The Ninety-Pound Rucksack Challenge

Climb to Glory: Honoring the Roots of American Skiing

Date: Tuesday, February 18, 2025
Time: Ascend starting at 7:00pm (Please arrive by 6:30pm)
Descend from Little Whiteface by 9:00pm

Whiteface Mountain, Ninety-Pound Rucksack, and the 10th Mountain Alpine Club (10th MAC) would like to invite you to participate in The Ninety-Pound Rucksack Challenge. The Challenge will commemorate the February 18, 1945, 10th Mountain Division’s night-time assault on Riva Ridge.

The route will begin at Ski Patrol behind the Base Lodge and ascend to the top of Little Whiteface and the 10th Mountain Division Plaque. The plaque is mounted on a stone from Mt. Belvedere.

Members of the public are welcome to join. Anyone with a 2024/25 Uphill Season Pass may join in at no cost and event tickets will be available for $25. (Please note that the email print at home/confirmation and the item in the store will have the incorrect time.)

Event details are subject to change based on weather and conditions.

Background

The 10th Mountain Division was the US Army’s World War II specialized unit of skiers and climbers whose January 1945 insertion into the Italian Theater helped end the war in Europe. After training for more than three years in the Adirondacks, Cascades, and Rockies, often carrying ninetypound “rucksacks,” or backpacks, they were inserted into Italy’s Apennine Mountains to break Hitler’s Gothic Line, a fortified series of summits and ridges the Nazis had used to stymie Allied advances for more than 500 days.

At 7 p.m., February 18, 1945, some 800 10th Mountain Division soldiers began a night-time ascent of Riva Ridge, the Gothic Line’s lynchpin. Carrying packs that weighed up to 60 pounds, they ascended four different routes that ranged from 1,500 to 2,500 feet of vertical gain to take the Germans on top without a casualty. Their successful ascent not only helped break the Gothic Line; it catalyzed the German surrender of Italy and hastened the end of the war as well.  

Ski towns from around America, including Lake Placid, Sun Valley and Jackson Hole, contributed soldiers to the 10th. Post-war, 10th Mountain Division veterans founded or developed more than 60 ski areas around America, including Steamboat, Vail, Arapahoe Basin and Jackson’s Snow King Mountain.