BY KAREN BOSSICK
Chris Anthony is an Alaskan Extreme Skiing Champion and a veteran of nine World Extreme Skiing Championships.
But the Colorado native found a calling away from the realm of big mountain freeride competitions when he was recruited to showcase his skiing skills in Warren Miller films. Fascinated by the world of filmmaking he studied film and writing while interning for Michael Douglas at Paramount Studios.
And, during a ski trip to Italy, he found the film he wanted to make when he stumbled upon the story of the U.S. Army’s legendary 10th Mountain Division’s exploits in Italy.
On Tuesday at 5:30 p.m., Anthony will bring that film, “Mission Mt. Mangart,” to Ketchum’s Community Library as a special Veteran’s Day presentation. He will follow that up at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 12, with the first-ever screening of “Friedl,” a fascinating tale about Sun Valley’s early ski school director Friedl Pfeifer.
“Mission Mt. Mangart” tells the story of 10th Mountain Division soldiers who fought on skis leading up to Germany’s surrender to Italy on May 2, 1945. Those soldiers ended up as peacekeepers on the Yugoslavian border in the Julian Alps where Yugoslavian Dictator Joseph Tito had pushed his Army over the Italian border into the region of Mt. Mangart.
As the war ended and they had time on their hands, the soldiers found a new mission: To see who could ski down Mt. Mangart—one of the Alp’s most revered peaks—the fastest. Seventy-six men took the challenge, confident they were the fastest.
"When I heard the soldiers’ stories about the ski race on Mangart, I immediately knew I had to make this film,” said Anthony. “(But) Mangart isn't just a documentary about a mountain—it’s an epic story carved into history that will forever tell the legacy of the 10th Mountain Division.
During his six-year researching and making the movie, Anthony received help from the Slovenian Association of Mountain Soldiers, NATO, The Slovenian Mountain Troops, the Slovenian Ministry of Defense, and the United States Embassy in Slovenia, as well as assistance from retired Slovenian Brigadier General Janez Kavar--now a historian of mountain troops.
The film has won numerous awards, including Best Historical Documentary at the 2021 Cannes World Film Festival, Best Feature Length Documentary at the 2021Florence Film Awards and a Silver Medal in the 2021 Milan Gold Awards.
While digging through skiing archives, Anthony repeatedly encountered the name Friedl Pfeifer. And, learning of Pfeifer’s fascinating story, he made “Friedl” his sequel.
“Friedl” will have its first-ever screening at The Community Library on Wednesday, Nov. 12.
Anthony used historic footage and photos to tell the story not only of Pfeifer but the world from the 1920s through the 1950s.
A larger-than-life character, Pfeifer grew up on a farm in St. Anton, Austria, where he was a pupil of Hannes Schneider, considered the “Father of Modern-Day Skiing” for creating the Arlberg Technique of learning and teaching skiing.
Pfeifer became one of Austria’s top alpine ski racers, winning the legendary Grossglockner twice and the Grand Prix de Paris, among other races. And he taught skiing to others in Schneider’s school.
But when Schneider—a cheesemaker-turned ski school director--was stripped of his ski school and imprisoned for criticizing the Nazis, Pfeifer fled to Italy where he took a ship to Australia, then to New York where he caught a train to Sun Valley.
Arriving in Sun Valley in 1938, he became the director of Sun Valley Resort’s fledgling ski school, guiding it to become the largest in America. He, too, suffered the same fate as Schneider when he was arrested by the FBI. Upon his release, he became an instructor with the 10th Mountain Division and served on the front lines of Italy during World War II.
There, he was left for dead on the battlefield, losing a lung. But he survived and returned to Colorado where he had trained troops. He founded the Aspen Ski Corporation in December 1945, and Aspen Ski Resort opened to the public in 1947.
Pfeifer headed the Aspen Ski School until the mid-1960s, building Aspen Buttermilk for beginner skiers during that time. He established the International Professional Ski Racer’s Association in 1960 to increase job opportunities for pro-skiers. And he coached the U.S. Women’s Team at the Winter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy in 1956.
Anthony uses his films to educate and inspire youth through his Chris Anthony Youth Initiative Project, while raising funds to enable underserved youth to experience skiing for the first time and learn avalanche and snow science so they can safely navigate winter landscapes.
Reserve a seat for Tuesday’s screening of “Mission Mt. Mangart” at https://thecommunitylibrary.libcal.com/event/14933953. Reserve a seat for Wednesday’s showing of “Friedl” at https://thecommunitylibrary.libcal.com/event/15330090.
WAIT! THERE’S MORE!!!
In honor of Veteran’s Day, the Wood River Museum of History + Culture will examine Sun Valley’s story in relation to World War II from noon to 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 13.
The program is part of the museum’s new History Half Hour at the Museum, which is being held on three consecutive Thursdays in November at the Wood River Museum on 4th Street, kitty-corner from The Community Library.
Kristine Bretall, the Library’s museum community engagement manager, will delve into Sun Valley’s years prior to World War II, the ski school’s ties to Austria, the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division and the post-war influence that 10th Mountain Division veterans had on the ski industry.
No registration is required.