I thought I would just pass along this article from the Telluride Daily Planet about Dave Riley, Resort chief will beat you to powder line, for anyone thinking about working at the ski resort in Telluride. The new CEO has come back to town after over 20 years, and has lived in numerous ski towns throughout his career. Telluride was my second choice behind Jackson as top places to relocate to. That boxed canyon blew me away, and the town itself, I loved.

It sounds like they made an excellent hire, someone who really knows the ski industry as well as the lifestyle…definitely the kind of person you want to work for in a ski town.

What drove Dave towards a small town career?

”When the opportunity came to come back, it was a very easy decision for me,” Riley said.

You see, Riley is a guy who seemed to have an allergy to a white-collar city life.

After graduating from college with an accounting degree in the mid ‘80s, Riley interviewed at three skyscraper Denver firms, but in those job interviews, he could already feel the glass walls squeezing him in like an anaconda.

I enjoy someone else’s take on the city workplace. Living in the city in general gave me the feeling of having a building (a skyscraper) stuck right on the top of my head, 24 hours a day. An old friend that lives in Aspen said he used to feel like he was existing inside a box. The elevator, his apartment, work … he was just moving from box to box. Do you sense a pattern here?

Lots of open space … one of the true joys of living in the mountains. I wish Dave Riley the best of luck, Telluride is a pretty incredible place!