Fast off the Slopes

The phone in the reservations office of the Aspen Association was ringing urgently last week, and the girl on the answering end was doing her frazzled best to be sympathetic: "Well, you could call again to see if there are any cancellations. What town are you calling from? Oh, New York." Seconds later, she wound up another call:

"Iowa? Frankly, sir, that's a long way to drive on the chance of a cancellation." To a pleading chum, she insisted:

"Honestly, I couldn't even find a room for my own mother." Said her weary counterpart at rival Vail, Colorado's other big ski resort: "We've had more than 1,000 calls this week asking about possible cancellations."

The Christmas-New Year's holiday is the big week for skiing, and right across the nation, resorts were strained to capacity -- including those in Vermont, where a Christmas Eve storm dumped two feet of snow on slopes that had been brown. For New England skiers and resort owners, the last-minute reprieve was nothing short of miraculous.

More Passion than Poise. Celebrities abounded. To Aspen came Dr. Jonas Salk, Senator-elect Charles Percy, Adam ("Batman") West, and Defense Secretary McNamara, guest of William Janss, owner of Sun Valley and the power be hind the new Snowmass-at-Aspen ski resort being built eight miles away. Not that devotees of Vail were the slightest bit impressed. "Aspen? Oh, yes, that's a tree, isn't it?" they were saying. Be sides, they had a few names of their own: New York's Mayor John Lind say, Mercury Astronaut Scott Carpenter, IBM Chairman Tom Watson -- and the whole U.S. Alpine Team.

Resurgent Sun Valley, Idaho, the nation's oldest ski resort, has always been popular with the Hollywood set; on hand for the holidays were such showfolk as Art Linkletter, Director William Wyler, Crooner Andy Williams and Composer Henry Mancini. Most visible by virtue of sheer numbers: Bobby and Ethel and seven of their nine children, staying in a five-bedroom cottage across from the Lodge. Bobby, who skis with more passion than poise, latched onto a group of teen-age girl racers, delighted them by setting the pace on a fast down hill run. Son Joseph, 14, was the family casualty this time: barreling down the hill, he fell, breaking his leg cleanly above the boot.

Knickers & Miniskirts. The skiing explosion that began in the 1950s feeds on improvements in equipment and clothing that make skiing easier and skiers better-looking. The simple combination of metal skis and stretch pants was what did it. Now there are some 3,500,000 active skiers in the U.S., spending more than $750 million a year (an average $214 per skier) on their sport.

Stretch pants are still the uniform of the day, and there is currently a spirited debate comparing the virtues of Bogner Superstretch, which is warmer, and Spinnerin, which is lighter. In the end, the esthetics are the same. Advises Grosse Pointe Ski-Shop Manager Bob Sharpe: "A good fit is when you can tell if a coin in the gal's back pocket is heads or tails."

But increasingly skiers, and particularly girl skiers, want a more individual look. Designers are satisfying them with a profuse variety of new ski fashions (see color pages). There are knicker suits by Marianne Ohm ($95), parkas with bermuda-length legs by Ernst Engel ($50), one-piece jump suits by Bogner, inventor of stretch pants ($99).

Even a few of Michele Rosier's pretty but impractical miniskirt outfits (skirt $40, top $80) are beginning to appear.

To keep cozy between runs, some skiers have taken to wearing bulky racer's warmup pants. Wool helmets with wide chin straps are rapidly replacing the ubiquitous headband. Navy and burgundy are still the most popular colors, but silvers, bright oranges and reds are coming in, as are water-repellent vinyl and metallic fabrics.

Televised Teaching. Less flamboyant dressers by nature, men are nevertheless becoming more stylish, too, now favor bright T shirts, long racing parkas that come down over the hips, and Moriarty hats--heavy wool skullcaps with a stripe around the bottom. But what fascinates them more is equipment. This year's hottest conversation piece is the new Head 360 ski ($148.50). Designed for the advanced intermediate, it is wider than Head's racing model and has a shallower center groove, so that it turns more easily, and has become known overnight as "the forgiving ski." "Already it's our bestseller," says Head Ski Co.'s Mike Erickson. "We're plumb out of stock, and we're back-ordered until early February." Shop owners report that the only kind of boots they can sell nowadays are ones that buckle, but an even bigger breakthrough is synthetic boots, made of plastic or glass fiber, that last longer than leather because they resist moisture better, cost $100. Step-in release bindings that require only an initial adjustment have virtually eliminated cables.

As skiing has grown into a family sport, resorts have expanded facilities to accommodate children. At California's Squaw Valley, for example, there is a milk-shake bar with pingpong tables for teenagers, and near by the "Squnch House," an activity center for children two to twelve years old with everything from creative arts, music and dancing, to snow games, ice skating and ski lessons. Even the techniques of teaching are changing. Such resorts as Sun Valley and Crystal Mountain in Washington's Cascade Range have begun using TV cameras to photograph students in action; later the tapes are run off for criticism by the instructor.

Of course, it is not absolutely necessary to ski in order to enjoy the snow; the newest wrinkle in winter recreation is the snowmobile, a motorized sled with two swiveling skis in front and a continuous rubber belt in the rear that climbs hills with a running start, jumps well, and hits 30 m.p.h. on the flat. Families love to swoop around in them in the back country, and snowmobile clubs are forming rapidly. Some 30,000 snowmobiles were sold in the U.S. and Canada last year (at just under $1,000 apiece), and conservative estimates put this year's total at 100,000.

After a hard day on the slopes, the first order of business is--or ought to be --a good long soak in a hot bath. Hot buttered rum, Gluehwein or glogg, and a spicy new potion called the Broken Leg --bourbon, hot apple juice, cinnamon, cloves, raisins and lemon--are also good therapy for aching muscles. Then it is time to dress for the pleasures of apres-ski. Slacks and pants suits are popular, but many girls, tired of pants after wearing them all day skiing, are switching to skirts, some of them mini, more of them of the long, hostess variety. Turtleneck T shirts are In, but they must be made of synthetics, since cotton is very Out, even for skiing. Tom Jones shirts and hip-huggers are In; bell bottoms are Out. Furs, from mink and leopard to lynx and baby seal, are big in coats, hats and even skirts. Suede boots, fur boots, climbing boots and mod boots are In; so are tennis shoes.

The Cuban Stallion. The nature of apres-ski activity varies. With its deep and demanding powder and precipitous runs, Alta draws only serious skiers, and the night life is consequently restrained:

a few drinks in the lounge of the Alta Lodge, some folk songs by Chef Ray Conrad. In Vermont, apres-ski is livelier, with apparently inexhaustible crowds carrying on until 1 a.m. at such swinging spots as the Red Rob Inn at Killington, Orsini's new Red Barn at Sugarbush, and Stowe's Baggy Knees.

Nobody out-go-goes Aspen, where swingers nightly "grouse for goodies" (translation: hunt for girls) in the town's dozen nightclubs and 25 bars, emboldened by a local libation called Aspen Crud, a vanilla milk shake laced with anything alcoholic. Latest place is Stromberg's, in the basement beneath a drugstore, where skiers dine on escargots, fondue and hot posh (cappuccino and rum), stay on for recorded flamenco, folk and jazz. In Vail, dancers head for the Golden Ski or the Casino Vail, where the latest fad is turtle racing. The leading turtles so far are Apollo and the Cuban Stallion, but they had better keep on winning. One sore loser got so mad at his turtle that he forthwith had him cooked for dinner.

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