—” Fort Carson, Colorado.”
A career Army officer I knew had been a junior cross-country ski competitor of note from Poland and was assigned to Fort Carson as a ski instructor.
Turns out to be a new unit for ski mountaineering, he said he was unprepared for it and fortunate that no one was killed. OJT!
By the third or fourth class, he felt competent in the position.
Reminds me of the Norwegian team they put together in WWII to sabotage (Operation Gunnerside), the Vemork hydroelectric power plant in Norway, where the Nazis were producing heavy water. Back in 2003, I watched a 3 part BBC documentary series titled "The Real Heroes of Telemark," which had both Norwegian and Britiish specially trained military team reenact the WWII mission of the Grouse-Gunnerside commando raid.
Also, the 10th Mountain Division stationed at Fort Drum, New York, which is a couple of hours north from where I live, was specifically organized to deal with operations in mountainous regions. I know they had to learn how to ski. In fact, in WWII, this article says:
"Their training at Camp Hale, near Pando, Colo., included skiing, snowshoeing and rock climbing. They also learned cold-weather survival tactics, such as keeping warm by building snow caves."