EP 289: Christian Beckwith — The 10th Mountain Division, WW2 Guerrilla Warfare Stories, and the Birth of Modern Climbing Gear

The Nugget Climbing Podcast

Steven Dimmitt

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4.2 • 576 Ratings

🗓️ 15 December 2025

⏱️ 110 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Christian Beckwith is the former editor of The American Alpine Journal and Alpinist Magazine, and the creator of the award-winning podcast, Ninety-Pound Rucksack. We talked about the formation of the 10th Mountain Division in WW2, the breaking of Hitler’s Gothic Line, stories of mountain gorilla warfare, gear innovations that changed climbing forever, and much more. You can listen to Christian’s podcast at christianbeckwith.com

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, friends. Welcome to the Nugget Climbing Podcast. This is Stephen Dimmit. And today we've got a very
0:07.6	unique episode, one that blends climbing history and the history of climbing gear with guerrilla
0:14.3	warfare stories from World War II. Christian Beckwith is my guest today. Christian is the former editor of the American Alpine
0:22.5	Journal and the founding editor of Alpinist Magazine. He has a new podcast called 90-pound
0:28.5	rucksack about the 10th Mountain Division and the incredible role they played in World War II
0:34.3	and in the development of modern climbing. Christian has gone so deep into this story
0:41.2	that he basically has a PhD in the events, the dates, the characters, et cetera. And he's also
0:48.4	an amazing storyteller. So this was a really engaging episode. If you are interested in World War II history, or you like
0:56.5	saving Private Ryan or band of brothers or anything like that, I think you will really enjoy this episode.
1:04.0	This is my final episode of 2025. I will be taking some time off over the holidays and we'll be back with new episodes in mid-January.
1:14.0	So if you need something to listen to during your holiday travels, be sure to check out
1:19.5	Christian's podcast 90-pound rucksack.
1:22.7	You can find it at Christianbeckwith.com or wherever fine podcasts are found. In the meantime, happy holidays.
1:30.8	Much love to all of you. And please enjoy Christian Beckwith. Christian, you have this great podcast that
1:50.1	shares the story of the 10th Mountain Division,
1:52.2	dating back to World War II and the dawn of modern rock climbing
1:55.4	will be diving into that today.
1:57.6	As a way of kicking off that conversation,
2:03.2	your podcast is called the 90-pound rucksack.
2:06.9	Where did that name 90-pound rucksack come from?
2:08.5	What does the story behind that name?
2:23.3	Well, when the Mountain Troops first got together at Fort Lewis, Washington, it was a rarefied bunch, a lot of whom had college backgrounds, a lot of whom came from America's burgeoning ski community. And skiing had just exploded in popularity over the preceding half a dozen years.
	...

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