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

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 The Nugget Training App | 3 NEW Bouldering Programs (14-Day Free Trial) thenuggetclimbing.com/app-bouldering Mad Rock (Shoes & Crash Pads) madrock.com Use code “NUGGET10” at checkout for 10% off your next order. Rúngne (Chalk & Apparel) rungne.info/nugget Use code “NUGGET" for 10% off and "SHIPPINGNUGGETS" for free shipping. Become a Patron: patreon.com/thenuggetclimbing Show Notes: thenuggetclimbing.com/episodes/christian-beckwith Nuggets: (00:00:00) – Intro (00:01:48) – Ninety-Pound Rucksack (00:10:46) – Birth of the 10th Mountain Division (00:22:00) – Ghosts in the trees (00:35:23) – New ropes & belay techniques (00:49:45) – Boots (00:54:00) – New vs. old climbing gear (00:57:49) – The Ninety-Pound Rucksack Challenge (01:05:35) – Breaking Hitler’s Gothic Line (01:19:18) – Coal to diamond (01:25:05) – Writing the story of the 10th (01:34:32) – Teaching GIs to climb (01:41:45) – What’s next for this story (01:47:30) – Wrap up

You can listen to EP 289: Christian Beckwith — The 10th Mountain Division, WW2 Guerrilla Warfare Stories, and the Birth of Modern Climbing Gear online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

EP 289: Christian Beckwith — The 10th Mountain Division, WW2 Guerrilla Warfare Stories, and the Birth of Modern Climbing Gear is an episode from The Nugget Climbing Podcast by Steven Dimmitt.

This episode is 01:49:40 long.

This episode was published on Dec 15, 2025.

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