North America's oldest operating ski area is nestled in this Colorado mountain town, and it's an Olympic pipeline for athletes

As Colorado approaches its 150th year, some of its history isn't just remembered, it's still being lived.

In Steamboat Springs, that history runs straight through Howelsen Hill ski area, the oldest continuously operating ski area in North America and a pipeline to the Olympic stage.

"This is kind of the locals hill," explained Candice Bannister, Executive Director of Steamboat Springs History Museum.

"This is where you teach your kids to ski early on, this is where they're going to become athletes with the winter sports club."

It's a hill with history seeded deep in the rolling hills of the Yampa Valley.

The hill has been active since 1915. While the ski gear and facilities themselves have changed, the experience has not. Skiers still hit the jumps and fly through the air off the multiple ski jumps in a way that connects generations. The hill features different sizes of jumps for beginners and larger jumps for professionals to prepare for global competitions.

For local Olympian Ben Berend, he began his flying early. He said he spent nearly every afternoon of his childhood at Howelsen Hill, a place he says is basically everyone's local babysitter.

"I spent basically my whole childhood, you know, eating pizza and drinking soda at Olympian Hall and staring up at the flags on the ceiling (where former Olympians' name adorn flags from different Olympics)," Berend said. "That got ingrained into my head really early on."

Berend eventually made that goal a reality, competing in the 2018 Winter Olympics. Later, he saw his own flag hanging alongside the others, a moment he described as a powerful reflection on how far he had come.

"I dreamt of this as a kid, and here I am sitting here, and 'I've got a flag on this wall, which, you know, being in this community is such a special thing,'" Berend said. 

But the impact of Howelsen Hill goes beyond Olympians; Bannister said the hill is still the heart of the mountain community. Between the athletes the hill helped achieve their goals, to the family memories from locals coming out on free ski Sundays, Howelsen is a landing point for Steamboat to anchor against as the march of time rolls on.

"This is the heart of history in Steamboat Springs," Bannister explained.