The Warming Hut Opened Last Fall. The Ice Rink Still Isn't Back.

For four winters running, Town Park hosted two outdoor rinks side by side: the Volleyball Court Rink for public skating and the Core Area Rink for open hockey. That run ended when construction crews moved in to replace the aging warming hut, and the new Warming Hut and Washstand finally had its grand opening on October 23, 2025, replacing facilities that had served the community since the 1990s. If you'd been waiting for the ribbon-cutting as the signal that the rink was coming back, the timing looked right. It isn't.

That's because the Core Area Rink was never being held up by one project. It's sitting under two, back to back, and the second one has its own schedule that runs well past this winter.

Two Projects, Same Footprint

The Town's own project page for the Oval and Warner Field work tells the story in two versions, filed a year apart. The earlier design documentation had Oval construction starting in fall 2025, right after the warming hut wrapped. The version of that same page updated in late July 2026 tells a different story.

The Oval work, the project that will finally rebuild the Core Area surface, has slipped a full year. It's now anticipated to begin this fall and run through spring 2027, still pending final budget approval. Both the warming hut and the Oval trace back to the same 2020 Town Parks Master Plan and the 2021 Core Area Improvements design, which means the town has been trying to get this specific patch of ground rebuilt for roughly six years.

The practical result for anyone who plays pickup hockey or takes their kids skating outdoors this winter: the Core Area Rink stays closed, not because the first project is still dragging, but because a second one is about to start on the same footprint.

Where the Ice Actually Is This Winter

None of this means Telluride goes without skating. It means the skating moves, and where it moves has its own rules worth knowing before you show up with a stick and a bag of gear.

Hanley Ice Rink. This is the one that doesn't care what's happening outside. It's indoor, refrigerated, NHL-sized, and it's the home rink for the Telluride Lizard Head Hockey Club, whose 2026-27 season classifications are already posted with a full slate of 50-plus ice sessions built into the schedule. Public skate, figure skating, curling and hockey all run through Hanley regardless of what's happening with the Oval outside. If you need skates sharpened, Shaka Hockey inside Easy Rider on East Pacific Avenue handles that. Rentals run through the Telluride Nordic Center, located inside the same Town Park pavilion.

Volleyball Court Rink. This is the outdoor rink that survives the construction, and it's the one most people default to once they realize the Core Area isn't an option. It's public skating only, weather permitting, typically running from mid-December into February. The warming hut next to it is the newly built one, so the amenities are actually nicer than they used to be even if the ice surface itself hasn't changed.

Mountain Village Ice Rink. Operated independently by Madeline Hotel and Residences on its plaza, this rink has nothing to do with the Town of Telluride's capital projects and runs on its own schedule with open skating daily. If you split time between the two towns, or you're staying up top for the winter, it's a straightforward alternative that isn't waiting on anyone's budget approval.

Last winter, the Parks and Recreation Department also ran free themed open skate nights at Hanley, including one with hot cocoa donated by Coffee Cowboy. It's a small detail, but it points to where organized ice programming in town has been centering while the Core Area sits fenced off.

The Rule That Catches Pickup Players Off Guard

Here's the detail that trips people up most: the Volleyball Court Rink is public skating only. No hockey, no pucks, full stop, because of its proximity to the Telluride Nordic Center and the safety concerns that come with mixing casual skaters and shot pucks in a tight space. If you've been skating there for years without incident and figure the same crowd that used to play pickup at the Core Area can just shift over, that's not how it works this winter. Pickup hockey lives at Hanley now, on whatever open ice time the rink calendar has left after club and league bookings.

It's an easy rule to miss because nothing about the Volleyball Court Rink's outdoor, informal feel signals a restriction that specific. But it's been the standing policy since the Core Area went down, and it's not tied to the construction timeline. Even after the Oval reopens, don't expect that rule to move.

What the Delay Buys You Later

The frustrating part of watching a six-year-old plan slip another year is easier to sit with once you see what the town is actually building. The Oval project isn't a like-for-like replacement of the old rink surface. The plan calls for a poured concrete base specifically because it improves both summer drainage and winter ice-making conditions, which means a better sheet of ice than the natural surface the Core Area used to freeze on its own. The same footprint is being designed to double as multi-use sports courts, addressing complaints that the current basketball court can't meet demand and the shared tennis court gets overloaded by pickleball during peak hours. A wall ball facility, requested repeatedly by park users, is also part of the scope.

None of that helps anyone this winter. But it explains why the town keeps holding the line on the delay instead of just re-flooding the old surface and calling it done. When the Oval does reopen, likely by spring 2027 if this timeline holds any better than the last one did, it's supposed to be a genuinely better rink, not just the same one back.

Until then, Hanley carries the hockey, the Volleyball Court Rink carries the family skate, and Mountain Village's rink at Madeline Hotel keeps running on its own clock. Plan your winter around where the ice actually is, not where it used to be.

Chris Sommers has spent more than two decades tracking the details that make Telluride and Mountain Village work, from the mountain to the town projects that shape daily life here. If you're weighing a move to this valley and want a broker who pays attention to the small things as closely as the big ones, schedule a private consultation.