Jacket Illustration © 2011 Shane Rebenschied

Do you like to ski? Do you crave adventure? Have you ever wondered how it would feel to hang hundreds of feet above the earth with just a thin nylon rope preventing you from dropping? Then this is the book for you!

Phantoms. That's what they called them. The boys who could ski so fast they were like ghosts disappearing into the mist. The boys who could shimmy down a rock face so quickly, you almost thought they had never been there. The boys who turned the tide of the war in Italy by stealthily creeping up on the Germans as they sat perched on the top of the Italian Alps, never suspecting that the Phantoms were about to pounce.

I heard about these boys from my husband, who had learned that their old training grounds were being groomed for skiers who wanted to follow in their footsteps. I read about their acts of bravery and courage. I researched their crazy escapades into town, their wacky competitions with each other, their insane abilities to accomplish feats no other man would consider trying.

When the war was over, the battles won, these boys came back and opened ski resorts from Aspen to Stowe. They founded outdoor organizations like the Sierra Club. They built outdoor venues for hiking and climbing. They made it their job to encourage others, wild about the sport of skiing and the great outdoors, to pursue their passion. I had to write about them.

Now in their eighties, Phantoms still ski and hike and rock climb. They are still instructors and leaders and above all, pranksters. Age has not slowed them down.

So as you listen to the sound of your skis swishing down a steep slope at a ski resort or you take a jump from a cliff path and propel your way down or if you find yourself snowshoeing out on wilderness trails where no other footsteps have made tracks in the newly-fallen snow, think of the Phantoms and thank them. For without them, you would not be there!