hungrily at the base of the ski mountain, now blocked off by “closed” signs.


The Telluride Ski Patrol is fighting for higher wages. William Woody for The New York Times

A few feet away, a golden Labrador retriever played fetch in the snow beside the resort’s shuttered main lift. It was the closest anyone would get to having fun on the mountain this holiday weekend, after the resort decided to shut down its operations in response to a vote by the ski patrollers’ union to reject a contract offer and go on strike for higher pay.

The resort and its owner, Chuck Horning, a real-estate investor based in California, blamed the patrollers for the shutdown. In an open letter, Mr. Horning accused the patrol union of rejecting what he called “industry-leading, livable and sustainable” pay increases that would have raised the starting pay for patrollers to about $24 an hour. ... Graham Hoffman, the president of the 78-member Telluride Professional Ski Patrol Association, said the union had already come down from its initial demand of an increase of $8 per hour.

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Skiers found Telluride closed on Saturday as a labor dispute pulled the ski patrol from the slopes. William Woody for The New York Times

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The Telluride Ski Patrol came off the slopes on Saturday as part of an ongoing labor dispute. William Woody for The New York Times

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The Telluride Ski Patrol set up a picket line on Saturday as they pushed for higher wages. William Woody for The New York Times

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Jack Healy is based in Colorado and covers the west and southwest.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

9. Strike is over: "Let it snow"

Strike is over: 'Let it snow'

Longest ski patrol strike in history ended Thursday when Telluride Ski Patrol ratified Telski's offer

Owen Perkins News Editor 1 hr ago


Telluride Ski Patrol ended their strike on Thursday, Jan. 8, ratifying the latest offer from Telski. Ben Eng / Telluride Times

At the end of the 13th day of a labor dispute making national news as the longest ski patrol strike in history, the Telluride Professional Ski Patrol Association (TPSPA) voted to ratify a contract with Telluride Ski Resort (Telski) to end the strike and return to work.

"We're proud of where we have ended up," TPSPA President Graham Hoffman told The Times in an exclusive interview. "It's a compromise. Not everyone gets what they want.

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