Photo Gallery: Green Mountain Snow Soldiers

“The drill hall at Jericho, Vt.’s Ethan Allen Firing Range looks like a cluttered, dimly lit high-school gymnasium,” Tyler Cohen writes in the November 2015 issue. “And on a snowy January morning, it’s filled by more than 100 young-faced National Guardsmen, each preparing for a week of tactical and on-snow training.”

In “Green Mountain Snow Soldiers,” Cohen goes on tour with the Vermont Army National Guard, the nation’s only mountain infantry battalion, as they refocused their skills and training to over-snow pursuits, including ski touring, during a weeklong training last winter. The Vermont National Guard is the only Mountain Infantry Battalion, active or reserve, with formal requirements from the Department of Defense to conduct mountain operations. That means this group is specifically prepared to fight in mountain environments, with a mandate to maintain 70 percent of personnel as Military Mountaineers trained by the Army Mountain Warfare School.

“In the Army, there are no other units that do this anymore,” Captain Micah Kidney, Commander of Alpha Company, says in the story. “We’re it. We’re pretty proud of that. We’re pretty proud of that heritage.”

Here’s a gallery from Cohen’s story, shot by photographer Cyril Brunner. To read the entire story, grab a copy of the November 2015 issue, available now at backcountrymagazine.com/store.

Ascending to victory at Bolton Valley Resort, Vt. with 3rd Battalion, 172nd Infantry Regiment (3-172 Infantry), the infantry battalion for the Vermont National Guard. [Photo] Cyril Brunner

Presently, the Vermont Army National Guard is the only Mountain Infantry Battalion, active or reserve, with formal requirements from the Department of Defense to conduct mountain operations, meaning the group is specifically trained to fight in mountain environments. [Photo] Cyril Brunner

Captain Nathan Fry, Battalion Intelligence Officer and a mountain guide, and Captain Geoffrey Farrell, Commander of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, hone their skills at Bolton Valley, Vt. [Photo] Cyril Brunner

“Ten years ago, winter AT (annual training) was like this—actually training in the snow,” says Captain Micah Kidney, Commander of Alpha Company, one of three Vermont-based companies in 3-172 Infantry. “But right in ’04 or ’05, when we headed out to Iraq, and four years later, when we went to Afghanistan, all the focus was on preparing guys for fighting.” [Photo] Cyril Brunner

Tools of the trade for the Vermont Army National Guard. [Photo] Cyril Brunner

“The unit’s skis have been sitting in connexes (shipping containers) pretty much since Afghanistan,” says Sergeant First Class Tim McLaughlin of Underhill, Vt. No longer, after last winter’s training. [Photo] Cyril Brunner

Company First Sergeant Dan Westover, who enlisted with the Vermont Army National Guard in 1992 and served in Afghanistan in 2004-’05. [Photo] Cyril Brunner

“Although not every soldier in here is a star athlete, there’s some serious talent throughout,” says Westover, speaking of the long line of Olympians who have served. He competed in biathlon in the 1998 Games in Nagano, Japan. “If you go back to the 10th Mountain Division, it was the same sort of thing.”