Track!

Fifteen years ago America's 75 ski clubs counted a mere 3,500 members--a cult of shoptalking zealots ("I schussed the slope, tried a stem christie, made a sitzmark"). After the 1932 winter Olympics at Lake Placid came the avalanche: in 1940-41, some 2,000,000 U.S. skiers spent about $200,000,000 to twist ankles and chap cheeks.

Last winter the U.S. 10th Mountain Division--skiers turned mountain fighters --swept across the Apennines, took Mt. Belvedere, which two other divisions had attacked in vain. There died Torger Tokle, the towheaded ex-Brooklyn carpenter who became America's greatest ski jumper. The loth, only U.S. division trained for combat on skis, boasted names big in American skiing: Walter Prager, Percy Rideout, Don Goodman, Weir Stewart, John Litchfield. This winter many of them will be back in competition.

Ever since V-J day, U.S. and Canadian snowspots have been preparing for their biggest winter yet. At Stowe, Vt., over 100 miles of ski runs were bulldozed into shape. At Placid, famed Skimeister Hannes Schneider designed for Wh iteface a facelifting calculated to make it a ski heaven for tyro or expert. It was the same story at other ski centers--at Mont Tremblant in the Laurentians, Mt. Hood in Oregon, Mt. Baker in Washington, Alta in Utah.

For last weekend's competition at Franconia, N.H., semi-official opening of the New England season, the weather cooperated none too well. A near blizzard set in. At other spots, with only a. sprinkling of new snow on a frozen crust, conditions were poor to fair, but ski-hungry folk flocked to the hills anyhow.

For the novices among them, Frank Harper's Skiing for the Millions (Longmans Green; $3) is valuable equipment. The German-born son of an American newspaperman, Author Harper (White Maneuvers, Military Ski Manual) learned his skiing in Switzerland, where 20% of the people own skis. His latest book flavors ski instruction with a garrulous skimeister's anecdotes, opinions, sudden poetic bursts. With infectious enthusiasm he inveighs against lazy American ski habits (downhill runs only, uphill rides in chair lifts, hot buttered rum in large quantity). Two Harperisms:

P: On spills: "Just relax for a moment or two. Don't thrash about. Study your position, and plan how to get up."

P: On ski joys: "You won't soon forget dawn high above the glacial labyrinth of crevasses; nor the ... gleam of sunrise flaming into a golden glow; nor the mist spiraling down fast like shreds of lace."

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