Telluride: Telski announces resort to close beginning on Dec. 27

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4. Is Telluride ready to 'chuck Chuck?' Why the opulent ski town turned on the resort's longtime owner

Is Telluride ready to ‘chuck Chuck?’ Why the opulent ski town turned on the resort’s longtime owner

Chuck Horning’s leadership of Telluride Ski & Golf has led to deteriorating relationship with community

By Sam Tabachnik | [e-mail] | The Denver Post
PUBLISHED: October 30, 2025 at 6:00 AM MDT | UPDATED: October 30, 2025 at 12:41 PM MDT


Mountain Village gondola cars move along the route overlooking the town of Telluride, Colorado, on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025. (Photo by William Woody/Special to The Denver Post)

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As corporate consolidation leads to fewer and fewer independent ski mountains in the United States, the fate of the 53-year-old Telluride ski resort — and the future of the entire region — lies at the whims of an 81-year-old real estate mogul with no known succession plan. Horning is now the acting CEO of the ski company after recently firing his own son from the job.

Horning’s behavior over the years, meanwhile, has become legendary in its own right. It appears that everyone in town has a Chuck Horning story: The time he was booed out of an upscale restaurant. The time he engaged in a fist fight with his son or traded blows with his chief executive. The time he carried a riding crop everywhere he went. ... Many of these stories are open secrets in Telluride but have never been publicized until now.

The Denver Post spoke to four women who allege Horning sexually harassed or assaulted them during the last 17 years. Another woman alleged in a lawsuit that he forced himself upon her and had sex with her against her will. A former employee, in another court filing, accused Horning of violently shaking her after he grew upset over a landscaping issue. (Horning, in court filings, denied the allegations in both lawsuits.) ... “There is no safe way to be a woman around Chuck,” said one of these women, who alleges Horning touched her inappropriately in 2023. She spoke to The Post on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation.

Horning, through a company representative, declined several interview requests for this story and did not answer questions about the allegations of sexual impropriety or the lawsuits filed against him. The Post could not find any record that he was ever arrested for these allegations.

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