Recreation: 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."