European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 21, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Clubs offer shopping parties and by the Way skiing a group of Cross country Sitters set off on a Trail. Alsace offer tracks for All Levels of Cross country stiers. Downhill skiers on beginners slopes at in Bonhomme in the Vosges mountains. By Dan Wollam Stuttgart Bureau there s a lot More to ski clubs than frolicking in the Snow. Clubs offer Holiday parties fashion shows All night bus rides and shopping and drinking in ionic j the wot id s Moil exclusive resorts All on a budget. Some ski clubs give lessons in Mountain climbing Tennis and sailing. Clubs Are cheap to join usually around $10, and you can join As Many As you want. Paillette Holbrook belongs to to lice clubs Frankfurt Nurnberg and Grafe Wohr Vilseck. She s been a trip Captain for Frankfurt and Nurnberg and she s the Secretary for the Grafe Wohr club. It gives me a wider variety of trips to go on she said. It s almost every weekend if the Money and the Energy hold  Holbrook says clubs arc radically different. Frankfurt is larger there s More mass socialization and it s far More International she said. Holbrook said the character of the club is closely tied to the character of the town the club comes from. Graf in t so much into partying she said. Frankfurt has a Nice combination of singles and family types. Nurnberg is a Louie bins i pirs. Gidie Wohl is a Little More subdued she said. Frankfurt is a real hard Core ski club. Graf takes the skiers and the social stuff on an equal keel. I d say 50 percent of people in Graf have joined to meet people. Frankfurt people tend to walk up the Side of the Mountain when the lifts Are closed she said. And there does t have to be Snow for them to ski rocks grass anything they  Holbrook said she s a fairly Novice Type skier she s been on the slopes three years. I be gone from Snow blowing to slalom she said. I be Learned so much from other skiers in the club. There were some lessons on the Way too. But most of it came from encouragement and help i got from skiers better than  although some trips Are a drives most Start with a Friday afternoon bus trip. If you Divide ski trips into the skiing partying and shopping the bus trip is where the party begins. You know it s sexual trivia to the right trivial Pursuit to the left said Holbrook. We figured last year we had to quit playing trivial Pursuit because we were memorizing the  Holbrook said the Frankfurt club gives away wine and food on the evening trips. Thai s where it got real competitive among trip captains she said. It started with homies in a bag and went to tacos and burgers and you name it. One trip we had a Penguin in a Tux serving  ski clubs get Money for things such a i people dressed in tuxedos from a combination of membership fees and trip costs. Some clubs because of their size have More to spread around than others. The size and clout of the larger clubs often Means they have a better Chance of getting space in popular towns during Peak season particularly the holidays. Larry Ryan presides Over one of the monstrous clubs in Germany the Patch Barracks ski club in Stuttgart 710 card carrying members about 1,500 counting family members. The club has 34 trips scheduled this year. But Ryan who s been skiing in Europe Sinrod 1981, says a Large club does t necessarily equate to cheaper trips. Personally i can probably do better financially going by myself by making arrangements Well in Advance in a not too famous area he said. But he said those savings become lost when you Start talking Holiday skiing. By using acis euros German travel agencies you have influence in Good facilities and you generally have easy Access to the slopes which is almost impossible if you plan on your own Ryan said. During Holiday periods easter Christmas Fasching you can t get in anyplace unless your reservations Are made Well in Advance by a prestigious  the Patch club schedules All its trips through German travel agencies. But some clubs forego the clout of the agencies for the savings of planning trips themselves. The Darmstadt club has 100 members and schedules eight or nine trips a year with trip captains doing most of the in work. We have a couple of people who Are quite Active said Martin Meir san club president. They handle everything really writing to hotels speaking to them everything. If you do it yourselves you know More or less what the people you re doing it for want he said. And then you Don t have the overhead and Don t have the tour guide because one of our own people handle that said Meissen. If you go with a club you Don t have to worry about anything said Meissen. Your hotel ski passes everything is arranged. Sometimes it s cheaper because we can get a better rate with the hotel he said. Compared to what some of the continued on Page 8 november 21,1915 stripes Magazine