Cowboys wait their turn during the slalom competition at the 39th Annual Bud Light Cowboy Downhill, a mashup of rodeo and skiing that drew 90 people from as far away as Australia.
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colorado — Ski rodeo is a perfect weird sport for Colorado, a place with a long history of ranching, a deep love of skiing and people only too happy to combine the two.
Downhill cowboys, and cowgirls, have been hitting the slopes here for the better part of four decades, and 90 of them came from as far away as France and Australia for the 39th annual Bud Light Cowboy Downhill.
The rules are, as in most weird sports, simple: the first one down Mt. Werner wins. Ingenious. This being a weird sport, however, there’s something you must do before crossing the finish line. Namely, lasso a cowgirl and saddle a horse, of course. There was a time when competitors also would pound a beer, but this was never officially sanctioned and has since been outlawed.
There are two geniuses behind this race. Billy Kidd is a former alpine skiing world champ and Olympic medalist who is the director of skiing at Steamboat. Larry Mahan is a six-time all-around world champion cowboy. Four decades ago, they invited a posse of pro rodeo stars, who’d come to Denver for the annual National Western Stock Show and Rodeo, to try their hand on the slopes. They’ve been doing it ever since. And some of these cowboys have actually skied. Once or twice, anyway.
Blake Knowles, a steer wrestler from Oregon, took first place in the dual slalom event on Monday. His time was 22.17 seconds, a number that means nothing beyond this weird sport. Better to say he finished 3.5 seconds ahead of the guy in second place.
Visually, the grand finale was the wildest part of the day. Everyone took to the slopes for what could only be called a stampede. Frenchman Evan Jayne was first across the finish line in an event that was not without drama. Kobyn Williams, 25, who’d ventured westward from Louisiana, broke his collarbone. He’ll miss about six weeks on the rodeo circuit because of it.
“I was rolling and tumbling,” he said. “When I got up, I kinda felt my shoulder fall on me. I knew it was broke before I got up.”
Williams was among the more loquacious competitors. I tried chatting up a cowboy by the name of Randy T. Mason, who told me, “I’m not one of the better guys to ask” and walked away.
“He’s shy, like most cowboys,” explained Joel Bob Carlson, a Southern California rancher who seemed to be the exception to that rule. Maybe the beer sitting nearby had loosened him up. Carlson was never a professional cowboy, but he did rodeo in high school and college. “Then the girls took over,” he said with a sly smile. He considers the Cowboy Downhill a “crackup.”
I told him what happened to Williams. Carlson was surprised to learn bull riders were competing on the downhill slalom.
“Bull riders typically don’t do this shit,” he said.
Maybe not, I replied. But then again, cowboys are pretty crazy.
“Truth,” Carlson said. “Truth.”
All photos: Sol Neelman/Wired
Cowboys Trade Spurs for Skis in Colorado's Wild Downhill Rodeo
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