Powder Maggot Summit '04
The Passion Grows as Tahoe Gets a Dose of The Maggot Brotherhood. No hill too steep. No skin too long. No air too big.
No one really knows how many PowderMaggots attended the Tahoe Summit from March 5-15. Nobody who attended really cares. But approximately 100 Maggots showed up to ski, party, meet new friends and rip Tahoe slopes for ten straight days. Since first proposed years ago on powdermag.com, the annual PowderMaggot Summit has now become an institution -an institution of brotherhood and sisterhood, a steepskiing camp, a backcountry seminar, and a big air contest without rules. -As well as an insane asylum of depraved partying all rolled into one. Inbounds and out of bounds, Tahoe Maggots toured their brothers and sisters from all over the country, Canada, and Europe to resorts and secret stashes around the lake. Hucks were launched, mountains were skinned, and the parties, oh, the parties... pukefests of drunken exhilaration and raging insanity... which is exactly how it all began and ended.
Squaw Valley radiates as an early morning sun blazes onto the snow. It hasn't dumped in a while, but so what? It's the first day of the Tahoe Summit. Maggots arrive en masse, swarming in front of the tram to get tickets. Fistfuls of Maggots go different ways -some to KT, some to Silverado, others wandering off to Headwall and others hiking Granite Peak, meeting throughout the day to swap smiles and reports. As always, out-of-towners are guided to the goods they would have never known existed. A family reunion amongst diehard devotees, the day ends with parking lot beers in preparation for the 3rd Annual Summit kick-off party in South Lake Tahoe.
Schwag is getting flung amidst a crowded Hoss Hoggs bar in South Lake. The kickoff bash gets rolling with music by Maggot DJ Tuffy 109. Poles, gloves, ski videos, T-shirts and hoodies go to the crowd all night. The dancing goes off as multiple kegs get consumed. A few SLT locals that wandered in don't quite understand all the weird monikers flying around. It's a Maggot screen name bonanza -Noodles, Flanker, Punani, Telenater, DiveGirl, Watersnowdirt to name a few. One local woman who won a set of poles was aghast when asked if she was a Maggot as she received her prize. "What, you think I'm some kind of maggot because I'm not part of this group?" she asked. "Please, keep the poles," she is told, as a Maggot gesture to the uninitiated. As the night slips into oblivion, pole dances became falls onto the turntables, scratching records. People are flung out of wheelbarrows and the taxis in South Lake had a good night as the Maggots dragged their butts to bed for the hot days ahead.
Maggots straggle to Kirkwood, next stop on the roster. After the kickoff party, some arrive as late as 3 pm, making sure they log as many precious days of the Summit as possible. Maggots from England buy season passes, earning the indisputable distinction of being the resort's most distant passholders. Adrenaline junkies that they are, Maggots head OB to the legendary West Shore Chute, a steep convex rollover between rocks that requires a long traverse back to Chair 4. Everyone emerges unscathed and satisfied. In the backdrop of West Shore, a breakaway crew skin to the top of the California Chute. Knock off a picking list of Kirkwood's OB trophies and back inbounds for more, everyone backs off a sketch descent into Upper Chamois and a steep, rocky entry infamous for claiming lives. Everyone but a Maggot named Gincognito. He dives in, missing a crucial turn, and goes down - hard. Gincognito takes the tumble of the Summit, pummeling his body on the abrasive volcanic breccia comprising Kirkwood's geology. A hundred-plus feet below, he comes to rest, bruised and cut, but able to ski. He gives everyone a scare. Including himself. But he lives to ski another day.
Alpine Meadows rocks in the persistent spring conditions. Throughout the course of this get-together, Maggot wild man Skier 666 guides everyone to the goods. Possessing intimate knowledge of Alpine's hidden treasures and a penchant for insane lines, 666 provides adrenaline by the bucketfuls. Maggots hike out to Estelle Bowl, go OB off Scotty's and rail every line off the Summit Chair. Meanwhile, jibbers nail the park. While many locals spoiled by a recent powder dump avoid the slopes, Maggots harvest the sunny bounty that lies before them. Another memorable day goes off the hook without a hitch and every day thereafter continues as the ones described above. Awesome adventures played out over and over again.
Over the course of the Tahoe Summit, Maggots return to these resorts to go deeper into the stash pockets of the Sierra and hike higher for better lines. On the shaded slopes of Waterhouse Peak, morning and moonlight runs yield an abundance of powder that never sees the sun. Despite high ambient temps, the fresh is...FRESH! A splinter faction of diehard skinners make their way to the summit of Tallac, the Tahoe Basins highest peak, for some of the best runs of the year. Others ventured off to Diamond Peak and Homewood for a little variety. As the Summit draws toward a close, one last bash is thrown at the Battered Beaver Saloon in Kirkwood. Live music, dancing, pool, tons of schwag, and the undying love of a skiing brotherhood make the evening one more overdose of enjoyment for the memories. And so it went...
Once again, a hundred or so internet message board freaks traveled to meet their electronic counterparts and renew their familial bonds. New Maggots were drawn into the fold. Money was raised for the Sierra Nevada Alliance, a non-profit working to preserve the beautiful Sierra Nevada. Love, respect, and gratitude were forged under a high pressure system blanketing the West, making the smiles of those attending all the more recognizable against their sunburned faces. The '04 Summit proved once again that skiing creates bonds just as thick as the blood we sometimes spill seeking the mountain life that is the essence of the Maggots. This rock-solid fraternity of internet skiers graced Tahoe with their vibe and their smiles. And Tahoe blessed them with the most awesome of times.
PowderMaggots Rule.
