"Built on Bones" Changes the Narrative on Shakespeare's Witches

By Julia Caulfield

L-R: Lizzy Ross, Emily Scott Robinson, and Alisa Amador (Joshua Britt)

Emily Scott Robinson is a rising star in the Americana music scene. She calls the San Juan Mountains in Southwest Colorado home. Signed to John Prine’s Oh Boy Records, Robinson is out with a new album, Built on Bones. The album shares songs created for Telluride Theatre’s 2021 Shakespeare in the Park production of Macbeth.

Robinson sat down with KOTO’s Julia Caulfield to talk about the new album and changing the narrative on Shakespeare’s Witches.

Things Fall into Place with Health Access Facilitator

Cali Granita had left Telluride, and her work in the medical industry, behind when she went home to Argentina to earn a degree as a court interpreter. She then moved to the east coast and planned to begin a new career, but after a chance run-in with Ximena Rebolledo-Leon, a longtime nurse at the Telluride Medical Center, her plans began to change. 

I was studying in Florida to go to the courts,” Granita remembers. “When I was coming back to Colorado, Ximena and I met in the airport in Atlanta and we sat together at the plane and she was like ‘you are the person I have been waiting for. I have a job for you in Telluride.’” 

Granita is now the Medical Center’s Bilingual Health Access Facilitator. She is the first person to ever serve in the role. Her work has quickly become crucial, as she helps to organize appointments, transportation, billing, and interpretation services for many of the Health Center’s patients. 

“The health system in the states, it’s a little crazy. So my role here is to help those patients — English speakers or Spanish speakers — to make appointments at Montrose Memorial, or if they have to go to St. Mary’s in Grand Junction, if they have to see a specialist, if they have to find a dentist that is in network with their insurance. All these things where they don’t know what to do, I do some research, I call, I get them connected, and I make the appointments,” Granita says. 

Navigating the health system is especially difficult for people who speak english as a second language, or are undocumented and therefore uninsured. Challenges accessing health care come to fall acutely on Telluride’s immigrant and latino population. Rebolledo-Leon says that witnessing how these challenges affected Telluride's latino population sparked her efforts to create Granita’s position. 

“Think about our immigrant population, who is the backbone of this community, who without them doors do not open, the Medical Center does not open, it doesn't get clean, all of these pieces of our essential workforce and our fellow community members — if they cannot access medicine at a price they can afford, it’s hugely problematic” Rebolledo-Leon says. 

Rebolledo-Leon says that the job, beyond being a mere interpreter, is someone who will advocate for their patients in a complicated health system. 

“It’s not just a bilingual person, it has to be someone who is willing to get on the phone and plead with specialists for a discount for their undocumented and therefore uninsured patients. Do you know what I mean? It’s having the wherewithal to know what to do and to fight for it,” Rebolledo-Leon says.  

In Granita, it seems that the Medical Center has found that person. Granita laughs as she recalls her former nickname around the Med Center offices. 

“Actually, my nickname before was ‘Mama Cali,’ because I was always like ‘Oh I know someone here, go talk to them’... ‘Oh I know this person here, maybe they can help you!’” Granita Recalls.  When Ximena said ‘this is meant for you,’ I’m like — ‘maybe, maybe it is’…After all these years of knowing people.

The work of finding resources, connections, and funding for patients extends to all hours of the day, Granita says. Many clinics in the area have no medical interpreters, so that job often falls to her. 

“So, for example I have a patient who’s been going to Norwood to the dentist office there, and they don’t have an interpreter so she calls me. So I go to a room and I interpret for her,” Granita says. “I take the extra step. If I’m not busy I can do it, and for the most part I’ve been able to help. But, it doesn't end here and it's not only eight to five. You know…it goes [into all hours]”

Both Granita and Rebolledo-Leon say that the position is constantly at risk of losing funding. The Telluride Medical Center makes money largely through reimbursement from insurance companies, so un and underinsured patients are simply not as lucrative for a medical center always trying to make ends meet. Nevertheless, Rebolledo-Leon says that the new position has already had a clear impact. 

“We’re scrambling always to fund it, but — you know — Cali, she’s incredible. We’ve seen our mammography rates improve, we’ve seen our annual physical exam rates improve. We are just reaching more of our immigrant patient population, and anyone who needs just a little more assistance making things happen, they’re also benefiting from this,” Rebolledo-Leon says. 

In the ongoing fight to make the US healthcare system more navigable and equitable, it may be that Granita’s work is just a drop in the bucket. But according to Rebolledo-Leon, patients across Telluride are already feeling the many, many, ripples.

Wild Gals Owner Talks Season’s Bounty

It’s harvest season, and as frost is coming to our part of the world, farms are putting out their bounties in a great final push. What should we be cooking with all the good food coming to market before the winter hiatus? I sat down with Galit Korngold at the Nucla Heritage Festival to talk about what’s in season, and what we should be cooking at this delicious moment. 

“Right now all the nightshades are coming in hot, so the tomatoes, the peppers; we just finished corn season; melons are still going off….It’s chile season and we can get them roasted or fresh. Potatoes, onions, all the root crops are coming in hot; winter squashes — all the different varieties — and pumpkins,” says Korngold. 

Korngold is the proprietor of Wild Gal’s Market, which she’s run for the past two years out of a sunny little storefront on Nucla's main drag. As the bluegrass band begins to play on the Nucla Town stage, Korngold says cooking is connected to her true calling in life. 

“I was actually a graphic designer professionally for the last thirty years before I became a store owner and a cook. I consider myself a Jewish mother, I love to feed. It’s my thing. The biggest pleasure I get is seeing people enjoy my food.” says Korngold. 

Between the diverse landscapes of high mountain peaks and drought stricken desert, the local food scene of the Western Slope can be hard to navigate. But when Korngold opened her store, she started by building a network of food producers across the region. 

“I started making my own connections, traveling all around this area every week to go hit the farms and find the good stuff and the best deals and the freshest,” Korngold says. “So right now we’re getting food from Norwood, from Olathe, from Montrose, from Grand Junction, Palisade, and from Dominguez Canyon between Delta and Grand Junction. I’ve built some really nice relationships with these farmers and it’s one of the best parts of my week.”

If you’ve stopped by a farmers market lately, chances are you walked away overburdened with veggies. When asked what to make with the season’s bounty, Korngold says to aim for big hearty pots of things to use up all the fresh produce. 

“It’s definitely soup season so that’s what we do,” says Korngold. “We make soups with whatever’s in season and whatever we have way too much of, because I tend to get excited and buy too much. So we make butternut soup, and we make ratatouille — tomato, peppers, onions, zucchini stewed together — all that good stuff. What else? We’re gonna make chicken soup, kale and sausage soup, all those kinds of things. ‘Tis the season for that.”

When cooking, Korngold also draws inspiration from her heritage. 

“Israeli is really the major part of my background. So for my store we make Israeli salad which is  a chopped tomato-cucumber salad. We make houmous every week and its the best houmous this side of the rockies. We make tzatziki, that’s Greek. We make Moroccan stuff like Salade Cuite which literally translates to ‘cooked salad,’ which is tomatoes and peppers and tons of garlic cooked until it’s thick thick and you eat it with bread. We’re feeders, we’re lucky we landed in a community of eaters,” says Korngold. 

Korngold says cooking for her community is the best part of her week. The spirit of Wild Gal’s is to get creative and let loose in the kitchen. With whatever bounty you have, Korngold says cooking, at long last, is about a feeling of togetherness. 

“It’s an art form, and a show of love. It's a love language and an art form,” she says.

Surrounded by apples, pears and baked goods galore at the Nucla Town Park, it’s the perfect time to celebrate, and afterwards, head home towards the warmth and promise of the kitchen stove. 

In Placerville, Pollinators Prepare for Winter

It’s morning in Placerville, at the County Park, and the sky is a non-descript gray, dull against the vibrant yellow of the willows shedding their leaves along the San Miguel River. In the high peaks, the first snow has already come, bringing to the valley the defining colors of fall, along with shorter days and slow mornings cloaked in cold mist. The center of the park’s open lawn is disrupted by a garden which, even late in the season, is full of vibrant blossoms. The garden was originally planted six years ago, and Parks Supervisor Rich Hamilton says it’s been growing ever since. 

“At that time it was about forty to fifty different species of plants. Now it's about 75 different species of plants,” Hamilton says. “95% of those are native. The five percent that are not native, we’re seeing how it goes with those, but we try to keep it as native as possible.”

Hamilton explains that what makes this garden unique is that it's not directly for county residents, and it’s not even mainly about the plants. Rather, Hamilton says, “It’s all about the butterflies, the bees and the hummingbirds. It’s not really a garden for the people; it’s a garden for the pollinators.”

Installed by the former county commissioner Art Goodtimes, the garden is an initiative of San Miguel County to support pollinating insects in our region. The garden’s main caretaker, Jacqueline Hudson says that maintaining blooms throughout the growing season is essential for pollinator health. 

“With this garden in particular, you know there’s different plants that flower at different times. And one of the things that Rich has incorporated into this garden very, very, well is that there are very early spring bloomers, there are summer bloomers, and — as you can see — there are fall bloomers. Each species of plant has its own schedule, and we as humans are supposed to work with that schedule in order to promote the pollinator population,” Hudson says.

Come fall, pollinators are eager to tank up on reserves for the winter hibernation. Hudson says late into the season she is surrounded by activity, never gardening alone. 

“On the goldenrod, especially when it’s sunny out, you can see at least half a dozen different species of pollinators on the same plant,” She says. 

Late blooming flowers are also essential to migratory insects. Hudson says she and Hamilton have planted milkweed in the hopes of seeing monarchs return to the valley. 

“That’s kind of been a dream of mine as a gardener,” she says. “I want to see a monarch butterfly on this side of the divide in this habitat in San Miguel County.”

Alongside the insects, the gardeners prepare for winter in their own way. The full process involves laying in mulch, planting some seeds which need to overwinter, and harvesting seeds which can be planted next year. Beyond these tasks, Hudson says, she lets nature take care of itself. 

“Basically, I let it go. Goldenrod, bee-balm, echinacea…all of these species of plants have seeds that are eaten by birds and small mammals during the winter, so I leave all of that standing, because birds gotta eat too! And then when the snows come, the snows fold all of that over the ground,” Hudson says.

The snow and vegetation become a blanket which covers the earth and its creatures. For anyone wishing to get into the garden in a future season, Hamilton says that every little bit of flowering earth will help to strengthen a county wide network of pollinators. 

“It starts in your backyard and little pockets around your homes. If you can plant native perennials, annuals and shrubs — even trees are pollinators — then you’re helping out. We have plans for future pollinator projects with San Miguel County. Little pockets around the bus stop in Placerville for example, just to give these species little hops and skips to get from one garden to another,” Hamilton says.

Hudson adds that the insects unique to this region thrive alongside our native plants. 

If you want to have a focus on Colorado native plants, that’s great, because the Colorado native plants have evolved with the Colorado native pollinators, so they inevitably go together like peanut butter and jelly, she says.

Information and classes on regional gardening initiatives can be found through the Colorado State Extension, which has offices in Norwood. Online, it can be found at  sanmiguel.extension.colostate.edu. 

Remembering Hilaree Nelson

By Julia Caulfield

Photo Chris Figenshau

When you think of giants in the world of mountaineering and adventure, one name inevitably rises to the top. Hilaree Nelson was the best of her time.

“We love Hilaree for her energy and her motivation. It was always equal to men in the mountains and incredibly strong in that sense,” says Conrad Anker, a friend of Nelson and fellow mountaineer.

Together Nelson and Anker climbed Denali, and Everest, and took an expedition to Antarctica. But Anker notes it wasn’t Nelson’s ability to climb or ski the most impressive peaks that sticks out.

“As a professional, she was always an advocate for women, and when she elevated women, she elevated everyone,” he recalls.

Nelson passed away on September 26th after getting caught in an avalanche on Mt. Manaslu in Nepal. She was 49 years old.

Nelson grew up in Seattle, Washington where she spent her winters skiing Stevens Pass in the Cascades. After graduating from college she went to Chamonix, France for a winter, which turned into five years, and Nelson began her journey a world renowned ski mountaineer.

In a career that spanned decades, Nelson became the first decent on dozens of mountains, on more than 40 expeditions in 16 different countries. She was the first person to complete a ski decent of Lhotse, the first woman to link Everest and Lhotse in a 24-hour push. She completed a double summit of Denali, and was the first person to ski decent Paupsura Peak. She was named National Geographic Adventurer of the Year, and a North Face Athlete – captain of the North Face Team.

But even with all her accomplishments, speak to those who knew Nelson it’s her heart that leaves the greatest impact.

Anker remembers their expedition on Denali.

“She was with a group of younger skiers and snowboarders and she was great. She was like the den mother. She was there making sure we were fed, and making sure the youngsters were doing their bit and tidying up,” Anker says, “It was a cross between a wonderful parent and an expedition leader.”

Suzan Beraza got to know Nelson through her work with Mountainfilm. She remembers being a little intimidated to start.

“I’ve always looked up to Hilaree and admired her, and thought she was the coolest woman ever. Then getting to know her, it was just this other side of her. She wasn’t intimidating at all. Because of all her accomplishments, I thought ‘wow, she’s just kind of, an untouchable woman’. But she was just the opposite,” Beraza remembers, “She was caring and giving, and generous with her time. And just had the most beautiful easy laugh, and just a hell of a fun person.”

Beraza adds that while the world knew Nelson as a trailblazer in mountaineering, she was so much more than that.

“She just was an incredible community member for Telluride. Incredibly generous with her time, being an amazing mother, and incredible partner,” Beraza says, “She was just a warm, loving, kind person, and her being a mountaineer was just a small part of who she really was.”

Still, it’s hard to understate Nelson’s importance in the world of mountaineering. Especially for women. Here’s Anker then Beraza.

“Hilaree’s legacy will rest upon empowering women to pursue big mountain dreams. Whether it’s working as a ski guide with a helicopter outfit, or being a team captain at the North Face, or climbing Everest and Lhotse in a day,” Anker says, “Her ability and motivation has touched many people and specifically really encouraged women to pursue their dreams, you know they had the skills and ability to go do it.”

Beraza says, “she was a complete role model for women and showing that you can have these accomplishments and achieve your goals and still be a mother. Often women are held at a different standard for that then men – where men can go off and do all these things and have children, women are kind of judged to say ‘oh no, you can’t do that. You’re a woman’. She really broke that wide open, and showed that it is important for women to have dreams and to follow those dreams.

Nelson is survived by her two children Grayden, and Quinn. And her love, Jim.

Secretary of State Jena Griswold visits Telluride

By Julia Caulfield

Jena Griswold (Maeve Conran/Rocky Mountain Community Radio)

Colorado’s Secretary of State Jena Griswold is running for reelection this November. While she was in Telluride recently to meet with voters for a campaign fundraiser, she spoke with KOTO’s Julia Caulfield about why she’s running, the importance of election security, and Lil Kim.

Griswold says she’s not the typical person to run for office and to hold office.

Jena Griswold (JG): So, I grew up in Drake, Colorado, in Estes Park, in a cabin with an outhouse outside, at times on food stamps, at times we were going to food banks, and I started working the summer after seventh grade.

And working so young I really saw that a lot of Colorado families were struggling, and that inspired me to be first in my family to go to a four-year college, and then to law school.

And really, I bring the value of everyday people, whether you're from rural Colorado or a big city, whether you're rich or you know, blue collar, regardless of the color of your skin, or your zip code, should have a say in how our country is going, and that say starts with the ballot box.

So I ran for Secretary of State in 2018 with a series of promises to expand access and security, and that's what I've done as Secretary of State.

I have tried to always be a champion for voting access and voting rights.

I'm the nation's youngest Secretary of State, the first Democrat elected (as Colorado Secretary of State) in 60 years.

And I hope to continue to champion everyday people's right to vote in a second term.

Julia Caulfield (JC): Across the country we have all seen the importance of elections and how contentious they can be at times, and the importance of safe and fair elections.

In your role, what are you really proud of, or what do you think you've done well to make sure that Colorado is able to have fair and safe and secure elections?

JG: Well I've increased access quite a bit.

So for example, we have 65% more secure ballot drop boxes now.

We partnered with the tribes and saw approximately 20% increase in tribal voting.

I passed legislation to guarantee access on every public university and on tribal lands.

I passed automatic voter registration, a program that registered 350,000 eligible Coloradans, Republicans, Democrats, and Unaffiliated (voters) to cast a ballot.

And when things started to shift in this nation, when we started to see this massive attack on voting rights and on elections, I've always stood up for Colorado voters.

Whether that means intervening in Mesa County, when rogue County Clerk Tina Peters compromised her own voting equipment, to making sure that voters in Democratic leaning counties have elections that they deserve as Colorado citizens.

I'll always protect our election infrastructure and the right to vote.

JC: Where do you think we still have to go? Obviously nothing's perfect, what are maybe challenges or growth opportunities that Colorado still has when it comes to voting?

JG: Well, Colorado is the nation's gold standard for voting. We have the best access. We have the best election security, but there's always more that you can do.

In 2020, just to give you a data point, 86.5% of active voters cast a ballot in the middle of the pandemic.

So, our elections are going really well.

But with that said, you know, I look forward to continuing to increase access.

We’re already planning for next year's legislative session and are looking at things like expanding automatic voter registration, to more places where Coloradans interact with government.

We want to continue to partner with the tribes to make sure that every Coloradan has a full franchise in this state, and we've been very successful in partnering with the tribes, and there's more that we can do.

We also need to continue to shine light on money in politics, so we plan in my office to upgrade the reporting of campaign spending, the reporting of lobbying.

And to tell you a little bit, the unfortunate part is that we haven't been immune to attacks on democracy here.

We have two county clerks who have breached their internal security to try to prove conspiracies just in the last year.

We have a county in the state of Colorado where the county clerk works behind bulletproof glass because of the threats to election workers.

On election day, we saw a voter in Pueblo, try to hack into a piece of voting equipment.

We will continue to see these evolving threats, and I will continue to act decisively.

Whether it's with these county clerks, making sure that we decertify compromised voting equipment and appoint folks to oversee elections that need to, to the threats against election workers.

Just this year alone, I ran legislation and passed into law, the nation's first law on insider threats, it's now a felony to compromise voting equipment.

We made it a crime to threaten an election worker or retaliate against them for doing their job.

We also prohibited the open carrying of guns from 100 feet of a voting center where you drop off your ballot or for where you process your ballot.

So, we'll continue to rise to the challenges and make sure our elections remain the best in the nation.

JC: You talk about the importance of having access to voting and making sure that Coloradans feel like they get to be part of that process.

But we're also seeing in Colorado, across the country, folks who, so maybe they get to make their vote, but then once that happens, they don't necessarily feel like politicians or people in government are then actually speaking to the issues that they care about, are actually representing them how they see fit.

What are your thoughts on that, and making, not just the ability to participate in the process of voting, but then also make sure that that government actually looks like something that we want it to look like?

JG: No, I think that's a really good point, because there's two questions. Is there voter access?

But question two is having candidates that truly inspire the people that will vote for them, but then deliver on their promises.

And I'll tell you what, I ran for this office at the age of 33, never having ran for office before, against the only Republican statewide incumbent left in the state of Colorado for a seat a Democrat had not won in 60 years.

And we ended up winning.

And I think in a large part is because I'm just like a normal person.

I have at this point, $186,000 of education debt, I know what it means to be short on money.

I know what it means to feel like you can't fully pay your electrical bill.

And when I ran for office, it was to help as much as I can everyday people, but also to produce results.

And the things that I said I would do, I have done, I also think that's really important.

So, we need to elect more people from diverse backgrounds.

We need to see have more people who are working people.

We have to have more women, we have to have more people of color.

Not only because government should be reflective of the people, but you have different backgrounds.

You know I will always stand, for example, with women, families, and children in protecting the right to reproductive healthcare.

That is a value I bring to this office.

And I know a lot of men are pro-choice also, but having a women's perspective is important, and people from diverse backgrounds will have diverse perspectives, and you would hope there would be better policy outcomes from that.

JC: We are a radio station, so we love music.

You are crisscrossing the state, campaigning and talking about your reelection, and as you are doing so, I imagine there's a lot of time in cars and planes or whatever that might be.

So, I'm going to ask, as you crisscross the state, is there any song or artist that is just your ear worm, sticking with you everywhere you go?

JG: Well, I do love women rappers. I will tell you that.

This is going to be like throwback, but I like Lil’ Kim, I like Nikki Minaj, Missy Elliot.

I also love salsa music, so lots of salsa bands, a little bit of women rappers thrown in. I like oldies too, country (music) I could two step like the best of 'em.

So yes, there's a lot of music and (I) try to keep it really upbeat you know, to get energy from it.

Runners Race the Imogene

By Gavin McGough

From Imogene Run website.

It’s a cold, early morning in Telluride, slightly gray and feeling a bit more like autumn than summer. Except for some high smoke from Western fires, it's a fine day for a run. That’s a good thing, because it’s the Saturday after Labor Day, and, for the last forty-nine years, this has meant one thing in Telluride: the Imogene Pass Run. 

In this mountain tradition, over a thousand race runners set out from Ouray, Colorado at 7:30 in the morning. Before ten o’clock the first runners are rounding the turn off Tomboy Road in Telluride and running the last few blocks of the 17-mile race right down Oak Street. Second-place finisher Daniel Craft ran it all in two hours and twenty four minutes. Standing at the still quiet finish line, he says he was running hard till the very end.

“It’s great, beautiful weather. I had a really tight finish with Jimmy Par, who’s, like, a five-time champion, and I had to run the last mile all-out,” Craft says. 

Craft has run the race twice beforehand, when he used to live in Telluride, and says the run embodies the spirit and energy of mountain communities.

“For me, I just love Telluride so much it’s an excuse to come back. And it’s really fun to come into town over the pass,” Craft says. “It's an awesome community on both sides and has a lot of history.”

Racers came from around the United States and even traveled internationally — one top finisher was from Great Britain. Meanwhile, a crew of over 200 volunteers handed out water and high energy snacks along the course. The crowd at the finish line, which grew throughout the morning, was full of Telluride residents either waiting to greet a friend coming over the pass, or to just pause and recognize a storied tradition. 

The pass, peaking at 13,114 feet, makes for a grueling course. Roy Bohling, relaxing at the end of his run, says the elusive summit always seemed just a little further ahead.

“The hardest section on the way up is the last mile because you’re so close but it's the steepest part…and it's demoralizing for a while watching the summit not come any closer,” Bohling says. “What was going through my head? On the uphill it was like: ‘I just gotta make it to the summit.’ On the downhill its was like: ‘just gotta make it to the finish.’” 

After the race, Becca Bramley, one of the top female finishers, is sitting on the sidewalk. She was enjoying a feeling of gratitude.

“Honestly, I’m just grateful that my body can do this and be out here today. It was definitely struggling a little, but I’m grateful that my body can be out here and do this,” Bramley says. 

She is sitting with her boyfriend, who had dropped her off in Ouray that morning. While chasing the summit, Bramley says she had her doubts.

“On the uphill, I thought about turning around and meeting him back in Ouray,” she says, laughing. “I didn’t really want to do it, but I did,” Bramley says. 

As the early hours passed into mid-morning, and the sun begins to beat down into the canyon, runners come streaming over the Tomboy Road towards Oak Street. Standing in the dust on the side of the track, spectators have gathered to greet them.

When Blues & Brews Came After 9/11

by Matt Hoisch

Picture by Julia Caulfield

Over two decades ago, the terrorist attacks of 9/11 shook the world. For many, so much of life suddenly felt unstable and uncertain. In Telluride, the Blues & Brews Festival was preparing for their 8th annual celebration of beer and music when the Twin Towers fell on a Tuesday. The festival was scheduled to begin that Friday. The organizers had to decide what to do. With the 21st anniversary of 9/11 just behind us and the 28th annual Blues & Brews festival around the corner, KOTO's Matt Hoisch brings us this piece incorporating several interviews about that festival and archival records from the 2001 Blues & Brews.

A special thanks to G Douglas Seitsinger who produced the 2001 KOTO Blues & Brews broadcast and Jennifer Thurston who produced a 2002 retrospective of the festival which provided all the archival interviews and performances for this piece.

Featured Songs:

“Haltegriff” by F.S. Blumm

“Sesam” by F.S. Blumm

Pay It Forward with Conor and Diana Craft

by Matt Hoisch

Picture by Matt Hoisch

Sometimes, when covering the news, we miss the people who maybe aren’t doing anything dramatic or new, but deserve a little recognition for being one of the many community member who hold our region together. So, KOTO news is running a new series, Pay It Forward. Each segment, we’ll talk with someone in the community about their life and Telluride journey. And then ask them to nominate someone to shine a spotlight on for the next segment. Last week we spoke with Cristina Dickson. Her choice for our next guest is actually two guests,: Conor and Diana Craft.

Pay It Forward with Cristina Dickson

by Matt Hoisch

Picture by Matt Hoisch.

Sometimes, when covering the news, we miss the people who maybe aren’t doing anything dramatic or new, but deserve a little recognition for being one of the many community member who hold our region together. So, KOTO news is running a new series, Pay It Forward. Each segment, we’ll talk with someone in the community about their life and Telluride journey. And then ask them to nominate someone to shine a spotlight on for the next segment. Last week we spoke with Ana Hurtado. Her choice for our next guest: Cristina Dickson, co-founder of the new motorcycle business, Telluride Moto.

Local Nonprofits Face Lodging Challenges

by Matt Hoisch

Picture by Matt Hoisch.

Over the last several years, many Telluride nonprofits have seen reductions in lodging opportunities to house the guests and seasonal staff they bring to the region. Many of those organizations are now coming together to raise awareness about the issue and the impact it is having on their programming.

Pay It Forward with Anna Hurtado

By Matt Hoisch

Picture by Matt Hoisch

Sometimes, when covering the news, we miss the people who maybe aren’t doing anything dramatic or new, but deserve a little recognition for being one of the many community members who hold our region together.

So, KOTO news is starting a new series, Pay It Forward. Each segment, we’ll talk with someone in the community about their life and Telluride journey. And then ask them to nominate someone to shine a spotlight on for the next segment.

Last week we heard from Diana Gonzales. Her choice for our next guest is local hair stylist Anna Hurtado.

The Poetry of Mushrooms

by Matt Hoisch

Picture by Matt Hoisch.

The Telluride Mushroom Festival looks at the medicinal, culinary, and ecological facets of fungi. But it also focuses on the artistic elements of the mushroom world, including through an annual mushroom poetry performance.

KOTO spoke with several local poets taking part in this year’s Mycolicious, Mycoluscious, Mycological Poetry Show on Friday, August 19th.

Original music by Travis Fischer

Pay It Forward: Diana Gonzales

by Matt Hoisch

Picture by Matt Hoisch.

Sometimes, when covering the news, we miss the people who maybe aren’t doing anything dramatic or new, but deserve a little recognition for being one of the many community members who hold our region together.

So, KOTO news is starting a new series, Pay It Forward. Each segment, we’ll talk with someone in the community about their life and Telluride journey. And then ask them to nominate someone to shine a spotlight on for the next segment.

To kick things off, we asked KOTO’s Assistant Station Manager Claybrook Penn for a nomination. Her choice: Diana Gonzales, who runs Caravan with her husband, David.

A Love Song Comes Home

By Julia Caulfield

Telluride is bustling with creative minds. On such, is filmmaker Max Walker-Silverman. Walker-Silverman grew up in Telluride. His most recent – and first feature film, A Love Song, came out earlier this year. KOTO’s Julia Caulfield spoke with Walker-Silverman about how he got his start in film, and the importance of southwest Colorado to his creative work.

A Foray into San Juan Mushrooming

By Gavin McGough

Art Goodtimes (Photo by Julia Caulfield)

For many, the monsoon season in Colorado's highest peaks means one thing: mushrooms. This month, the late summer rains are filling high elevation forests with a diverse array of fungi, and mushroom enthusiasts are headed out to get their fill. With a report on the hunt, and its meaning for the mushroom community, KOTO's Gavin McGough has more.

At an undisclosed location, off the highway somewhere past Trout Lake and the Lizard Head Pass, Art Goodtimes is headed up into the forest.

“We’re just gonna head in to that spot there. There’s a little creek that runs along there. If for some reason you get lost, just come to that drainage and follow it down,” Goodtimes says.

Goodtimes, a poet from Norwood, is renowned in and around Telluride. Today, he’s headed up into these woods in search of mushrooms. Goodtimes has been mushroom hunting here since coming to Telluride some forty years ago.

“And then I was only here a couple of months and they had an opening for Arts Council Director. I applied; it was five dollars an hour! So it wasn’t much money, but it was a huge way into the community; it was cool,” Goodtimes says.

Shortly into his tenure with the arts council, Art got connected with some mushroom enthusiasts and mycologists from Denver. Soon enough, the Telluride Mushroom Festival began. It’s been a Telluride staple ever since. But today, Goodtimes has brought me out less to talk about the festival, and more to learn the craft of mushroom hunting, which Goodtimes explains is called foraying.

“Actually, foraging is really for plants and botany. Foraying is a mushroom term. So when we’re hunting for mushrooms we’re foraying, and all the mushroom clubs and the mushroom festival and the mycological people talk about foraying,” Goodtimes says.

Crossing a meadow and climbing up a slope, we approach a forest of spruce and fir. Goodtimes says that mushrooms emerge and disappear quickly as weather conditions change.

“It’s dry here; this is worrisome. So it hasn’t monsooned in a couple days. It dries out here in a day or two. That’s the trouble with mushrooms. It’s very sensitive,” Goodtimes says.

Despite the dryness, Goodtimes soon finds a deep purple mushroom with a creamy white underside covered in delicate, papery gills. Goodtimes suspects it might be edible, and performs a quick test.

“What you do is you take a small bite off the edge of it — just a bit — and keep it in the front of your mouth for fifteen or twenty seconds to see if it burns,” Goodtimes says.

We get no burning sensation, so Goodtimes unwraps a wax bag and into the pot it goes.

“I’m not getting a burning, so this to me is xerampelina. That’s what I’ve heard, that there’s a lot of xerampelina up here,” says Goodtimes.

Mushrooms at the bottom of a basket during a foray (Photo by Gavin McGough)

Pressing deeper into the forest, Goodtimes discovers a true treasure: chanterelles. Perhaps the most prized edible in terms of flavor, Goodtimes explains that they must be carefully cleaned in the field with a brush and a knife.

“Chanterelle is one of those mushrooms that you never want to wash. It loses its flavor when you wash it — it washes out the water-soluble oils. That’s why you really need to field clean them. You can pick other mushrooms and clean them at home, but not with Chanterelle,” Goodtimes says.

The labor and the attention required by Chanterelles are part of what is special about foraying, Goodtimes says.

“And then, when you have the patience to sit there, you have enough time to sing...to tell stories...because you get into this state where you’re in tune with the world around you and everything is alive: the mushrooms are alive, you talk to everything, you sing, and you’re part of it,” Goodtimes says.

After a couple of hours, we have each gathered a small but promising harvest, and we make our way back down the slope. On the drive back to Telluride, Goodtimes says that the festival has come to honor all aspects of mushrooming, from mycological science, to art, to the good old fashioned mushroom foray.

“It’s more than just a conference — like maps or science — it actually has the arts, it has poetry, it has music. It’s meant to be a whole body experience, and getting out into the woods foraying is so ancient. Doris La Chappelle came one year and just talked about how important it was to go back to an activity that is so ancient in our genes, in our tribe, in our people, in our genus,” Goodtimes says.

The Mushroom festival takes place in Telluride August 17-21. However, the mushrooms are already out in the forest. If you head out on a foray, keep an eye out for Art Goodtimes. He might be out there, singing his song to the forest.

Local Law Enforcement Trains for Active Shooter

By Julia Caulfield

Telluride Intermediate/High School (courtesy of Telluride School District)

It won’t be long before the Telluride High School is once again bustling with students – going from one class to another, chatting with friends. But on a clear evening in August, the lobby of the Palm Theatre is bustling with law enforcement and paramedics.

“It’s unfortunate that it’s come to something that we need to train in our schools, for something like this. Having Columbine happened over twenty years ago, we’re expected to be proficient at these scenarios,” says Telluride Chief Marshal Josh Comte.

Officers from the Telluride Marshal’s Department and Mountain Village Police Department, San Miguel County Sheriff’s Office, and Telluride Fire Protection District are gathered together for an active shooter training.

Chief Comte starts with a debrief on how the training is going to go.

“We have two scenarios. We’re going to literally walking through these. So we going to walk through it, work on going through the motions, make mistakes,” he says.

The training on this night is focusing on getting a shooter contained in a location, moving rescue task forces into the building, triaging victims and getting them to safety – victims in this training are portrayed by pieces of paper with descriptions written on them – some say deceased, others describe how the individual is wounded.

“If you’re asking for stuff with unified command, ask for it. We’re not going to have dispatch repeating that, but we want to hear you guys voice what you’re doing,” Comte briefs, “If you’re asking for multiple helicopters, multiple units from other agencies, voice it as realistic as we can to get these agencies rolling.”

In the first scenario, a shooter is near the gym in the intermediate school.

“So it’s a Monday morning, say 11 o’clock. Jimmy’s our [Student Resources Officer], Jeremy’s our deputy working patrol,” Comte announces to the group. “Jeremy’s here for a meeting and we get calls of a ‘shots fired’ in the intermediate school on the north side.”

Two Marshal Deputies enter the scenario.

“As they’re passing, they’re main job is to go to the threat,” Comte explains. “We have our role players, which is our pieces of paper, with should indicate to them – with open doors as well – that this is where our first mass casualty incident is.”

Comte adds, “the way it should work, is they should start seeing these issues, start seeing that we have this room with a lot of people down. So this should be our first casualty collection point. We want [paramedics] to grab people, bring them in here, and then start treating them as best as they can. Law enforcement will provide cover on the windows and the doors and everything else.”

The scenario wraps in about fifteen minutes. Law enforcement set up a security corridor, paramedics carry victims to safety.

The scenario wasn’t completely flawlessly. There’s room for improvement, but Comte notes that’s the point – training to get better, and to be prepared for the unexpected.

“It’s all going to be game time decisions. My favorite quote is by Mike Tyson, ‘Everyone’s got a plan until you get punched in the face’. So we’re going to come in here with the best case scenario, and it’s going to change,” Comte concludes. “It’s always going to change.”

It’s all to ensure, Chief Comte says, they’re up to the task, if the unfortunate time comes.

The San Miguel Rodeo Rides Again

By Gavin McGough

San Miguel Basin Rodeo (Photo by Peter B Lundeen Photography)

Building on a long tradition of horse handling and ranching, the San Miguel Rodeo came through Norwood this weekend for its 117th year. While crowds traveled from across the county, rodeo competitors and workers came from all over the west. KOTO’s Gavin McGough brings an audio postcard from the event.

Down beside the grandstands at the San Miguel Basin Rodeo, competitors in Saturday evening’s barrel race are awaiting their turn to sprint around the ring. In a test of horse handling and athletic power, the steed and rider race in a cloverleaf pattern around four barrels set up in the arena. Coming out of her turn in the ring, Harley Zehnder, a barrel racer from Norwood, is unphased by what she says was a lackluster result.

“It wasn’t my best year, but sometimes that happens. It’s my favorite event of the year, everyone shows up and has a great time. They love watching the rodeo and it’s fun getting to see your family and friends. It’s a super fun event,” Zehnder says.

I ask another competitor, Taylor Hildreth, the secret to a good barrel race.

“Oh, I wish we all knew the answer to that! I train barrel horses for a living and I’m still trying to figure that out. I think the biggest thing is having one that has a lot of try and heart and wants to be a team player,” says Hildreth.

Harley Zehnder agrees that much of the magic comes from the spirit of the horse. She’s riding a speckled gray mare.

“My horse’s name is Penny, and she’s super gritty and tough and she loves to work,” Zehnder says.

Back in the grandstand, below a huge western sunset above the Norwood mesa, the final event of the weekend kicks off. One of rodeo’s iconic competitions, it's bull-riding. The animals, weighing it a ton apiece, rip out of the gates as cowboys hold on for life. The event is nail-biting, eight seconds of danger and suspense.

In the ring right beside the bull and the cowboy, rodeo workers are face to face with the action. Once the cowboy loses their grip and falls from the animal, their job is to corral the bull and separate the kicking beast from the fallen rider. After the event, the cowboy protection team Edward Huffman and Devin Cisneros say that an empty mind is key to working face-to-face with such danger.

Photo by Peter B Lundeen Photography

“Breathing helps big time. And adrenaline! Adrenaline is huge. It’s just such an adrenaline rush. To keep your cool while it’s happening and you’re in a situation is to pretty much turn your brain off. Don’t let it tell you you can’t,” Cisneros reports.

“Yeah, you just react,” agrees Huffman.

A far cry from the driven and well-groomed mares of barrel racing, the bulls have a personality of their own.

“When I stopped riding bulls — that was like the eighth grade — I just picked up fighting bulls right there,” Huffman says. He says he grew up comfortable around animals, but can only sometimes tell what’s going on in their head.

“They have a different mind; they show one thing and are thinking another,” Cisneros agrees.

“Their smart animals, that's for sure,” adds Huffman.

After Saturday night, the fairgrounds fall silent for another year. The rodeo company, however, bulls and all, move on to their next competition of the season. Cisneros says he’s already excited for the next one.

“It’s phenomenal. This is my first time fighting [bulls] with Ed, and I can’t wait for the next one,” Cisneros says.

Photo by Peter B Lundeen Photography

Search and Rescue Soars to New Heights

By Julia Caulfield

San Miguel County’s new Search and Rescue helicopter (photo by Julia Caulfield)

On a rainy afternoon, an Airbus H-125 helicopter takes off from the Telluride Regional Airport.

The helicopter is the newest member of the San Miguel County Sheriff’s Office – to be used for search and rescue missions and fire spotting.

“It is a high performance, single engine helicopter, primarily designed for law enforcement and search and rescue work,” says Derrell Egner, one of the helicopter pilots. “Primarily this one is capable of carrying fairly large loads – either internally, or under a swing or a hoist. It’s just unusual in that it’s such a powerful helicopter that it’s able to carry large loads. In fact, it can lift more than it weighs.”

The H-125 is built to perform well at high altitude. It’s the only model of helicopter to land on and take off from Mount Everest at 29,000 feet.

The aircraft was recently gifted to the Sheriff’s Office by an anonymous donor. San Miguel County Sheriff Bill Masters says the helicopter will be a game changer for their work.

“Getting our rescue teams quickly into the field, evacuating injured people, and searching for those people who might be lost or we know they’re injured, but we can’t necessarily find them,” Masters says, “That’s going to be a great resource for us, really all year round, not just in the summertime, but in the wintertime with all the backcountry skiers that we have these days. That’s going to be a really big asset for us.”

After lifting out of the airport, the helicopter heads southwest, towards Wilson Peak and El Diente, two 14ers near Telluride, and the location of many search and rescue missions.

Skirting fields of scree, following creek beds, and peering into forests, the helicopter provides a view you could never get on foot. But it’s not just the vantage point that’s an asset, it’s the time.

Flying over San Miguel County (photo by Julia Caulfield)

“I would think the easiest way to explain it is what would normally have been a four to six hour to get to a typical hiker is more like 20 minutes now. As you know, about the golden hour, people that have fallen, or certainly any kind of compound fracture, bleeding events, you’re going to have a much better chance with the helicopter than having to drive yourself or hike yourself up that locale,” says Egner.

The helicopter touches back down at the airport, on this flight, there weren’t any rescues to conduct or fires to put out – a sow and three cubs is the most exciting sighting.

But for those who do have the unlucky fortune to need a rescue, the Airbus H-125 will hopefully make a tough day, a little bit lighter.

Chair 9 Replacement on Track

by Matt Hoisch

A machine called a Spider excavator digs the holes where the new Chair 9 towers will go. Picture by Matt Hoisch

For the last several months, the Telluride Ski Resort has been replacing Chair 9. KOTO drove up to the construction site with Scott Pittinger, Telski Director of Mountain Operations, to discuss the project, which, he says, has so far stayed on schedule.

The top of Chair 9. With all the old lift infrastructure gone, and the new lift not yet in, this is probably the most barren this part of the mountain has been or will be for decades. Picture by Matt Hoisch.

A panoramic view of the Chair 9 construction site on July 19, 2022. Video by Matt Hoisch