They were mountain men, not unlike the trappers who first scoured Colorado's unexplored high country in search of animals. Instead of fur-bearing critters, however, the men of the 10th Mountain Division were hunting other men - German soldiers - in Italy during World War II.

The Americans trained at Camp Hale near Leadville before shipping out to Italy, where they fought up that country's spine, the Apennine Mountains, meeting, beating and chasing away their German enemies.

Of about 15,000 who went, about 1,000 were killed, and more than four times that were wounded in three months.

Despite suffering severe casualties, the 10th Mountain men never gave up, never gave in.

And they came home victorious.

So about 1,000 - veterans, relatives and friends - are meeting for the last time as the 10th Mountain Division this week at the Denver Marriott Tech Center. After this, their descendents will take over business.

They are guys such as Lloyd Black, 82, of Mukilteo, Wash., who grew up in Montana and said he "could shoot the eyes out of a coyote at 100 yards." Others hold onto memories of guys such as the late John Fitzgerald, an artist who was wounded in action and shipped home. He told one friend, "This wound is going to get me several free drinks in New York City." And it did.

Here are their stories:

Dick Wellington, 83, grew up skiing in his native Caribou, Maine.

"The first time I saw the Rockies was from a train crossing the plains," he said. "I told myself, 'Boy. Am I going to have fun.' Boy, was I fooled."

Wellington became an instructor and then group leader, taking charge of younger and far-less-experienced men who came to train at Camp Hale. He taught skiing at Cooper Hill.

"We were on the slope in spring," he said. "Guys were skiing with their rucksacks on their backs. One went into the trees. You know how there's a hole at the base of some trees? This guy ended up with his head down and his skis up. He couldn't get out. I told him, 'Stay on the tops of the skis, not under them.' "

Wellington boarded a ship and headed with his outfit, landing in Naples, Italy, on Christmas Day. By early January 1944, he and his fellow soldiers were in the thick of the fighting - at Mount Belevedere and Riva Ridge.

Wellington took shrapnel from an artillery round, which also broke his arm.

"I had the million-dollar wound," he said. "I got shipped home."

He showed a stranger a deep indentation in his forearm and wiggled the bone.

"It's still broken," he said.

He got out of the service and went to school at Western State College in Gunnison, teaching skiing in winter and rock climbing in summer. He later worked near Crested Butte.

Then he worked for mining companies, staking claims - molybdenum in Climax and uranium on the Western Slope.

He met his wife, the late Bernadine Beer, of Florence, while he was a ski instructor.

"She never did ski," he said.

He retired and lives in Cedaredge.

"I never went back to Maine to live after I got out of the Army," he said.

Ruso Perkins, 92, of New Berlin, N.Y., was about to be drafted in April 1942. So he got married and went on his honeymoon in Stowe, Vt.

"I took a skiing lesson," he said.

The instructor was so impressed that he recommended Perkins for what became the 10th Mountain Division. At the time, three recommendations were needed. And Perkins quickly got them.

He became a supply sergeant. And he was also skillful on the slopes.

"The Southern boys call skis 'torture sticks,' " he said.

He served six months in the Aleutian Islands battleground before returning to Camp Hale and then on to Italy.

"I was behind the lines," he said. "I got shot at. But I never shot at anybody."

He ducked artillery fire as he made night hikes up the mountainsides, carrying supplies to the troops on the front lines.

One friend mentioned the worst times were when enemy shells came in and everyone hugged the ground.

"I just walked lower," Perkins said. "We tried to go up in daylight once. But the Germans shot us. We were near some buildings, and an artillery shell knocked a corner off."

He came home, expecting to be shipped to Japan for that part of the war still going on.

"I was on furlough when the war ended," he said.

He had worked as an information technologist with an insurance company in New York before the war. He returned to his old job and kept it until he retired - 44 years in all.

Karl Stengl, 85, was a world-class ski jumper before he fled Czechoslovakia in 1937 and came to the United States. He settled in Washington state, continuing his skiing.

"I was drafted. I couldn't enlist because I wasn't a citizen," he said.

That was in 1942. Once in the Army, that all changed.

"They made me a citizen in Leadville," he said.

Stengl was on the Aleutians and then became an instructor at Camp Hale, a natural since he was practically born on skis.

"There were hills all around my town," he said.

Some of the new guys hadn't been on skis in their life.

"We had to make skiers out of them in one week," he said.

Once in Italy, he and fellow troops went from Naples to Marina di Pisa.

"They put us on cattle cars," he said.

There, however, the smooth ride ended.

The altitude wasn't as high as Colorado, but in winter, the ground froze.

"It was below zero," Stengl said. "And we're living out there."

Stengl was wounded. He thinks an artillery shell hit the jeep he was riding in - he's not sure to this day.

What he is sure of is his back and shoulders were injured.

"I was riding and then it went black," he said. "The next thing I know, I woke up in a hospital and two eggs were staring me in the face. I hadn't had a cooked meal in a month."

After the war, Stengl returned to Washington. He taught skiing. He was an alternate on the Winter Olympics team, and then he helped coach other Olympic skiers.

He still skis.

"I'm going to hang it up," he said.

But he didn't say when.

10th Mountain Division

Here is the schedule for the rest of the convention:

• Today: Tour of Denver Public Library and Colorado History Museum. Unit dinners and big band dance.

• Saturday: Free day.

• Sunday: Breakfast buffet and memorial service at 11 a.m. Farewell banquet, 6 p.m.

• Monday: Camp Hale tour.

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