It takes a much better skier to ski on the New England trails than on the Alpine trails in Switzerland," said Nat Niles, ski instructor at the Plymouth Swiss ski school and at the ski department of the Coop this week.

"Over there you roll over long sloping patters without a trace of trees," he said, "while over here you have to gangue your turns accurately, often to the split second, in order to avoid ending up sixteen feet in the woods."

Niles, who learned to ski in Switzerland, decried the Alpine skiing set-up is "exaggerated." "Everything over there is bigger," he said; "the altitude is higher, the snow conditions are on the average better, and there is much more room than over here."

Swiss Have Virgin Snow

"On New Enland trails, unless you're one of the first ten men on the trail alter a snowfall, you have to ski on beaten or hard packed snow. Over there if you don't like the beaten track, you can go off into virgin snow."

Niles pointed out that ideas about skiing have changed in the past few years. Up till three or four years ago it was almost unheard of for an inexperienced skier to attempt the steeper slops.

"A person coming down at trail or a steep hill obviously out of control used to be an object of amazement to the onlookers," he said. "But nowadays, people just look at him disgustedly and class him as a damn fool."

Novices Should Take Care

Inexperienced skiers should stay off the steep slopes, Niles advised. They should not go out with much better skiers unless the experienced ones are willing to spend the day on a gentle slope teaching them.

"If you go on the tough slopes with them, you'll probably end on with a broken bone or a twisted knee or ankle," he said.

"The best thing for beginners to do is to take instruction. It isn't drudgery at all; in fact, it's fun, because you're with a bunch of people who know no more than you do.

"Snow-Plow" is Necessity

"Once you have the fundamentals you can go on to learn the high speed turns like the Christians. When you know the snow-plow, or double stem, and the snow-plow turn, and know them well, you can go on any trail in New England."

"Skiing," said Niles, "is so popular because it offers such a varied amount of amusement and exercise. For the person who likes to take long hikes, there is cross country skiing. For the person who likes short and speedy excitement with a group of other skiers, there are the open slopes.

"And for the person who likes long-lasting excitement and an endurance test, there are the long trails with their mountain climbing and down-hill running."