News, Events, and Snow Reports.

By Justin Criado, Telluride Daily Planet

While season passes have been on sale, Telski announced the lift ticket prices for the upcoming 2020-21 ski season this week, which will be available for purchase online at tellurideskiresort.com beginning Oct. 8. 

Early season prices, which are effective Opening Day Nov. 26 through Dec. 15, are $140 for adults, $71 for children ages 6-12 and $104 for seniors ages 65-79. Regular season prices from Dec. 16 to Closing Day April 4 are $169, $96 and $147, respectively. The resort anticipates hosting the annual Donation Day Nov. 25, which benefits the Telluride Ski & Snowboard Club, snow conditions and COVID-19 restrictions permitting. 

All lift tickets and ski school products must be purchased in advance…

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(September 11, 2020) Public Health has confirmed zero new positive cases from test results received September 9 –11, keeping the total case count at 89 with zero active cases.

With testing remaining robust, this has led to one full month without any new COVID cases within the county.

To maintain these stabilized trends, Public Health stresses the importance of staying healthy, especially given the recent winter weather, some County schools phasing back to in-person learning, and fall sports underway. If a child exhibits any symptoms such as a sore throat, cough, fatigue, or fever, they should stay home and make an appointment with a medical provider. Their physician will determine if there is an alternate diagnosis or if testing is recommended,…

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(September 1, 2020) – San Miguel County, CO --- Public Health has confirmed zero new positive cases from test results received August 29 – September 1, keeping the total case count at 89 with zero active cases.

The COVID dashboard has recently been enhanced with additional metrics including positivity and incidence rates. Incidence and positivity rates are critical measures because they give an indication of how widespread infection is in the County. Both are calculated on a two-week basis from Thursday-Thursday, and will be published every Tuesday. Metrics are calculated within this time-frame due to processing time for test results.

Based on data from August 13-27, San Miguel County’s current positivity rate is at 0.7% and incidence rate is at 24.5.…

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Monday was the first day of school, but this year the walls of the classrooms for the first day back were groves of trees, the ceiling a warm blue sky. Given the difficulties of sending students back to school amidst a catastrophic pandemic, only students up to fifth grade are attending school in person, while the upper grades began the school year remotely. However, thanks to the efforts of the teachers of the outdoor education team — Erin Murray, Sue Herir and Megan Wise, with the support of principal Sheree Lynn — the students of Telluride Intermediate School got to head outside for a back-to-school day in nature.

While spending more time outside with students is partly a strategy to lower the risk of spreading the coronavirus, fourth grade teacher…

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By Justin Criado, Editor / Aug 25, 2020

During such a year of uncertainty, Telski owner Chuck Horning is sure of one thing.

“We’ll get through this. The community will get through it,” he said in an interview about the upcoming 2020-21 ski season with the Daily Planet Monday.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a new normal, as social distancing and face coverings have become commonplace, if not expected, and businesses have adapted, including the ski resort.

Horning explained that the company will follow any guidelines that may come down from the state, which closed all Colorado ski resorts in mid-March, but he’s concentrating on what can be controlled right now, with opening day tentatively set for the week of Thanksgiving, though a specific…

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(August 25, 2020) – San Miguel County, CO --- Public Health has confirmed zero new positive cases from test results received August 22 – 25, keeping the total case count at 89 with zero active cases.

With Labor Day approaching, and schools returning to some level of in-person learning countywide, Public Health urges the community to continue moving forward with COVID-conscious behaviors.

“The incredible efforts made by each individual in our community have been effective in slowing the spread of the virus,” said Public Health Director Grace Franklin. “It is, however, still present in San Miguel County. This reduction in cases gives us reason to celebrate, but should not give us a false sense of security, as complacency will impede progress. I’m…

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In-person and remote learning to be offered

  • By Bria Light, Staff Reporter

This year, it’s not quite as easy as “A, B, C,” or as simple as “Do, Re, Mi,” despite what the Jackson 5 song might have to say. While the national conversation regarding how, or if, students and teachers can safely return to school during an ongoing pandemic has dominated headlines for weeks, the teachers and administrators of the Telluride R-1 school district have been compiling a nuanced approach to this school year.

The approach, while juggling the constantly changing landscape of the virus and its attendant risk mitigation guidelines, offers a strategy to minimize risk to both students and teachers while providing in-person instruction to younger students and…

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House adopts wilderness legislation under annual defense bill

  • By Sophie Stuber, Planet Contributor 
  • Jul 24, 2020
  • Originally published by the Telluride Daily Planet and written by Sophie Stuber

Summer is in full swing in Colorado. As the snow melts from high alpine slopes and the COVID-19 pandemic continues, wilderness areas and open space prove to be even more valuable. At a national level, Congress moved one step closer to enshrining more of the West’s natural landscapes as permanent designated wilderness.

On July 21, the House approved two big pieces of wilderness legislation in amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2021, which budgets annual defense spending. Wilderness protection in Colorado has…

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July 23, 2020

I hope you are enjoying your summer in good health while continuing to adjust to our new normal.

These last few weeks have been challenging for all of us as we’ve seen our caseloads climb, and watched COVID continue to spread rapidly through cities and towns across our country. My primary challenge is to do the right thing as your Public Health Director, a job that I take very seriously.

Over the last five months, I have experienced what it truly means to be in this together. I am in regular communication with our Medical Officer, Dr. Sharon Grundy, our Board of Health, multiple, credible infectious disease experts, as well as our community businesses and citizens. It is my responsibility to gather and interpret data and…

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(July 2, 2020)

As we enter the holiday weekend, I wanted to take this opportunity to further explain our public health approach with summer in full swing.

First, I know you will join me in saying how thankful I am that all of our new COVID-19 cases are recovering well. Immediate contact tracing and increased access to test literally hundreds of people, has allowed us to help contain the potential pockets of spread and continue to refine our process for responding to this virus.

As we assess our public health approach, we regularly examine these four main metrics:

Transmission: caseload with an eye on potential surge.
Test: access and the ability to conduct PCR testing.
Trace: the ability to quickly and effectively contact trace.
Treat: meet the…

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