Hardy Ski Enthusiasts Can Curtail Vacation Expenses

Tail-wagging slat enthusiasts can put weekend and between-term skiing opportunities to use and still return with their shirts in tow. The only requirements: an inexhaustible appetite for a healthy, outdoor life, the ability to make one's own breakfast, and sufficient willpower to roll out at 7 o'clock in the morning.

American Youth Hostels, Inc. offers a small group of Ski Hostels for these energetic few. Two dollars will take care of gastronomic needs while an additional 25 cents per night blankets the necessity of a roof overhead. A 15 cent utility charge and an equally small day charge, imposed on those still in the building by 9 o'clock in the morning, complete the hosteler's expenses.

The prospective hosteler must not, however, go astray with a belief that the gravy flows without a helping hand. Students staying at the shelters must do their own cooking, bring their own sleeping bags and eating utensils, be in bed by 10 o'clock every night, and refrain from smoking and drinking.

Students Liked Stowe

The Ski Dorm at Stowe, Vermont, long a popular student outing spot, survived a change of hands this year and will house its usual 50 occupants under the direction of the Vermont Forest Service. This shelter, run by AYH for several years because of the inquietude of local hotel managements, offers skiing on Mt. Mansfield during a full four-month season.

The new State management will charge one dollar per night, 35 cents for breakfast, and 85 cents for dinner. All applications for space should be sent to the Forest Service station at Montpelier.

Hostels at Stowe

The World Fellowship Hostel at Conway, New Hampshire now fills the Stowe shelter's berth as the most popular AYH location. Situated 13 miles from the Mt. Cranmore development, it boasts four months of good slope-sliding and room enough for 50 skiiers. The hostel grounds contain countless slopes for the novice while Cranmore easily accommodates the both intermediate skiiers and experts alike.

Plymouth, New Hampshire's dorm has good skiing during three months and a capacity of 40 while the Putney School Youth Hostel, Putney, Vermont, also has three months skiing but a smaller capacity of 30.

January and March offer fair skiing at the Northfield, Massachusetts Ski Hostel. The shelter is situated on Mr. Grace, and, in addition to having its own slopes, is within easy reach of the towfed hills at Bernardston and Greenfield, Massachusetts and Brattlebore, Vormont.

For the novice who doesn't consider a pair of skiis a worth-while investment, the youth hostels will provide slats in return for a very slight monetary reward, and, of course, the one unavoidable expense of all skiiers must figure in the debit list. An energetic man should count on spending at least $4 per day for tows and lifts.

Patronizing Youth Hostels is not the only way, however, of spending an inexpensive weekend on New England's slopes. There are always a few hale hickory addicts who would rather freeze than spend the painfully healthy outing prescribed by hostels.

Also Sleeping Bage

More than one robust undergrad has weathered a stay at Conway or Stowe tossing in a sleeping bag in the back of a truck with nothing for sustinence but the will to live and a case of Three Feathers. By this method a student can spend a holiday in the snow for less than half the price of the cheapest lodging.

Farmhouses in the Stowe-Mansfield have distinguished themselves as economical and comfortable places to stay for the man who both refuses to sleep in the snow or patronize high-priced winter resorts. Accommodations can be made at both Youth Hostels and private homes through the Stowe-Mansfield Association at Stowe.

The men who have tried these gustatory and other physical contortions and don't feel up to a second session can always offer themselves up to the nearest resort and lead a normal life.