The U.S. Army High Altitude Rescue Team is performing a unique wilderness mission in Alaska, partnering with the National Park Service on Mount McKinley and serving to save lives. These four-person Chinook helicopter pilots and crews annually train in and around the more than six million acres of Denali National Park and Preserve, using jagged mountains as obstacle courses and glaciers as landing pads. U.S. Army lieutenant Colonel Randy Rotte:
"The mountain will change hourly. It might be a beautiful day, you might be fighting the sun and the warmth, and a few hours later you could be hunkered down in an ice cave, riding out a pretty bad storm."
Among the best pilots and crews in the world, these teams also play a vital role in mountaineering safety, helping to establish high and low base camps for McKinley climbers and flying past 20 thousand feet to evacuate explorers in the harshest conditions. For more information about the u.s. army, visit goarmy-dot-com
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