PrintThe 36th Annual Cowboy Downhill Ski Rodeo
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After the National Finals Rodeo comes to an end and the dust settles in Las Vegas, where do all the cowboys go? Colorado, of course. And while in town for the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo in Denver, Colorado (January 9 – 24), more than a hundred of the nation’s greatest cowboys and countless rodeo fans will head for the hills of Steamboat Springs for the Annual Cowboy Downhill ski rodeo, sponsored by Bud Light. But only the professionals can compete.
In order to enter the competition, participants must be entered in the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo (with which Cowboy Downhill is always scheduled to coincide) and must be a member of either the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association or Professional Bull Riders, or receive a special invitation to take part. For these rough riders, mounting a bucking bronco or wild bull is no sweat, yet riding the slopes is often a different story. On January 19, though, they will kick off their boots and strap on their skis — many for the first time — to compete in the two main events of a very unique rodeo.
And They’re Off!
The competition begins with the timed Dual Slalom Race on Headwall. Each cowboy must ski down the mountain while weaving through flags (or in many cases just running right into them), survive a jump, lasso a Steamboat ambassador, saddle a horse, and cross the finish line all in one piece. And for the grand finale, instead of racing the clock, the rodeo pros will go head to head in the Chaotic Western Stampede on Skis. Pitting cowboy against cowboy in a winner takes all race down the mountain, the mass start stampede is always a crowd favorite. The festivities will also include live musical entertainment from Sundog and a post-race autograph signing at the Bear River Bar & Grill deck.
How It All Started
Steamboat Ski director and former Olympic skier Billy Kidd and six-time All-Around World Rodeo Champion Larry Mahan held the first Cowboy Downhill somewhat accidentally in 1975. After Mahan took private ski lessons from Kidd one winter, “The next year [Mahan] brought up a couple of friends, “ says Kidd. “And when you get two or three rodeo cowboys together, you’ve got a contest. That was the beginning of Cowboy Downhill.” And what was a couple of cowboys trying to show each other up on the slopes in the beginning has grown into a sponsored annual event and one of Steamboat’s most popular of the winter season. Now in its 36th year, the Cowboy Downhill ski rodeo will be held January 19, on Stampede Trail at the base of the Steamboat Ski Resort.
Billy Kidd
Billy Kidd: Cowboy and Indian
Growing up in the ski town of Stowe, Vermont, Steamboat’s director of skiing, Billy Kidd, is a natural on the slopes. He was a member of the U.S. ski team from 1962 to 1970, and during the 1964 Olympic games Kidd became the first American man to win a medal in Alpine skiing — followed by his teammate Jimmy Heuga, who took the bronze in the same race in which Kidd won the silver. After retiring from the Olympic team in 1970, Kidd moved to Steamboat, where he now lives on a historic ranch in Yampa Valley that borders Stagecoach State Park. And he hopes to preserve the 480-acre homestead that was once home to the Ute Indians, early settlers, and then cattle and cowboys. Kidd proclaims, “It’s the real West out here — horses, cowboys and cowgirls, and open spaces.”
Helping to preserve Western heritage and culture, the cofounder of Cowboy Downhill works with both cowboys and Indians. Part Native American and a member of the Abenaki tribe, Kidd actively serves on the board of the Native Voices Foundation (NVF). Through NVF, Kidd and fellow Olympian Suzy “Chapstick” Chaffee offer Native American youth the chance to learn how to ski and coach future Native American Olympic skiers and snowboarders. In 1999 Kidd founded a branch of the Ute Future Olympians program in Steamboat, and he was officially named captain of the Native American Olympic Ski Team in 2005.
For more information on Cowboy Downhill, call 800.922.2722 or visit www.steamboat.com/cowboydownhill.
To learn more about NVF visit www.nativevoices.org. And for more on the Native American Ski Team, go to www.snow-riders.org.
Interested in owning your own Western and ski sanctuary in Steamboat Springs? Check out the available homesteads on the Billy Kidd Ranch at www.thebillykiddranch.com.
