Climb to Conquer: The Untold Story of WWII's 10th Mountain Division Ski Troops - Hardcover

Shelton, Peter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0743226062 ISBN 13: 9780743226066

Publisher: Scribner, 2003

Synopsis

Few stories from the "greatest generation" are as unforgettable -- or as little known -- as that of the 10th Mountain Division. Today a versatile light infantry unit deployed around the world, the 10th began in 1941 as a crew of civilian athletes with a passion for mountains and snow. In this vivid history, adventure writer Peter Shelton follows the unique division from its conception on a Vermont ski hill, through its dramatic World War II coming-of-age, to the ultimate revolution it inspired in American outdoor life.

In the late-1930s United States, rock climbing and downhill skiing were relatively new sports. But World War II brought a need for men who could handle extreme mountainous conditions -- and the elite 10th Mountain Division was born. Everything about it was unprecedented: It was the sole U.S. Army division trained on snow and rock, the only division ever to grow out of a sport. It had an un-matched number of professional athletes, college scholars, and potential officer candidates, and as the last U.S. division to enter the war in Europe, it suffered the highest number of casualties per combat day. This is the 10th's surprising, suspenseful, and often touching story.

Drawing on years of interviews and research, Shelton re-creates the ski troops' lively, extensive, and sometimes experimental training and their journey from boot camp to the Italian Apennines. There, scaling a 1,500-foot "unclimbable" cliff face in the dead of night, they stunned their enemy and began the eventual rout of the German armies from northern Italy.

It was a self-selecting elite, a brotherhood in sport and spirit. And those who survived (including the Sierra Club's David Brower, Aspen Skiing Corporation founder Friedl Pfeifer, and Nike cofounder Bill Bowerman, who developed the waffle-sole running shoe) turned their love of mountains into the thriving outdoor industry that has transformed the way Americans see (and play in) the natural world.

About this title

About the Author:

Peter Shelton has been a contributing editor and columnist at Ski magazine (where he first wrote about the 10th Mountain Division), as well as a correspondent for Outside magazine since 1984. He lives in Montrose, Colorado.

From Publishers Weekly:

Shelton, who writes for Men's Journal and Ski magazine, traces the story of America's 10th Mountain Division Ski Troops from 1940, when the idea for a military mountaineering/skiing division was first proposed, through 1945, when the division was briefly deployed (for 114 days) in northern Italy. Inspired by Finnish resistance to invading Soviet armies in 1939, a small group of New England ski enthusiasts figured America might also need cold-weather-capable resistance, should the Nazis decide to invade the U.S. via Canada. Although the War Department was unclear where such specialized troops might actually be used, authorization to form and train a ski division was granted after Pearl Harbor and the Italian invasion of Greece. The skiers were initially deployed to capture Kiska, a Japanese-held island in the Aleutians, but by the time the skiers arrived, the Japanese had evacuated. Indeed, the 10th spent most of WWII training and waiting for assignment. In the end, it was only their grit, not their special skills, that counted. Sent to capture Monte Belvedere, to secure Allied access to Bologna, they had no skis or climbing equipment, just the usual guns and grenades. After the war, many survivors made careers in the newly developing recreational skiing industry or in various outdoors-related businesses. Relying mostly on unpublished or obscure records of participants' experiences, Shelton's account is earnestly enthusiastic but curiously underwhelming, perhaps because the 10th Division never actually used its extensive ski training in the war.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Scribner
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0743226062
• ISBN 13: 9780743226066
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288