The Telluride Association of REALTORS (TAR) named TREC's Chris Sommers its 2018 Realtor of the Year at their annual awards dinner earlier this month. Nominees for this award are chosen and voted on by their peers. In addition to this prestigious award, Sommers, the out-going President of TAR and new Past President for TAR, also won the Presidential Award for service to the organization.

“I am honored to be nominated by the past recipients of this award and humbled to have received the Realtor of the Year Award for 2018.  The Telluride Association of Realtors has been a cornerstone of this community and continues its ongoing commitment to affordable housing, property rights, volunteerism and community involvement.  It has been a privilege serving as President for the Telluride Association of Realtors, the Board of Directors and membership this year as we strive to always improve our professionalism, education, public relations and community outreach for the Telluride region," said Sommers. 

Pam Guillory was the recipient of the Community Realtor of the Year Award. An avid volunteer, Pam is involved in several organizations including the Telluride AIDS Benefit, TAR Senior Luncheons, Angel Baskets, and TAR's Board of Directors as Education Chair. TREC is proud Pam has been voted as TAR's President Elect.

TD Smith was once again the recipient of the Best Open House Award. The cuisine served at TD's open houses match his lavish listings. From Thanksgiving dinners to prime rib to seafood spreads, TD sets the bar high!

Steve Patterson has been elected to serve his fourteenth term at TAR Treasurer/Secretary. TREC is proud of its brokers who serve as leaders in our real estate community.

No TFF tickets? No problem.

Telluride Film Festival tickets are hard to come by. Didn't get tickets for the 45th annual festival? No sweat, we've got you covered with these free events. 

BREAKING NEWS: Boutique Air Coming to Telluride Airport

Starting August 29, 2018, Boutique Air will offer year-round service between Denver International Airport (DEN) to Telluride Regional Airport (TEX). 

“Boutique brings a proven, high-quality operation and a worldwide partner network, a great fit for both our community and our guests coming to visit throughout the year,” said Colorado Flights COO Matt Skinner. “We are excited to partner with Boutique and deliver commercial flights to TEX for the destination.”

Even more exciting, Boutique Air is partners with United Airlines offering travelers to book and connect through the global United network. Additionally, passengers can earn and redeem miles for flights through the United Mileage Plus frequent flyer program. 

"Telluride is a world class destination, and we are thrilled to be connecting it to our Denver International hub later this month,” said Boutique CEO Shawn Simpson. 

Visit www.boutiqueair.com, www.kayak.com and at www.united.com to view flight schedules.

Recently named the #1 in US News's Best Small Towns to Visit in the USA, Telluride's scenery, cultural events, sunshine, and charm make it a summer favorite. The TREC Team has put together a list of our favorite Telluride activities for every day of the week.

MONDAY

18 Holes at the Telluride Golf Club 

The natural beauty and splendor of the surrounding mountains and wildflowers will take your breath away as you tee off at 9,417 feet. And as one of the country’s highest courses in elevation, the ball travels significantly farther at the Telluride Golf Course (average golfers can drive an estimated 15-25% farther than on a lowlander course). Why? Same reason it’s tougher to breathe; the thin mountain air hosts less oxygen and therefore imposes less resistance on the ball. 

TUESDAY

Bear Creek Trail Hike at S Pine Street

Put on your hiking boots and head up the Bear Creek Trail. A local favorite, this trail goes through the Bear Creek Preserve and ends at the iconic Bear Creek Falls. Hiking musts include sturdy shoes, rain jacket, water, nuts or powerbars, hat, sunglasses, and sunscreen.

WEDNESDAY

Sunset Concert Series  //  Wednesdays 6:00-8:00 pm  //  Sunset Plaza in Mountain Village

From Telluride, take the free gondola up to Mountain Village and enjoy live music while watching the sun set. Bring a blanket & camp chairs or grab a table at a restaurant in the plaza. Food and beverages are available for purchase. 

THURSDAY

Historic Walking Tour  //  Thursdays 1:00-2:00 pm  //  Telluride Historical Museum

Join longtime local Ashley Boling for a fun and lively tour about Telluride. Learn about the people, buildings, and events that make Telluride unique. $15 ($10 for members) Ticket includes free museum admission. Purchase tickets at the museum, online, or by phone, 970-728-3344 

FRIDAY

Telluride Farmers' Market  //  Fridays 10:30 am - 4:00 pm  //  South Oak Street

Since 2002, the Telluride Farmers’ Market (TFM) as been providing the residents and visitor of Telluride and the surrounding area, with access to regionally produced, organic food and crafts from Colorado’s Western Slope. Our favorite picks are the Thai food stand, produce from any of the local farmers, fresh cut flowers, and getting puppy kisses at the Second Chance Humane Society booth.

SATURDAY

Movies Under the Stars  //  Saturdays 8:45 pm  //  Reflection Plaza in Mountain Village

Enjoy an outdoor movie in the cool Rocky Mountain air, lit by stars and moonlight, surrounded by unmatched Telluride/Mountain Village views. Thursday and Saturday nights this summer. Free Admission. Bring your blankets, lawn chairs, and snacks! Full bar and menu service is available.

SUNDAY

Mountain Biking

Our favorite trails are Village Trail and Prospect Trail which are accessible from the San Sophia Gondola Station. Or do a "locals loop" which is Village Trail to Ridge Trail to Jurassic Trail, a stop in Illium at the Brewery or Distillery for a refreshment and refill water bottles, and back to town on the Valley Floor River Trail. Bike rentals are available from Boot Doctors or Telluride Sports, in town or Mountain Village locations.

Telluride Bike Park to Expand to 15 Trails and 17 Miles of Terrain

At a community meeting last week, Telluride Ski Resort announced plans to expand its bike trails. The Telluride Bike Park, set to open June 2019, is currently underway with Telski investing $1 million to build miles of bike trails. Gravity Logic of Whistler, a industry leader, has been hired design and construct the project. 

“The new terrain (inside the park) will be more on the flow side of things. We hired Gravity Logic out of Whistler, the industry leader, to design and construct the park, and they’ve already started,” he said. Ten miles of new terrain will be added.

As with other upper-echelon bike parks, Telluride’s will be monitored by Bike Patrol to aid with mechanical problems and medical emergencies. And, like popular playgrounds, it will charge users to play. The gondola's San Sophia Station already provides access to the existing trails, Village Trail, Prospect Trail, and Basin XC Trail as well as the Mountain Village Bike Park (downhill bike park). Additional uphill access will be provided by Lift 4 (Village Express). 

“The industry standard is $36 a day, so that’s what we’ll charge,” Telski CEO Bill Jensen said. “That includes a $1 donation to the National Forest Foundation (NFF), the nonprofit arm of the U.S. Forest Service.” 

The cost, however, will be substantially less for holders of Telski winter season passes: a one-time $25 donation to the NFF, which will grant the donator access to Cross-Country, Freestyle and Technical trails, as well as unlimited rides on Village Express. 

According to Jensen, local donations to NFF, which has a matching awards program, “will come back to us as a community and our trails. The hope is to sell 10,000 single-day tickets and put $30,000 in the coffers of NFF. Telski will make money at some point,” he said, but the short-term goal for the bike park is “to energize Mountain Village in the summer and stimulate the local economy.” 

The resort plans to open Telluride Bike Park the third Saturday in June with daily operation through Labor Day, then moving to Saturday-Sunday operations through the second Sunday in October. Personnel will scan passes at Station San Sophia and atop Village Express from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., which also are the hours for the Bike Park, as well as its patrollers, guides and instructors. 

Excerpts from Telluride Daily Planet/Rob Story

Wood Ear to Open This Weekend in the Roma Building

Texas-flavored ramen joint, Wood Ear Whiskey Lounge & Noodle Bar, is set to open June 24. Matt Arnold -- owner and general manager, and his employees “have resurfaced every inch except for the original walnut bar” (which was crafted by the Brunswick-Balke-Collener Company in 1860).

Wood Ear aims to stay open year-round, with the exception of a week each off-season, and by becoming “a place where everyone can afford to eat,” Arnold said. “People will be shocked by our prices.”

Indeed, Wood Ear’s preliminary menu reveals five items priced not in dollars but cents.

Along with a 25-cent nori sheet or 50-cent pickled carrot, diners will savor $2 charred corn, $4 wasabi potato salad or $5 shrimp tacos. 

Since bar manager Alvin Davis, head chef Kevin Bush and Arnold all hail from Texas, they endeavored to incorporate Hill Country flavors in the menu, meaning warm potato salad, cucumber salad and all kinds of smoked meats, whether brisket, pork shoulder or Asian-barbecue-style porkbelly.  

“We’re trying to bring our own touch to ramen,” Bush said. Lots and lots of ramen, that is:  According to Arnold, Wood Ear will boil 200 pounds of bones per day to create broth for all the ramen entrees on the menu. 

That process will take two days to complete, in order to intensify flavors, as will the smoking of Wood Ear’s brisket. 

Like neighboring restaurants La Cocina de Luz and Butcher & Baker, Wood Ear will operate as a counter-service joint. That way, Arnold said, he can save on employee costs and pass down the savings in the form of, well, 50-cent pickled carrots. 

In early March, Arnold imagined Wood Ear as a “cocktail lounge that serves Japanese-inspired drinking food.” The more the three main players tinkered, though, the more “we amped up our food” offerings, said Arnold. He now describes Wood Ear as a “Texas Hill Country-inspired ramen joint.”

Wood Ear’s new look will surprise those familiar with its predecessors’ gray-and-black hues. Arnold pointed to an Oregon artist’s fabulous new mural — in which bears snarl as long-stemmed chanterelles stretch for the horizon — and said, “We’ve started calling our motif ‘psychedelic hunting lodge.’”

That sounds about right, given the new wooden paneling: a lively interplay of beetle-killed blue pine, aspen and white pine. 

The mural surrounds the traditional stage of the Roma. The stage, Arnold said, will hold music acts during both Ride Fest and the Telluride Jazz Festival. 

From: Rob Story, Telluride Daily Planet

As revealed in our just-released in Christie's International Real Estate's Luxury Defined 2018 report on the global luxury real estate sector, sales of million-dollar-plus properties in second-home and resort lifestyle destinations worldwide soared in 2017. Luxury sales in second-home markets grew by 19% year-on-year in 2017 with Telluride exceeding with 37% growth in 2017. Telluride has seen $191.5M in closed transactions through May in 2018. With $97.4M in sales currently under contract, we look forward to the summer sales season.

The summer festival season in among us and starts with Mountainfilm. Started in 1979, Mountainfilm is one of America’s longest-running film festivals and a locals’ favorite. Through the years, in and out of trends and fads, the festival has always been best described by one unchanging word: Inspiring. Mountainfilm has evolved into a dynamic organization and a festival of films, people, stories, and ideas that celebrates indomitable spirit, educates and inspires audiences, and motivates individuals and communities to advance solutions for a livable world.

Mountainfilm will kick off its 40th Anniversary Festival by dedicating its Moving Mountains Symposium to one of the most pressing issues of our modern era: migration. To help guide audiences through the topic, the festival has gathered an impressive roster of scholars, activists, humanitarians and climate experts to speak at the event. The half-day symposium, which is scheduled for May 25, 2018 in High Camp Theater, will feature a former UN senior advisor, immigrant leadership advocate, a preeminent author of the American Southwest and expert in forced migration, among others. Speakers will take the audience on a deep dive into several facets of the migration issue, from immigration reform in America to the international refugee crisis and the long history of human movement across the globe.

With first ascents and routes on walls that span from Antarctica to Patagonia and Alaska to the Himalaya, author and North Face athlete Conrad Anker is a modern climbing legend. Anker is Mountainfilm's 2018 Guest Director. This year’s presenters include former festival director Arlene Burns, 2018 poster artist Joseph Toney, filmmaker Tyler Wilkinson-Ray, film producer and writer Anna Brones, and Norwood-based British climber Adrian Burgess. 

Mountainfilm is in the TREC family as Broker Alex Martin's wife, Sage, is Mountainfilm's Executive Director. “Alex and I are so blessed to have the opportunity to live and work in Telluride. The natural beauty is awe-inspiring, and the community genuine. We couldn’t dream of a better place to raise our sons and to call home.” says Sage.

To learn more about Mountainfilm, click here to visit their website. If you want to attend, we're sorry to report that passes are SOLD OUT. But, check out today's Telluride Daily Planet to see how you can Mountainfilm without a pass (and for free!). 

Summer is just around the corner! The Telluride events calendar is packed with activities for every age and interest. From iconic musical festivals to farmer's markets to evening family movies under the starts, there's something for everyone. 

Summer 2018 Will Include Daily Flights from Chicago

Colorado Flights Alliance has released the Summer 2018 flight schedule. Despite Great Lakes pulling out of Telluride (TEX), travel options into Montrose (MTJ) continue to expand. Highlights include extended daily Chicago (ORD) service on United and larger jets through out the summer on Houston (IAH) and Dallas (DFW) routes, and a second Dallas flight on core days.

Looking at summer bookings, traffic is up 7% on early numbers with each month pacing even to ahead year-over-year.