Steamboat Springs, CO Real Estate and Community Blog

Steamboat Springs has a rodeo every Friday and Saturday during the summer. Steamboat has skiing every day from November through April. On Tuesday, the rodeo and skiing mesh for the 34th Annual Bud Light Cowboy Downhill.

The Steamboat Cowboy Downhill is when guys in chaps and cowboy hats with no business strapping on skis head to the slopes. They meet on Headwall to race two at a time going around gates, over jumps, lassoing “horses” and then sprinting to the finish line. The biggest crashes get the biggest cheers. Of course, there is enough Bud Light consumption to please the sponsor, which in turn leads to even bigger crashes and bigger cheers.

After all the cowboys have raced, they all line up again for the final run. It’s a blur of leather and denim and skis as the cowboys tumble over each other toward the finish. The first one to the finish line wins prizes like round trip airline tickets and probably a case of beef jerky or something. Surprisingly, the past winner for the last few years has been local rodeo king Dr. Sisk, the local orthopedic surgeon who has broken “almost every bone in his body”. (The reason I know this is because he has set bones on two of my kids, my husband, and our exchange student.)

It’s the one time each year you’ll see more fringe and plaid on the slopes than Spyder and Solomon. If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth mosying over to Headwall to watch the race. Some of those cowboys can really ski.