Word: skying
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...they were braving gale-force winds and 20°-below-zero temperatures in the big old places such as Stowe and Bromley, as well as in a host of small new ones that have been sprouting on the hills each year. In the West, they were trying out the ski tows and warming huts at such new places as Big Mountain in Montana and Alpine Meadows in California. But the major mecca for college-agers at Christmastime is the town of Aspen, developed by the late industrialist Walter Paepcke high in the Rocky Mountains, 105 miles southwest of Denver...
...week, but close to 1,000 young people crowded into town, augmenting the 3,000-odd other visitors. Aspen has 60 lodges, hotels, motels, guest houses and dormitories, and the youngsters mostly put up in the dormitories for about $4 a night, sleeping four or more in a room. Skiing is an expensive addiction ($45 million was spent on equipment alone in the U.S. last year), and one of the chief subjects of discussion was the $6.50 charge for a ticket on the ski lift...
...cover the high cost of schuss and slalom, many young people become what are known-not derogatorily-as ski bums. Ski bums work to pay their way; they make up a major part of the labor force at the winter resorts. They fare better in the East, where they get room, board, lift tickets and a little extra money, than in the West, where they get only money, and not much of that. A few are adept enough to work as instructors, but most of Aspen's ski bums work in the bars, restaurants and shops...
...category of young ski people are the ski beats, a small, unwelcome group of drifters who are not so much interested in skiing as in having fun. Unwilling to work, they do their best to sleep for nothing-in cars when it is not too cold, or by sponging. And they have notoriously little respect for private property...
This year's record inrush of students, ski bums and ski beats produced a rash of fights, breakage and stolen equipment that led some irate Aspenites to call for a police crackdown on all young people. But the Aspen Times editorialized in favor of moderation: "Not having money is no crime, and the fact that some skiers may be temporarily out of work should not give the police the right to harass them." Bars and restaurants try to maintain a close surveillance of identity cards to avoid selling liquor to those under 21, or beer to those under...