<p>In this episode, podcast host Christian Beckwith details how a search for the roots of Teton mountaineering led to a podcast (and book) about the US Army's 10th Mountain Division and the dawn of outdoor recreation in America.</p>

Ninety-Pound Rucksack Teaser

Ninety-Pound Rucksack is a podcast about the US Army's legendary 10th Mountain Division, a gritty unit of World War II climbers and skiers who trained for more than two years in the Colorado Rockies (often wearing ninety-pound “rucksacks,” or backpacks) to fight the Axis powers in extreme cold and mountainous terrain. Not only did the Division's insertion into the war help end Germany’s occupation of Italy; post-war, its veterans founded and developed ski areas across America, started companies like NOLS and Nike and launched the fields of avalanche science and wilderness rescue. Equal parts real-time research, intimate conversation and revelatory journalism, Ninety-Pound Rucksack explores not only the stories that made the unit famous, but also the transformative power of the mountains to forge a collective identity among the mountain troops—and to ignite a passion for the outdoors that reshaped American society in the process.