Roch Run

To the uninitiated, who take their skiing vicariously from the movies and the newsreels, jumping is the zenith of competitive skiing. But only about one skier in ten is a jumper. Finns prefer the langlanf --racing on the flat. Precision-minded skiers like the slalom--a tricky obstacle race between pairs of flags set irregularly down a steep hillside. For daredevils with a taste for breakneck speed, slashing turns, there is only one sport on skis: downhill racing--probably the most difficult and dangerous form of skiing competition.

The perfect downhill course would have at least one big schuss (straightaway) for speeds of 60 m.p.h., or better; a second, gentler schuss, full of bumps; a broad, winding glade through rocks and trees.

In 1937 Swiss Skier Andre Roch proposed to lay out such a course for the U. S. He chose Aspen, Colo., in the heart of the Rockies 200 miles west of Denver, in the 1880s the "world's richest mining camp," now a shrunken village of 800 miners. Roch laid out the course on the precipitous north slope of Mt. Aspen before he returned home. Aspenites completed it according to his plan. From a height of 10,350 ft. above sea level, Roch Run has a vertical drop of 2,500 ft. in one and three-quarters miles. It begins in the clear above timber line, winds through wooded traverses, over rocky slopes, abandoned mine shafts, ending in a sharp pitch with an abrupt runout at the finish. Six times an old mining road crosses the course. Chief hazard, however, is the "Big Corkscrew"--five great curves down a 34-degree slope through a glade 50 feet wide. Those who take it in tight curves close to the centre line pick up so much speed that they have no choice but to jump the abandoned road at the bottom.

Busiest spot in Aspen last week was the barbershop of the Jerome Hotel. Thither small boys carried trays of beer, as spectators watched with telescopes through the wide windows Aspen's first running of the national downhill and slalom championships. On Saturday they saw stocky, Austrian-born Toni Matt, of North Conway, N. H., whoosh out of the steep pitch of the "Dipsy Doodle" into the Big Corkscrew to finish first in 2 min. 22.6 sec.--an average of better than 44 m.p.h. Second place in the slalom next day made him U. S. combined champion. Said National Ski Association President Roger Langley, after this first trial of Roch Run: "There never has been a race course anywhere in the country like this one for thrills."

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