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Our Mission

Telluride Mountain Club advocates for safe, accessible, enjoyable and respectful opportunities for human-powered recreational activities in the Telluride region, through education, awareness and collaboration.

Our Vision

We envision increased recreational opportunities, safety, and environmental sensitivity for both locals and visitors in our community.

Join Us

Our Mission

Telluride Mountain Club advocates for safe, accessible, enjoyable and respectful opportunities for human-powered recreational activities in the Telluride region, through education, awareness and collaboration.

Our Vision

We envision increased recreational opportunities, safety, and environmental sensitivity for both locals and visitors in our community.

Join Us

About Telluride Mountain Club

The Telluride Mountain Club’s goal is to preserve and enhance public access to human powered activities including hiking/biking, backcountry skiing and boarding, mountaineering, climbing and other mountain related recreation (like Telluride’s via ferrata).

Personal responsibility, self sufficiency and environmental stewardship are core values, as well as preserving each citizen’s right to their “Freedom of the Hills.”

Originally conceived as an avalanche-education organization in 1986, the Telluride Mountain Club (TMtC) evolved towards access advocacy and promoting responsible, safe backcountry travel and recreation.

If you enjoy hiking, trail running, mountain biking, backcountry touring, climbing, the Via Ferrata and/or exploring the San Juan mountains, we encourage you to join us and help make our outdoors a better place to recreate.

Telluride Mountain Club is a 501C-3 non-profit organization.

We serve many purposes:

Advocating for the education, appreciation, enjoyment and protection of human-powered, mountain-related activities.

Promoting personal responsibility, safety and self sufficiency while enjoying the backcountry.

Creating new and preserving existing access for human-powered backcountry recreation.

Freedom
of the
Hills

Telluride Mountain Club plans and builds new trails, stewards the via ferrata, educates, and preserves public access to recreational activities in the Telluride region.

View Our Trail Map

TELLURIDE MOUNTAIN CLUB BOARD OF DIRECTORS

JOSH BOROF – President

Josh Borof has worked with the Telluride Mountain Club since 1997 and has lived in the Telluride area for 29 years. He is an avid rock climber of 28 years who established first ascents in Colorado, Utah, California and Alaska. Josh laid the foundation for many San Juan classic ski descents in the Telluride area and is a veteran of river expeditions including many sections of the Colorado, Green, Salt, Arkansas, Tuolumne, Rogue and American Rivers. He owns a general contracting company serving the greater Telluride Region. His wife, Wendy Borof, owns and operates a local Pilates fitness business. He has two kids, Wiley age 16 and Skylar age 13, who are both active outdoorspeople who love to ski and run the rivers of the western US with their dad.

 

NATE SMITH – Vice President

Nate Smith has served as a director of the Telluride Mountain Club since 2011. Nate earned his law degree from Vermont Law School, a school consistently ranked as the top environmental law school in the United States. During this time, he served as an editor on the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law and focused his studies in public lands law and recreation issues. Nate’s writings have been published in renowned legal journals. He is the only attorney to have studied the impact that the Town of Telluride’s condemnation of the Valley Floor for open space and recreation will have on land-use planning in the Rocky Mountains. When not riding his mountain bike, Nate loves to enjoy his public lands.

 

TOR ANDERSON

Tor has worked with the Telluride Mountain Club for over two decades and has served at the club’s President. He owns a graphic design company and specializes in map design and formatting. When not busy with work and the club, Tor loves hanging out with his wife Sharon and son Wilder at their home in Ilium.

 

TODD RUTLEDGE

Todd got distracted from a career in Academics in the early 90’s when the siren songs of the Andes and the Alaska Range coincided with a break in his graduate program in Linguistics and Anthropology and he’s been a mountain guide ever since. In 2004, after a decade of guiding for the company, he assumed co-ownership of Mountain Trip, an Alaska-based guide service. They expanded to lead trips on all seven continents as well as around his home in Ophir, just south of Telluride. Todd feel incredibly fortunate, as the recent years have provided him the opportunity to get out and lead trips, but also to spend more time with his family. He has two sons, with his wife and enjoys climbing, skiing, hiking and riding motorcycles.

Todd believes in public service and term limited himself after four years as Ophir’s mayor. Serving the greater Telluride community as part of the Telluride Mountain Club is an extension of that belief. We have amazing opportunities in our corner of the San Juans and Todd would like to help people enjoy what is all around us. While the quest for finding balance in life between work and family will probably always be elusive, both are tons of fun, especially in our neck of the woods!

 

KEVIN COONEY

In the late 70s, Kevin was an aspiring alpinist in Telluride while managing the local food coop, swinging a hammer for BONE, and exploring local rock & ice. He went to Boulder to go to engineering school, which led to a long career in the clean energy industry. Along the way he also designed outdoor equipment, pursued FKTs, and had the opportunity to work or climb on six continents. It took him 30 years to find his way back. Then, in 2017, Kevin joined the Mountain Club’s efforts to preserve the via ferrata, and joined the board. He also serves on the board of San Miguel Power Association. When not at his computer, you might find him exploring ridgelines on no-name 13ers, climbing, or enjoying our trails with his dog.

 

XIMENA REBOLLEDO LEÓN

Ximena Rebolledo León has been a board member of the Telluride Mountain Club since March of 2022. She has lived in the Telluride area on and off since 2000. Ximena has been a nurse since 2012 and strongly believes in the benefit of proximity to nature as it affects our overall health. Ximena values creating and maintaining access to the outdoors with a special emphasis on equity, sustainability, and preservation. A climber, runner, biker, and skier, Ximena can be found enjoying our public lands on most days.

TELLURIDE MOUNTAIN CLUB STAFF

HEIDI LAUTERBACH – Director

Heidi Lauterbach has a background in operations, marketing and finance. She has worked in the outdoor industry for over ten years and in the nonprofit sector for six. Growing up in Colorado, Heidi has been recreating and enjoying public lands her entire life. She understands the positive benefits that the outdoors can have on the mind, body and soul. She believes everyone should be able to experience a hike, mountain bike ride, climb or other activity. Her motivation to help Telluride’s outdoor-recreation community is most certainly correlated with her desire to explore the San Juan Mountains on her days off with her husband Matt and their dog Annie Oakley.

 

JORDAN CARR – Trails Director

Jordan has spent the majority of his life wandering the landscape via trails. After getting into trail advocacy as a teenager in Northern Illinois, he pursued his love for the outdoors at Western Colorado University where he pursued Environmental Studies and Sociology. 

After spending some time working as a bike mechanic and part time mountain bike coach, Jordan accepted a position with the International Mountain Bike Association (IMBA) as one part of the Subaru Trail Care Crew where he traveled the U.S. for two years leading educational trail seminars. 

He transferred this experience into becoming a professional in the industry working with IMBA Trail Solutions and contracting with Swiss based Allegra Tourismus. Jordan has traveled all over the world working on trail planning and building projects and he’s passionate about the creation of inclusive, accessible, and collaborative recreational trail projects. 

OUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Telluride Mountain Club has assisted with many different issues in the Telluride region, from avalanche education to the re-opening of Gold Hill’s backcountry access gates. Our annual recap reports outline the work we are able to accomplish each year.

1986

Avalanche Education

Started Telluride’s first formalized local avalanche education classes.
2002

Backcountry Access Points in Prospect Basin

Worked with the USFS, Telluride Ski Area and San Miguel County to insure that Backcountry Access Points be included in the ski area's Prospect Basin expansion. These gates were open until 2010.
2004

2004 - 2007 Access to Silverpick Basin & Wilson Peak

Assisted the Trust for Public Land and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) in re-establishing public access to Silverpick Basin and Wilson Peak, one of Colorado's most popular 14,000-foot peaks.
2008

Bridal Veil Falls Ice Climbing

Collaborated with San Miguel County and local guide services to create a successful ice climbing management plan for the world-famous Bridal Veil Falls, as well as lobbied climbing gear companies for donations of ropes and other rescue-related equipment.
2008

Climbing Areas

Helped the Access Fund establish an easement and agreed to be the land steward for the Society Turn climbing area, a place where thousands of kids and adults rock climb for the very first time, developing their skills and a love of the worlds’ wild places. Again with San Miguel County, helped preserve the Bilk Creek climbing area and plan the addition of parking, trails and safe anchors. Collaborated with the Telluride R-I School District and the Telluride Academy to re-open and manage Telluride's public indoor climbing wall. Located in the high school building, adult access was complicated by a change in management and policy that we helped solve.
2010

2010-2014 Re-opened Gold Hill

Successfully re-opened access to the ski area's Gold Hill backcountry access gates into Bear Creek. We worked with San Miguel County, USFS, the Town of Telluride and others to regain access to this popular backcountry skiing terrain. In 2010, the gates were closed by the ski area and USFS in reaction to a private mining claim owner's request. This owner also requested closure of the Wasatch Trail through their property, one of Telluride's most popular summer hikes and an official USFS trail. In spring of 2011, we persuaded the USFS to open an access gate on Palmyra Peak into upper Bear Creek, and in the spring of 2014 all other access gates into Bear Creek were officially reinstated. This process was very complicated and time-consuming.
2015

Via Ferrata Access

Surveyed Via Ferrata access points and advised San Miguel County on a new trail re-route system, in an effort to avoid conflicts with private land owners.
2015

Alta Lakes Reroute

Collaborated with San Miguel County, SMBA, USFS and private landowners to research and develop a plan to protect and reroute the popular Alta Lakes multi-use non-motorized trail system.
2015

Ophir Wall

Anchor & Protection Bolt replacements on Ophir Wall.
2015

Ilium Boulders, Bear Creek Signage & Telluride Vision Survey

Fall 2015: Adopted the Ilium Boulders recreation area. Worked with the USFS and the Access Fund to restore the main access trail, and develop a plan for future restoration efforts to take place in 2016.
Fall 2015: Worked with local entities to push improved signage as skiers/boarders leave the ski resort and enter backcountry skiing in Bear Creek.
Fall 2015: Launched the Telluride Regional Trails System Vision Survey to collect data on the future vision of Telluride's trails.
2016

Ilium Boulders Trail Work

Summer 2016: Completed trail work on the Ilium Boulders recreation area in conjunction with the USFS and the Access Fund. Both trails have been restored to create a more sustainable trail system into the future.
2016

Backcountry Radios

Fall 2016: ISSW White Paper published on the use of radios in high-use backcountry ski zones. Paper written using Telluride's backcountry radio program as the example.
Winter 2016-2017: With assistance from the Peter Inglis Avalanche Education Fund and Jagged Edge Mountain Gear, backcountry radios are now available for rent at Jagged Edge.
2017

Alta Lakes & Via Ferrata

Spring 2017: Collaboration with the USFS, SMBA, San Miguel County and more to create long-term vision for the Alta Lakes recreation area.
Spring 2017: Initiation of an official engineering report for Telluride’s Via Ferrata to be submitted to the United States Forest Service.
2018

Via Ferrata & Trail Projects

Summer 2018: Via Ferrata hardware replacement and upgrades.
Spring 2018: Trail maintenance days, group hikes, trail inventory project, progress on Trails Sustainability Plan, coordination with private landowners for public access, rebuild of Society Turn climbing area access trail.
Fall 2018: Submittal of Via Ferrata engineering report.
Winter 2019-2019: PI Fund Backcountry Chats for free avalanche education in Telluride.

Did You
Know?

It costs over $40,000 to build one mile of trail in the Telluride region.

TMtC relies on private donations to accomplish our projects and mission. You can donate here:

Donate Now

OUR MISSION

Telluride Mountain Club advocates for safe, accessible, enjoyable and respectful opportunities for human-powered recreational activities in the Telluride region, through education, awareness and collaboration.

Telluride Mountain Club is a 501c3 nonprofit organization.