Cowboy Downhill celebrates 50th anniversary with plenty of thrills and spills

John F. Russell/Steamboat Pilot & Today
Not even Monday’s frigid temperatures could slow down the 50th Bud Light Cowboy Downhill as the rodeo stars traded in their cowboy boots for skis and chased the chance to race down the Stampede trail at the Steamboat Resort.
“How fun is this? A bunch of cowboys get to come to take over this mountain, and we get a little bit of down time to come ski and enjoy ourselves,” said Sam Petersen, a bareback rider from Helena, Montana. “Shoot, Larry Mahan started this 50 years ago, and just to carry that legacy on is pretty special.”
Mahan, a world champion rodeo cowboy and bull rider, started the event along with Steamboat Springs skiing legend Billy Kidd in 1975. On Monday, Meeker cowboy Jace Logan, who grew up in South Routt County, took the lead in the men’s dual slalom event with a time of 24.24 seconds. Ari-Anna Flynn, a barrel racer from Charleston, Arkansas, finished in a time of roughly 1 minute and 10 seconds to win the women’s race.
The event features competitors racing down a set of dual slalom gates on the Stampede trail that includes a pro-style jump in the middle of the course.
That racing event was followed by the infamous “Stampede” — an all-out race from the top of the hill to the finish line at the bottom. That event was won by saddle bronc rider Brody Wells from Powell, Wyoming. “Best Crash” honors went to Dalton Williams, a bareback rider from Loveland.
Both events were filled with plenty of big-time wrecks and, despite the bitter January cold, both sides of the race course were lined with spectators from top to bottom.

The field of 66 competitors was made up of members of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and the Professional Bull Riders, bringing together athletes coming from across the U.S., Canada and even Australia.
The cowboys and cowgirls are in Colorado to compete in the National Western Stock Show in Denver and include bareback, saddle bronc and bull riders as well as steer wrestlers, barrel racers, rodeo queens and calf ropers who turned their spurs in for skis on Monday.
“It’s just a fun time,” said Weston Patterson, who was ready to head back to Denver on Saturday to compete in the semifinals of the saddle bronc riding event at the National Western Stock Show. “They do a lot for us rodeo cowboys and cowgirls. We can compete in Denver and come up here and hang out and kick back and have some fun on the mountain.”



John F. Russell is the business reporter at the Steamboat Pilot & Today. To reach him, call 970-871-4209, email jrussell@SteamboatPilot.com or follow him on Twitter @Framp1966.

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