Steamboat Pilot & Today

Emily Craig skis down a slalom course on Bashor on Saturday during a Steamboat Cup event in Steamboat Springs. The race drew more than 150 skiers ranging in experience from wide-eyed rookies to focused speed demons. Photo by Joel Reichenberger

Twentymile Mine employees wash their boots after coming out of the mine. Photo by Matt Stensland

Twentymile Mine employee Mike Miller flips over his identification card to signify he is out of the mine. Photo by Matt Stensland

Overalls hang from the ceiling in the locker room at Twentymile Mine. Photo by Matt Stensland

Coolers sit on the floor at the Twentymile Mine headquarters as miners return from underground. Photo by Matt Stensland

Old conveyors sit on the Twentymile Mine property that used to be used by the old Eckman Park surface mine. Photo by Matt Stensland

Twentymile Mine employee Ivan Duarte drives a machine loaded with lumber toward the mine. Photo by Matt Stensland

Twentymile Mine operates 24 hours per day, 361 days each year about 15 miles southeast of Steamboat Springs. Photo by Matt Stensland

It is estimated that the new Sage Creek Portal can access an additional 105 million tons of low-sulphur coal. Twentymile Mine/Courtesy

An entry is drilled at the new Sage Creek Portal. Twentymile Mine/Courtesy

A machine is used to spread limestone rock dust onto the walls and ceiling at Twentymile Mine to prevent an explosion. Twentymile Mine/Courtesy

Twentymile Coal Co. employees attend a briefing before starting their shifts underground. Twentymile employs about 500 people and another 100 or so who are contracted. Five shifts of miners take turns working at the mine 24 hours per day. Photo by Matt Stensland

Twentymile Coal Co. began construction of the new Sage Creek Portal in 2011. Twentymile Mine/Courtesy

The shearer on the longwall chews through the face of the coal seam as coal falls onto a conveyor. Twentymile Mine/Courtesy

An aerial image shows the Twentymile Mine property. Twentymile Mine/Courtesy

Photo by Laura Mazade

John Papierski Photo by Matt Stensland

Dennis Bouwens Photo by Matt Stensland

Jordan Gustafson Photo by Matt Stensland

Adam Patterson Photo by Matt Stensland

Theo Wilson opens a discussion during a meeting of “BarberShop Talk” at the New Montbello Barbershop in east Denver. The group gathers twice each week to address issues affecting African-American men. By some of the most important measures of social progress, black and Latino residents of Colorado have lost ground compared to white residents in the decades since the civil rights movement. The incarceration rate for black men is seven times that of whites. Joe Mahoney/I-News Network

In the late 1960s, the giant CF&I steel plant on the southern end of Pueblo was the economic driving engine and racial equalizer with 13,000 jobs for Colorado’s southernmost large city. Two decades later, most of those jobs disappeared, and the educational economic disparities between the city’s Latino and white residents began to widen. The Denver Public Library / Courtesy

Steamboat resident Brent Lounsbury, who previously worked as a legislative aide to former House District 59 Rep. Mark Larson, speaks to concerned gun owners Saturday at Elk River Guns. Photo by Matt Stensland

Steamboat auction legend Cookie Lockhart is working with Hayden's Graig Medvesk as he attempts to enter the profession. Medvesk won first place in a rookie auctioneering competition earlier this month. Courtesy photo

Steamboat's Matt Hale fights around a Kent Denver defender Saturday. Photo by Joel Reichenberger

Steamboat's Tyler Scott, left, and Jackson Perry celebrate a goal late in the Sailors' 6-3 win against Kent Denver on Saturday. Steamboat was effective on offense in the second and third periods to blow the game open. Photo by Joel Reichenberger

Offseason. Submitted by: Mary Sampson

Cold winter walks with my four-legged friend. Submitted by: Adam Harwood

Ryan's Crane Service ferries slabs of granite, 107 in all, from a flatbed semitrailer to the shop at Columbine Granite & Stone on 13th Street on Thursday. The stone is destined for countertops in the Casey's Pond senior living campus, which is under construction off Walton Creek Road. Photo by Tom Ross