Skiing at Camp Hale: Mountain Troops during World War II

Abstract

n May 1943 the Denver Pigeon Club donated some of it finest fowl to the United States Army's 10th Light Infantry Division at Camp Hale, Colorado. Proud to be making a practical contribution to the war effort, the club's president explained, Pigeons are extremely reliable in carrying messages. They travel faster than forty miles an hour and can cover over five hundred miles a day.' At the same time, base commanders were delighted to receive such a simple solution to the vexing problem of communicating with troops separated by mountains. Only one thing went wrong. Camp Hale was located at 9,200 feet above sea level and pigeons cannot fly at that altitude.2 Thus the birds-like the men at the base-spent their active duty waddling through frozen mud, suffering from twenty-below-zero temperatures and doing little to defeat the fascists. The story of Camp Hale began inauspiciously and far from Colorado.3 In February 1939 the Hochbirge Ski Club of Boston held its annual winter outing at Big Bromley Mountain, Vermont. After one of the day's activities, some members congregated before a log fire in a local inn. Included were C. Minot (Minnie) Dole of the National Ski Patrol and Roger Langley of the National Ski Association. According to Dole in his autobiography, Adventures in Skiing, the conversation inevitably turned to the Russo-Finnish War, which was then in progress.4 Both men applauded especially the tactics of the Finnish troops. Dressed in white uniforms to match the backdrop of snow, the Finns glided quietly on long, narrow skis through forests to attack the Russians moving along plowed roads. Then, after surprising the Russians at a point Jack A. Benson is a public school teacher at Cherry Creek High School, Englewood,