STEAMBOAT SPRINGS – While in Denver at the National Western Stock Show in 1974, eight-time World Champion cowboy Larry Mahan called Olympic silver medalist and skiing legend Billy Kidd at his home in Steamboat Springs and asked if he would teach him how to ski.

“I couldn’t believe how fast he learned,” said Kidd. It was the beginning of a friendship that would span almost half a century.

The next year Mahan invited a few of his cowboy buddies from the Stock Show to join them on the slopes of Steamboat Ski Resort. Kidd recalled, “When you get two or three rodeo cowboys together, you’ve got a contest. That was the beginning of the Cowboy Downhill and we haven’t looked back since.”

On January 19, cowboys, cowgirls, rodeo queens, and rodeo legends gathered to participate in the 51st running of the uniquely “Colorado” event. Some of them still bruised and battered from competing at the National Western two days before, barreling down a mountain was their idea of R&R.

Racers included skiers and snowboarders. Quite a few of them had never ridden the slopes before, or had just a little experience, which made for some entertaining but harmless crashes on the freshly groomed soft snow.

Before he passed away in 2023, Mahan related that “I think the common denominator between the people that race and live on the edge of the ski world is the same with guys in the rodeo—they are thrill-seekers.”

Kicking off the afternoon was the Timed Dual Slalom. A series of gates led to a five-foot-high jump, which presumably wasn’t particularly intimidating for the entrants since it was approximately the same distance they’d fallen from their bulls or horses in the past.

At least the jump wouldn’t try to stomp or gore them to death. Be that as it may, only about half of them negotiated it without a hitch.

Further along, the racers were required to lasso a Steamboat Ambassador, then saddle a horse before crossing the finish line.

After clearing the run of gates, people, and horses, it was time for the event that everyone had come to see: The Stampede. Pandemonium ensued at the mass start as 80 cowboys and cowgirls took off down the racecourse.

In this free-for-all of epic proportions, the best of them made a beeline toward the finish and were neck-and-neck at the jump. The stopwatches had been put away and the only thing that mattered besides having fun was who finished first. Saddle bronc rider Taylor Broussard of Estherwood, Louisiana, took top honors by a nose to the uproarious cheers of spectators.

Kashton Ford of Sturgis, South Dakota, took first place in the Slalom with a time of 31.15, just edging out Foster Krempin from Granby, Colorado, by 1/100 of a second.

Hailing from Cheyenne, Wyoming, Jed Moore showed everyone how it is done with a time of 25.62 in the Legends & Friends division.

Destiny Weeks of Enterprise, Oregon, was the first woman to finish and sixth overall in a time of 39.17.

Winner in the coveted Best Wreck category was Haley Proctor from Delaware, Oklahoma. She missed all of the gates off the jump, slid down on her backside, and went through the fence into the audience.