Katie Jewett

A Tried & True Telluridian

Written by Justin Clifton

In 1972 Katie Jewett, along with some friends from Killington, Vermont—where Katie was working as a ski instructor—packed up everything and took to the road; destination Telluride! Like many residents of Telluride, Katie and her friends were lured with the promise of incredible skiing and an unbelievable community tucked into the majestic San Juan Mountains.

Her first winter in Telluride was just as promised, kinda. Snow! Tons of snow! Katie, however, broke her leg and couldn’t ski that season. Although she could not hit the slopes her inaugural season here, she was soon on the mountain learning to ski again. “I had never skied on crud or powder,” Katie confesses. “I was a racer back East, so I didn’t know how to ski on soft snow. I thought I was a good skier, but remember crying the first couple of times I skied powder in Telluride,” she reflects.

Whether it was the romantic idea of riding the old Mercedes bus from Mountain Village to catch the lift back in the 70s, or the allure of real snow, something certainly touched Katie’s soul when she came to Telluride. It takes passion and commitment to carve out a good life in Telluride. It’s even more difficult to accomplish without getting involved in real estate or politics, but Katie found a path. No real estate, no politics, just a passionate commitment to her daughter, town and, of course, skiing.

Although Katie now splits her days between acting as the financial director for the Housing Authority of Telluride and an accountant for numerous businesses and organizations, her past careers in Telluride are colorful and plentiful. Her first job in Telluride was hand-drawing menus for restaurants, which allowed her to show off her artistic side and her attention to detail. The only real downside to this job was if Katie’s proofreader Judy Kiernan found a mistake, Katie had to redraw the entire menu because there were no personal computers or white-out. Although rewarding, Katie left the menu biz to pursue her career as a medical technologist at the Montrose Memorial Hospital. Her passion for Telluride and medicine came together in 1974 when she started the Telluride Medical Center with Wendy Brooks. Although the first medical center in town didn’t stay open for long, it was a sign for things to come.

Originally moving to Telluride to ski, Katie soon took a job as an instructor for the ski company where she earned her lifetime ski pass after teaching for more than 20 years. “It took about two years (after retiring from instruction) to stop thinking so hard about skiing. Since then I haven’t had a bad day skiing and have never been cold.”

Although her experiences in Telluride have been quite an adventure, Katie’s favorite time here, hands down, was when she was pregnant with her daughter Sofie. “The community support was incredible,” she says. That’s one of the great advantages of a small town, the community. Katie Jewett has been and remains to be an important part of the fabric of Telluride. After years of hard work she looks forward to skiing without having to think about the mechanics of the sport, seeing Sofie off to college for a degree in musical theater and continuing to live in the community she has called home for the past 32 years—Telluride.