EP 289: Christian Beckwith
December 15, 2025
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
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts!
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Show Notes:
Related Episodes:
Other References:
Christian’s Links:
christianbeckwith.com (Listen to Ninety-Pound Ruckstack here)
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