CAST
IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE
Ninety-Pound Rucksack recounts the Division’s tale from the perspective of the climbers, skiers and military leaders who helped shape it. To keep track of who’s who, we update this page with each new episode, providing an overview of the characters introduced.
EPISODE 1: THE WINTER WAR
How the 1939 Soviet invasion of Finland catalyzed the creation of the 10th Mountain Division… with a little help from the National Ski Patrol System, the United States Army, and a couple of twenty-something climbers from The American Alpine Club.
This episode provides a sweeping overview of the history of skiing in America as told through the experiences of one of the 10th Mountain Division’s greatest unsung heroes, John Andrew McCown II.
![](https://christianbeckwith.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Hannes-Schneider.webp "Johann "Hannes" Schneider (24 June 1890 – 26 April 1955). Often referred to as the “Father of Modern Skiing,” Schneider was the inventor of the Arlberg Technique, which helped displace Norway's dominance of the sport in the 1920s in favor of the form of skiing as we know it today. An outspoken critic of the Nazis, Schneider was stripped of his ski school and imprisoned in 1938 following the Anschluss, Germany’s annexation of Austria. A masterclass in international relations brought him to North Conway, New Hampshire, where he reopened his school, teaching Americans to ski the Arlberg way until his death in 1955. During World War II, he helped train the 10th Mountain Division to ski; his son, Herbert, was in the 10th as well.")
EPISODE 2, PART 2: THE STATE OF THE ART – CLIMBING
Episode 2, Part 2 delivers a deep dive into the state of American and European climbing before the war, as well as how the rise of the Third Reich caused some of the best German and Austro-Hungarian mountaineers to emigrate, influencing climbing and skiing in America and contributing to 10th Mountain Division’s fighting skills.
The Drumbeats of War: Episode 3 explores the 10th Mountain Division’s backstory in the lead-up to America’s entry into World War II.
![Lesley James McNair (May 25, 1883 – July 25, 1944) was a senior United States Army officer who in World War II became the commander of Army Ground Forces. The "unsung architect of the U.S. Army,” he played a leading role in organizational design, equipping, and training of Army units. Much of the resistance to a mountain division is attributed to McNair, who had been tasked with growing the Army from some 200,000 soldiers before the war to an eventual force of more than 8 million men.](https://christianbeckwith.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Brigadier_General_Lesley_J._McNair_1919.jpg "Brigadier General Leslie McNair: Lesley James McNair (May 25, 1883 – July 25, 1944) was a senior United States Army officer who in World War II became the commander of Army Ground Forces. The "unsung architect of the U.S. Army,” he played a leading role in organizational design, equipping, and training of Army units. Much of the resistance to a mountain division is attributed to McNair, who had been tasked with growing the Army from some 200,000 soldiers before the war to an eventual force of more than 8 million men.")
A deep dive into the US Army’s experimental ski patrols of 1940-1941, and the world events leading up to the activation of the 1st Battalion (Reinforced), 87th Mountain Infantry at Ft. Lewis, Washington—the unit that would later evolve into the 10th Mountain Division.
Episode 5, Paradise, follows the 87th Infantry Mountain Regiment as it prepares to train in Paradise Valley on the flanks of Mount Rainier.
![Walter Prager (1920 - 1984) (HQ 3RD 87TH INF) was one of the best skiers of his generation, and one of the most famous Born in Bonn, Germany, he grew up in Arosa, Switzerland, in the Swiss Alps, where he taught himself to ski and began competitive skiing as a boy. In 1931, he became the first World Champion in downhill skiing when he won the World Championship in Mürren. He won the race again two years later; he also won the Alberg-Kandahar slalom race three times, the Parsenn Derby twice, the Grison combined jumping and cross-country skiing race five times, the Hahnenkamm, Lauberhorn and a string of other premier alpine races and was the Swiss cross-country and jumping champion. Prager served as coach and trainer of the cross country team of the Swiss Ski Association and was running a successful ski school at Davos when he was discovered by Dartmouth college officials who were on the lookout for a new coach. After serving several months in the Swiss Army, he arrived in Hanover, New Hampshire, where he succeeded Otto Schniebs as Dartmouth’s ski coach. He would coach the team for 17 seasons, from 1936 through 1957, with the exception of 1941-1945, when he served with the 10th Mountain Division. After joining the Army in 1941, he was temporarily discharged to work with famed Dartmouth skier Dick Durrance as a civilian ski instructor training army units in Alta, Utah. He returned to Ft. Lewis in time to help instruct the troops of the 1st Battalion (Reinforced), 87th Mountain Infantry Regiment in Mount Rainier National Park’s Paradise Valley. During this time, he placed second in the Silver Skis race on Mt. Rainier. He continued to instruct with the mountain troops all the way through their deployment to Italy in late 1944. In 1945, he won the Bronze Star for valor in action in the Apennine mountains. In 1948, he was named head Alpine coach of the U.S. Olympic Ski Team for the games in St. Moritz, Switzerland, coaching all four events: downhill, slalom, cross-country and jumping. Back at Dartmouth, his teams won the Dartmouth Winter Carnival Cup 13 times, while individual Dartmouth skiers became Eastern and National titlists in every event except jumping and a total of 18 of his "boys" skied on U.S. Olympic teams. Any pre-season estimate of collegiate standings had to include Dartmouth simply because of Prager’s ability to teach, coach and bring forth the maximum effort from his skiers. Over a dozen of Prager’s Dartmouth skiers went on to earn Olympic team spots. He is credited with having consistently developed some of America's finest collegiate ski teams and individual skiers, many of whom won national titles, All-American honors, and skied on U.S. Olympic teams.](https://christianbeckwith.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Screen-Shot-2023-06-07-at-10.41.07-AM.jpeg "Walter Prager (1920 - 1984) (HQ 3RD 87TH INF) was one of the best skiers of his generation, and one of the most famous Born in Bonn, Germany, he grew up in Arosa, Switzerland, in the Swiss Alps, where he taught himself to ski and began competitive skiing as a boy. In 1931, he became the first World Champion in downhill skiing when he won the World Championship in Mürren. He won the race again two years later; he also won the Alberg-Kandahar slalom race three times, the Parsenn Derby twice, the Grison combined jumping and cross-country skiing race five times, the Hahnenkamm, Lauberhorn and a string of other premier alpine races and was the Swiss cross-country and jumping champion. Prager served as coach and trainer of the cross country team of the Swiss Ski Association and was running a successful ski school at Davos when he was discovered by Dartmouth college officials who were on the lookout for a new coach. After serving several months in the Swiss Army, he arrived in Hanover, New Hampshire, where he succeeded Otto Schniebs as Dartmouth’s ski coach. He would coach the team for 17 seasons, from 1936 through 1957, with the exception of 1941-1945, when he served with the 10th Mountain Division. After joining the Army in 1941, he was temporarily discharged to work with famed Dartmouth skier Dick Durrance as a civilian ski instructor training army units in Alta, Utah. He returned to Ft. Lewis in time to help instruct the troops of the 1st Battalion (Reinforced), 87th Mountain Infantry Regiment in Mount Rainier National Park’s Paradise Valley. During this time, he placed second in the Silver Skis race on Mt. Rainier. He continued to instruct with the mountain troops all the way through their deployment to Italy in late 1944. In 1945, he won the Bronze Star for valor in action in the Apennine mountains. In 1948, he was named head Alpine coach of the U.S. Olympic Ski Team for the games in St. Moritz, Switzerland, coaching all four events: downhill, slalom, cross-country and jumping. Back at Dartmouth, his teams won the Dartmouth Winter Carnival Cup 13 times, while individual Dartmouth skiers became Eastern and National titlists in every event except jumping and a total of 18 of his "boys" skied on U.S. Olympic teams. Any pre-season estimate of collegiate standings had to include Dartmouth simply because of Prager’s ability to teach, coach and bring forth the maximum effort from his skiers. Over a dozen of Prager’s Dartmouth skiers went on to earn Olympic team spots. He is credited with having consistently developed some of America's finest collegiate ski teams and individual skiers, many of whom won national titles, All-American honors, and skied on U.S. Olympic teams.")
EPISODE 6: NINETY POUNDS OF RUCKSACK
Episode 6 follows the mountain troops to Mount Rainier National Park where, in the middle of February 1942, they began their ski training at one of the best places a soldier could ever learn to ski—a place called, appropriately enough, Paradise.
