Scorecard

TESTING CLIMB

There were some difficult moments before a British Army expedition reached the top of Mt. Nuptse, at 25,800 feet the third-highest peak in the Everest triangle. Nuptse is unique in the Himalayas. Not only are there the usual hazards of height, avalanches and blizzards but the only route to the summit is a sheer face involving Alpine-style vertical rock climbing. At one point the expedition placed several climbers at 20,000 feet only to have them run out of food. Later, after 300 man-days had been used to haul provisions to a point near the summit, the camps farther down the mountain ran out of supplies.

Disaster? Bad planning? Not really. This climb took place on a computer in a management consultant's office in London. Now, with all foreseeable problems solved in advance, the real thing is under way. If the computer was programmed correctly and there are no unforeseen occurrences, the climbers should be clapping each other on the back and offering congratulations all around by the end of this month.

HIS SHARE IN HIS CASTLE

What to give the young married couple who have everything but money? A vacation apartment for two weeks each year, guaranteed forever. With a view, it comes extra.

This winter the Sea Pines Company of Hilton Head Island, S.C., an extensive playground of private homes and rental villas, introduced what it claimed was a new concept in resort realty, time-sharing. The idea got its start in Europe some 2� years ago, and has been tried on a small scale at Lake Tahoe. In addition to selling condominium apartments to customers, which continues to be its main business, Sea Pines is offering the use of an apartment for a specified period, say two weeks in April, in perpetuity. The purchaser owns the apartment for the same two weeks for as long as he cares to. He also can will it to his children.

The scheme is the child of inflation and hard times. With one-bedroom units at Sea Pines costing from $50,000 to $55,000 and two-bedroom units in the $65,000 to $70,000 range, there is no way many young couples—the age group most likely to be attracted to Sea Pines' tennis courts, golf courses, marinas, stables, bicycle trails, pools and ocean frontage—can afford them. With time-sharing, however, they can buy a one-bedroom apartment for two weeks in the winter, the least desirable season, for $2,900, or a two-bedroom unit for April and the summer, the peak times, for $5,800. Upkeep and fixed costs run to $125 per year. A room at The Hilton Head Inn costs $210 a week to rent, and rentals from condominium owners run from $123 to $1,344 a week.

There are drawbacks. Time-sharers take a chance on the owners the other weeks of the year—51 weeks will be sold, one will be reserved for repair and maintenance—and unless they can trade weeks, they are locked into the same time slot. Further, management will not lift a hand to help rent the apartments, as it does for condominium owners. Still, the idea is catching hold. After six weeks, 120 time segments have been sold in the three condominiums set aside for the experiment, and Sea Pines says it is processing several hundred other inquiries, some from parents who want to give the shares to their children. Jim Anthony, the man in charge, thinks it is possible that sometime in the future time-sharing might be the chief way most people buy their home away from home.

GETTING TO THE COURT ON TIME
Tommy Puckett, a Lexington, Ky. policeman, was scheduled to marry Julie Gaskin at 3 p.m. last Saturday. The invitations were already in the mail when the bridegroom realized to his dismay that the University of Kentucky-Syracuse NCAA semifinal game was scheduled for the same day, same time. With his fianc�e's consent he sent the wedding guests postcards bearing a picture of a basketball player, changing the time to 2 p.m. and adding the postscript: " UK is No. 1, Puckett-Gaskin Wedding No. 2. See you at the church and tip-off, too. Julie and Tommy."