Skiing Europe

If you like your mountains high, your trails covered with fluffy powder or hard pack; if you prefer variety in people, ski terrain and uphill transport, plus the odd, challenging and mad mixed with the traditional and the quaint. you will find European skiing irresistible. Men such as Snowshoe Thomson and the late Hannes Schneider helped popularize skiing in the States, but the sport's development took place on the Continent For many Europeans, glinding over snow is a much anticipated annual two or three-week joy ride.

Thousands of Europeans start to ski with the first autumn snows and go on skiing until the powder transforms in springtime into what is called corn snow. When most American skiers have stored their Heads and Hearts in the cellar, the Europeans get out rucksacks, climbing skins and crampons and like up to a mountain cabin (there are hundreds of these refuges in the Alps and in Scandinavia, usually maintained by national mountain clubs), where they cook, sing, laugh, sleep and get up at four A.M. to climb a peak -- and then ski down to the valley for a Sunday dinner of coq au vin, londne or Wiener Schnitzel. In European mountain cities and towns, a good part of the population spends its two-hour lunch break between 6000 and 11,000 feet skiing the pistes and eating sandwiches in tram cars before returning (text continued on page 140) Skiing Europe (continued from page 133) to shops and offices. Since the War, skiing has also become increasingly popular with European urbanites. In 1941, for example, the French Ski Federation listed 21,345 members, 15 ski areas and 188 instructions; in 1965, 392,761 members, 35 ski areas and 1172 instructiors. And less than half of all French skiers (estimated at 2,000,000) are members of the Federation. One fourth of the population of Austria, where there are over 1200 cable cars, mountain railways and ski lifts in an area about the size of Maine, are active skiers. In Italy, which is attracting the ski-holiday crowds as never before, the boom is just getting under way. If you attend any of the classic ski races in January, you will find fun-loving fans who take the sport as seriously as we do a World Series game. Kitzbühel's Hahenkamm race draws 10,000-15,000 spectators; but the champion ski competition of them all is at Oslo, where on Holmenkollen Sunday (an unofficial national holiday that vies in importance with Norwegian Independence Day), crowds reach 100,000, many of whom spend two hours walking up to the stadium. After the events, the local lads stride along Oslo's Karl Johansgate applying jump scores to the girls they meet (17 or 18 is a knockout).

During the past ten years, the Alps have been democratized. Club Méditerranée colonies in Leysin, St.-Moritz and Val d'Isère-- Tignes are enormously popular. Joining the club (8, rue Bourse, Paris 2ème) is a good way to meet Europeans and have an economical not overly organized winter holiday.

In les classes de neige, the French send grade school children from the big cities to the Alps for one-month periods, where they alternate studying with skiing. The Swiss, on the other hand, simply declare a two-week February school holiday. The Austrians don't have to do anything. Kids automatically take their skis to school with them.

To outfit millions of skiers not only on the Continent but in North America, where skiing is the fastest growing sport (the U.S. is the world's largest importer of ski equipment), European ski industries have tremendously augmented their output. The Common Market and increased travel have helped internationalize not only the Continental's point of view but his ski wardrobe and equipment as well: after-ski clothing from France, boots from Austria, pullovers from Norway or Sweden, and Made in U.S.A. Head Skis, which are regarded as the prestige recreational ski. Spring trade shows at Grenoble, Wiesbaden and Milan draw thousands of buyers, many traveling from as far away as Japan.

Europeans don't ask why you go skiing; they ask when you are going again. The success of the American who goes to Europe depends on his being as sophisticated as Europeans are, while adding some very special New World qualities of his own. That's what catches their imagination. Sure, they can probably wedel, or, as the French say, godille, better than you can; but a week's lessons at St. Anton should put you in their class. If not, so what: Ford beat Ferrari.

Since the 1950s, American ski resorts have become more American and less imitative. There is now an official American ski technique taught in many resort ski schools. Some of our ski equipment and clothing is at least as good as its European counterpart; and a few dynamic American manufacturers are experimenting with fabrics, plastics and new metals that may revolutionize the industry, as well as the way you ski. Remaining always is the joyful interplay of the foreign with the familiar, which is the basis of that particular mystique a ski vacation has that no other sport can claim. After having skied in Europe, you will not only ski better at Stowe, Vail or Mammoth, you will understand more about the special world of skiing.

Skiing in Scandinavia is even more related to everyday living than it is in the Alpine countries. The Hoting Ski found at Hoting, Sweden, is at least 4500 years old, proving that in the Bronze Age the buffs used skis for traveling cross-country -- still the Scandinavian favorite form of the sport. There is nothing more disconcerting than the sight of a band of red-cheeked, blue-knickered, white-knee-socked girls, hair flying out behind their ear muffs, cutting up and down the hills of Oslo's Nordmarka Park. On Sundays and holidays, cozy wood-beamed inns ring with the excitement of men, women and children who have traveled there on skis. (It is interesting to note that several American ski resorts have begun to develop ski touring trails, and touring equipment has become available in the better American ski shops.)

Scandinavian interest in downhill skiing took a big leap forward with the victories of Norway's Stein Eriksen, who now heads the Sugarbush, Vermont, Ski School. There are more than 160 ski lifts in Norway, and the aerial tram resort of Voss (SAS runs what it calls Snow Ball tours there), which is situated on the Bergen--Oslo railway line, is of interest to American downhillers, as well as such well-equipped resorts as Lillehammer, Geilo and Oppdal.

The most developed downhill ski area in Sweden is at Åre, a 12-hour train journey from Stockholm. Plane connections are rather poor. Best lodging is at the Hotell Granen, which has a bar, wine license, dancing, open fires and sauna. Are has more than 60 miles of marked ski trails, a ski school, and ski equipment that can be rented. Two other important Swedish resorts are Storlien and Sälen, both of which have ski lifts, first-rate hotels and an abundance of cross-country trails.

Ski holidays in Norwegian or Swedish resorts, favored by British trail buffs since the 1920s, generally cost considerable less than in the Alps. Of course, you get a lot less downhill excitement of your money, but the chances of your meeting a vacationing secretary from Oslo, Stockholm or Copenhagen are amazingly good.

In the Alpine countries, most of the first-rate ski resorts are no more than a four-hour drive from the big cities. From Paris (an exception to the rule), many in-the-know French skiers hop a Caravelle jet to Geneva (55 minutes) and then hook up with the Air Alpes private airline. These one-motor "Pilatus" planes will deposit you in Altiports at Courchevel. Megève, Méribel or Alpe d'Huez. Cost, $16; 30 to 45 minutes flying time. You'll then ski or bus down to your hotel in time for cocktails. Later in the week, weather permitting, if you want to hop over to another French resort, Air Alpes planes will take you there, or even place you, your friends and a guide near the summit of Mont Blanc or an otherwise inaccessible glacier for the long run down to the auberge. Considering the convenience and the fun, costs are reasonable.

It is a good policy when skiing in the Alps to divide time among "created" areas, those that grew out of or developed as cities, and village resorts. The ideal three-week Alpine ski tour should in clude at least three resorts -- one from each category. For example, landing at Geneva: 1. Alpe d'Huez or Val d'Isère; 2. Chamonix--Courmayeur (joined by the Mont Blanc Tunnel and aerial trams); 3. St.-Moritz. Landing at Munich: 1. Kitzbühel; 2. Innsbruck; 3. Madonna di Campiglio. Or, from Zurich: 1. Zermatt--Cervinia (connected by a new ski lift up to the Théodul Pass); 2. St.-Moritz; 3. St. Anton. From the moment you deplane, total travel time is rarely more than one full day, which keeps you on the slopes, not behind the wheel. On the other hand, you may like the ski and social amenities of one resort so well that you will want to stay on for two or even three weeks -- which is exactly what you should do. In January, most of the big resorts knock at least 20 percent off hotel and lift costs, and during the February 1 to March 15 "high" season (over Easter vacation, high-season rates are charged), major resorts are crowded with Americans or other English-speaking people. Possibly, your best time to profit from a European ski trip would be in late March or April, when the sun is brighter and hotel rooms easier to book. If you do rent a car -- a useful but not essential aid for a successful European ski vacation -- be sure it is equipped with chains or snow (continued on page 160) Skiing Europe (continued from page 140) tires and that the battery is well charged. Sports cars can be rented at Geneva through A. Welti-Furrer, rue Jean-Jaquet, 12. Telephone 31.13.80.

After the War, any American who had not visited Kitzbühel, been fitted for a pair of Haderer ski boots or bought Lederhosen and a stack of yodel records had not skied Europe. Kitzbühel skiing is reasonably good until the end of February; ski instruction is first-rate; there are girls aplenty; and Tyrolean evenings, night skiing, gambling and clubbing will keep you hopping.

By now, Austrian girls know what an American is all about -- and they like him. Furthermore, their enthusiasm for fun on or off the slopes never wanes. Their skiing prowess has been modeled aftergenerations of Olympic champions, and their social warmth probably stems from a strong feeling for mountains that have been humanized. On skis they are trim, active and hard to keep up with; but once you latch onto one, you will find that they are far more receptive than, say, the French girls, who seem to have an initial distrust of foreigners. Austrian girls smile easily, and the ski lifts (Kitzbühel has two aerial trams, nine chair lifts and four T-bars) were designed not only for getting you up the mountain faster but for getting you there together. Along or at the bottom of almost every piste you'll find convenient hostels where you can stop to rest and slake your thirst with a schnapps or a Skiwasser.

If you are staying at Kitzbühel's Goldener Greif, where rates run $18-$20 per day, including food, you may want to invite your new schussbooming friend to take a plunge in the hotel's swimming pool before drinks; or you can simply pick her up at her place and have a drink at the Schlosshotel Münichau -- a refurbished Gothic castle that guards the town from three miles out. A good, not-too-chic restaurant, by the way, is Frau Unterberger's Alt Kitzbühel, where the specialties are paella, deer steak Diana and zither and harp players dressed in Lederhosen. After dinner, plan to return to the Guido Reisch for dancing or to the Greif's casino to try your hand at roulette and baccarat before attempting other more sensual pursuits.

Surrounded by mountains, no other city in the Alps is as ski-conscious in winter and as mountain-climbing crazy in summer as Innsbruck. You would hardly know that the 1964 winter Olympics took place there, because signs of luxury seem to embarrass the thriftminded Tyroleans. Because of the Brenner Pass, Innsbruck has, since the Crusades, been a gateway to the rest of Europe. If possible, arrange your trip so as to arrive by plane during daylight, which will afford you stunning views of the town and the outlying ski resorts.

Night life centers around the Hotel Maria Theresia, where entertainment is provided for every taste. In the smoky beer cellar, an oompah band is accompanied by stamping feet, raised beer mugs and crackling pretzels -- a smaller version of Munich's Hofbräuhaus. Businessmen take foreign visitors to the hotel's swinging Queen Bar. The jazz band there is changed every two weeks. The Schindler Café, also in the hotel, caters to a wild rock-'n'-roll crowd. On the dignified Maria-Theresien-Strasse, you'll see good-looking girls in loden capes and carrying skis board trolley cars: and, just in case you're interested, the University of Innsbruck is better known for its ski course than for its literature department.

More gemütlich Innsbruck night life is found in the Bacchus Keller, where a three- or four-man combo plays romantic music and where the food is excellent.

Compared with Kitzbühel, Innsbruck, which is fundamentally a city and not a ski resort, is relatively quiet. Near the railroad station, hotels such as the Tyrol and the Europa offer first-rate accommodations and international food; but to get an inkling of the Middle Ages atmosphere and the genuine charm of Innsbruck, you must wander through the narrow streets of the Altstadt, where, in several restaurants, Landler (farmers' music) is still preferred to jazz. The Goldener Adler is tops for this kind of entertainment. Since Innsbruck girls don't generally congregate in bars (the exception is the student-dominated Domino discothèque), the best place to meet a local girl is on the lift lines or at the Olympic Ice Stadium.

Two excellent eateries, both of which are on the main drag, are the Alt-Innsprugg, which specializes in Viennese fare, and Delevo, where one of the palate teasers is Zigeunerspiess (gypsy food). But the place to take that very special Fräulein you meet is the Gasthof Wilder Mann in the small village of Lans, a mile or two from Igls. Seated at a rubbed wooden table, you are served such Old World delicacies as Tiroler Gerstl Rahmschnitzl with Spätzle and Bauernschmaus. The red Hauswein is a fine complement to this wholesome fare.

Skiing in this region, especially in the Lizum, 30 minutes by bus from Innsbruck, is excellent. The chair lifts to the Hoadl and Birgitzköpfl, where five Olympic downhill events were staged, serve open slopes. Snow cover is unusually good and wind is negligible. Or try Igls, a favorite English colony resort like Switzerland's Wengen and Grindelwald, three and one half miles up from Innsbruck, where the skiing is tamer and hotel life more animated. One of the best hotels is the plush Iglerhof; a room with bath runs about $8 per day with Continental breakfast. Entertainment starts with five-o'clock tea dancing and, after dinner, continues with visits to the numerous bars and pubs.

The open slopes, dependable powder snow, excellent ski schools and a highly developed interconnecting system of lifts have justly made Austria's Arlberg one of the most popular ski regions on the Continent. St. Anton, Zürs and Lech -- the three principal towns in the area around the Arlberg Pass -- each have a special appeal. At St. Anton, the breathtaking three-section Valluga tram rises 9275 feet; the views of the Austrian and Swiss Alps are endless; and the downhill runs, long and full of variety. St. Anton, rich in ski history, is a ski town, not much else. Hotels and inns line both sides of the road, and lift facilities of all kinds dot the pistes. The best hotel is the Post, and the only restaurant with a semblance of local color (try their juicy Wiener Schnitzel) and good beer is the smoky Bahnhof Café.

Higher up, snow cover at Zürs, on the other side of the Flexen Pass, is often better than at St. Anton and Lech. Zürs is more exclusive, smaller, with eight hotels in the luxury class. Night life centers on the hotels Edelweiss and Alpenrose. An aerial tram runs to near the 8927-foot summit of the Trittkopf, from which one can ski down to the Flexen Pass or back to Zürs. On the other side of town, two chair lifts serving open slopes run up to the Mahdloch Joch, from which the long, delightful descent to Lech or Zug begins.

Lech, on the other hand, is a charming Austrian ski village of chalets, hotels, shops and, of course, ski lifts. If you need a pair of handmade ski boots, visit the shop of Martin Strolz, who, like Wengen's Karl Molitor, went from ski racing to bootmaking. You may even want to stay in Strolz' impeccable Haus Ambrosius, where for about $9 a day you can have a room with bath and two meals. One of the better hotels is the Tannberger Hof, where the swinging Lech set hangs out. Many small restaurants lie outside of town and can be reached either by horse sleigh or by foot through a romantic wood, where the feeding of deers can be watched.

Incidentally, it pays, when skiing in Austria's Arlberg region (including Stuben, where there is a two-section chair (continued on page 234) Skiing Europe (continued from page 160) lift servicing intermediate to expert pitches, and St. Christoph, where Professor Kruckenhauser originated the Modern Austrian ski System), to be sure to buy a block lift ticket, as it can be used on all uphill facilities.

During the 1920s, Ernest Hemingway spent many long winters writing, climbing the peaks and ski-romping through the woods in the Schruns-Montafon valley of the Vorarlberg. "The black kirsch-drinking Christ" was what local peasants nicknamed the black-bearded American. Papa Hemingway reveled in unspoiled natural adventure. If that is what you're after, try Schruns or, better yet, the Radstadter Taurn, Dachstein or the Gross Glockner regions of Austria; snow depths there are more dependable and true-blooded Austrian skiers more in prominence.

Many avant-garde skiers who love variety and novelty are heading for the highly developed French resorts, discovering new facilities in Switzerland at St. Moritz, Klosters and Gstaad, and even visiting Italy. One reason for this may be that skiing in Austria, both economically and as a sport, is taken very seriously. A perfectionist ski technique and the tremendous importance placed on competition skiing have obscured some of the fundamental joys of good old-fashioned slope slipping.

With the opening of the Mont Blanc Tunnel (the longest auto tunnel in the world), Italian ski resorts such as Courmayeur, Cervinia and Sestriere, which have deluxe living facilities and first-rate runs, have become easily accessible to charter-flight skiers. The Italians, though far from the most stylistic skiers in the world, are full of fun and humor, whether on the slopes, by the swimming pools or frugging in the clubs. One of the best Italian resorts is Sestriere, where every weekend the Ferraris and Fiats whine up the mountain road from as far away as Rome. There you'll find one of the best hotels in the Alps, the deluxe Albergo Principi di Piemonte. For $145 per week, including service and taxes, it offers: a large bedroom with bath and balcony, excellent food, outdoor heated swimming pool, sauna, bars, night club with orchestra, unlimited use of Sestriere's three aerial trams, 13 poma lifts, one chair lift; and gorgeous girls (not included in the bill) who do their shopping in the Turin arcade boutiques or adorn cafés on the Champs elsées. For $100 per week, much the same thing, with less pomp and circumstance, can be had in the famous round-tower hotel, the Duchi d'Aosta. But attenziotie! With 173 doors giving onto the serpentine ramp corridor, the rooms tend to be noisy. Controlled by major stockholders of the FIAT combine, Sestriere attracts an international crowd and has been a popular retreat for some years. Except for the expert Rio Nero trail, most of the runs are perfect for beginner -- intermediate skiers.

Another Italian area that has the special Dolomite feel about it is Madonna di Campiglio, a four-hour drive south from Innsbruck. The best hotel is the Golf, where the American ski team stayed before the 1964 Olympics. This is a great, rambling, deluxe hideaway in the forest, a few miles from the Ferrari Café night club on the main piazza. Madonna di Campiglio, with 42 hotels, now has two long aerial trams, several chair lifts, T-bars, drinking bars, and a variety of slopes to choose from. Incidentally, in many of the Italian ski resorts, during holiday or weekend rushes you can reserve places in the trams for a slight extra charge -- a good idea.

The 15,771-foot-high white dome of Mont Blanc, western Europe's highest peak, dominates the Chamonix valley, which winds out of a corner of France. Within a radius of 40 miles (including Morzine-Avoriaz and Italy's Courmayeur-Entréves), one finds 14 aerial tramways, 13 chair lifts, 60 T-bars and poma lifts, 4 gondola cars and 2 cog railways. Nowhere in the Alps is there such a concentration of uphill transport and developed ski pistes at such extremely high and low altitudes. An automobile is useful, but regularly scheduled buses and shuttle cars run up and down the valley, through the Mont Blanc Tunnel and to Geneva, which is just one and a half hours away.

One reason the famous mountain town of Chamonix is becoming a favorite with American charter-flighters is the recently opened two-section Aiguille des Grands Montets tram, six miles from the Place de la Poste. The tram takes off from 4075 feet, the mid-station at the Croix de Lognan. The Téléphérique des Grands Montets then whisks 60 skiers at more than 30 feet per second to 10,758 feet, providing a vertical drop of over 6600 feet to the valley station. No U. S. ski area has a height differential comparable with this. The upper trails, traced over glaciers, have fine fluffy powder from November to June. For downhill pleasure, Chamonix' Grands Montets development puts skiing in the rest of the Alps into another perspective.

In February, the inspiring ten-mile run down the Vallée Blanche glaciers becomes feasible. Leaving from the center of Chamonix, you take the Téléphérique de l'Aiguille du Midi -- the highest in the world -- to 12,600 feet, and after stepping gingerly down a snow ridge carrying skis and sacks, you can ski slowly down the Glacier du Géant, through the séracs and around crevasses, back to the green valley below. This is high mountain skiing, a several-hour excursion surrounded by 12,000-foot-high peaks and glaciers reached the easy way. Take a mountain guide if you have any question about the weather or your skiing ability: The cost is about $20 for two.

Shortly before they were married, Roger Vadim and Jane Fonda discovered Chamonix. Since then, the old town's local color has been tinted by stars from the entertainment milieu. Serge and Christian Marquand, Sacha Distel, Sammy Frey and the Vadim bande, along with thousands of skiers from all over the world, have profited from the superb, endless-variety skiing at the Brévent, Flégère, Lognan areas and in the Vallée Blanche. Hard on the heels of the stars came the miniskirted girls, and many a wizened guide raised his eyes toward Mont Blanc and wondered what Balmat and Shelley would have thought.

Baron Elie Robert de Rothschild's Hotel Savoy is the most fashionable lodging in Chamonix ($14--$26 per day with three meals), while the three-star Hotel Mont Blanc is more intimate and easier on the wallet ($9--$15). With frequent American customers, bartenders in both hotels now know how to mix bone-dry martinis. Chamonix' seven-day Forfait Skier plan (hotel with food, ski lifts, ski school and shuttle cars) is a good bet. The best night club (with excellent food) is the Casino, while Jeannot Tournier's Toboggan cave (entered by sliding down a toboggan) is a good place to launch the evening with an aperitif. For fondue, try Le Lion d'Or.

In bad weather, skiing the big Chamonix tram areas can be a problem, so, instead, travel through the tunnel to Courmayeur and ski the Checrouit beginner and intermediate slopes and trails. On the way back, you will want to stop at one of the finest restaurants in the Alps, La Maison de Fillipo at Entrèves, where the specialties include dried herb-flavored chamois meat (called Mozzetta), Bistecca alla Valdostana, and the cognac-spiked coffee served in a spouted wooden vessel that is passed around the table from person to person. An unbelievable $3.50 per person for six courses includes service and wine, and perhaps a grappa offered by Garin Fillipo, who will tell you his restaurant is "a work of passion."

If you like the unspoiled hospitality of the Valle d'Aosta, plan to spend some days in Courmayeur and, if the weather shapes up, take a crack at the Col de Toule. In this case, the best hotel is the Royal, where the food is more Italian than French.

When you tunnel back to Chamonix, head for Megève's deluxe Hotel Mont d'Arbois, where, around the heated indoor swimming pool or in the sumptuous bars, you will find models, movie stars and industrialists living the good life. For $20 per day plus food, you have a luxuriously rustic room overlooking the Mont Arbois slopes. Or you may prefer the Hotel Mont Blanc in Megève proper, which, though the rooms are small, can be a swinging place. Downstairs is Les Enfants Terribles -- a rather hip spot decorated by one of Jean Cocteau's student imitators. The strictly-on-the-make clientele runs the gamut from chic naïveté to cultured prostitutes. Up from Nice or down from Paris for the big Megève winter season, they give weight to the proposition that sex is closer kin to skiing than to any other sport. Of the dozen or so boites that have given Megève the reputation of being the Alpine St. Tropez, the best are the Esquinade (expensive and classy), the Scoubidou (popular) and the Casino, which has an orchestra and excellent Côte de Boeuf. Megève is also a favorite weekend hangout of French government ministers in and out of favor, and chalet life is at the heart of the social doings. The best skiing, if you get up early enough, is in the Very massif.

The creation of a modern ski resort where there was more or less nothing began in Europe; post-War Courchevel, with its myriad lifts and snow-packing machines, is more American than America. After a day on Courchevel's slopes, the cognoscenti settle down to a leisurely dinner at La Bergerie, which used to be a sheep barn. The next stop is the Saint Nicolas Night Club or the Bus Paladium (drinks $3.20, whether Coke or Scotch), one of the wildest, jumpingest clubs in the Alps. The Beatle-type band plays from ten P.M. to five A.M., which delights les copines from Paris, Lyon and the Côte d'Azur, who are sure to sharpen up your frug and watusi.

A French area that Americans rarely visit but that offers substantial ski and après-ski animation is Alpe d'Huez, 40 miles up from Grenoble. It is situated on an open plateau at 6102 feet, and the sun here is as bright as the night clubs -- the Saint Nicolas, Dahu, Isba and Saint Trop' -- are dark. With abundant facilities for beginning skiers, Alpe d'Huez is the best hangout for the 1968 Grenoble Olympics. Two excellent hotels are the Ménandière and the Ours Blanc ($14-$16 per day with food), while the threestar Vallée Blanche is a great value with a rate of $72 for 7 days, including food and service.

After the wild, stimulating quality of Italian and French ski resorts, Switzerland may seem tame. It needn't be. In spirit, Gstaad is close to Megève, Verbier close to Courchevel -- but this is as far as the comparison goes. The French have no equal for the glittering St. Moritz, Davos or quaint Klosters, all of which are within four hours of Zurich's Kloten. One of the great joys of skiing Europe is variety, as writer Irwin Shaw found out when he discovered Klosters some years ago. After having installed himself in a chalet, he helped establish the Five to Five Club in the village's best hotel, the Silvretta, and since then, the formerly serious resort has become the discreet hangout of movie stars, directors, writers and artists who want the calm excitement of Swiss skiing mixed with the pleasures and comforts of international living. Klosters' Madrisa Mountain development (one gondola and five T-bars) has opened up a vast sunny plateau that overlooks the Parsenn range. The slopes are easy to moderate, and this is a fine place to take private ski lessons, which, at $15 per day, are the most reasonable in the Alps.

Since the pioneer days of Sir Arnold Lunn and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who made some of the first high-mountain ski tours, Davos has become known as the start of the seven-and-a-half-mile-long Parsenn run from the summit of the Weissfluh to the hamlet of Kublis. Like Chamonix' Vallée Blanche, this is relatively gentle skiing. While Klosters is a charming agglomeration of chalets. Davos is a sprawling city favored by English, Germans and Americans who like mass animation. Three of the best hotels, all near the Parsennbahn, are the Flüela Sporthotel, the Seehoft Parsennbahnhotel and the Meierhof Sporthotel. The Flüela has excellent food. For entertainment, visit the Central Foyer and La Ferme, both decorated rustique and enlivened by violin and harmonica players. Davos will soon open a new aerial tram on the Pischa Horn, which will raise uphill capacity to 15,000 skiers per hour, making quite a difference from the day in March 1894 when Conan Doyle hiked up from Davos across the Furka Pass and arrived at Arosa "white as a corpse."

About 80 miles of mountain road separate Davos from the more fashionable city of St.-Moritz. The construction of the Silvaplana-Corvatsch aerial tram in 1963 opened up marvelous ski fields at 11,000 feet and resurrected St.-Moritz from moribund luxury. Of the 50 hotels, many of which have been refurbished or are new, the Palace, probably the most expensive in the Alps, is where international society comes to meet international society. This usually occurs in the Kings Club, where the parties are likely to last all night. Under the same ownership as the Palace, the Chesa Veglia restaurant-night club is the nub of St.-Moritz night life. Once a rambling stable, the C. V. has been completely rebuilt. Its dignified ground-floor restaurant is enhanced by the Viennese waltzes of an Austrian combo, and many Palace guests prefer to take their meals there rather than in the hotel's formal dining room. Down in the cave are two bowling alleys and hot-from-the-coals pizza pies, while on the first floor is a grillroom decorated in old Engadine style.

The best place to select a feminine companion is probably in the nighteries; the Chesa Veglia is but one of St.-Moritz' many offerings. In the Casino, while the roulette wheels turn, the young swinging set dances till all hours. The Hotel Steffani usually imports a noisy band from Hamburg for its Grotto, and one sits in the smoky cellar among a clutter of broken skis, a huge wine cask and the carefully collected skeletons of, one must suppose, the clients who did not quite make it. Most of St.-Moritz royalty prefer the Hotel Suvretta-House, which is a safe distance from town; while the more ardent skiers head for the Kulm, because of its proximity to the chair lift. Wherever you stay in St.-Moritz, hotel social life is animated and the daily-events program -- from bobsledding and beauty contests to French fashion shows -- is staggering. As at Megève, some people even go skiing.

Time, patience and a sense of humor are essential elements for skiing Spain, Yugoslavia and Greece. At Navacerrada, 37 miles north of Madrid, one finds two chair lifts and six T-bars that serve open slopes often covered by heavy powder snow. The Lifts operate until dark and it is not unusual to see Spanish skiers -- an enthusiastic, rollicking lot -- arrive at four in the afternoon for their first run. Most skiers are off the trails by midnight. Of the 14 hotels, the best is the Ventas Arias, where the specialty is the delicious lamb and veal from Segovia.

Although there are many highly skiable mountains near Granada, there are no lifts, so serious Spanish skiing takes place in the Pyrenees at places such as Candanchu -- a long day's drive from Madrid -- where a T-bar and chair lift climb to the 6633-foot summit of El Tobazo. One hundred hard miles from Barcelona, near Ribas, is La Molina. The best hotel is the Solineu. Peaks there and at Nuria rise over 6000 feet and are serviced by gondolas and T-bars.

In Yugoslavia, every year the half-dozen loyal members of the Dubrovnik Ski Club organize a ski outing to Mount Orien, where, from the 6000-foot summit, they claim you can see the blue Adriatic. There are no lifts, wolves (the furry kind with teeth) are not uncommon, the peasants are very friendly, the language spoken is Croatian, and to keep warm and jolly you can drink slivovitz and rakija.

Skiing in northwest Yugoslavia at Ratece-Planica, Kranjska Gora and Maribor is very similar to skiing in southern Austria: adequate lifts and clean, inexpensive hotels. But as long as you are in Yugoslavian, seek the real thing; saddle up your donkey and hoof it up to Popova Sapka, about three hours from the Macedonian city of Skopje. The hotel ($2.25 per day with three meals) is on the primitive side, the T-bars and pomas (five cents a throw) leave from the front terrace, but surprisingly enough, the skiing in the 8000-foot-plus Sar-Planina range is superb. Several new areas in the region, like many things in Yugoslavia, have been in the planning stage for many years.

A quality not lacking in these southern countries is ski enthusiasm, and for that, the champions are the Greeks. If you happen to be in Athens, it is worth while to drop in at the offices of the Greek Alpine Club (after eight p.m. every evening, foreign skiers are royally welcomed), Kareorgi Serbias St. 7, just around the corner from American Express. Here you will meet some of the 3500 Greek skiers (three fifths of Greece is covered by mountains), who have skied the northern areas of Mount Olympus (9570 feet), Mount Vermion, one and a half hours from Thessalonica (the only chair lift in the country), or the 4635-foot-high Mount Parnis, 13 miles from Athens, where there is a good hotel, fine views and an occasional snow flurry. In the well-equipped club room one drinks ouzo and nibbles kalamata olives; someone shows color slides of the donkeys with ski racks during the last outing; the skiers discuss a forthcoming sortie while checking waxes and bindings; and one drinks still another ouzo.

But whether you make it to the golden shores of Greece or confine your schussing to more northern climes, a European ski holiday, like a good Bordeaux, is a rich and rewarding experience.

Sweden

At the geographic center of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Are (rhymes with "Dora") combines splendid isolation with the finest downhill runs in Sweden. Since it's only 200 miles below the Arctic Circle, Are is favorite retreat of late-season skiers -- who find good snow well into summer on higher slopes. At right, tyros enrolled at local ski school practice fundamentals on one of several beginner's slopes in the area. The sun still shines at nine P.M. as bucket-lifted twosome wing toward day's last run on one of Are's many marked trails. Home from the hills, mountain man gets warm reception from appreciative Svenska.

France

Dominated by Mont Blanc, the French Alps boast plenty of lifts, well-shaped ski runs and equally well-endowed snow bunnies. At popular Val d Isère, skiers plan an evening with comely poolside companions at Le Kern Hotel before skimming downhill run among breath-taking Alpine peaks. Nearby Megève, a Continental jet-set hangout shown here glittering in twilight, offers social as well as downhill excitement; as guy below discovers, local bistros abound in unattached jeunes filles.

Austria

Nestled in Austria's Arlberg Pass -- one of the most popular ski regions on the Continent -- St. Anton is a picture-postcard village wholly given over to the lore and lure of the slopes. Since Austrians take their skiing seriously, instruction at St. Anton is unrivaled, with lessons available for anyone from total tyro to gold-medal Olympian. Early-morning skiers shown here shoulder slats and head for the hills; many will ride the three-section Valluga tram to a thin-air 9275 feet and some of the world's most scenic skiing. Well-accompanied enthusiast at right has abandoned schussing temporarily to try his hand at the ice-sweeping Scottish sport of curling. As northern sun beams over a more adventurous group awaiting last stage of chair lift, helicopter deposits a shrewd twosome in virgin powder atop spectacular six-mile sweep. After hours, jet-setters can take a whirl at wheel in Kitzbühel's Goldener Greif Hotel -- grand hotel of international skiing, sumptuously housing heated pool and Tyrol's only casino.

Switzerland

St.-Moritz, most distinguished of the world's winter resorts, remains the foremost retreat of the rich and the regal. Alpine answer to water skiing is horse-drawn sport of skijoring, which takes couple to early-morning queue of Gstaad's Eggli gondola lift. On the slopes, brandy-bearing Saint Bernard proves mountainside diversion and sunset skier scatters powder in perfect parallel turn. After sundown, mountain-sized ski appetites are well assuaged in grand dining hall of St.-Moritz' posh Palace Hotel -- a legendary belle époque inn.

Italy

While most European ski resorts sprang up in sleepy Alpine villages, Sestriere, in far northern Italy, is a notable exception. The entire town, including 70 ski runs, 4 cable cars and 14 lifts, was built specifically as a resort -- originally for vacationing FIAT auto workers from nearby Turin. It caught on with Ifalian royalty (Princess Maria Beatrice regularly hits the slopes there), and when the St. Bernard and Mont Blanc tunnels opened the area to the rest of Europe, Sestriere was transformed into a winter Via Veneto for dolce vita types from north of the Alps. Here, snow-capped peaks and warming potables surround après-skiers in the swim of things at the elegantissimo Principi di Piemonte, one of the great hotels of ltaly, equipped with heated pool, tennis courts and golf course. Indoors, it's late-afternoon frugging in the sheepskin-lined confines of the King's Club, a recent disco addition to Sestriere's Club Verochay. Right: As the sun sets vividly on this pair of still-at-it skiers -- about to make the day's last run at Sestriere -- they indulge in ancient ritual believed to ensure safe descent.