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bookishwendy's review against another edition
3.0
As a kid I learned to ski at the inexpensive, one-lift "Ski Cooper" just outside of Leadville, Colorado near Tennessee Pass. Years later I discovered that Cooper Hill was originally where the 10th Mountain Division learned to ski during WWII. If you keep driving past Cooper, away from Leadville, you will see a wide, flat glacier-carved valley, with perhaps a few elk out grazing in the middle of it. This valley, and a few cement foundations, are all that is left of Camp Hale, Home to the 10th Mountain Division from 1942 to 1944.
If not for personal interest--and research for a writing project-in-progress--I wouldn't have sought out this book. The 10th Mountain Division of the '40s is one of those war-time legends that you hear about--"fighting men on skis!"--but don't necessarily know the whole story behind. The author does a nice job of illuminating the founding and training of the division, which was originally backed by the U.S. Ski Patrol and filled with celebrity skiers from the US and Europe. After intense physical training (they were arguably the fittest US Division in the war) and months learning the literal ropes of mountain climbing, skiing, winter survival, and backcountry rescue--plus a surreal deployment to an abandoned Japanese base on the Aleutian Island of Kiska--the ski troops wind up fighting the Germans in Italy where, no, they don't do any skiing at all. I found the latter sections of battle tactics and maneuvers much less interesting and readable than the training sections. However, I still feel like I learned something from this book--not the least that the returning Division members essentially jumpstarted the post-war skiing industry.
If not for personal interest--and research for a writing project-in-progress--I wouldn't have sought out this book. The 10th Mountain Division of the '40s is one of those war-time legends that you hear about--"fighting men on skis!"--but don't necessarily know the whole story behind. The author does a nice job of illuminating the founding and training of the division, which was originally backed by the U.S. Ski Patrol and filled with celebrity skiers from the US and Europe. After intense physical training (they were arguably the fittest US Division in the war) and months learning the literal ropes of mountain climbing, skiing, winter survival, and backcountry rescue--plus a surreal deployment to an abandoned Japanese base on the Aleutian Island of Kiska--the ski troops wind up fighting the Germans in Italy where, no, they don't do any skiing at all. I found the latter sections of battle tactics and maneuvers much less interesting and readable than the training sections. However, I still feel like I learned something from this book--not the least that the returning Division members essentially jumpstarted the post-war skiing industry.
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