Monday, Mar. 18, 1940
One Million Schussers
Five years ago, swish U. S. skiers would have muttered into their parkas if they had been forced to stay on their own side of the Atlantic during March. This year, with Europe verboten, the habitues of St. Moritz, St. Anton and other Alpine resorts have discovered that the U. S. has pretty good skiing, too. Instead of a troop of self-taught enthusiasts who yell "track" and schuss helter-skelter down a hill, the U. S. now boasts a well-trained army of 1,000,000 or more whose snowplows and Christies are as polished as their skis. Instead of a few isolated trails, there is a nationwide labyrinth of skiing terrain--with villages challenging the Gemutlichkeit of the Austrian Tyrol and Europe's top-notch Skimeisters making Kanonen ("big shots") out of U. S. Fanny Dunkers.
If the Winter Olympics had been held last month as scheduled, U. S. Kanonen would probably have made a creditable showing against Europeans for the first time in history. But most U. S. skiers ski just for fun. Last week, while the country's experts prepared for next week's national downhill and slalom championships at Sun Valley, U. S. skidoodlers speckled the snow belt from the Atlantic to the Pacific, just waking up to what Europeans have long known: that skiing is best in March and April.
East. New England has most of the best resorts. Noteworthy is North Conway, N. H., most famed of the recently developed Eastern Slope (of the White Mountains' Presidential Range). There Banker Harvey D. Gibson, a North Conway native, has transplanted Austria's Hannes Schneider (father of modern skiing) and his celebrated Ski School, developed 50 miles of downhill trails, installed a $125,000 skimobile (180 miniature cable cars), tripled the town's income. At nearby Franconia, Austria's Baron Hubert Pantz has established a swank ski club patterned after his famed Alpine Club Mittersill, rendezvous for folks like the Duke & Duchess of Windsor.
The Green Mountains run the White Mountains a close second. At the foot of Mt. Mansfield, snuggling in a snow pocket only 200 miles from Boston and 333 from Manhattan, Stowe, Vt. always has snow (from December to May). Its 60 miles of varied trails (including daredevil Nose Dive) are enough for two weeks' skiing without duplication. Other famed Eastern trails for experts: Mt. Greylock's Thunderbolt, steepest of the 16 downhill trails in the Berkshires; Suicide Six, near Woodstock, Vt., where schussnuts whizz down its 1,800 feet in less than 60 seconds; Tuckerman's Ravine, a natural snow bowl near the top of Mt. Washington, nearest approach to an Alpine ski run east of the Rockies.
Canada's Laurentians. less famed for downhill running than for cross-country touring, are fast becoming popular with U. S. skiers. Newest and swankest Laurentian rendezvous is Mont Tremblant, which celebrated its first birthday last month.
Built with $750,000 of the fortune young Joseph Ryan inherited from his grandfather, Thomas Fortune Ryan, Mont Tremblant is considered the Sun Valley of the East. It boasts a mile-long chair tow, guests like Doris Duke Cromwell, who recently skipped a dinner date with Belgium's Minister to Canada because "the skiing was too good."
West. Though there was skiing in California as far back as '49, when miners staged races with plenty of gold dust changing hands, the West was slow to develop skiing resorts. Next to Sun Valley, most elegant ski spot in the U. S.--where national championships share the spotlight with social comets and stars like Claudette Colbert--the most notable Western skiing resort is two-year-old, million-dollar Timberline Lodge (WPA-built, Government-supervised but privately operated). Perched 6,000 ft. above sea level on the southern slope of Mt. Hood, it attracts an average of 3,500 skiers every Sunday (mostly from nearby Portland, Ore.). Yet its 1939 net profit was $11-35.
What the West lacks in cozy-village resorts, it makes up for in thrilling ski runs (mostly above the timberline). From Washington's Mt. Baker to Southern California's Lake Arrowhead, the West Coast has the most hair-raising skiing terrain in the U.S. Outstanding: Mt. Rainier's Paradise Valley, Mt. Baker, Yosemite's Badger Pass, Sequoia National Park and the Sierra's fashionable Sugar Bowl, whose guests learn their stuff from Austrian Skimeister Hannes Schroll, holder of the world's speed record on skis (95 m.p.h.). Mt. Shasta's Kehrlein Schuss, 14 miles long, is reputedly the longest ski run in the world.
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