Local Legend Ben Berend’s journey from Howelsen Hill to the Olympic Stage
If you ask Olympian and luxury real estate professional Ben Berend where his Steamboat story begins, he doesn’t point to a first ski trip or a weekend vacation. He simply smiles and says what feels obvious to him:
I was born in Steamboat… it’s kind of all I ever knew.
For Ben, Steamboat Springs isn’t a place he discovered. It’s the landscape that shaped him, the community that raised him, and the hometown that eventually carried him all the way to the Olympic Winter Games. His story is deeply Steamboat—humble but ambitious, grounded but adventurous, rooted in community yet aimed at the world.
It’s exactly the blend of character, grit, and mountain spirit that illuminates what makes this valley special.
A Childhood Lived at Howelsen Hill
Ben’s Steamboat upbringing reads like a chapter out of a storybook written specifically for mountain kids.
He remembers the blue bus—the one that picked up children after school and delivered them straight to Howelsen Hill, where the lights clicked on each afternoon and kids of every discipline trained side-by-side. In most towns, sports happen in isolated pockets: one team on one field, another across town. But at Howelsen, everyone was there at four o’clock. Nordic skiers, alpine racers, mogul skiers, snowboarders, from age five to 25—all sharing the same hill, the same air, the same dreams and most importantly, a sense of community.
“You’re not just with your ten teammates,” Ben says. “You’re with your thousand teammates.”
For a kid who “had a lot of energy” and didn’t love sitting still in classrooms, Howelsen became a sanctuary. Under its lights he learned independence, discipline, and joy. One minute he was reciting vocabulary words at his desk; the next he was strapping on skis, sliding under the lift, and launching into the winter air.
And when the last run ended? He and his friends would pedal their bikes to the Yampa River, jump in off the Ninth Street Bridge, and wash the day away in the same water that still anchors his adult life.
“It was the coolest childhood ever,” he says. “Growing up in this little world.”
The Dream Written in Eleven-Year-Old Handwriting
Ben’s path to the Olympics started long before he knew what it meant.
He recently discovered the goal sheet he filled out as a kid for the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club. Asked to list his long-term goal, eleven-year-old Ben wrote in crooked letters: go to the Olympics.
He didn’t remember writing it until years later, when a coach found the sheet tucked away in an old file. But seeing it again reminded him of something Steamboat instills early: here, dreaming big isn’t a luxury—it’s an expectation.
The Winter Sports Club culture taught him not only to dream, but to plan. Coaches sat kids down and treated their goals—however audacious—with seriousness. You want to be an Olympian? Great. What steps will you take today, tomorrow, and every day after to build toward it?
That culture shaped him. It made him resilient. It made him disciplined. And most importantly, it gave him permission to fail forward knowing he was surrounded by the cheers of so many.
Building an Olympian: Perseverance on the Mountain
Ben is the first to say his journey wasn’t linear. Much of his ski career, by his own telling, “felt like coming up short.” He weathered injuries, tough seasons, doubt, and moments where the Olympics seemed impossibly far away.
At one point, his sport—Nordic combined—was cut from the official U.S. Ski Team program just as he was on the cusp of breaking through. Funding disappeared. Resources evaporated. Many athletes would have stopped.
Ben did the opposite. He moved to Park City, determined to find a way to fund his journey to the top of the mountain.
He trained by day and fundraised by night, developing the entrepreneurial skills he believes have been foundational in his career. It was here he learned the power of relationships, linking alongside others who value goals and ambitions. He was shown the importance of paying it forward as so many came together to fund the training and travel, and the importance of perseverance – with the same fire they had as kids under the Howelsen lights. That period tested him—and refined him. He learned how to adapt, how to rally people behind a shared vision, how to keep going even when the path forward wasn’t guaranteed.
And then, in 2018, the moment arrived.
Ben qualified for the Winter Olympic Games.
The feeling wasn’t just victory—it was relief, joy, and a quiet sense of fulfillment. He had achieved what twelve-year-old Ben had scribbled on a sheet of paper inside a small room at Howelsen. He had reached the top of the mountain.
A Life Shaped by Steamboat Heritage
This journey gifted him with global travel—traveling to the best powder in the world. Yet, from Europe, Scandinavia, Asia—Ben never found another place like Steamboat. Nothing compared to the sense of adventure, freedom and quaint surroundings of home.
“In Steamboat, adventure is woven into daily life. Everything is walkable or bikeable. The river runs through town. Trails begin behind your house. Skiing isn’t something you schedule; it’s something you slip into between meetings.”
And beneath it all is a community that lives shoulder-to-shoulder in the ordinary rhythm of life that often still stops him in his tracks.
“The lights coming on at Howelsen; kids skiing paths he once skied; the spot where the first ski-jump hill was created in the early 1900’s – looking out towards Mt. Warner, Its home,” he says.
Giving Back to the Community That Raised Him
Today, Ben is paying forward the foundation Steamboat gave him.
He still spends time at Howelsen Hill—not as the kid flying off jumps, but as a guide and storyteller. He leads heritage tours, bringing visitors to see the jumps, the lodge, and Olympian Hall, where flags hang from the ceiling to honor Steamboat’s more than 100 Olympians. Seeing the shock and awe on visitors’ faces reminds him how extraordinary this little mountain town really is.
He helps preserve Steamboat’s stories, ensuring new generations understand how this valley produced so many world-class athletes and so many grounded, generous people.
This is what makes Ben a true local legend—not just the Olympics, but the way he continues to invest in the place that invested in him.
The Steamboat Spirit, Reflected in a Single Life
Ben’s story mirrors everything 1700 Ski Time Square celebrates:
authenticity, ambition, community, and a deep love for the land.
He’s proof that this valley doesn’t just produce skiers—it produces people who go out into the world and come home grateful for what shaped them. It produces neighbors who show up, athletes who dream big, and stewards who keep the stories alive.
For those who will one day call 1700 home, Ben’s life offers a glimpse of what living here can mean. Underneath the luxury, beneath the design and the views, lies something rarer: a genuine sense of belonging to a place where mountains raise you, rivers teach you, and community carries you.
In Steamboat, adventure isn’t a weekend activity—it’s a way of life.
Community isn’t a buzzword—it’s the air you breathe.
And legends aren’t myths—they’re neighbors.
Just like Ben Berend.
