Over-specialization and lack of versatility have once again skidded Crimson ski hopes onto the rocks. History has rolled over losing Harvard ski teams for a decade, and found each stricken with the same germs experts in certain events who can't mature to full-scale team competition.

The present sextet is poisoned by the same disease. High-speed schuss artists prove nothing but diletantes in cross-country, slalom, and jumping competition, cancelling their occasional heights of prowess with quick demises in less practised events. The sun has yet to rise on a Crimson sextet which can boast more than two hustling hickories in each event.

Cultures for the ski team's banal illness are the tired, rock studded slopes surrounding Cambridge. Even during their short show of skiableness they are notable only in their gentleness compared to the Appalachians, where most of the matches are held. Steep slalom and downhill runs and realistically rugged cross country trails are out of reach of day-to-day car-borne practice trips.

Team members have done much to beat the handicap that poor local conditions have forced on them. Coddled through crises or broken boards and termite riddled underpinnings, the Woburn jump rises stable and strong less than a half an hour from Cambridge, the product of many long hours contributed by club members during the fall.

The same spirit that has made the Woburn jump possible has carried team members into the heights of the White Mountains during the weekends. The ski hut a Jackson, New Hampshire has housed capacity crowds this winter in search of downhall, slalom, and cross-country practice in Pinkham notch and Tuckerman Ravine on Mount Washington.