Skiing USA

The question of what is bringing so many ski-happy Mohammeds to the mountains has begun to intrigue motivational-research men and psychiatrists, who are especially interested in skiing's allure for single men and women. Dr. James Knight of Tulane Medical School describes it as "A philosophy of living with, and not against, the elements." Dr. Knight adds to this the observation (apparent even to those not oriented psychiatrically): "Girls dress in very seductive fashions and exhibit their sex in stimulating ways."

Even Freud has been invoked by skiing enthusiasts. Dr. Ernest Dichter, a leading motivational-research specialist, has said: "There is a sort of defloration involved ... of the virginal snow. Conquest. You make your own tracks. Stretch pants can be compared to a sweater of the lower extremities." Dichter makes the sport seem even more sensual when he says: "Skiing also has a similarity to getting drunk. You're discovering, as you do when you're intoxicated, another part of yourself. Is this really me? you ask yourself. Am I capable of this kind of enjoyment? Perhaps there is a relationship here to sexual release."

It's doubtful that most skiers have ever considered the art of going downhill in this light. But regardless of the subconscious implications of skiing, Dichter's description of the sport's essence is perceptive: "In the end it's all of these things and the moment of truth, too -- the moment of truth, complete absorption away from the complicated trials of modern life. You are alone in a winter landscape ... and you have become very important."

Add to this the savor of hot Glühwein after the last run, an excellent dinner with a lovely friend, dancing at a local cellar, and all the rest of it, and it's easy to see why a man's best friend can be his skis.

Skiing, the fastest growing sport in the United States today, has become the winter fashion; and, in more ways than one, it is extremely high fashion. Beginning in December and continuing through April, increasing numbers (10 percent per annum at the going, growing rate) of hardy individuals gladly forsake the snug warmth of urban pads for zestful days in invigorating mountain air.

As an American phenomenon, skiing received its greatest lift in the post-War years, when returning veterans took to the slopes like wintry lemmings. Perhaps these old-timers regard with scorn the nouveauxarrivés who trammel what was once pristine and white and add length and weight to straining lift lines; but their uneasiness is assuaged by the knowledge that every masculine newcomer is usually matched by a feminine beginner in molded stretch pants. Quite understandably, the arrival of the female on the ski scene has helped accelerate the development of après-ski (a charming French phrase that says more in three syllables about the other-than-outdoor aspects of skiing than could be expressed in volumes), until now it's a fine art as fully developed as the most complex ski maneuver.

There are about 3,000,000 Americans who ski annually. Whether they make it to the mountains for one or two weekends each season, or do the Friday-night--Sunday-night bit from December to April, or take a winter holiday in the Rocky (text continued overleaf) or Green Mountains, they have an investment in ski wear and equipment that grosses the ski industry close to $1,000,000,000 a year. A well-equipped participant with an active interest in the sport will have a minimum investment in gear and clothing of $250.

The current interest in skiing has also been a boon to the travel industry, and virtually every type of transportation has a stake in the ski boom (although in the East, those day-coach ski trains are as obsolete as the visored ski cap). Major seaboard areas where stable snow conditions can be counted on are about 5-1/2 hours away, so most New Yorkers drive. Friday evening in midwinter Manhattan is revealing: ski racks are as plentiful as deer antlers in a game preserve -- including the expensive skis carried by Commander Whitehead atop his Rolls-Royce -- and, as twilight deepens, the steady (text continued on page 101) stream to New England begins. For those New Yorkers who prefer to travel more elegantly, and at the same time get their sleep and adequate liquid nourishment, there is the Stowe-Sugarbush Express -- a two-section Greyhound service. The one to Stowe, called the "Stowe-away," takes six hours, leaves for Vermont at an appropriate time on Friday night and returns Sunday evening. The other, to Sugarbush, also stops at Killington. Each costs $20 for the round trip. A stewardess serves wine, setups and snacks.

Midwestern skiers, the most obsessed of all in their weekend urges, drive, fly and bus long distances for their pleasure. (Flying from New York to Eastern ski areas, private or commercial, is for the most part dependent on the vagaries of the weather.) Midwesterners, apparently, are less timid about atmospheric problems. One Chicago ski-shop operator, who pioneered chartered DC-3 trips to Wisconsin areas last winter, intends to expand service this season. He also hopes to offer some long-weekend flights to Colorado. A Chicago travel man operates bus trips to Midwestern areas, but has also gotten ski trains going again. This winter, he and the Burlington Railroad are putting together two- and three-day packages to Breckenridge and Vail in Colorado for about $60.

In Detroit, bus trips are operated to Georgian Peaks, Ontario, and in Minneapolis, packaged weekend trips to areas as distant as 250 miles are available. None of these bus arrangements are tours, by the way. They're just an economical and unharried way of going skiing.

In the West, where skiing is usually closer at hand, the car is still the prime means of transportation. The exceptions include buses out of San Francisco to the areas around Lake Tahoe (like Heavenly Valley, Squaw, Donner Summit) and buses out of Los Angeles to the Southern California areas like Mammoth and Snow (text continued on page 180)Skiing USA(continued from page 101) Summit.

In the Southwest, those who can afford it fly by private plane to resorts like Sierra Blanca and Ruidoso in the New Mexican Rockies, as well as to Santa Fe, Taos, and a number of areas in Arizona, all of which are within close range of small landing fields.

Thus, with transportation becoming more and more plentiful, the skier has an option on more places, with more uphill facilities and more après-ski activities than have ever been available in the past decade. Herewith Playboy's guide to the best in the United States.

East: Vermont: Stowe is probably one of the oldest and best places to ski in the United States. The town is what a New England town should be, even to the Wren-steepled church that is as well-known as the skiing mountains, Mansfield and Spruce Peak.

Mt. Mansfield, with its famed Nose Dive and International, both racing trails, is for the hotter shots and generally attracts earnest college men and experienced skiers. Spruce Peak, farther along the mountain road, features a modern, well-designed cafeteria, large ski shop and ski-school meeting place. Spruce offers two wide practice areas with a choice of steepness, serviced by a T-bar, to one side of which is a practice slalom course, a new chair lift that extends halfway up the mountain and a double-chair lift to the summit that is famous in the East for the hushed beauty of its ride.

There is skiing-a-plenty at Stowe: snow conditions are remarkably stable during the season, and social facilities are equally plentiful. You can contact the Mansfield-Stowe Association for accommodations information. You'll want to ask about the following places:

The Lodge at Smuggler's Notch, one of the fine ski hostelries of the East, is noted for its cuisine and good wines (French specialties). The Top Notch is an extremely modern lodge with an excellent chef and Austrian hostesses. The Green Mountain Inn, in Stowe, has a good bar that generally attracts the single after-ski crowd. For evening diversion, most people try the Baggy Knees, a converted barn which draws most Stowe visitors.

Approximately three quarters of an hour south on Route 100 is Sugarbush, which first attained fame as the Eastern wintering grounds of the jet set, but is rapidly gaining a justified reputation as a good place to just plain ski, too. Sugar-bush has a novice area serviced by a T-bar and intermediate trails serviced by a double-chair lift. Off the peak of Mt. Lincoln (where a gondola lift goes) is a variety of trails appealing to all tastes. The Wunderbar, in Sugarbush's base lodge, the Valley House, serves excellent lunches and drinks. The Valley House cafeteria, with its big picture windows, features some of the best hamburgers in the East. Also at Sugarbush: the Sugarbush Inn, the Christmas Tree and the Alpen Inn. Orsini's is the only nightery in the area.

Across the Mad River Valley from Sugarbush is Mad River Glen -- where the emphasis is on the well-carved turn rather than on the off-the-slopes goings on associated with Sugarbush. Mad River Glen has its own devotees, usually skiers of the die-hard variety. Those interested in one-upmanship usually ski one day of their weekend at "Mad," then impress friends at Sugarbush with their tales of Mad's trails. Mad River has the Dipsy Doodle, a bring-your-own-bottle place, which is very informal and features dancing and entertaining amateur shows put on by ski bums and weekend regulars.

Mt. Snow, farther south on Route 100, has 9 chair lifts and 40 full-time intructors who expound their own version of the Canadian teaching method. Because of its 9 lifts and myriad runs -- all an intermediate's delight (including a 46-acre cow pasture on a slant) -- there is rarely a lift wait. Mt. Snow has its own novice area, with an immense base lodge called Sundance. It has an even bigger base lodge at the main area and there the complete sportsman can enjoy a heated swimming pool and an interior ice rink. The Snow Lake Lodge faces Snow Lake, an artificially developed pond. Virtually every room in the place has its own terrace plus picture windows in the bathrooms, enabling one to bathe and gaze at Mt. Snow simultaneously.

Over the mountain from Mt. Snow (a 20-minute drive) is Stratton, a relatively new place with an Austrian-run ski school and a quiet atmosphere much different from that of its neighbor. Trails are somewhat difficult. There is a large complex of private homes nearby of the Alpine-chalet variety, an enormous base lodge, and one hotel near the area: The Stratton Mountain Inn. The Inn, with its friendly bar and urbane dining room, has dancing in the evenings. The chef is reputed to have worked for the Italian Lines; the excellent cooking would seem to verify it. Stratton radiates studied Gemütlichkeit of a sophisticated variety; a nice place for a weekend sojourn for two.

New Hampshire: The New York skier gravitates toward Vermont; the Boston skier prefers New Hampshire, which is closer by car. Besides New Hampshire's Eastern Slope ski areas, where one is constantly in the awesome shadow of Mt. Washington, there are also the state-run areas at Cannon and Sunapee. Austria-in-the-U. S. is at Mittersill (in the Franconia area) -- an establishment seemingly lifted from the Tyrol by Baron Hubert Von Pantz. There are at least seven runs, good food and elegant housing at the Mittersill Inn. There are other good ski areas at Black Mountain, Wildcat, and Cranmore -- close to North Conway. A pleasant and traditional place to stay is North Conway's Eastern Slope Inn. Rates are moderate to high ($14 minimum) and service is stylish. More informal is the Cranmore Inn with a high of $10 to $12.

New York State: The best skiing in New York is in the Adirondacks. The Lake Placid area (where the sport was virtually born in this country) is still supreme. There are more than 15 ski runs on Whiteface Mountain, with enough chair lifts and combinations of runs to satisfy anyone. (Some people think this is the windiest corner in the state -- but such trails as the upper Thruway and Wilderness are used for Class A national and international competition.) High on the mountainside is a midway restaurant for lunching and meeting; there is also a T-bar area for novices and those who enjoy being watched while they wedeln.

The Lake Placid area has the aptly named Paleface, a self-contained resort organized by artist Boylan FitzGerald. About four miles from Whiteface, it offers more than 18 miles of skiing for the novice and intermediate, with chair lift and T-bar, plus the added inducement of schussing through pine glades. The lodge, which houses a ski shop, has a bar and dining room noted for its cuisine.

Midwest: By Eastern or Western standards, Midwestern skiing tends to be somewhat tame when one considers the vertical footage in the 1500 to 2000 category offered in the East and the sometimes 3000-plus offered in the Rockies. The Midwest, however, makes up for its "ridges" and "nobs" by putting out some of the posher holiday resorts to be found in the country.

In Michigan, entrepreneur Everett Kircher (Boyne Mountain) is raising a ski area called Boyne Highlands. Kircher plans to do away with the intimacy of the double chair, by installing a triple chair which loads two from one side, one from the other. Kircher is developing Boyne Highlands like a Midwestern Aspen -- in effect, a self-contained ski community.

To the south of Boyne Highlands, another new area opens this season: the $2,000,000 Shanty Creek Resort (complete with pool). Elegant rooms start at $12 per day, European plan, and cuisine is under the supervision of George Charbrier, formerly General Mark Clark's personal chef. A T-bar and a chair lift serve a number of runs with a vertical drop of some 300 feet.

Boyne Mountain is still the biggest in the area and it has five chair lifts, a T-bar, J-bar and two rope tows. It is one of the few sections in the Midwest that offers a vertical chop of more than 500 feet, and it holds its snow fairly consistently. Boyne's heated swimming pool, skating arena, two ski shops, three bars, three lodge buildings, cafeteria and well-appointed dining room all evince a feeling of good taste. Night life is active, for Boyne is a real resort and it is run as such.

Boyne's huge success has hypoed the whole area. Summer resort hamlets like Boyne City, Petoskey, Harbor Springs, and Charlevoix now swing with maximum vigor during the yuletide and thereafter.

For Detroiters who don't relish a five-hour drive, Pine Knob, near Pontiac is highly recommended. Snow is artificially manufactured as is most of the slope. It's a pleasant diversion to drive out for drinks and dinner and spend a couple of hours skiing under the lights.

In Michigan's Upper Peninsula, four areas are of interest: Iroquois Mountain, near Brimley, is beautiful but isolated. It's a nice lodge and well worth the extra trip. Pine Mountain, near the town of Iron Mountain, has a chair lift, lots of camaraderie, and a great deal of artificial-snow-making equipment. It is considered by some, however, a bit primitive. Brule Mountain is like Pine Mountain, except more so. It has a T-bar, and most of the nonskiing activity is at the Iron Inn, situated in nearby Iron River. Local lasses tend to imbibe boilermakers and yearn for the strong, silent type. Indianhead Mountain offers just about the best all-around skiing in the Midwest. The vertical drop here is better than 600 feet and the area features T-bars and a chair lift. The lodge is a converted barn with a lively bar and lots of folk music.

In Wisconsin (but closer to Minneapolis--St. Paul than Chicago) is Telemark, where the snow is always good (because it's man-made). The place to stay is an ersatz Alpine lodge called Garmisch U.S.A. Specialty of the house: frozen martinis and a one-man orchestra by the name of Dave van Gilder. Highly recommended for the intimate weekend.

Popular with Chicago clay skiers are Mt. Fuji (150 feet) and Wilmot, just north of the Wisconsin line. Wilmot is otherwise known to sports-car buffs for its track. It has a chair lift and a T-bar. If you feel compassionate, it is the ideal place to offer encouragement to snow bunnies who can't decide which ski goes on which foot.

Rocky Mountains (West): For true Alpine skiing, only the Rockies will do. Europeans, who are pleased with the 9000 to 10,000-foot elevations of their highest Alps are usually surprised to learn that there are peaks that reach 14,000 feet along the Great Divide. Three-thousand feet of vertical skiing is common at such places as Vail, Aspen, and Sun Valley, where the schussing can be glorious.

Colorado: Aspen is the reincarnated mining town that went Continental, a dream place that was engineered by Walter Paepcke, veterans of the 10th Mountain Division and such diverse types as Swiss-born Fred Iselin and Austrian Friedl Pfeifer. It is closed in by mountain passes and suffers from a lack of incoming transportation (two trains a day, forty miles away, one incoming plane flight), yet, as a resort it has few equals on this continent; millionaires rub shoulders with ski bums, languages are diverse and the night life tends to run into the ski life any day of the week. Aspen figures that its guests spend an average of $50 per day during the height of the season. Why not? Everyone is there for a ball.

There are three mountains for skiing, from the tops of which one may see, in any direction, impressive ranges as superb in their beauty as those lying along the Swiss-Italian frontier. Aspen Highlands is the command headquarters of Stein Eriksen, who is known for ski acrobatics and the outrigger turn. Then there is Buttermilk and the noted Aspen Mountain (formerly Ajax), which has a vertical drop of 3400 feet negotiable in 10 to 15 minutes by experts (most Aspenites) and in an hour or two by the average good skier interested in beauty as well as Kanoning. Buttermilk run is beginner-intermediate territory; it has its own chair lift, sun-deck restaurant on top and T-bar.

Aspen swings from alpenglow time (about 4:30 P.M.), when the lifts shut down, to early morning when patrolmen and workers make the milk run. Here is an insider's rundown:

The Hotel Jerome is Aspen's oldest and most famous establishment; its bar begins filling up shortly before 5 P.M. and most people meet here to make plans for the evening. The Red Onion has two dining rooms, one of which offers "the Skiers Special" ($1.75, changes every night), while the other offers large steaks and vintage wines. The younger crowd heads for the Red Onion's "Beer Gulch" for refreshment. The Golden Horn is the Onion's competitor -- a good restaurant upstairs, with a night club in the cellar. The Crystal Palace is a dinner and night spot owned by Mead Metcalf and Fran, a talented couple who do songs from and take-offs on Broadway shows, with ski-bum waiters and waitresses singing along. The Limelite offers dinner and entertainment featuring folk singing and comedy. Guido's Swiss Inn specializes in Glühwein and pastries after skiing, fondues and the like for lunch and dinner. Newton's Abbey Bar serves dinner upstairs (English pub decor) and roast beef is their specialty. The Steak Pit is a very good restaurant in a renovated basement. The Copper Kettle, a very popular restaurant in Aspen Meadows, is noted for its gourmet cooking. The Old Heidelberg, a favorite with the college crowd, serves 3.2 beer, pizza and hero sandwiches. It is the only place where you can get a brew after 8:00 P.M., Sunday nights. Mother Lode is an artists' habitat that features Italian food at medium prices. The Toklat, run by Stuart Mace (who also arranges dog-sled trips into the back country), is known for Alaskan specialties.

Vail, a new giant of an area whose backers include Texas tycoon John Murchison, is considerably closer to Denver than Aspen. It has 3000 feet of vertical skiing available, the summit attainable by gondola and chair lift. From the peak, you can ski down into any one of three south-facing bowls and come back up again via another chair lift.

The skiing at Vail can last from November through May. Because the summit is 11,250 feet, there can be good snow late in the season on top and green grass in the valley below. Alpine Park, at the peak, affords a magnificent view of such famed climbing mountains as The Mount of the Holy Cross and the 14,000-foot peaks of the Mosquito Range of the Continental Divide. Terrain is diverse enough to suit varied degrees of skill; there's one very tough downhill run. There is an Alpine-type midstation with a sun deck and restaurant and a ski school run by Morrie Shepard, onetime administrative director of the Aspen Ski School.

Vail attracts a sophisticated vacation crowd of the type that frequents Vermont's Sugarbush. (Some of the Sugarbush habitués are backers.) Its food and accommodations, because of the area's youth, are limited to the following:

The Lodge (American plan, with excellent food) has a rathskeller with band and dancing and a Bavarian troupe that does Schuhplattler-type music. The Inn features a bar (the Hub Room) with dancing and entertainment. The Red Lion is a restaurant with a basement bar called the Lion's Head. No dancing or entertainment. Finally, a French restaurant, projected for this winter, will be called Le Cave.

New Mexico: The closest rival to Aspen and Vail in the amount of skiing available is another new resort -- Sierra Blanca, near the town of Ruidoso, overlooking White Sands, New Mexico. From Sierra Blanca's summit (close to 12,000 feet) you can sometimes see a rocket soaring from White Sands or on a clear day, El Paso, Texas, 80 miles away, appears miragelike in the distance.

The other popular area in New Mexico is Taos, whose Ski Valley is, in effect, a monument to an individual -- its designer and builder, Ernie Blake. In the Southern Rockies, Blake has carved out a little bit of Austria. Taos, however, isn't a nonskier's ski area -- it caters to skilled practitioners, a fact that Blake is proud of. Taos Ski Valley is situated in and around Twining, an old mining town, 10 miles from a charming Spanish village, Arroyo Seco. Visitors are offered the comforts of the Hondo Lodge, or the vintage wines served at the Hotel St. Bernard by hosts Jean and Bernard Mayer, or the Tournedos Napoleon set à table at the St. Bernard by Parisian chef Yvon Silve.

The skiing at Taos is unsurpassed. Blake believes that the sport should be a challenge and he's designed several of his trails with this in mind. Besides the Hondo Lodge and the St. Bernard, there is the new Thunderbird Inn which offers Western hospitality with a Finnish touch to about 90 guests. Smorgasbord and shish kebab are specialties.

Idaho: Two other ski areas worth mentioning are not properly in the Rockies, but in the intermountain area of Utah and Idaho. Sun Valley, the granddaddy of American resorts, and the creation 27 years ago of the Union Pacific and Averell Harriman, is one of them. The Union Pacific still owns it, and runs it, no longer as a promotion for the railroad, but as a profitable proposition.

Sun Valley is located in a remote corner of the Sawtooth Range of Idaho, hard by the old silver-mining town of Ketchum, and is more easily reached from Denver, or Salt Lake City or Seattle, than from the Midwest or East. The Lodge is an elegant hostelry with a Continental dining room and a night club known as the Eddy Duchin Room. Less expensive and more informal is the Challenger Inn with a good restaurant and a popular hangout called The Ram. Its cafeteria serves inexpensive breakfasts and this is where the enormous staff eats (Sun Valley's ski school and working stall is one of the largest of any resort in the country; most come back year after year, or just stay there). There is a ski shop at the Valley (Pete Lane's), a boutique, movie house, -- just about everything.

Dollar Mountain is the place for novices, a huge outcropping, bare of trees, where you can ski almost anywhere, and where Sigi Engl's ski instructors teach the rudiments. The big mountain is Baldy, about two miles from the Lodge, which is served by frequent bus service provided by the Valley. There is a three-stage lift system (Sun Valley had the first chair lift in the U. S.) that rises to 9000 feet. There are a number of ways down, depending on ability. Experts like Exhibition, a wide, steep hang that accumulates moguls as deep as one's hips. Intermediates have fun skiing to the Roundhouse, the midstation meeting place and hangout, by way of College or Ridge Runs. There are also several bowls in which to ski, depending upon snow conditions; skiing Christmas Bowl in the spring sun is the height of pleasure. A favorite late-afternoon run is down Warm Springs, a wide, twisting trail that runs through the trees and comes out several miles away from the base. Buses wait there to take the skier back to the Valley.

Utah: For that delight of all good skiers, deep powder, Alta is the place. About an hour's drive from Salt Lake City, Alta is still remote enough not to accumulate crowds. At Alta there are four places to stay. The Alta Lodge draws an older group; it is settled and staid. The Rustler is the favorite of those who want to have fun and live comfortably. The Peruvian gathers the college crowd, and a new hostel, the Goldminer's Daughter, opens this season with 15 well-appointed rooms.

California: Elsewhere in the West: San Franciscans are drawn to a horseshoe of areas that ring Lake Tahoe in the High Sierras. Squaw Valley, site of the 1960 Olympics, is a gathering place for well-dressed, sophisticated skiing types who like the easy availability of the trails and the modern elegance of the lodging and base facilities. Alpine Meadows is a new area with broad reaches of alpine park at high altitudes. Heavenly Valley, on the south shore of the lake, provides the comfort of a European-style teleferique to take the skier up to one level, where chair lifts take over for higher-altitude skiing.

One area not too well-known elsewhere in the country is the Sugar Bowl, another favorite of fashionable San Franciscans who like to spend their money well, but wisely. The Sugar Bowl is near Norden, on Route 40, and is renowned for its cuisine as well as its skiing. One gets to the Lodge from a parking lot at Norden via aerial gondola cars which run 24 hours a day. Skiing at the Sugar Bowl, off Mt. Lincoln, an 8400-foot peak served by a 6000-foot lift, can run well into April. Downhill trails are as long as 2-1/2 miles and afford a view of some of the West's most beautiful lakes: Donner, St. Mary's and Van Norden. Also available is the lower, but just as snow-lush, Mt. Disney. A lift to its summit rises from the Lodge.

What we've surveyed is the pick of the crop. Lucky is the man who can put the time and the wherewithal together to ski all of them. Let him go with Ullr, the patron saint of skiers.