Decision made, house confirmed. Ski-in/ski-out on the Sundance run, sauna and steam room, pool table, hot tub. The only thing left is getting everyone there — flights and the transfer are below, and the flight deadline is real.
~$20,333 total · 4 nights
at 10 people
📍 Mountain Village — direct access to the Sundance ski run.
Booked direct with Exceptional Stays. Ski-in/ski-out is what makes a half-day of skiing on the Sunday departure possible — see the return flights below.
View the house →The constraint isn't the fare — it's inventory. You need ten seats on the same DEN→MTJ flight, and that leg flies A319s and 76-seat E175s. Fares creep; seats vanish.
Absolute latest: 15 October 2026Plan on connecting through Denver. The seasonal EWR→MTJ nonstop does exist for winter 26/27 (UA 2266, A319, roughly 3× weekly, starting Dec 2026) — but its February day-of-week pattern is unconfirmed, and it most likely doesn't line up with a Wednesday-in / Sunday-out trip.
Worth 30 seconds on united.com to check whether the nonstop happens to run on Wed 3 Feb / Sun 7 Feb. If it does, take it. If it doesn't — and it probably doesn't — Denver it is.
Costs you a ~03:30 wake-up. Buys you a layover nothing short of a cancellation can break.
Lands at the house at the same time as Option A. The whole trade is 2 hours of sleep against a layover with no slack in it.
⚠️ 19:05 is near the last DEN→MTJ of the day (~19:32). A misconnect here means an unplanned Denver overnight — for ten people.
There is no onward flight to Montrose. You'd be sleeping in Denver and losing the Thursday morning.
Anything under about 1h15 in February is a bad bet — de-icing queues, ground stops, and ten sets of checked skis to re-tag. The one mitigant: United is entirely on Concourse B at DEN, so it's a same-concourse connection. The walk isn't the risk. The bags are.
Lifts open 09:00, so this is a genuine half-day on the mountain — and it only works because the house is ski-in/ski-out. No transfer into town, no wasted hour.
Home earlier, but you'd be leaving the house in the dark and skiing nothing on day four. Hard to justify.
Maximum mountain time. Rough on anyone who works Monday.
Live February-2027 fares could not be pulled. Everything below is an estimate based on typical pricing curves for this route, not a quote.
👉 Budget $750pp and revise the moment someone pulls a live quote.
75-minute drive. Good news on timing: Feb 3–7 falls outside every one of Telluride Express's 25% peak-surcharge windows (Dec 20–Jan 5, Jan 15–19, Feb 12–16). We're paying standard rates.
One 10-passenger van will not swallow 10 adults plus 10 ski bags, 10 boot bags and 10 duffels. Book the 14-pax, or a 10-pax van plus an SUV for gear. Confirm luggage capacity in writing when you book — this is the single most common way this goes wrong.
It's the same money as the shared shuttle and categorically better — door to door, it waits for your flight, no strangers, no timetable. For a group of ten arriving together on one flight, this is not a close call.
Whoever you call: get the luggage capacity confirmed in the booking email.
The house is done. This is the only live task left, and it has a real deadline: book by 30 September 2026, absolute latest 15 October 2026.
Ten-plus paying passengers qualifies, and it is purpose-built for exactly this situation — a roster that's very likely but not formally confirmed. You can hold a seat block at a fixed fare with a ~$50–200pp deposit, submit names as late as 72 hours before departure, and there's usually at least one free name change.
⚠️ Third-party sources list the desk as +1-833-894-5333 — verify that number on united.com rather than trusting it from a blog.
Call the United Group Travel Desk. Hold ten seats on Option A or B outbound and UA 352 back. Put down the deposit. Confirm names later. Separately, book a 14-pax private charter MTJ↔Telluride with luggage capacity confirmed in writing.
These are the terms now running on the confirmed Two Trails booking (Exceptional Stays).
| What | Terms |
|---|---|
| Paid at booking | 50% of rent + tax |
| Balance due | By ~Dec 5, 2026 (60 days before the Feb 3 arrival) |
| Cancellation, before ~Dec 5, 2026 | Refund minus the first night |
| Cancellation, inside 60 days | ❌ No refund |
| Payment method | Max $5,000 on credit card; balance by wire / e-payment / check |
| Security | Damage insurance (up to $10K) in lieu of deposit, or a $3K–$10K hold |
➡️ Per person at 10: ~$1,017 down, ~$1,016 on the balance. The ~Dec 5 date is now the balance deadline, not a decision deadline — the decision is made.
Ten houses were on the table before Two Trails got booked. Kept here for the record — and for whoever organises 2028.
Per-person figures assume 10 guys. Prices as researched at the time. BOOKED VALUE LUXE HEADS-UP
| House | Total | /person | Ski access | The take |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6BR Mountain Village — |
$11,235 | $1,124 | ✅ 8min to gondola | Cheapest. Dated, weak seating area. |
| Slopeside Villa — |
$13,215 | — | ✅ ski-in | SLEEPS 9Good reviews, but too tight for 10. |
| Spacious Cabin InvitedHome |
$14,322 | $1,432 | ✅ 10min to gondola | Good value & living space; tight kitchen. |
| Gold Hill Exceptional Stays |
$14,786 | $1,479 | ✅ (AWD req.) | VALUEBest value w/ real bedrooms. 7,400sqft — "needs TLC." |
| Stone & Timber Exceptional Stays |
$16,000 | $1,600 | 150yd walk | VALUEPool table, media room, good views. |
| San Sophia Manor Exceptional / Executive Stays |
$17,000 | $1,700 | ❌ not ski-in/out | LUXEGolf simulator! But you have to shuttle to lifts. |
| On the Run at Castellina Exceptional Stays |
$17,500 | $1,750 | ✅ right on the run | Solid all-rounder, 5,000sqft. Good kitchen/living. |
| Grandview Chateau at the Lorian InvitedHome |
$20,204 | $2,020 | Walkable to lifts | Most bedrooms + best kitchen/living. Pool table. Walk (not true ski-in/out). |
| Two Trails Exceptional Stays |
$20,333 | $2,033 | ✅ Sundance run | ✅ BOOKEDSauna + steam room, pool table, 6,300sqft. The "go big" house. |
| Bear Paw Manor Exceptional Stays |
$21,726 | $2,173 | ✅ ski-in/out | Priciest. Games room (pool/foosball/air hockey) + central oxygen, 7,000sqft. |
↔️ Swipe the table sideways on a phone.
💡 Peter's note from the search: houses with >6 bedrooms are rare — bunk mattresses can be moved and doubling-up is fine (Chris Ford shared a room last year, no problem). So 6BR houses comfortably fit the crew.
"You know my motto. Go big or go home." 👍
"My favorite house is Two Trails — fits perfect under the 'go big' motto."
"San Sophia Manor is next-level luxury (golf simulator!!). But not ski-in / ski-out."
"That's what she said." ❤️
Two Trails it is. 🎿
Flight and transfer research carried out 1 August 2026 — 186 days before departure. Schedules filed with the DOT as of that date; anything beyond that window is subject to change.