Tactical Alpinism

Today’s guest is Alex Morrow, the founder of MOPS and MOEs a podcast and education platform that focuses on improving the fitness of the force. Alex created MOPs & MOEs after realizing how antiquated the Army’s approach to fitness was, and after many attempts (and failures) to bring attention to this issue from the inside. He graduated from West Point in 2013 and spent eight years on active duty serving in the 4th Infantry Divi...

Zach White is the first repeat guest on the podcast and this episode dives into a narrative of the Battle of Monte La Difensa.

This episode was recorded back in November and Zach is the first repeat guest on the podcast. The purpose of this discussion was to talk a battle analysis he did a ton of research into. He completed a battle analysis as part of his NCO professional development on the Battle of Monte La Difensa, which is one ...

Planning for success in the mountains starts at home and by building in redundancy for critical systems. The a common military acronym is PACE:

Primary

Alternate

Contingency

Emergency

This podcast episode dives into leveraging this framework to be more successful in the mountain environment. The avalanche fatalities discussion is intended to bring attention to learning what we can from the incidents. I am not here to second guess and s...

Today’s guests are both professional guides and teachprofessional level avalanche courses through Silverton Avalanche School aka SAS. Together they founded SASTAC to provide alpine and arctic training fortactical teams.

Josh Jesperson (josh@sastac.org) is a Navy SEAL and holds the record for fastest time to ski all of the Colorado 14ers.

Michael Ackerman aka Ack (ackerman@sastac.org), is a professional avalanche instructor for SAR, s...

Derek Debruin is a professor in the Outdoor Program at Weber State University. He is also a Mountain Guide that works with special operations teams, expanding their ability to go bigger in the mountains.

Derek Provided some further notes and resources beow:

Weber State University Outdoor & Community Recreation Education

https://www.weber.edu/hper/outdoorcommunityrec.html

Offer a 4-year Bachelor’s degree with concentration in ...

The standard season for Denali is May through July and we are now entering the meat of the months where people will be progressing their training to be prepared for climbing in the Alaska range this season. This discussion was before I had gone to Denali and in a future episode, I’ll do a recap of that trip and lessons learned. 

Scott is an incredibly accomplished and humble about what he has done in the mountains. Other than sayi...

Explosive avalanche initiation started with the military. Now there is a whole industry wrapped around keeping us safe in snowy environments, where we often don't think we may be at risk.

This podcast explores the high-stakes art and science of avalanche mitigation, offering an insider’s perspective on the precision and expertise required to navigate dangerous terrain. The speaker breaks down the meticulous planning behind ski cu...

Scott Johnston and Maury Birdwell are both incredibly experienced mountain athletes and endurance Coaches for both military selections and people that want to go bigger in the mountains. 

Maury currently holds the fastest known time on the Diamond of Long’s Peak, a 1000’ rock face that climbs at the grade of 5.10 and is usually a 12 hour or longer outing for most parties. He completed it in just 3.5 hours car to car.

Scott is the...

Snow has started to fall throughout much of the Western US and Europe, so this discussion is timely.

Today’s guest is Doug Bernard. He is a Green Beret who is also an avalanche instructor, certified ski guide and apprentice alpine guide. He has been operating in the mountains for a long time. It also took me a while to get him to agree to talk on the podcast. He is one of those silent professionals who doesn’t like to publicly sh...

Alyssa is a professional Ultra runner who specializes in distances over 100 miles. She has won the San Diego 100, HURT 100, Moab 240 and starting during COVID, set a Guinness world record for doing 95 marathon in 95 days, many of those on a treadmill. 

Codi is an active duty US navy engineer and diver, a split boarder and an aspiring professional ultra racing crew member.

They currently are living in a van, full time, with two ca...

Austria is well known for their mountain warfare training courses, and expertise. Their program has a deliberate and specific progression from zero to Mountaineering.

This episode's guest is a certified Austrian Military Mountain Guide and has been teaching Mountain courses in Austria for a long time. The main difference between an Austrian Military Mountain Guide and IFMGA Guide? The climbing movement standard for a civilian IF...

Is mountain warfare training relevant as we look at how warfare is changing?

This is part 2/2 with LTC Nate Fry. Nate is the current commander of 3-172 Mountain Infantry in the Vermont National Guard. Additionally, he is an Infantry Officer, AMGA Apprentice Rock Guide, Assistant Alpine Guide, Avalanche PRO2 and Avalanche Educator. He was the 2023 Edelweiss Raid Team Captain and previously worked at the AMWS for three years as ...

LTC Nate Fry is the current commander of 3-172 Mountain Infantry in the Vermont National Guard. Additionally, he is an Infantry Officer, AMGA Apprentice Rock Guide, Assistant Alpine Guide, Avalanche PRO2 and Avalanche Educator. He was the 2023 Edelweiss Raid Team Captain and previously worked at the AMWS for three years as the executive officer and training officer.

General Anderson’s Paper: https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Journ...

Christian Beckwith is a veteran alpinist, climbing historian and host of the Ninety-Pound Rucksack, a podcast about the US Army’s 10th Mountain Division and the dawn of America’s $1T outdoor recreation industry. 

The 10th Mountain was an unprecedented unit of World War II climbers and skiers who trained for more than two years in the Colorado Rockies to fight the Axis powers in extreme cold and mountainous terrain.

90 Pound Ru...