Camp Hale

Years before the construction of the 10th Mountain Division Huts, the mountains of Leadville, Colorado were filled with U.S. Army soldiers training for combat. Located at over 10,000 feet above sea level, the country's highest established city was the perfect place to train soldiers whose duty it was to navigate the snowy peaks of Europe during WWII. Soldiers were trained to ski, shoot, navigate, and climb their way through the ice, rocky terrain, and bitter cold. Their unit's name? The 10th Mountain Division.

Once their training was completed, the members of the 10th Mountain Division were sent to Europe, where, in the mountains of Italy, they served for the duration of WWII and navigated their way through Europe's classic hut system, which provided shelter and warmth on the grueling winter journey through the Alps.

Upon returning from WWII, dozens of members of the 10th Mountain Division made the choice to return to their training grounds in the mountains of Colorado. By 1980, veterans of the 10th Mountain Division were craving a way to remember their time overseas, and a way to continue to connect with outdoor enthusiasts trekking through the alpine wilderness. One of these 10th Mountain Division vets, Fritz Benedict, dreamt of replicating the European hut system right outside of Leadville, so he created a project called the 10th Mountain Division Hut Association— through which supporters (including former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara) could help fund the construction of small mountain huts throughout the Colorado wilderness. The first two of these huts were built in 1982, and named after those who funded them, namely Secretary McNamara and his wife, Margaret.

Training

By 1943, Camp Hale had as many as 14,000 men in training. Conditions in the camp were harsh: the altitude required acclimation and the shallow valley created polluted inversion layers, as the primary energy source was coal. Recreation (outside of skiing) was non-existent because of the camp's high mountain isolation, which prevented even the USO from visiting, and many of the non-skiing trainees hated skiing. Trainees were taught to ski at Cooper Hill by ski instructors, brought from the ski-areas such as Sun Valley and Waterville Valley. Located three miles south of the camp, Cooper Hill had on-site barracks for the instructors and a newly built T-bar lift for the trainees.

Military use of Camp Hale included the 10th Mountain Division, commanded by Lloyd E. Jones, the 38th Regimental Combat Team, the Norwegian-American 99th Infantry Battalion, and soldiers from Fort Carson conducting mountain and winter warfare training exercises. Trainees were taught skiing, mountain climbing, snow survival skills (such as building snow caves), and winter combat.

Also present at Camp Hale was the 620th Engineer General Service Company, a unit composed of suspected unreliable German-Americans or soldiers with suspected pro-National Socialist beliefs.

Colorado Ski Museum

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