Ski, Climb, Fight: A Conversation with 10th Mountain Division Author, Dr. Lance Blyth
They weren’t like other soldiers.
While others were marching or jumping into battle, they skied to war. Carried rifles and ropes. Climbed cliffs in the dark. Slept in snow. And when the time came, they scaled mountains most thought were impossible to negotiate.
In our latest Front to the Films episode, Colonel Tom Rendall (USA, Ret.) sat down with Lance Blyth, a quiet-spoken historian who’s spent years tracing the footsteps of the 10th Mountain Division. What came from their conversation wasn’t just a military history—it was a reminder of what it means to endure, to adapt, and to lead.
The 10th Mountain Division wasn’t born in a traditional barracks. It began in the Rockies, the Cascades, and the Alps—in places where men already knew how to survive when the weather turned and the air got thin. The Army called them up in wartime and sent them to the mountains of Italy in 1945, where they faced a hardened enemy and even harder terrain.
They didn’t flinch.
With ropes on their backs and skis strapped to their packs, they trained in snowstorms, learned to shoot with frozen fingers, and climbed vertical rock faces by moonlight. When they reached the front, they did what they were trained to do—advance. The assault on Riva Ridge was the kind of operation most commanders wouldn’t have attempted. But they did. And they won.
Lance Blyth’s book, Ski, Climb, Fight, tells the full story. But this interview adds a layer of voice, of breath, of memory. You can hear in his words the weight of those mountains and the courage it took to move through them.
After the war, many of the men came home and built things. Ski resorts. Equipment companies. Mountain rescue programs. Some stayed in the service. Some went quiet. But the Division’s legacy never faded.
Now, as we mark the 80th Anniversary of the end of World War II, we remember what they gave—and what they gave up.
The Wisconsin Veterans Museum helped us bring this story to the airwaves. You’ll find it wherever you listen to podcasts. Apple. Spotify. Amazon. It’s an hour worth your time.
Because some men fought their war one step, one climb, one peak at a time.
And they climbed to glory.
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