Bad Data

  • In 2024 San Miguel County and the towns of Mountain Village and Telluride paid almost $500,000 collectively to consultants for the Gondola Project.
  • The consultants misconstrued limited data to justify a full gondola replacement.  
  • The "capacity" issues are contrived and tax dollars paid for bad data.
  • By leaving out important information, extrapolating trends based on select data points, and misrepresenting private entity commitments, the consultants along with the public entities misled the public regarding the real objective of ballot measure 3A.
  • Public entity spending on the Gondola Project remains unchecked and will exceed $1,000,000 in total by 2025.

2015 Doppelmayr Study

  • The executive summary on page 3 of 239 states that the Gondola could run indefinitely.
  • For some reason the Doppelmayr study is no longer available on the TMVOA website. 

Download the 2015 Doppelmayr Study here.

Doppelmayr Engineering Study 09-02-15 pg 3 Exhibit 8b
2016 Outdoor Engineers Report pg. 27

In November 2016 the Gondola Project commissioned another engineering study by Outdoor Engineers

  • This study by Outdoor Engineers can be downloaded here. 
  • The 2016 studied concurred with the 2015 study that the Gondola could run indefinitely and could be considered a new machine after replacement of many of the parts. 

There have been no other engineering studies on the Gondola since 2016.

The Consultants for the Gondola Leadership used select data points to justify a full replacement to expand capacity.

  • The FOG Q&A events used this photo during their promotion of the "yes on 3A vote".
  • This is just one day of the year:  the Fourth of July.
  • The capacity "problem" has been contrived by the consultants to justify a full gondola replacement
  • What is needed is another engineering study
Gondola on Fourth of July
Screen Shot 2024-11-03 at 8.18.27 AM

By narrowing the focus to select days a year or the unusual year of 2021

  • The consultants misled the public about the number of riders and extrapolated trends based on select data points. 
  • They also underestimated the the number of riders who were skiers by only counting scans at the top of San Sophia. 
  • 2021 in particular was an anomalous summer with the region experiencing an unusually high number of visitors.  Most days the Gondola is not near capacity. 

Tax dollars paid in part for the contrived perspective of a capacity problem to advantage the "Yes on 3A" vote.

Many public officials gave us a false impression of Telski's future commitment to the gondola's operating and maintenance expenses post 2027.

  • Many elected representatives and SMART told us that the ski company had committed to "paying its share" of Gondola expenses in the post 2027 funding scheme.  
  • Without an official agreement, public officials said this to advantage the "Yes on 3A" vote.
  • A CORA request revealed there was no Telksi agreement as of election day. 
  • Contrary to what public officials were saying during the FOG campaign, there was no commitment from the ski company.