Special Forces - Mountain Team

A Special Forces Master Mountaineering Course instructor demonstrates the use of picks and crampons to climb an icy face during a training exercise.

Green Berets assigned to a mountain ODA attend courses at the Special Forces Advanced Mountain Operations School (SFAMOS), Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park which teaches them to operate at high altitudes, in cold weather and on mountainous terrain.

SFAMOS runs a number of courses, including the Special Forces Senior Mountaineering Course (Level-2) and the Special Forces Master Mountaineering Course (Level-1).

One of the six ODAs in a Special Forces Company may be designated as a mountain team.

Mountain ODAs maintain a high level of proficiency in mountaineering and cold-weather operations which include leading untrained and indigenous forces over mountainous terrain, the use of pack animals, cold-weather medical evacuation techniques, weather forecasting, belaying techniques, constructing improvised climbing equipment, avalanche rescue, snowpack analysis and winter-guiding techniques.