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In 1943 the Swiss Armed Forces organized a ski race across high-Alpine glaciers to assess soldier readiness for mountain warfare. More than 80 years later the Patrouille des Glaciers runs biennially over the same terrain, still organized by the military, still requiring a team of three on a rope. It has become one of the largest ski mountaineering events in the world by participant count — and one of the few that exists entirely outside the competitive racing circuit.