Fort Carson soldiers airlifted from Longs Peak summit
A group of 10 Army soldiers from Fort Carson were evacuated via helicopter Friday afternoon from the 14,000-foot summit of Longs Peak after two members fell ill with altitude sickness.
According to Rocky Mountain National Park officials, the group requested assistance late Thursday night while climbing Kiener's Route on the popular 14,259-foot peak. Forty-three search and rescue park personnel helped with the incident Friday. None of the soldiers were injured.
The special forces soldiers were participating in a climbing exercise and were not planning to spend the night on the mountain, park spokeswoman Kyle Patterson said.
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They did just that, though, waiting out near-freezing temperatures before their rescue Friday. While Front Range temperatures have crept into the 80s, the weather story is considerably different atop one of Colorado's highest peaks. High temperatures are creeping only into the 50s where National Weather Service measurements are taken at Longs Peak, with lows dipping into the 30s.
The winter conditions require winter gear like crampons and ice axes, making the already challenging climb of Longs Peak's Kiener's Route that much more difficult. The Kiener's Route climbs the east face of Longs Peak and is a more technical climb than the traditional Keyhole Route.
Climbing Longs Peak is treacherous year-round, as 62 people have died on the fourteener since Rocky Mountain National Park's opening in 1915. One person died on Longs Peak last year, and three were killed in 2014.