Plenty of people in the ski and snowboard world like to pretend that they’re cowboys. They wear cowboy hats and cowboy boots, keep denim jackets on hand and a toothpick in their mouth, all while they’ve never worked a day on a ranch or ridden a horse in their life (I’m not necessarily one to judge, I’m certainly not a cowboy). These fake cowboys or cowgirls aren’t hard to spot in many Colorado mountain towns.
Vail resident Carlos Ellis seems like he’s pretty much as close to being a real cowboy in the ski and snowboard world as you can be, proving that by doing some early spring backcountry snowboarding by horse in the wilderness of Wyoming.
“Early June, deep in Wyoming’s backcountry with Carlos Ellis and crew. Horses on the trail, boards in tow, and prime corn snow waiting up high. Typical sun cups at the bottom, but up top? Smooth lines and wide-open freedom. This one was about the long haul in, the crew, and the kind of turns that keep you buzzing all summer.“
