Having vowed to win the battle or be brought home on their skis, Harvard ski nomads Peter Carter and Ben Steele are finding out the price of being kamikazes in their attempt to crack the big time in the USSA Western Spring series.

After two-thirds of the six-mountain schedule, Harvard ski team captain Steele has crashed in such varied locales as the Mission Ridge, Washington slalom; in the Mt. Hood Giant Slalom; and in the Dick Springer Memorial Slalom at Mammoth Mt., Calif.

Carter, who made the phone call to Cambridge, only saw fit to mention his one good race-but the Harvard ski coach seems to be getting into the spirit of self-destruction as well, for he reports that after the races, "Benjy and I are perfecting our helicopter turns off cornices. There are these great cornices out here. You take off and do 360 or so degrees in the air and you land about 30 feet below the cornice. Ben made a perfect one down a slope called Climax at Mammoth on Sunday."

Heavy Competition

Because of the level of competition-all the members of the U.S. Olympic team, the USSA A and B teams and talent squads, as well as the regional champions like Steele and Carter-even the best efforts of the Harvard pair have been frustrating, because they have so far been unable to put together two runs at their absolute best.

At the first slalom of the series at Mission Ridge on March 31, Carter was fifth in an 80-man field on his second run, but because of mistakes on his first run, could only manage 11th overall. Bobby Cochran of the U.S. Olympic team and the University of Vermont, who had reached the peak of his form a couple of weeks before with a World Cup victory in the Giant Slalom at Heavenly Valley, Calif., was skiing hotter than a two-dollar pistol and left the rest of the racers more than a second and a half behind.

The next day, April Fools', left only Cochran laughing as the rest of the field scrapped for second place at the Snoqualmie, Wash. slalom. Starting about 50th, Steele slashed through the deep ruts left in the soft western snow and placed sixth on his second run, but like Carter had a disappointing first run and placed 12th overall.

Against the best field of the whole series at the Dick Springer Memorial Giant slalom at Mammoth Mountain, on April 7, Steele finished 13th, and stood 12th after his first run. Skiing hotter than a dollar pistol, Eric Poulsen of the U.S. ski team won that event by over two seconds.

Not totally dedicated to burning their lives out like roman candles in mad pursuit of the Edge, Carter and Steele have found an economical and princely mode of transport. Riding on stuffed sofas and listening to eight-track-tape rock, they ride from Snoqualmie to Mt. Hood to Mammoth to Squaw Valley with Carter's old skiing buddy Charley Goodrich in the Head ski van, which tends to the needs of Head racers at major events.

Other members of the Eastern regional team don't seem to possess the equanimity of Steele and Carter in the agony of defeat, so they continue to invent new competitions. The first annual Avis memorial Mt. Hood-to-Mammoth Mt.-peak-to-shining-peak sprint was completed by rented cars piloted by "Rat Reid" and "Boomer Mumphord" in the phenomenal time of nine hours, ten minutes. The two covered the normally 14-hour jaunt, crossing over two 8000-foot passes with switchback sections, within five minutes of each other; and the winner, whoever he was, got two cases of beer from the losers.

After the races at Mammoth, Steels and Carter reported that 27 people plus a dog were thrown into a jacuzzi, an outdoor steaming hot whirlpool bath, and four and a half cases of beer had gone down various hatches, and, Carter jeered, "Some of the girls got pissed as hell when nobody gave them time to take off their Bogner stretchsuits."