If there’s one thing Steamboat is known for besides the Champagne Powder snow, it’s the western roots that run deep in the ranching community.
Cowboys have long called Steamboat home, and on any given day, you can find them hitting the slopes in their cowboy hats or saddling up to the bar in well-worn boots. But on one particular day each January, the western heritage of Steamboat collides with skiing and snowboarding in the Bud Light Cowboy Downhill.
A can’t miss event in Steamboat, the Cowboy Downhill attracts professional cowboys from across the United States as well as Australia, Canada, Europe and Mexico. The race bursts out of the chutes on the base area beginner trail Stampede.
The resort’s signature events begin traditionally begin with the dual slalom. After negotiating the slalom gates and on-course jump, the cowboys must lasso a person, saddle a horse, and cross the finish line in the fastest time and all in one piece.
The grand finale of the Bud Light Cowboy Downhill is a chaotic western stampede on skis and snowboards. The Stampede utilizes a mass start and pits cowboy against cowboy in a winner-takes-all race. The greatest challenge for the winner is getting out of the way of a hundred other cowboys hurtling down the hill in hot pursuit.
More than four decades ago, the Cowboy Downhill started when Larry Mahan, six-time All-Around World Champion cowboy, and Billy Kidd, Steamboat’s Director of Skiing & Olympic medalist, decided it would be fun to invite a few of the ProRodeo stars from the National Western Stock Show in Denver up to Steamboat for a day of skiing and racing fun.
“Larry called me up and said, ‘I want to learn to ski, and I heard you’re the guy to teach me,’” said Kidd.
“The next year, he brought up a couple friends, and when you get two or three rodeo cowboys together, you’ve got a contest. That was the beginning of the Cowboy Downhill, and we haven’t looked back since.”
Want to know more about Steamboat?
Steamboat is actually a complete mountain range made up of Mount Werner, Sunshine Peak, Storm Peak, Thunderhead Peak, Pioneer Ridge and Christie Peak, with terrain offering a diversity of trails for all levels of ability.
With 165 trails, 1,118 vertical metres and nearly 3,000 skiable acres, Steamboat’s six peaks are filled with world- class groomed cruisers, bumps, steeps, open meadows, legendary trees and progressive levels of terrain parks.
The vast gladed areas are Steamboat’s particular claim to fame, with abundant Champagne Powder snow in the trees for the most avid powder hounds, while the Sunshine Peak is an intermediate paradise with long, wide groomed crusiers.
Want to hit the slopes with the cowboys? Ski Max Holidays will get you there in cowboy style from $1448 per person.
This is an adapted blog that was originally posted on Steamboat.com
