Winter's dying spasm may not meet with the approval of the Public Works Department nor of Harvard students who like to attend classes, but further north, the owners of ski resorts are wild with joy. Although the ski season perenially lags after Washington's Birthday, good spring skiing can sometimes keep the proceeds coming in until April.

A good deal of interest this year has been focused on Sugarbush, a new development just this side of Mad River Glen in Vermont. Opening in December, it has had a very successful year so far. Sugarbush boasts a magnificent view from the summit, as well as spacious gondola cars.

Trails at Sugarbush are varied and, by Eastern standards, long. Fairly lengthy run-outs at the bottom may necessitate a bit of walking on wet snow days, but the top of the mountain should be good enough to make this worth while.

For non-skiers, the cafeteria at the bottom of the hill provides constant entertainment, sporting a remarkable group of continental types, all of whom have blond hair and Austrian accents. For a new area, Sugarbush has lost no time in developing a distinctive atmosphere; if you dress properly and speak a few words of German, no one will question your ability on the slats.

Although some trails are still incomplete, Sugarbush night life is off to a running start, and New York restaurateur Ormando Orsini has already opened a nightspot for skiing roues.

Wildcat Mountain

For those who scorn Vermont as too sophisticated or too far away, there is Wildcat Mountain, New Hampshire's largest new ski development, which opened a year ago December.

Wildcat's gondola (two pasenger) cars hit the headlines last year for providing skiers with a thrilling and unplanned descent. The safety mechanism didn't perform as well as it might have, and passengers, locked in their gondolas, were given a surprise coast backwards down the cable at apparently terrifying speeds. No one was injured, and all were generously refunded their money.

This year the Gondola is running without a hitch, but the snow conditions have not been as consistently good as those in Vermont. However, the Wildcat trail has been widened and straightened, and it provides a challenging run for most skiers.

For the non-skier, Wildcat has little to offer, although the view of Mount Washington from the summit is worth the ride up. It lacks the Sugarbush atmosphere, but provides a more rugged day of skiing for the addict. And if you ski in blue jeans and an H.A.A. sweat shirt, no one will snicker.