And No Bones Broken

It was blowing a gale. The wind shrieked over New Hampshire's Mount Washington, wrapping its 6,288-ft. summit in swirling fog. Thick ice glazed the mountain's sheer headwall. From Pinkham Notch, down in the valley, a line of black dots inched upward along two rows of red flags. The dots were ski fans, out to see the world's most dangerous ski race, "the American Inferno." The course runs in a four-mile drop from the summit over the 1,000-ft. headwall, through Tuckerman's Ravine and down a narrow wooded trail to Pinkham Notch, over 4,250 ft. below.

Before last week, the course had been run only twice. In 1938 Dick Durrance did it in twelve minutes; a year later, Austria's Toni Matt went down wide open in the seemingly unbelievable time of 6 min. 29 sec. This year, 13 topnotch skiers made up their minds to try it despite the foul weather--not from the summit, but from a point three-quarters of the way up the mountain.

At 12:30 a faint cry of "track" floated down from the foggy heights. Dartmouth's Robert Stewart shot down the mountain's face, flashed narrowly through the ravine and across the flat into the tricky turns on the wooded trail. He was averaging better than 50 miles an hour.

At two-minute intervals, the other racers skimmed and skidded down the mountain. One man lost his balance, tripped and rolled over, sending up a geyser of snow. He got up and went on. Dartmouth's Bill Beck, the 22-year-old who placed fifth for the U.S. in the Olympic downhill race, whistled down, his skis chattering like Tommy guns on the bumpy ice. Brooks Dodge, also a Dartmouth man and Beck's Olympic teammate, loomed out of the fog at terrific speed, frantically clawing at his misted goggles. One skier blindly pounded on to the flat before he knew he had reached it, hit a bump, hurtled into the air and pinwheeled four times before he hit the ground.

The winner: Bill Beck, who first tried the headwall at the age of ten, in the amazing time of 4 min. 14 sec. For a wonder, no one broke any bones.

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