AT THE HELM
with Johnnie Stevens

Johnnie Stevens currently sits at the helm of Telluride Ski & Golf Company as the Chief Operating Officer (COO). He was born in Montrose, and has lived most of his life in Telluride. There is hardly a person who is a truer local in Telluride than Johnnie, except perhaps, his brother Larry, the renowned William H. Mahoney, AKA "Senior," and a handful of others. The sexiest part of having Johnnie sit at Telski's helm, next to President Chris Ryman, is that he knows and cares about every aspect of Telluride and he has made his mark in so many different arenas in the community.

Most all of his adult life, he has woken up before daybreak to photograph the splendor of the area. He has amassed volume upon volume of 35 mm slides spotlighting wildlife, scenics, weather movements, plant life, events, chronicling the development of Mountain Village , mining towns, seasons – the list goes on and on. Certainly, he has one of the most amazing portfolios of Western photography in the West. As a "top gun" skier, Johnnie headed up Telluride's ski patrol for years and before that he was a lumberjack and snowcat tour operator for Telski in the early 1970s. He advanced to assistant mountain manager, then assumed several vice president positions including mountain operations, mountain development and environmental affairs. Having worked for Telski since '71, Johnnie took a five-year hiatus to work for the San Miguel Valley Corporation.

Aside from his professional life and outdoor adventures, Johnnie is very civic minded. He has been on the San Miguel County Advisory Board for Soil and Conservation Service, Telluride's school board, Town Council, basketball coach, Elks Club and is a member of Colorado Ski Country, USA . While in the U.S. Army, he worked at the Pentagon for the Assistant Chief of Staff for Force Development. Most notably, however, he is a walking history book of the region and a consummate mountain man with exceptional skills in backcountry skiing and hunting. At 50-something, he says, "I've never gotten skiing out of my blood. I've skied ever mountain peak from here to Silverton and have been in every nook and cranny of this territory from the Uncompahgre Plateau through the Western Slope." With a handicap of nine, Johnnie also has a knack for golfing and loves to motorcycle with his wife of 15 years, Dorothy.

Since Joe Morita purchased the balance of Telski from Ron Allred, Jim Wells and other limited partners, the resort's focus became even clearer. Johnnie says, "For the past 20 years, we were as much a real estate company as we were a ski and golf resort for. Because the business has changed, we can give absolute focus on bringing guests the highest in service and quality. With total focus on the operations of the ski resort and with the $14 million invested toward the expansion into Prospect Bowl, Telluride is poised to be one of the top resorts in the world." Johnnie further elaborates that the success of increasing skier-days rests on, "Air, air, air and beefing up regional marketing. As of this year, we have flights coming in from Chicago . This, added to our Houston, Phoenix, Dallas/Fort Worth, Newark and Denver flight schedules, undoubtedly will help increase last year's (334,000) skier-days to a much greater, more vigorous number. As a community, we need to create more package deals," he says. "Vacationers want seamless deals or the one-call-does-it-all concept. Though the Internet only generates 8 percent of Telski's bookings to date, it is something that is ever-increasing and the Telluride community as a whole needs to keep up with the Internet. What we are focusing on is filling the valleys, which starts in January and extends to President's weekend, with special events, packages and the like," says Johnnie. "Drawing visitors in during the nonpeak times, we help stabilize Telluride's economy."

He also sees creating a sustainable economy for Telluride and Mountain Village in years to come as an important issue. With this, he means that eventually real estate building will slow down and new focal points need to be in place to keep locals working and visitors playing. A recreation center and more activity-oriented outfitters, eclectic shopping opportunities, festival-ish gatherings should help sustain our economy, along with more employee housing. Aside from future concerns, Telluride now has the challenge of getting the word out to the national press about the fantastic terrain of Prospect Bowl. This is the biggest news to happen to the industry in a long time. Telski believes marketing largely starts with locals simply e-mailing to their individual networks. They also go to marketing shows throughout the nation and world and have a plethora of ad spots on radio, newspapers and magazines. Johnnie says, "The easiest part of marketing Telluride is that we are unduplicatable. We are unique and have come into our own. We are a stand-alone resort in which other resorts are now coming to us and using us as their model. I truly believe we have the best infrastructure of all ski resorts. We also have the visual beauty, two charming towns with great people and, as per recent national statistics, today's vacationers prefer to travel to quality, remote places over mainstream spots. That's a major advantage for Telluride."