Special Forces Senior Mountaineering Course

Special Forces soldiers pictured on the Special Forces Senior Mountaineering Course (level 2) at the Special Forces Advanced Mountain Operations School (SFAMOS), near Fort Carson, Colorado.

Students on this course will have already passed the Basic Course (Level III).

The senior course is typically attending by Green Berets assigned to a mountain ODA, although other Green Berets may also attend at their commander's discretion.

The Senior Mountaineering Course includes tactical mountain operations, field-craft training, horsemanship, animal packing instruction, maintaining mountaineering equipment, selecting appropriate mountaineering equipment, high-alpine medical considerations, medical emergencies, trauma emergencies, weather forecasting, belaying techniques, constructing improvised climbing equipment, casualty extraction, moving non-trained personnel over vertical obstacles, conducting mountain operations at night, equipment hauling, three-man party climbs with lead climbing, graded practical exercises and written examinations.

The Senior Mountaineering Course (Level-2) is rock- and alpine-focused on training and educating select SF Soldiers in all Level-2 Mountaineering Skill Sets.

Graduates will have the ability to serves as their unit's SME in tactical military operations in mountainous terrain, lead untrained and indigenous forces over mountainous terrain, conduct pack-animal operations and have the ability to certify Basic Mountaineers (Level 3) for attendance to the Senior Mountaineering Course.

The Special Forces Senior Mountaineering Course (level 2) last for 6 weeks and is run 3 times a year.