Ten soldiers rescued in Rocky Mountain National Park
Chief Tango sends us a link from the Denver Post which reports that ten special forces soldier were rescued by helicopter while they were on a training mission climbing Longs Peak in the Rocky Mountain National Park.
Lt. Col. Sean Ryan, an Army spokesman, said the soldiers were on a routine training mission Thursday when the two soldiers became sick while climbing the 14,249-foot peak. No one was injured.
The soldiers, members of the 10th Special Forces Group that is stationed at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, summited Longs Peak after two members of their group fell ill. Ryan said the group had to reach the summit in order to be flown off the mountain.
“It’s normal procedure for us,” Ryan said of high-altitude mountain climbing training.
The national park says rangers were summoned to help the soldiers late Thursday night. The soldiers were not planning to spend the night on the mountain, which is still under winter conditions.
The park service said one of the soldiers is a medic, who tended to his ill comrades.
“It’s important to recognize they were able to finish the climb this morning without assistance,” Mark Pita, the park’s chief ranger, told reporters at a news conference.
Thursday was a tough day to be training, I guess. At least this adventure ended well with no casualties.
Category: Army News
My number 3 son is with the 10th SFG, but not at this incident.
I lived in colorado for 10 years and a lot of people get altitude sickness at levels a hell of a lot lower than 14,000 feet!
This sucks. No matter how it’s presented, it comes out as park rangers rescuing special forces men. We can call it an assisted evacuation or a smart decision under the circumstances or any number of things but the whole group was flown off, not only the two sick men. They are aware of how this appears. That’s why it was stressed that the group first reached the summit before they were, um, rescued.
The situation was probably blown completely out of proportion and orders were given to involve the helicopter. If these were actual tabbed SF guys, I’m pretty sure they were pissed to be flown down, aside from the two that were legit ill.
I live in the Rockies. It’s ‘routine’ thinking that gets people killed every year here. The arrogance of thinking these mountains are tamed will set the stage for finding out they’re not, every time.
Grateful all are well.
I am curious about USMC Mountain Warfare School these days. Part of the course required survival at high altitude for a week.
They issued only a few rations and a live rabbit. First thing that was done was to suck the eyes out of the live rabbit. They wont run far after that.
Any chance they might be still doing that? It was kind of an honor back in the day.
The two who got sick had altitude sickness, basically not getting enough oxygen at 14,000 feet, because air pressure is too low. It usually begins at 8,000 feet. These two and the others might want to include more red meat in their diet to bump up their red blood cell levels.
Altitude sickness is no joke. My wife got a mild case the first time I took her camping. She’s in pretty good shape, but she also grew up in inner-city San Diego, about 45 feet above sea level, and had only recently moved in with me. I’ve been going camping in the eastern Sierras all my life, and was born, raised, and currently reside at 4,000 feet–not all that high, but enough to make a difference in terms of acclimation. For comparison, my cousin from Flagstaff, AZ, elevation 7,500, could run a marathon above 10,000.
When we visited the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Grove on top of the White Mountains (10,500 feet at the parking lot), she wanted to hike the 5-mile loop instead of the 3/4-mile trail I recommended. Long story short, the first two miles took her an hour, the next two took her 4 hours, and I carried her the last mile when the nausea and headache got to be too much for her (and scared the shit out of me–I was assessing her constantly coming back). She felt better after we got back down the mountain, but suffice it to say that a lesson was learned.
She does better up there now, having lived at a higher altitude for several years. It can strike anybody who’s not acclimated. I haven’t suffered it myself, but I know how to pace myself up there.
I found a site online that recommends eating foods that are high in potassium, such as broccoli.
No, it’s nothing to take lightly, but trying to tough it out is also not a good idea. Ignoring the headache from it can mean ignoring blood vessels leaking in the brain.
Hmmm… combining broccoli with high altitude?
Hiker 1: “Is that thunder I hear?”
Hiker 2: “No, and stay upwind for your own good.”
They’ll do anything to get us to eat our broccoli. I like mine with bacon. I pick out the bacon and leave the broccoli.
Well, if I have to eat broccoli to be a Ranger and climb mountains, I’ll stay on the ground.
Dave:
the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center in Bridgeport, CA is still in operation.
http://www.29palms.marines.mil/mcmwtc/About/History.aspx
‘MCMWTC currently conducts six Marine Air Ground Task Force (MAGTF)-level exercises per year, designated the Mountain Exercise (MTX). The purpose of the MTX is to provide a training and limited assessment package that challenges the MAGTF and its subordinate elements to plan and perform operational tasks across the warfighting functions in cold-weather, mountainous environment. The MTX prepares Marine MAGTFs for mountain warfare operations. With MTXs and year-round formal schools and joint forces training, MCMWTC remains a vital component to the training and readiness of the United States Military.’
As far as I know, they’re also still teaching the Mountain Leader Course and Mountain Survival Course, along with other courses of instruction relating to Mountain Warfare. They also have British Royal Marines on the staff.
I went through the Mountain Survival Course up there back in the mid ’80s; learned a lot of good stuff. It’d be interesting to see what has changed since then.
HAHAHAHA, ya I would like to know what has changed too.
I wonder if the little bunny rabbits are still issued.
I guess they probably have Vegans suck the eyes out of potatoes. What a horrible thought.
When I went through AF Survival Training at Fairchild in the 80’s, they issued us a live rabbit we were supposed to kill, clean, and cook. One of the jackasses in my section didn’t want to carry it so he dragged it on a line and it died a bit early. But I do remember the Instructor offering the eyeballs and I sucked for the salt, and no it didn’t taste like chicken!
I have been up that peak via the Keyhole route. The route they were on is a little harder and requires some protection.
Altitude sickness can kill. This was a training mission. I would assume that killing a trainee would be viewed with some criticism – people are not supposed to die in training, particularly from something avoidable like this. But they went up. There aren’t enough details in these stories to know if “up” was dangerous but it doesn’t seem like the obvious choice.
Headaches and shortness of breath are one thing. Convulsions, vomiting, different pupil sizes, and passing out are something else. In those cases you stuff them in a sleeping bag, break out the rescue gear, and rap them off right frikken now. Bringing down a body just sucks all the fun out of my day.
I suspect the helo pickup off the summit was pretty tricky – that summit is pretty big and flat (maybe 5 acres) but even early in the morning there can be a lot of wind up there and it blows in lots of different directions. Kudos to the pilots.
Concur regarding the helo pickup. Well done to the pilots.
In addition to squirrely winds up at the summit, the helo’s power available vs power required to hover/land at that altitude could be problematic.
The pilots and aircrew would also be required to be on oxygen when operating above 10,000′ in order to avoid hypoxia, so the helo would have to have O2 equipment installed as well. I’m assuming that specialized helicopters that are tasked with mountain rescues have an O2 capability.
Alititude sickness is very strange. Despite growing up under 1,000ft I lived in Flagstaff during college for several years and jogged plus biked up the mountain several times with no problem. A few years ago I climbed Kilimanjaro with just a slight headache at first. One of the Guides for our group who had been up several times got sick and had to come down
lol @ lt col spokesman.
What MOS is that? Why is it even a thing.
Army Career Field is 46. For officers, the specialty is Public Affairs Officer (46A). There are two enlisted specialties – Public Affairs Broadcast Specialist (46R) and Public Affairs Specialist (46Q).
Losing Vietnam because we were unable to counter the DRVN’s (and American left’s) “propaganda war” – which resulting in the American public ceasing to support US involvement – should tell you why the specialty is necessary.
Not a job I’d personally want, but it is necessary.
There is no telling who will suffer HACE or HAPE at altitude, it can strike the fittest members of a climbing team. Having done the Keyhole route myself, I know Longs Peak is a serious commitment whichever route you take. Glad they made it out OK. The only cure is to head down as fast as possible, and living and sleeping at altitude is the only real precaution that works. At 6,000 feet, Fort Carson is high enough to confer some benefit, but not unusual that someone living at that elevation would suffer altitude sickness some 8,000 feet higher.
Growing up in the mountains of Montana, learned early on
in scouts about hiking, hunting and surviving on them. More than once, too…