A posh ski town loved by A-list celebrities has been torn apart after a billionaire resort owner closed up shop.

Telluride, Colorado is adored by stars including Jennifer Aniston, Oprah Winfrey and Tom Cruise. 

It has a population of just 2,500 but it swells during peak snow season as 160,000 visitors a year descending on the slopes. 

Billionaire Chuck Horning, 81, owns the Telluride Ski & Golf Club - otherwise known as Telski - at the center of a dispute that has rocked the area.

The resort's ski patrollers went on strike on December 27, causing Horning's business to temporarily shut down. Horning has since reopened one lift this week, according to The Denver Post. 

However tourism has plummeted and local businesses are feeling the devastating effects during what is usually their busiest time of the year. 

Furious locals took to the streets on Wednesday, demanding the union and the ski resort to end their stalemate. 

'Pow to the people,' they chanted. 

Telluride is a small town of 2,500, but it welcomes in more than 160,000 visitors a year, many who are hitting the slopes at Telluride Ski & Golf Club

However, the ski resort was temporarily shutdown and currently only has one lift working after ski patrollers went on strike in late December, demanding better pay

'A strike is an extraordinary measure,' resident Anne Wilson said in a video posted to X.

'From where many of us are standing, this dispute does not feel like an extraordinary circumstance that warrants this amount of damage to so many people.'

Although she advocates for the ski patrollers, who are after better pay, she said the 'pressure is [not] landing where it's intended.' 

'Telski can and will afford to wait this out for far longer than the Telluride community can,' she said.

Businessowners are being forced to lay off workers already and pinch pennies even more as they desperately hope the Ski Patrol Union comes to an agreement with Telski so wealthy and famous tourists come back. 

'Economic disaster is already unfolding in front of our eyes,' brewery owner Tommy Thacher told The Denver Post. 

'If it goes on, it’s going to be catastrophic to the local [and] regional economy.' 

Thacher, alone, has seen his customer base drop 40 percent at his brewery that sits at the base of the ski area. He's worried he may have to temporarily close it, he told the outlet.