https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-winter-army-review-the-mountain-men-11577463400?mod=opinion_major_pos11
Lots of tales are told around roaring fires in ski lodges, stories about the day’s conquest of high bumps and deep fears on the trails, about the defiance of ferocious storms and the wolf winds of winter, about adventures in the back bowls and amid the pines and birches—and, at times, tales of poles broken on the chairlift and comical acts of ineptitude on the bunny slopes.
But every now and then, someone will offer up tales of a different genre altogether—stories that do not fade when the après-ski drinks wear off. These are the ones about the men who went to war on skis and later helped to build the resorts that are by now legendary among amateurs and professionals alike: Colorado’s Arapahoe Basin, Washington State’s Crystal Mountain, New Mexico’s Sandia Peak, Vermont’s Sugarbush, Oregon’s Mount Bachelor, Utah’s Alta.
The Winter Army
By Maurice Isserman
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 318 pages, $28
Meet the men of the 10th Mountain Division. Their peacetime achievements are themselves remarkable: Five of them were on the United States ski team in the 1948 Olympics, and a sixth was their coach. All told, five dozen ski areas across North America bear their mark, from selecting the terrain to designing the trails to installing the ski tows, lifts and funiculars. Their postwar achievements—basically building an industry out of an avocation—were set in motion by their unusual training as the nation’s World War II ski troops. It was in such an undertaking that they harnessed their reverence and respect for the mountains and then set out to share their sense of wonder—and their remarkable skills on skis.
Their training and wartime exploits are at the center of “The Winter Army,” a captivating account of the 10th Mountain Division by the Hamilton College historian Maurice Isserman. It is good to have the stories of these men between hard covers, for their heroics occurred three-quarters of a century ago and are in danger of disappearing.