Watching the 1968 film Where Eagles Dare, with Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton, stoked my interest as a young boy in a subset of World War II that has seldom seen inclusion as a part of popular culture…mountain warfare. For those who have seen Where Eagles Dare, it would be difficult to forget the daring fight scenes atop cable cars with breathtaking shots of snow-covered peaks in the background. My palms get sweaty just recalling those scenes.

While it is not a fictional account of Special Operations troops invading a German castle high in the German Alps, Lance R. Blyth’s Ski Climb Fight: The 10th Mountain Division and the Rise of Mountain Warfare is no less engaging. Ski Climb Fight tells the origin story of the famed 10th Mountain Division, a division whose humble beginnings sprang from the mind of the chairman of the National Ski Patrol. Minot “Minnie” Dole began engaging the War Department as early as 1940 to offer his ski patrols to assist the United States Army. Little could he have known the outcome.

Blyth traces the origin, training, pitfalls, and political hurdles that occurred prior to the official activation of the U.S. Army’s first combat division dedicated to mountain warfare. And what is both educational and fascinating about this book is the dedication of a group of civilian ski enthusiasts in birthing mountain warfare for the U.S. Army.

Not only were these civilian skiers and mountaineers consulted on the intricacies of mountain warfare, but many were also inducted into the U.S. Army after the outbreak of World War II, and were given carte blanche to call the shots regarding equipment specifications, doctrine, training, and even the locations for mountain warfare training.

It is evident from voluminous footnotes and a sixteen-page bibliography that the author conducted painstaking historical research when compiling Ski Climb Fight. And while Blyth spends a good amount of time describing the training for what eventually became the 10th Mountain Division, he also details the combat exercises in West Virginia and the establishment of an assault climbers school preceding the 10th Mountain’s combat debut.

Operation Encore, launched in February 1945, saw the 10th Mountain’s attempt to wrest the Apennines mountains from German troops. Ultimately successful, the efforts of the 10th Mountain Division were crucial to the breakthrough of the U.S. IV and II Corps into the Po Valley in Italy in the spring of 1945. But Blyth does not stop his coverage with the end of World War II. He goes on to detail mountain warfare from the Korean War into twenty-first century actions in Afghanistan.

For an exciting and breathtaking look at the history of one of America’s premier fighting forces, look no further than Ski Climb Fight: The 10th Mountain Division and the Rise of Mountain Warfare.