Exhausting themselves for charity
The rarefied air high on the ridge of the Taos Ski Valley peaks alone is enough to draw a crowd of powder hounds on a given day. On Friday and Saturday (Feb. 24-25), the usual hiking crowd could be seen making the steep trek to the top.
Among those hikers was another group: 45 skiers distinguished by their bibs, exhausting themselves for the 27-year-old charity snowsports tradition known as the “Ben Myers Ridge-a-thon.”
The event helps encourage donations for the Emergency Medicines Fund (EMF) at Taos Community Foundation, which provides grants in the area of health and basic needs in Taos and Colfax counties. For those that take on the cause, the format is both simple and grueling.
Hikers choose from a menu of ski runs on the ridge and they must ski each run once before repeating a run. After completing the menu, they are free to ski the runs in any order, so long as the body is willing. There’s also the option to simply fundraise and forego the ridge hike.
A skier of many names
In his time, Myers was known to have more than a couple of nicknames based on the flair he had for skiing — Ben Air and Benny
Bumps among them.
He excelled in most of the Alpine disciplines, from mastering moguls to big mountain cliff hucking. He was reported as being able to pull a “heli” off a ridge cornice and keep on shredding in one swift motion. He’s been captured blasting through walls of powder in a Canon Camera ad. From the perspective of a Ken Gallard photograph, Myers appears to have dropped down from the sky, and with his skis pointing straight down a vertiginous slope, he sends forth big chunks of snow racing down the mountain.
“He was an inspiration to me, because he’s so athletic and so strong and just always smiling and happy and ready to go and…he got colon cancer and died at 26,” said Jeff “Mugzy” Mugleston, founding member of the Ridge-a-thon and founder of the Taos Mountain Bike Association. “Healthiest guy you know, grew up eating good and everything and living right. It took him down.”
The Ridge-a-thon is now older than its namesake 26-year old skilled skier who was diagnosed with metastatic colon cancer and whose life was cut short thereafter.
“Many [events] don’t make it past the baker’s dozen — after about 12 years, there’s a burnout rate,” Mugleston said.
Myers died in February 1997, after racking up massive medical bills and undergoing an intensive chemotherapy program. Within a month, his closest friends established the first Ben Myers Ridgea-thon.
Shredding for charity
Up until 2003, the monies
raised in the competition went into indigent expense care, providing hospice care for people in the Taos area who have no insurance or ability to pay. Since then, the Taos Community Foundation has taken over the organizational reins and channels the money into the EMF.
The charitable success of the Ridge-a-thon seems to increase with each passing year — from 13,000 in its first year to $28,000 in 2013 to a new record set this year with at least $57,236 raised as of press time Tuesday (Feb. 28). It’s gotten to the point now that the funds raised are placed in an intermediate-fund and they’re gaining interest.
Mugleston expressed his gratitude for the foundation’s willingness to take on the risk of people climbing up the ridge and skiing down double-black-diamond terrain. “Taos Community Foundation is crazy enough to recognize that this is a good thing for the community. And they not only picked it up and ran with it, they really upped the whole game,” he said.
How the money is used has also expanded since the first set of Ridge-a-thons.
“In the past years, the needs in our community have changed, and Taos Community Foundation has been responsive to those needs with our grant making paths,” said Traci Chavez McAdams, Taos Community Foundation’s director of operations. “TCF Emergency Medicines Fund has, in more recent years, responded to the increasing need for shelter bed services through local programs such as Community Against Violence, Taos Coalition to End Homelessness or the DreamTree Project.”
Competition
On the final day of the Ridge-athon, a familiar face was gunning for first place: Former two-term New Mexican Governor Gary Johnson (also a two-time Libertarian presidential nominee) was huffing and puffing up the ridge to keep pace with Taos Ski Valley ski patroller Ross Morgan.
In his time in office, Johnson was known for his anti-tax policies, campaigning for the decriminalization of cannabis and for his dedication to physical fitness. According to Robert Samuels Johnson of The Washington Post, in Johnson’s first term, he was characterized by his peers as “a chief executive who would speed through meetings and often preferred to discuss his fitness routine than focus on the minutiae of policymaking.”
His determination in endurance competitions is well-documented. Johnson completed the Bataan Memorial Death March at White Sands Missile Range. He has climbed all of the Seven Summits [the tallest peaks in each continent]: Mount Everest, Mount Elbrus, Mount Kilimanjaro, Aconcagua, Mount Vinson, Carstensz Pyramid and Denali.
He’s the co-leader of the Ridgea-thon hiking record of 52 hikes in two days along with Michael “Red” Wagener. The Septuagenarian competitor was racking up hikes while highschooler Arthur Le Coz had to refuel at the Whistlestop Cafe with a Frito pie. Le Coz finished the competition with 30 hikes.
On the financial side of the competition, Johnson fared toward the lower-half of the 45 participants with only $300 raised. He was bested by Perry Kushner, who raised $2,458 and who is currently not old enough to vote. Mugleston led all campaigners with $7,254 raised. It required some late-night fundraising to leapfrog Kent Forte, who gave Mugleston a run for his money with $6,838 raised.
Competitor Dave Wilson did his hikes a little differently than the rest. On the first day, he snowboarded and, then, on the second, he switched over to skis. Mugleston was creative in his approach. In his 14 hikes, he tried to fill up his scoresheet to create the outline of a popular carnival concession item.
“I do what I call a ‘corn on the cob.’ And I started out in the Wild West. I just worked my way across. So I did 14 runs, but I only skied one run on Highline and that was Juarez to get back to my car,” Mugleston said.
Before naming the top three places in both the men’s and women’s category for the hiking competition, Mugleston thanked all the participants of the Ridge-a-thon for their fundraising efforts.
“Thank you for going out and twisting arms and calling your grandparents and your mom and, remember, and if you didn’t do that, do it next year. Because it really makes a huge, huge difference ... And thanks to the community for being so generous with what they do.”
Ross Morgan — still in his ski boots for the awards reception — took first place by reaching 44 hikes in two days, besting secondplace Johnson by 3. Karissa Winters won the women’s category with 21 hikes, besting secondplace Dana Brienza by 1.
Although Saturday was the last day of the Ridge-a-thon, donations can still be made at charity. pledgeit.org/raisetheridge.