In honor of Veterans Day, Learn about the WWII soldiers who trained at alta.
In honor of Veterans Day, we are highlighting the history of Company B of the 503rd Parachute Battalion that trained at Alta in 1942. Before the creation of the famed 10th Mountain Division, the 503rd sent 175 paratroopers to Alta Ski Area to train for potential on-snow combat in the Alps.
In order to train the Company B of the 503rd from Fort Benning Georgia, the Army recruited Dick Durrance, head of the Alta Ski School and manager of the Alta Lodge. Durrance enlisted the help of eleven ski instructors, consisting mostly of ski racing friends, family members and Alta ski instructors, to teach 175 soldiers—some of whom had never before seen snow—to ski and navigate in a high alpine environment.
Company B was based out of the Rock Shelter—now the Snowpine Lodge. For six weeks, the troops learned mountain travel, snow camping, parachute landings on snow, and downhill ski techniques.
“By the end of that winter we came to the conclusion that maybe a third of them would become pretty good skiers, the middle third could get by, and the remaining third had better stay in the paratroopers and forget it.”
- Dick Durrance, after the conclusion of six weeks of training
While Company B of the 503rd Battalion never saw on-snow warfare, the concept of a skiing light infantry was later proven to be a monumental success with the creation of the 10th Mountain Division, a group of mountaineers, climbers and skiers who enlisted to fight in the mountains of Italy during WWII.
As soldiers returned from the war with a newfound appreciation for the mountains and skiing culture found throughout Europe, the popularity of skiing skyrocketed across North America. This post-war era ushered in the adoption of skiing into the middle-class lifestyle. Surplus military ski gear was sold at a steep discount to anyone that had a few dollars to spare.
Ski technologies improved rapidly in the decade to follow. New resorts opened across the country. And existing resorts—like Alta Ski Area in Utah's Little Cottonwood Canyon—grew into the world-renowned ski area we know today.
Company B of the 503rd Battalion and the 10th Mountain Division also contributed to the snow science and avalanche safety fields. Monty Atwater, a 10th Mountain Division veteran, returned to Alta and succeeded Sverre Engen as the second-ever Snow Ranger for the US Forest Service. Monty began experimenting with ski cuts and hand charges in avalanche control work. He studied how the layers of snow interact with each other and kept meticulous observations of the snowpack. Atwater eventually petitioned the government to use heavy artillery in order to trigger avalanches in the mountains around Alta. These efforts made Alta the birthplace of avalanche mitigation in the United States.
Additional information on Company B of the 503rd Battalion and the famed 10th Mountain Division:
- Dick Durrance | Alta Historical Society
- Winter Warfare Training of the 503rd Parachute Batallion at Alta, Utah 1942 | Alta Powder News, Winter 2011
- 10th Mountain Division | 10thMtnDivAssoc.org
- 10th Mountain Division - The Ski Industry Catalyst | Mountain Town Magazine
- The Army's Most Famous Band of Skiing Soldiers | Teton Gravity
- Meet the First Guy to Chuck a Bomb at an Avalanche Hazard | Adventure Journal
- History of Avalanche Forecasting & Mitigation in Utah | Ski Utah
