page_title: Steamboat Springs, Colorado
section_title: Skiing, river sports and cycling
hierarchical_section_title: Steamboat Springs, Colorado / Skiing, river sports and cycling
caption_attribution_description: Yampa River — Charlie's Hole ("C-Hole") on the Yampa in Steamboat Springs, northwestern Colorado.
context_page_description: Steamboat Springs, often shortened to Steamboat, is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Routt County, Colorado, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 12,088.
  The city is an internationally known winter ski resort destination. The Steamboat Springs tourism industry is highlighted by Steamboat Ski Resort, which is on Mount Werner in the Park Range just east of the town. It also contains the much smaller Howelsen Hill Ski Area. Steamboat Springs has produced more Winter Olympic athletes than any other town in North America.
  Steamboat Springs – known colloquially as "The 'Boat" – is located in the upper valley of the Yampa River, along U.S. Highway 40 just west of the Continental Divide and Rabbit Ears Pass.
context_section_description: Steamboat Springs offers excellent skiing opportunities (also see history section) and has been the locale of world-class skiing competitions, including competitions for the 1989 and 1990 Alpine Skiing World Cup. The Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club has brought forth many successful skiers, and the Steamboat Ski Resort attracts a large number of visiting snow aficionados. Snow cat skiing on Buffalo Pass is offered at Steamboat Powdercats which is operated under special use permits from the Routt - Medicine Bow National Forest and is an equal opportunity service provider.
  The Yampa river is a popular conduit for water sports like fishing, rafting, tubing, and kayaking (playboating). The 4-mile (6.4 km) grade II-III whitewater run through town ends with two surfable holes. One is called D-Hole; the other one—near the library, close to the Steamboat Spring—is named Charlie's Hole or C-Hole for short, after local kayaker Charlie Beavers (1981–2002). Beavers started kayaking at age 12, was the first to explore a number of rivers ("first descents"), and successfully contended in playboating competitions. He died in a non-boating accident in 2002. The hole and some kayaking events were dedicated to him.
  Every year on the first weekend of June, Steamboat Springs organizes the Yampa River Festival. It includes a kayak rodeo (i.e. a playboating competition) which attracts national and international world class playboaters. Additional events include but are not limited to a downriver race which is Colorado's only upstream slalom race, and The Crazy River Dog Contest, in which dogs retrieve sticks from the river and may pass a whitewater section.
  The defunct ski area Stagecoach is about twenty miles (32 km) south of Steamboat. It lasted two ski seasons, closing in 1974
caption: Kayakers at Charlie's Hole on the Yampa River
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