Home

The desktop of Rob Perlman's computer features a single photo. It's his family - wife Erin and daughters Amanda and Morgan - skiing together for the first time. The photo was taken during spring break 2007, at Steamboat Ski Area.

More than a year later, that would be the Perlmans' home mountain.

Rob Perlman was hired in May 2008 as Steamboat Ski and Resort Corp.'s vice president of sales and marketing. He was hired away from his spot as chief executive officer of Colorado Ski Country USA and has a long history of skiing Colorado's slopes.

Perlman was born in Chicago but moved to Evergreen before he was 2. He grew up skiing in Winter Park and worked there and in Vail. He graduated from the University of Arizona in Tucson and spent years in Colorado and then in the communications arena at Mammoth Mountain in California before heading to Colorado Ski Country USA in Denver. He moved here with Erin, 8-year-old Amanda and 7-year-old Morgan. The girls are big recreational skiers, Perlman said, and the family hopes to build new traditions in Steamboat Springs.

Perlman sat down with At Home in November to talk about his past and his future here.

At Home: I think you mentioned when you first got here that you'd done some skiing at Steamboat as a kid, so tell me a little bit: What kind of skiing were you doing here? Were you competing?

Rob Perlman: Yes. I was young, and growing up in Evergreen, I was on the Winter Park ski club, Winter Park ski team. : We would frequently, probably once or twice a year, come over to Steamboat for races. So I remember, you know, skiing the super-G or the downhill : and Buddy's Run, I think it was. : I remember driving from Evergreen to Steamboat and seeing the F.M. Light & Sons signs along the way. The drive hasn't changed much.

In addition to Steamboat, we raced on Howelsen Hill, and one of those races I think was even a night race.

AH: Did you win any of the races you competed in here?

RP: No. I was always in the top 10; I don't think I won here. : I was more stylish than speedy. I looked good.

AH: Have you always been a skier? Have you ever snowboarded?

RP: Yeah, I do snowboard as well as telemark. Both not as well as I Alpine, but I still enjoy snowboarding. I tele with my kids. That way, we're all at the same speed and pace, and I try to keep up with them when they're on their skis and I'm on my teles.

AH: Describe your ideal day on the mountain here.

RP: My ideal day on the mountain would be actually out on the mountain. Probably like 28 inches of fresh snow, Billy (Kidd) asking me to go skiing with him so he could show me, do some market research as he calls it : or on-mountain product testing. Going powder skiing with Billy would be an ideal day for me.

AH: Has anything really embarrassing ever happened to you when you've been out skiing, either here or elsewhere?

RP: No.

AH: No yard sales?

RP: Oh yeah, oh yeah, I've had my share of yard sales. Did I have one here? Oh, I had my most embarrassing moment on the mountain two seasons ago when I was skiing with my daughter Amanda, and she took me into Giggle Gulch and some of the whoop-de-doos, and there came one point where I couldn't get under, so I laid on my back to get under the branches and fell. And then she talked about it, and she still talks about it to this day - when she didn't fall, but Daddy fell, because I was tangled up in the munchkin land forest trying to keep up with my daughter zipping through the trees. She tells everybody about that time.

AH: So, how has your family adjusted to being here after living in Denver for a while?

RP: Again, my wife and I kind of grew up in mountain towns and spent time obviously in Vail and Mammoth, and me in Winter Park, so we love it. It was always our goal to return to the mountains. They're loving life. (The girls) go to Strawberry Park Elementary; they walk to school every day : and they're involved in ice skating, and they're looking forward to the ski season.

AH: So, do you have a favorite piece of gear or favorite type of skis?

RP: I'm not currently sponsored but willing to (laughs). : You know, I like to Alpine ski probably the most, and as my dad says, it's not the skis, it's the guy on top. So I just enjoy getting outside, and frankly, the skis underneath me are secondary. And at the same time, I like to snowboard and I like to tele. I like to mix it up and have fun.

AH: Do you do any backcountry or cross-country skiing?

RP: I'm going to say no. I mean, I've had a couple of great backcountry days at Silverton, but that's lift-served with a little bit of hiking. I go to Alaska every year to go heli-skiing with some friends, so that's not lift-served and that's not hiking, but that's getting a ride. Expensive lift.

AH: Do you have a favorite run here in Steamboat?

RP: I'd probably have to say Shadows, just because of the memories of skiing that in deep snow in between the trees. And Why Not (laughs).

AH: How many days are you looking to ski this year?

RP: Me? I'd love to ski over 40; that'd be great.

AH: So when did you learn to snowboard? Was that a tough adjustment?

RP: Uh, no. I actually learned when I was in Vail, and I resisted for as long as I could to go over to the dark side. And as a kid, I skateboarded quite a bit and then obviously skied all my life so it was a very quick adjustment. I remember distinctly that by the end of the first day I was making linking turns, and by the second day I was going through blues, and by the end of the first week I was going down blacks. I call it the "short attention span sport" and told them it was totally easy, so I picked that up pretty quickly.

AH: Do you remember your first big fall while skiing?

RP: My dad talks about it, and I remember it. It was at Loveland. He was a ski instructor at Loveland, and we went over to : a black run and I think I was 5 or 6, maybe, and he retells the story that I took one turn and tipped over and fell all the way down the run. Yard sale. Tears, cold, (I) went in for the hot cocoa break and then asked to go back and ski it again. Went back up and skied it without falling after the hot cocoa break.

AH: If you could say one thing to visitors and locals in Steamboat who plan on skiing here this winter, what would it be?

RP: I think Steamboat is a very special place. I mean, the community's unlike any other resort in the state of Colorado, frankly around the nation, and it has that warm, Western, genuine feel to it, and just embrace that so you can enjoy it. Take a deep breath. Look around.