A free gondola system opened in 1995 linking the original town of Telluride with the new Mountain Village —a huge investment to move people about the valley in a more ecologically friendly, and practical, fashion. We parked in a multistory structure on the edge of the village and rode the gondola into the village center, where we disembarked to get our lift tickets and a bite to eat. The center is flanked by attractive five and six-story post and stone lodges, condominiums, restaurants and shops; walkways dotted with small trees and gardens wind about. When I was last here, there was one major hotel, a handful of condos and the rudiments of a commercial sector. Now it was bustled with many hundreds of people intent on getting up the mountain, and those serving that obscure but endlessly enchanting urge to slide on snow.

So up we went, loading on the high speed chair to the ridge between the old “front face” that drops directly onto the streets of old Telluride and the newer Mountain Village side. I wanted the teens to see where the resort began, rising off the south bank of the Rio San Miguel. Coonskin is a classic frontside bump run with a modestly steep pitch. Facing east, it has softened nicely as we dropped down into town, then onto the speedy catwalk Telluride Trail and across the bridge to the lift. No one was skiing this lower portion of the frontside, but it has some tough and fun drops like Mine Shaft and Cat’s Paw that we had to ourselves. Above, on the Plunge chair, we tacked the steeps and bumps on runs like Kant-Mak-M (fine, soft snow), narrow Powerline and rattled down East Drain.

We ate lunch under a crystalline clear sky at Giuseppe’s Restaurant at 11,890 feet elevation surrounded by a glistening skyline of snowcapped peaks and plunging valleys of the mighty San Juan range; to the west the La Sal Mountains in Utah poked out of the tan and reddish lowlands. Awesome.

We also sampled the goods off the Gold Chair. This is a gem of a lift. I hiked the ridge up Gold Hill from the top of the Apex lift in the past some and it was a tough slog. Rising 1418 feet, the high-speed quad places you at an elevation of 12,255 feet. At your feet lay triple black diamond runs like Dynamo (watch that choke point!), the wide-open Little Rose, and the spiny Millions under the lift.

T’ride also has excellent tree skiing, including the woods off the Apex lift and fringing runs such as Apex, Allanis Alley and the coolly named Zulu Queen, as well as off the Plunge lift, including the aptly named Log Pile glades.

There are so many aspects of this resort (covering “only” 1700 acres but feeling much, much larger) that I can’t touch on all the superlatives. Lots and lots of intermediate and beginner runs; topnotch terrain parks (including a halfpipe), the newest hike-too terrain off the Prospect chair, plus heli-skiing, skating for free at Town Park, a great cross country trail system, and the historic town of Telluride itself—which has some fun bars, coffee shops, bakeries, more restaurants and one-of-a-kind shops. Its Victorian architecture defines the word “charming.” See if you can find the bar Butch Cassidy shot up (a town legend) and the first bank he robbed (true).